www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.01.03, 2:17 PM ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Columbia broke up in the skies over Texas with seven astronauts aboard after it lost contact with NASA minutes before its scheduled landing. NASA warned local residents not to approach debris raining down on the Dallas-Fort Worth area because of the shuttle's poisonous propellant. All the astronauts were killed, NASA said.

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials said there was no immediate sign that terrorism was involved in the shuttle loss.

JERUSALEM - A rare symbol of hope for Israel vanished in three trails of smoke when the first Israeli astronaut was lost in the explosion.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix would travel to Iraq on February 8, but would not meet President Saddam Hussein.

LONDON/BAGHDAD - British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew home from a council of war with George W. Bush and forecast that divided world opinion would rally behind a new U.N. resolution that might authorise an attack on Iraq.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL - U.S. spy satellites show North Korea could be moving toward making nuclear warheads, U.S. officials said, as a top military commander called for more troops, bombers and ships to bolster ally South Korea.

ABIDJAN - Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded Abidjan to denounce a French-brokered peace deal for Ivory Coast, as West African leaders made a last bid to save the tottering accord.

HARARE - At least 40 people were killed and 60 injured when a passenger train collided with a goods train, derailed and caught fire in Zimbabwe.

GAZA - Israeli troops shot dead an armed Palestinian in a Gaza Strip border zone and imposed a curfew on the West Bank city of Hebron in a renewed military crackdown following Israeli national elections.

SRINAGAR, India - Indian security forces shot dead 13 Muslim rebels in gunbattles in India's part of Kashmir, police said.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Eight suspects have been arrested after an explosion near the southern city of Kandahar that killed up to nine people in a minibus, officials said.

ZAGREB - Doctors appointed by the Hague war crimes tribunal have determined that indicted Croat General Janko Bobetko is medically unfit to stand trial, the Croatian daily newspaper Vjesnik reported.

NAPLES, Italy - Italian police found a photograph of Britain's most senior military man, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, in an apartment where they arrested 28 Pakistanis in a big anti-terror raid, judicial and police sources said.

BERLIN - Iraq will launch thousands of suicide attackers against U.S. troops if the United States invades, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told the German magazine Der Spiegel.

BUDAPEST - The U.S. military began training Iraqi volunteers at a Hungarian air base to be guides and support for international troops in the event of any war against Iraq.

ISTANBUL - Turkey's influential military appeared on to have given the reluctant government a firm push towards actively supporting the United States in any war on Iraq.

BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH - Thailand accused Cambodian politicians of starting anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh as authorities there charged 43 people, including a newspaper editor, over the violence.

CARACAS, Venezuela - A six-nation "group of friends" appealed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his foes to settle their conflict through elections after hundreds of thousands of opposition protesters clamored in Caracas for an early election.

www.charlotte.com Posted on Fri, Jan. 31, 2003

WASHINGTON - Los Alamos National Laboratory officials failed to act to address problems in managing lab property and discouraged employees from voicing concerns, according to a report released Thursday by the Energy Department's inspector general. The report also corroborated many of the claims about weak internal control and property management at the lab made by investigators Glenn Walp and Steve Doran, and said the lab's firing of the two men after they blew the whistle on the problems was "incomprehensible." -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

NATION

Man's body hung from tree for at least a year

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A man's body was found hanging from a tree in a rural area, and police said it may have been there for a year. No foul play was suspected. The body was reported Tuesday by a man who said he first saw it a year ago but kept quiet because he was facing outstanding warrants and feared arrest, police said. He called authorities after returning to the area -- a sparsely populated, heavily wooded part of Olympia -- and seeing the body still there, dangling from a noose about 40 feet off the ground. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

AIR FORCE Staff Sgt. Sheridan Ferrell II was sentenced to six years in military prison Thursday for stealing four laptop computers from the center that oversees operations in the Middle East. He will be demoted and dishonorably discharged after his release from prison. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE DIOCESE of Metuchen, N.J., will pay $800,000 to 10 current and former parishioners who claim they were sexually abused by five priests. In Kentucky, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville reached out-of-court settlements with three men who claimed the church covered up their complaints of abuse by a priest in the 1960s; those terms were not disclosed. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

TWO HIT MEN who were hired by a philandering New Jersey rabbi to kill his wife were sentenced to 23 years in prison Thursday for the fatal beating. Leonard Jenoff, 57, and Paul Daniels, 28, confessed nearly three years ago to killing Carol Neulander in 1994. They later testified against Rabbi Fred Neulander and helped secure his murder conviction last year. Neulander, 61, was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE NATIONAL Association of Police Organizations Inc., which represents more than 1,000 police unions around the country, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan on Wednesday claiming that Ford failed to fix a defect that can cause its Crown Victoria police cruisers to erupt in flames when hit from behind. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORLD

Ireland will ban smoking in pubs, starting in 2004

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The social hubs of Ireland, the pub, is going smoke free. Bowing to health concerns, the government said Thursday that it will ban smoking from all workplaces, including pubs, where a pint and a cigarette have long gone hand in hand.

"This ban will mean a massive cultural change for people right around this country," said Health Minister Michael Martin in announcing the new rules. In fact, the change is so significant that the government has given the public 11 months' notice before enforcing the ban. The new law takes effect Jan. 1. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

AN INDONESIAN COURT acquitted a prominent Islamic militant leader Thursday on charges of inciting Muslims to attack Christians on the religiously divided Maluku Islands. The cleric, Jaffar Umar Thalib, the head of a paramilitary group called Laskar Jihad, walked free. In contrast, two Christian separatist leaders were each sentenced two days ago to three years' imprisonment for subversion during the violence on the Malukus, in which thousands of people have been killed. -- NEW YORK TIMES

MOROCCO AND SPAIN announced Thursday the restoration of full diplomatic ties, ending a 15-month dispute that peaked with a military standoff over a tiny, uninhabited island. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRAZIL'S NEW PRESIDENT launched his anti-hunger program Thursday with a move to provide $14 a month to 1.5 million families. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's hunger task force estimated 46 million of the country's 175 million citizens survive on less than $1 a day. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAMBODIA APOLOGIZED and offered compensation Thursday for a riot that damaged the Thai Embassy and severely strained relations with its neighbor. The embassy was partially burned and vandalized by mobs during riots Wednesday, leaving one Thai dead and seven injured. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

www.billingsgazette.com Friday, January 31, 2003

Ireland's government to ban smoking in pubs DUBLIN, Ireland -- A once unthinkable change is coming to one of the social hubs of Ireland: The pub is going smoke free. Bowing to health concerns, the government said Thursday that it will ban smoking from all workplaces including pubs, where a pint and a cigarette have long gone hand in hand. "This ban will mean a massive cultural change for people right around this country," said Health Minister Micheal Martin in announcing the new rules. In fact, the change is so significant that the government has given the public 11 months notice before enforcing the ban: the new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2004. In announcing the ban, Martin released a study that links second-hand smoke to cancer and heart disease in workplaces. Brazil starts project to feed 1.5M families BRASILIA, Brazil -- Brazil's new president launched his anti-hunger program Thursday with a move to provide $14 a month to 1.5 million families, most from the country's poverty-stricken northeast. While the stipend may seem insignificant, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's hunger task force estimated 46 million of the country's 175 million citizens survive on less than $1 a day. "The struggle against hunger is a fundamental step toward overcoming misery, poverty, a lack of opportunities and social inequality," said Silva, who as a boy dropped out of grade school to help support his family. He made hunger eradication his top priority during his Jan. 1 inauguration speech. "We are going to create the conditions so that everyone in our country can eat a decent meal three times a day, every day, without needing donations from anyone," he said. Rembrandt self-portrait found under painting AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Art researchers have identified a Rembrandt self-portrait that was altered more than 300 years ago into the likeness of a Russian nobleman, the Rembrandt House Museum said Thursday. The restored portrait shows the Dutch master with medium-length curly hair, a slightly upturned mustache and a beret. In it, Rembrandt's portrait has the familiar round chin and gentle eyes of many other self studies. The original portrait from 1634, painted when Rembrandt was 28, was later painted over, apparently by a student in Rembrandt's studio. The student added earrings, a goatee, shoulder-length hair and a velvet cap to make it appear to be a Russian aristocrat, said museum spokeswoman Anna Brolsma. Commuter train derails in Australia; 9 killed SYDNEY, Australia -- A train packed with commuters derailed during rush hour Friday morning outside Sydney, killing at least nine people and trapping others in the wreckage. All four of the train's cars lay crumpled or toppled along the tracks. Rescue workers were trying to extricate passengers from the cars in the rough terrain of a ravine 20 miles south of downtown Sydney. Nine people were confirmed dead and more were trapped in the wreckage, said New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr who visited the scene. The train, heading out of Sydney with about 70 people on board, was likely going about 50 mph when it jumped the rails near the village of Waterfall at about 7:30 a.m., emergency workers said.

washingtontimes.com -0-      The left has a new star -- Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A recent article in the French daily Le Monde, no less, called him an inspiration for France's recently defeated leftist parties. The headline was: "Can the French left learn from the Brazilian model?" And of course the writer, Socialist Deputy Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, concluded that it can. The election was Lula's fourth attempt and French Socialists would do well to study his perseverance, Cambadelis wrote. Closer to home, the election of Ecuador's Louis Gutierrez, a moderate leftist, was attributed in part to the impact of Lula's sweeping victory, raising the question whether the left is poised for a comeback in Latin America. Lula also won praise for creating the "Friends of Venezuela Group" to help resolve that country's ongoing general strike. Reformist-minded Latin Americans are looking to him for a lead on such continent-wide problems as political corruption and mismanagement. The irony is that he has alienated segments of his own Workers' Party, who think he is watering down his socialist programs. But you can't please all the people all the time. -0-      If Iran, Iraq, and North Korea form an "Axis of Evil" in President Bush's view, does that make Britain, Spain, and Italy an Axis of Good? The leaders of all three countries -- Tony Blair, Jose Maria Aznar, and Silvio Berlusconi -- continue to support Bush's hard-line view of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime despite rising public opposition in their respective countries to war against Iraq. An eventful week that started with the weapons inspectors' report to the United Nations and Bush's State of the Union speech will end with a flurry of consultations between Bush and the members of the good axis. On Thursday, Berlusconi flies to London for breakfast with Blair on his way to Washington for lunch with Bush. Then on Friday Bush flies to Madrid for talks with Aznar, and goes on to Washington to spend the weekend at Camp David, the presidential weekend retreat. Aznar himself is scheduled to visit Washington, but not until early June. And it may all be over by then. The word is that Blair and Berlusconi will get a preview of Bush's full "secret case" -- the secret intelligence Secretary of State Colin Powell will make public next month, which they have so far only seen in part. -0-      This year around 1,200 U.S. companies will receive windfall checks from the U.S. Customs Service ranging from a few hundred dollars to more than $60 million because American consumers preferred to buy foreign. They can thank West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd for this money. It was Byrd who maneuvered through Congress the cumbersomely named Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000. Cumbersome or not, it is still music to the ears of manufacturers because it is designed to compensate them from revenue lost to foreign imports. The checks are tariffs imposed on their overseas competitors when they manage to convince Washington that the imports are harming their profits. Last year, the number of claims rose to 1,200 from 900 in 2001, when the program was introduced in its present form. Award money increased to $329 million from $230 million in 2001. The bad news is that the bonanza may be short lived. The European Union and eight other countries complained in December 2000 to the World Trade Organization about the act. The WTO ruled in September 2002 that the act was illegal and recommended that it be repealed. Not surprisingly, Washington appealed the decision; the WTO's response is expected later this month. -0-      Bush's fervent support of Taiwan has puzzled many Washington watchers. One factor influencing Bush might be the joint U.S. National Security Agency-National Security Bureau signals intelligence, or SIGINT, facility in Yangmingshan in suburban Taipei. The NSA-NSB base, established in the mid-1980s, allows Washington to intercept Chinese military communications in Nanjing and Guangzhou, permitting the spooks to eavesdrop radio traffic from up to 310 miles away. The base has 10 antenna masts, of which six are high-frequency "Fix-6" or "6 Element" dipole antennas in a circular configuration that can be used for both interception and direction-finding. Seventeen satellite dishes near the antennas allow data to be up-linked directly to the NSA. The base is particularly focused on China's strategic nuclear Second Artillery corps; Taipei fears that they could fire up to 400 Dong Feng-11 (M-11) and DF-15 (M-9) tactical ballistic missiles against the island. These days Yangmingshan is doubly crucial to the U.S. eavesdropping intelligence effort: Washington lost its Hong Kong base when the colony was returned to Chinese sovereignty by Britain.

www.zenit.org Date: 2003-02-01

DAVOS, Switzerland, FEB. 1, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The World Economic Forum's meeting this year in Davos was organized under the theme "Building Trust." The intention was to help business to recover in the wake of the recent series of ethical scandals.

"Trust is the glue that holds everything together, the bond that creates healthy communities and successful businesses," explained Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret, president and director of the World Economic Forum, respectively, in a Jan. 28 Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Once lost, trust "is incredibly difficult to regain," they noted.

A Financial Times editorial of Jan. 18 described the situation more bluntly: "Gone is the mood of arrogant triumphalism that characterized Davos meetings of a few years ago. Chief executives who were acclaimed then as the new masters of the universe, lofted upwards on buoyant markets and visions of endless growth, have been brought abruptly down to earth."

In all, this year's summit was a lot humbler, not only due to the past scandals, but also because of the shaky world economy and fears of a war in Iraq, noted the Globe and Mail on Jan. 24.

Klaus Schwab, who founded the forum 33 years ago, told delegates at the official opening that never in the meeting's history had the world faced a situation that was "so complex and so fragile" as this year. He also pleaded with the captains of industry to look at more than the bottom line. "Business must not just be profitable," Schwab said. "It must also be accountable. It must not only represent value, but values."

Anti-globalization protesters were also present, albeit diminished in both numbers and furor compared to previous years. The 2,350 Davos participants were protected by unprecedented security measures costing Switzerland around $10 million, the New York Times reported Jan. 23.

U.S. vs. Europe

The threat of a U.S.-Iraq war loomed large over at Davos. In fact, the forum "had an America-bashing theme," with frequent attacks by politicians and businessmen against "American arrogance," the doctrine of pre-emption and Washington's Iraq policy, the Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 27.

The global intelligence firm Stratfor speculated Jan. 29 that one of the factors behind the hostility in Davos toward the United States is that those present are a "segment of the international elite that is committed to preserving the international system as it was prior to Sept. 11, 2001."

And behind the growing divergence between Europe and the United States, opined Stratfor, is a division "at the deepest intellectual and moral level" that is seeing a breakup of the postwar alliance structure. "The incomprehension and anger of the Europeans at Davos is directed less at the United States than at a lack of ability to control events," concluded Stratfor.

The more traditional economic themes of globalization and relations between rich and poor countries were also present in the meeting. The newly elected Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, appeared in Davos, asking the better-off nations to help those in need, the Italian daily La Repubblica reported Jan. 27.

Lula was the star at a dinner in Davos that saw a number of Latin American heads of state present, including the Mexican and Argentinian presidents. In his speech the day before, Brazil's leader proposed the establishment of a world fund to fight against hunger. He also spoke of how his party in Brazil has forged "a new social contract" to restart economic development and to reduce social inequalities.

Lula assured participants that Brazil would respect its financial obligations, but he insisted on the need to break out of the vicious circle whereby his country had to continually borrow money in order to repay its outstanding debts. We believe in free trade, he said, but in a free trade in which the foundational characteristic is reciprocity, which is the contrary to what has taken place up until now, with the rich countries preaching free trade and practicing protectionism.

Porto Alegre

Meanwhile, in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, the 3rd World Social Forum took place. The event gathered about 100,000 participants who "sent out a strong message against war, injustice and social inequality," the Inter Press Service News Agency reported Jan. 29.

"Our greatest victory this year is that the world has heard us out," said Brazilian activist Cándido Grzybowski, a member of the WSF organizing committee. Ignacio Ramonet, another WSF organizer, said the forum's main message this year was "No to War!" -- referring to U.S. and British preparations for a military strike against Iraq.

Economic themes were also in focus. On the opening day of activities, forum organizers released a public opinion poll showing that a majority of the population in the 15 countries surveyed believed that globalization is driven by multinational companies, and concentrates wealth rather than generating opportunities, the Financial Times reported Jan. 24.

Interestingly, Mexico is the country where most of the people surveyed said they believe that globalization brings opportunities and that economic growth should take precedent over social issues. Conversely, more South Koreans and Germans believe that globalization concentrates wealth.

Forum activities included a protest march of some 30,000 people, CNN reported Jan. 28. Many of the marchers showed their disapproval for a hemispheric free-trade zone that would stretch from Canada to Argentina. The proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas is a project designed to unite the economies of 34 nations. Protesters feared it will allow large corporations to bypass labor and environmental laws and will hurt farmers and the poor.

George Monbiot, a columnist for the British daily Guardian and a decided critic of globalization, exulted in a Jan. 28 article on the growing popularity of the Porto Alegre meetings. Even though protests died down in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, he wrote, "our movement has grown bigger than most of us could have guessed." He explained: "For the great majority of activists -- those who live in the poor world -- the movement offers the only effective means of reaching people in the richer nations."

The correspondent for La Repubblica was not so sure. In a Jan. 29 commentary, Fabrizio Ravelli observed that despite all the talk and activity in Porto Alegre, there was little action. Programs to bring about concrete changes still seem a long way off, he noted.

Davos or Porto Alegre?

According to Bishop Diarmuid Martin, permanent observer for the Holy See at the United Nations' Geneva headquarters, what we need to avoid in globalization is to adopt ideologically driven positions, either pro- or anti-global. In an interview in the Italian Catholic paper Avvenire on Jan. 24, Bishop Martin noted the absence of structures capable of regulating today's global realities.

What is needed, he said, is clear and just rules that do not offer unfair privileges to any group. He also insisted on a greater respect for fundamental human rights. And in terms of economic development it is not enough just to open up markets so that Third World countries can export their goods.

Developing nations also need help in order to create functioning legal and political systems, so that the rule of law is respected and a free press is allowed. Bishop Martin also noted that investment in education is a fundamental starting point for economic development. Wise words, often unheeded in the heated rhetoric of international talkfests.