Karl Rove, right hand man of George W. Bush, is on the verge of being called to judgment. But not for war crimes, (which would be the proper charges, since he lied to cause an illegal attack against a nation), but for revealing the identity of a CIA agent, a much less important matter, but one that the United States considers a serious crime.  Colombia's El Tiempo via WatchingAmerica.com

With Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Washington yesterday, lawyers in the case and some White House officials braced for at least one indictment when the grand jury meets today. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, is said by several people in the case to be a main focus, but not the only one.

In a possible sign that Fitzgerald may seek to charge one or more officials with illegally disclosing Valerie Plame's CIA affiliation, FBI agents as recently as Monday night interviewed at least two people in her D.C. neighborhood. The agents were attempting to determine whether the neighbors knew that Plame worked for the CIA before she was unmasked with the help of senior Bush administration officials. Two neighbors said they told the FBI they had been surprised to learn she was a CIA operative.

The FBI interviews suggested the prosecutor wanted to show that Plame's status was covert, and that there was damage from the revelation that she worked at the CIA. Washington Post (reg/req)

First it was 100, then 1,000, now 2,000 killed in action for a goal still elusive two-and-a-half years after the invasion. 

Whether a landmark or - as the Pentagon says - "an artificial mark on the wall", the latest casualty count is a reminder of the hard road still ahead in Iraq - and at home. 

It was supposed to be so easy. BBC

While nobody has identified any gene for religion, there are certainly some candidate genes that may influence human personality and confer a tendency to religious feelings. The Guardian

Prior to their recent discovery in space, scientists had thought these biologically important molecules were unique to Earth. One type is the main ingredient in chocolate. Others carry genetic information in DNA.

The existence of these molecules in interstellar space "was considered impossible" 20 years ago, explains Louis Allamandola, who carried out this research with colleagues at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "Now, we know better.... As a class, they are more abundant than all other known interstellar polyatomic molecules combined."

The finding has profound significance for the occurrence of organic life. These kinds of molecules are key ingredients in the primordial chemical soup from which scientists think organic life may have arisen.

"Seeing their signature across the universe tells me they are accessible to young planets just about everywhere," says Douglas Hudgins, lead author of the report on this research published in the Astrophysical Journal earlier this month.

In fact, you don't even need a planet to get the organic-life game going.

"This new work shows that the early chemical steps believed to be important for the origin of life do not require a previously formed planet to occur," the Ames announcement explains. "Instead, some of the chemicals are already present throughout space long before planet formation occurs and, if they land in a hospitable environment, can help jump-start the origin of life." Christian Science Monitor

Bush Destined to Fall Off the Wagon?

The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides, and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports. The AP

That is the stark conclusion ecologist Gregory Asner and his colleagues reached after developing a new way to analyze satellite images to track logging there. Christian Science Monitor

Boys were advertised for 28,000 yuan ($3,450) while girls were offered for 13,000 yuan ($1,603), Eachnet manager Tang Lei told the China Daily. 

The offer could have been a hoax, but it comes as baby trafficking is seen as an increasing problem in China. BBC

I came across a single paragraph in an obscure history of gambling book that presented yet another theory of the 1871 fire's cause. Because it made a lot of intuitive sense to me I pursued it, and wrote these two stories for the Chicago Tribune. The first appeared on the fire's 126th anniversary, October 8, 1997; the second on March 3, 1998 -- Anthony DeBartolo

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan. NYT (reg/req)

Tired, hungry and traumatised by days spent under the damaged roof of a once-gleaming football stadium, the refugees of New Orleans have spoken of a nightmarish week living among the crazed and the desperate. 

Stories of rape, murder and suicide have emerged. BBC

The complete disaster of the delayed rescue of New Orleans must not be blamed on the ineptitude of George Bush, a mediocre politician with no perspective or long-term vision. The disaster has deeper causes. 
El Universo via WatchingAmerica.com

Even as rescuers pushed Wednesday to contain a mounting death toll and help stranded residents in the ravaged Gulf Coast, hurricane Katrina's financial impact was also emerging as an issue that reaches far beyond Louisiana levees or Alabama inlets.

Whether that cost proves to be relatively modest - shaving perhaps half a percentage point off of an economy growing at a 3.3 percent pace - or a more severe shock depends on one key factor: energy. Christian Science Monitor

To follow the news on television the past couple of days, looters have pretty much taken over the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "The fear, of course," said talk show host Tucker Carlson, who is less breathy and sensationalist than most, "is that looting contributes to the sense that things are out of control, and that lawlessness begins to snowball, and that stealing becomes murder." Washington Post (reg/req)

The development of footwear appears to have affected the four so-called "lesser" toes - excepting the big toe. BBC

The 105th Military Police Battalion, charged with running Camp Bucca in the scorching desert of southernmost Iraq, knew something was amiss: Undetectable to the naked eye, the field's changing color was picked up by satellite imagery. The excavated dirt was also clogging the showers and two dozen portable toilets. The dirt was showing up under the floorboards of tents; some guards sensed that the floor itself seemed to be rising. Mysteriously, water use in the compound had spiked.

Hours before the planned prison break on March 24, an informant tipped off the Americans, who then drove a bulldozer across Compound 5. What they discovered was breathtaking: a fully completed tunnel that stretched 357 feet, longer than a football field. Inside were flashlights built from radio diodes and five larger spaces to provide ventilation. The tunnel's walls were as smooth and strong as concrete, sculpted with water and, the Americans believe, milk. The exit, beyond the compound's fence, was camouflaged with sand-colored cardboard. It opened into a partially concealed trench that would lead the detainees to freedom.

The discovery of what came to be known as "The Great Escape" tunnel was a seminal moment for the Americans charged with guarding Iraq's exploding prison population. It underscored the fact that the guards were not simply policing more than 6,000 detainees but, in their own way, fighting an enemy that exhibited the same complexity and resilience inside the prison's chain-linked fences and miles of coiled razor wire as it did in the most embattled streets of Iraq. For the inmates, the fight had never stopped. Washington Post (reg/req)

“If a Taliban-type government or a fundamentalist radical state were to emerge in Baghdad or any part of Iraq,” he writes, “shock waves would ripple through the Islamic world. Radical forces in Islamic countries or Islamic minorities in non-Islamic states would be emboldened in their attacks on existing governments.”
L'Express via WatchingAmerica.com

In the information age, wars are not made by governments alone. This is especially true of wars of choice. When America has been attacked -- at Pearl Harbor, or as on September 11 -- the government needed merely to tell the people that it was our duty to respond, and the people rightly conferred their authority. But a war of choice is a different matter entirely. In that circumstance, the people will ask why. The people will need to be convinced that their sons and daughters and husbands and wives should go halfway around the world to ?ght a nemesis that they didn’t really know was a nemesis. 

That’s why a war of choice is different. A war like the Iraq War, whose public support before the idea was seriously discussed started out well below 50 percent, needs to be sold -- “marketed,” as White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card once put it -- needs, well, marketers. The American Prospect

That question was answered in recent days when newspapers started reviewing and writing about the new box office hit whose official name is "The 40 Year-Old Virgin." Of course, as any reporter or editor worth his or her salt knows, there should be a hyphen between 40 and Year. As it reads now, it's almost as if the movie is about 40 virgins who are still toddlers (not exactly unusual). Editor & Publisher

"I'm not as optimistic as I used to be," Bernstein said. "I've never seen a time when all three branches of government are so influenced by ideological factors, while the press is so lame. I think eventually responsible people of the country will stand up to say enough is enough." The News-Times

In response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and a number of medical and veterans groups demanding release of 87 new videos and photographs depicting detainee abuse at the now infamous prison, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said the release would result in ”riots, violence and attacks by insurgents.” IPS News

Experts predict that China's submarine fleet will substantially outnumber that of the U.S. within the next 15 years.

As the Pentagon report, delivered to Congress last month, says, the new Chinese navy is a force designed mostly to prevent or dissuade the U.S. from intervening in a conflict between China and Taiwan. But it also is giving China the capability of menacing Japan and striking U.S. cities with submarine-launched nuclear missiles from far out in the Pacific. Chicago Tribune (reg/req)

The implications are huge, the study authors noted, because such revelations often lead to divorce and increased mental health problems for both the man and woman involved, including the threat of violence by the man. Health Day News

These are not such times. The President's ignorance of science might have remained a private matter, but he chose to speak on the subject of evolution and "intelligent design." This is a great pity. Tech Central Station

Space Adventures, a company based in Arlington, Va., has already sent two tourists into orbit. Today, it is to unveil an agreement with Russian space officials to send two passengers on a voyage lasting 10 to 21 days, depending partly on its itinerary and whether it includes the International Space Station.

A roundtrip ticket will cost $100 million. 

The space-faring tourists will travel with a Russian pilot. They will steer clear of the greater technical challenge of landing on the Moon, instead circling it and returning to Earth.

Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures, said he believed the trip could be accomplished as early as 2008. Mr. Anderson said he had already received expressions of interest from a few potential clients. NYT (reg/req)

An unprecedented 57% majority say the war has made the USA more vulnerable to terrorism. A new low, 34%, say it has made the country safer. The question is critical because the Bush administration has long argued that the invasion of Iraq was undertaken to make the USA safer from terrorism. USA Today

The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters, outline a variety of possible roles for quick-reaction forces estimated at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of civilian response teams. Washington Post (reg/req)

Forget on-line journalism. For now. It's useless in times of crisis. It took at least two hours before I could access any creditable news site on Tuesday morning. Television journalists need have no fear despite their shrinking market. The video screen will always be our national campfire. 

Peter Jennings was the best. The intelligence of his intent, and his impatience with his less talented ABC colleagues, was palpable. You could almost hear the slap on his forehead after listening to Barbara Walters say nothing. Ditto for Jennings' reaction to the blonde from Good Morning America after doing a stand-up in the street. If Tuesday does not prove U.S. journalism is not a profession - but a trade - for which all one basically needs is a heartbeat, nothing will. However, Tuesday also proves it is a most noble trade.

Flaws in software that can be exploited by hackers are on the rise, said the report by the SANS Institute of Bethesda, a cyber-security research and education center.

The report, issued quarterly, is unwelcome news for consumers and businesses hoping for relief as software makers such as Microsoft Corp. work to improve the security of the operating systems that power individual machines and computer networks.

Hackers now often bypass operating systems, staying one step ahead in the ongoing cat-and-mouse warfare between those trying to protect computer systems and those trying to infiltrate or damage them.

For example, worms, viruses and spyware can now infect machines when users simply visit certain Web sites, rather than requiring victims to click on a malicious e-mail or file. Individual songs delivered via trusted programs such as the RealNetworks media player or iTunes can be vehicles for malicious code that can cripple machines or open them up to remote control by hackers. Washington Post (reg/req)

Mars says it is in talks with large pharmaceutical companies for a licensing or joint venture agreement to reproduce the compounds in cocoa shown to improve blood flow.

"The mounting scientific evidence is extraordinary," says Dr. Norm Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, which has collaborated with Mars on cocoa research. Reuters

Nonsense, said an administration official last month, in an e-mail that made the rounds in Washington. In May of 1985, a Washington Post analysis declared that President Reagan was "impeded by his lame-duck status," but the official noted that Reagan went on to score many second-term successes. "Wise presidents," concluded the official, "ignore the white noise." 

Both sides are wrong. What confronts Bush and his party is not a lame-duck problem, but it isn't white noise, either. The Republicans' problem is that, except on one crucial issue, they have lost the center. Reason

Researchers from University College London found that the brain actively shuts down parts of the visual system for every blink - even if light is still entering the eyes. The Telegraph

The U.S. invasion came in the wake of President Woodrow Wilson's professed commitment to make the world safe for democracy. However, as soon as the Marines landed in Haiti, Wilson's administration remapped the country into police departments, shut down the press, installed a lame-duck government, rewrote the constitution to give foreigners land-owning rights, took charge of Haiti's banks and customs and instituted a system of compulsory labor for poor Haitians.

Those who resisted the occupation -- among them a militant peasant-run group called Cacos -- were crushed. In 1919, U.S. Marines in blackface ambushed and killed the Cacos' fearless leader, Charlemagne Peralte, mutilated his corpse and displayed it in a public square for days.

By the end of the occupation, more than 15,000 Haitians had lost their lives. A Haitian gendarmerie was trained to replace the U.S. Marines, then proceeded to form juntas, organize coups and terrorize Haitians for decades.

Although U.S. troops were officially withdrawn from Haiti in 1934, the U.S. government maintained economic control of the country until 1947.

Ninety years later, there are many, including some current foreign-policy experts, who maintain that Haiti, like recently occupied Iraq, should be declared a failed state. This could make way for another lengthy takeover. After all, some of the conditions that existed in Haiti in 1915 are still present today: rampant insecurity, political uncertainty, proximity to U.S. shores and concern for American interests, no small part of which is the fear of an exodus of boat people headed for Miami. Common Dreams

From bases in Iraq and across the United States to the Pentagon and the military's war colleges, officers and enlisted personnel quietly raise a question for political leaders: if America is truly on a war footing, why is so little sacrifice asked of the nation at large?

There is no serious talk of a draft to share the burden of fighting across the broad citizenry, and neither Republicans nor Democrats are pressing for a tax increase to force Americans to cover the $5 billion a month in costs from Iraq, Afghanistan and new counterterrorism missions.

There are not even concerted efforts like the savings-bond drives or gasoline rationing that helped to unite the country behind its fighting forces in wars past.

"Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us," said one officer just back from a yearlong tour in Iraq, voicing a frustration now drawing the attention of academic specialists in military sociology. NYT (reg/req)

Livingstone, who earned the nickname "Red Ken" for his left-wing views, won widespread praise for a defiant response which helped unite London after the bombings. But he has revived his reputation for courting controversy in recent days.

Asked on Wednesday what he thought had motivated the four suspected suicide bombers, Livingstone cited Western policy in the Middle East and early American backing for Osama bin Laden.

"A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in (U.S. detention camp) Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy," he said. Reuters

So she filed a civil complaint under a San Francisco ordinance that bans discrimination based on weight and height. The company changed its policy, and she dropped her complaint.

Portnick's story is just one example of how physical appearance can affect employment. A growing body of research supports what many suspect: In the workplace, an employee's physical appearance is a powerful symbol that affects job success. USA Today

Manolo has a photojournalistic counterpart in a much less effective little thriller, "Paparazzi" (released last year and now on DVD), in which a roving band of celebrity photographers run a star's car off the road, sending his wife into surgery and his small son into a coma.

With tabloid journalism and reality television bleeding into each other, and with magazine programs indistinguishable from entertainment, films no longer bother making their case against journalists. "Crónicas" and "Paparazzi," the good film and the bad, simply assume that slime is a reporter's middle name. NYT (reg/req)

Attacks in Baghdad on Sunday morning claimed the lives of 10 people, including five members of the Iraqi security forces, after police convoys were bombed, an Interior Ministry official said. Aljazeera

Authorities told ABC News that records show Mohammed Sidique Khan, the eldest of the bombers now believed to be the field commander of the attacks, had called a person who is associated with the Islamic Center, a mosque in Queens, N.Y. Yet, a member of that mosque claimed they had no knowledge of the phone call. ABC News

After just six weeks of daily doses of Omega-3, parents reported a transformation in the behaviour and learning abilities of children as young as 20 months old.

The study has gained the attention of Professor Robert Winston from the Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology at Imperial College London who revealed in last year's BBC series, Child Of Our Time, how fish oils can calm disruptive children aged six and upwards.

'The data has been extremely impressive,' said Winston, who will discuss the study tomorrow at a debate on the potential impact of Omega-3 on childhood development. 'The evidence is getting ever stronger that children who have diets poor in Omega-3 are not achieving their natural potential.'

Omega-3, polyunsaturated fats found in significant amounts only in oily fish and offal, make up a quarter of the grey matter of the brain and are vital to brain and eye development.

Research into the effect of fish oil supplements on older children, pregnant women and young offenders have all identified powerful benefits, but this is the first time the impact has been tested on pre-school children. The Observer

Prosecutors said they may seek the death penalty for the 23-year-old Morton Grove woman who allegedly told investigators she was trying to kill herself when she slammed her car at 70 mph into the rear of a Honda Civic stopped at a red light at a Skokie intersection Thursday.

The three occupants of the car she hit -- all Chicago rock musicians in different bands -- were killed... Chicago Sun-Times

They confirmed that more than 50 people were killed in total in the blasts on three trains and one bus. But the instability of a tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square Stations meant they were having difficulty at one of the bomb scenes. Evening Standard

By the end of the day, Mr. O'Donovan had taken about 40 photos, most with his Nokia cellphone.

Mr. O'Donovan posted 17 of his photos online at flickr.com, where they joined hundreds of photos of the aftermath of the bombings by nonprofessional photographers. 

Online photo-sharing sites and Web blogs began chronicling the attacks soon after they occurred, posting material often gathered before professional news organizations arrived on the scenes. 

The BBC posted photographs and videos taken by witnesses, and The Guardian posted experiences that readers submitted on a running Web log.

The attacks were not the first recorded by witnesses with cellphone and other digital cameras. Online experts like operators of photography sites and photography agencies said the pictures of the explosions were posted in greater numbers and with greater speed than they had seen in other major events. 

Not only has the technology for taking the photographs become more widespread in the last few years, the experts said, but posting photographs has also become easier.

Flickr.com, a site owned by Yahoo that lets people post photographs free, had more than 300 bombing photos posted within eight hours after the attacks. NYT (reg/req)

But a new study casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men.

The study, by a team of psychologists in Chicago and Toronto, lends support to those who have long been skeptical that bisexuality is a distinct and stable sexual orientation.

People who claim bisexuality, according to these critics, are usually homosexual, but are ambivalent about their homosexuality or simply closeted. "You're either gay, straight or lying," as some gay men have put it. 

In the new study, a team of psychologists directly measured genital arousal patterns in response to images of men and women. The psychologists found that men who identified themselves as bisexual were in fact exclusively aroused by either one sex or the other, usually by other men.

The study is the largest of several small reports suggesting that the estimated 1.7 percent of men who identify themselves as bisexual show physical attraction patterns that differ substantially from their professed desires.

"Research on sexual orientation has been based almost entirely on self-reports, and this is one of the few good studies using physiological measures," said Dr. Lisa Diamond, an associate professor of psychology and gender identity at the University of Utah, who was not involved in the study. NYT (reg/req)

The settlement, between a diocese in the state and an unknown number of sexual abuse victims, amounts to a record $120 million. 

The class-action suit accused the Church of covering up child abuse by priests and others over 50 years. BBC

Along with pay-per-view strip poker and television shows featuring battles between bikini-clad women, the Greek Games are part of what the new owners of National Lampoon Inc. are calling a resuscitation of an American comedic treasure. But veterans of the original National Lampoon and others who were greatly influenced by it are horrified by the wet T-shirt contests and worse. The new efforts may, in some sense, revive National Lampoon, but in another sense, they show how one of the most ambitious and influential experiments in comedy - which began with a group of young geniuses sending up J. R. R. Tolkien (1969's "Bored of the Rings") - is ending with beer-soaked soft-core porn. NYT (reg/req)

Order: Reporters would not set a good example when it comes to following directions. You can't just tell them what to do. 

To get a reporter to do anything, a guard would have to: ask nicely; explain the order in detail; debate at length whether the reporter has a better approach; and then begin the process anew after the reporter failed to do what had been agreed upon.

Accommodations: In general, reporters are not the type of people to become overly concerned with things like clutter, organization, sanitation or the possibility of an epidemic. Confining a reporter to an 8-by-10 cell is the equivalent of institutionalizing a landfill.

Language: Prisoners may curse and swear, but they are amateurs compared to seasoned reporters.

After associating with reporters for any period of time, the average inmate would be so negatively influenced that he would be virtually unemployable upon release (except at a newspaper).

Attire: The prison dress code would be compromised to such an extent that the orange jump suit, the muscle T-shirts and the do rag would seem like high fashion when faced with a newsroom style that features khaki, knockoffs, comfortable sizing and a lack of commitment to the iron. 

Grousing: As a group, reporters are among the finest, most accomplished complainers in the world. In fact, I don't believe there is a documented case in which a reporter has ever been even remotely happy with anything. 

Schmoozing: If jailed, a reporter will take only a few days to get to know all the other prisoners, and the guards, and their families, and the warden's secretary, and the parole board, and many, many new anonymous sources. Can you say five-part series?

Gossip: Nothing can destroy morale faster than idle gossip, and gossip is what reporters do for a living - and fun. Hartford Courant 

For the 2005-2006 school year, spending under the Department of Education's Title I program, which helps low-achieving children in high-poverty areas, is increasing by 3.2 percent, to $12.6 billion.

But because of population shifts, growing numbers of poor children, newer census data and complex formulas that determine how the money is divided, more than two-thirds of the districts, or 8,843, will not receive as much financing as before.

The analysis, based on data from the department, was made by the Center on Education Policy, an advocacy group for public schools. A similar study by the group last year showed that 55 percent of the schools would receive less money than they did in the previous year.

"It's an alarming number," said Tom Fagan, a former department official who conducted the analysis. "It's clear that the amount of overall increase is not keeping pace with the number of poor kids." NYT (reg/req)

Africa's leaders are expected to set out their views on trade and aid. 

"Begging will not make the future of Africa - it creates a greater gap between the great ones and the small ones," Col Gaddafi said. BBC

Iraq is now the “central front” in the war on terrorism, the president said. And just how did it become that? Whatever the ghastly defects of Hussein’s Iraq, it was not a playground for terrorists. There was no terror in the old Iraq but Hussein’s own, which was a nightmare for his own citizenry, but not a threat to ours. Now, Bush argued, Iraq is in danger of becoming something it never was -- the equivalent of Afghanistan under the Taliban. But it’s Bush’s war that transformed the country and created that threat, if we are to believe the president's own assessment of the danger that the Iraqi terrorists pose. And if we don’t take on the terrorists there, he said, we’ll have to take them on here. The American Prospect

But Simmons believes surging demand will keep prices bubbling well above $50. 'We could be at $100 by this winter. We have the biggest risk we have ever had of demand exceeding supply. We are now just about to face up to the biggest crisis we have ever had,' he said. The Observer