 About 300 million people living in China's vast countryside drink unsafe water tainted by chemicals and other contaminants, the government said Thursday in its latest acknowledgment of mounting risks from widespread pollution. The most common threat to water, after drought, is chemical pollutants and other harmful substances that contaminate drinking supplies for 190 million people, state media quoted E Jingping, a vice minister for water resources, as saying. The report follows recent chemical spills in the northeast and south of the country that temporarily spoiled water supplies for millions of people and highlighted the severity of the pollution crisis. The problems are not limited to the countryside. About 90 percent of China's cities have polluted ground water, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing a recent nationwide survey. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com
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Editor - 08:52:00 12-29-05
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 Bomber kills 3 at W.Bank checkpoint |
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up when Israeli troops tried to search him at a roadblock in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians. A passenger who had unwittingly shared the same taxi as the bomber said soldiers stopped the car at an impromptu roadblock near the city of Tulkarm and asked young men to get out. "The man got out slowly, closed his jacket and blew himself up," said Nafez Shahin, 48. The army said the roadblock had been set up in response to intelligence warnings that a bomber was heading to Israel to strike during the current Hanukkah holiday....
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1452398
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Editor - 08:49:00 12-29-05
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| Audit: Many September 11 loans went to non-victims |
In a program to help businesses after September 11, a high percentage of government-backed loans went to recipients who appeared to be unqualified -- some of them unaware they were receiving terrorism-recovery money, investigators report.The Small Business Administration's inspector general said Wednesday that agency officials were at fault for telling lenders in the program that their determinations would not be questioned.The inspector general concluded that only nine loan recipients in the 59 cases sampled appeared to be qualified for disaster loans.Lenders who handed out billions of dollars in loans failed -- 85 percent of the time -- to document that recipients were actually hurt by the terrorism attacks and therefore eligible for the aid under the law, the report found....
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/29/sept.11.laxloans.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us
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Editor - 08:47:00 12-29-05
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| Communities Shunning FEMA Trailers |
Four months after Hurricane Katrina, efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to place displaced victims into trailers are being hindered by communities balking at hosting such trailers, reports CBS News Correspondent Trish Regan. Many families from New Orleans are still living in tent cities, shelters and hotels while they wait for FEMA trailers to become available. The problem is particularly pressing for those staying in hotels, since FEMA only intends to foot those bills through January, Regan says. She spoke with Schwanda Richard, who lost her home to Katrina and has been crammed into a hotel for months. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/29/earlyshow/main1169004.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1169004
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Editor - 08:45:00 12-29-05
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| China raps sanctions for Iran arms sales |
China's government yesterday demanded that the Bush administration lift sanctions imposed on six companies on charges of illicit sales to Iran, saying the action undermined Beijing's cooperation with the United States. New details of the arms-related transfers were disclosed yesterday, including two chemical shipments from India to Iran, and Tehran's purchase of 800 high-powered sniper rifles from an Austrian gun maker. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing that the sanctions were unjustified and should be lifted. A State Department spokesman said yesterday the Chinese objections would not change the U.S. decision. The Bush administration announced this week it had imposed sanctions on six Chinese state-run companies, two Indian chemical manufacturers, and the Austrian arms maker for selling missile-related and weapons of mass destruction goods to Iran. ...
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051228-115414-5395r.htm
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Editor - 08:43:00 12-29-05
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| Judge Orders Accused Nazi Guard Deported |
Extending a 30-year legal battle, an immigration judge Wednesday ordered John Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard, deported to his native Ukraine.Demjanjuk, 85, has been fighting to stay in this country since the 1970s. He was suspected for a time of being the notoriously brutal guard known as Ivan the Terrible and was nearly executed in Israel.Chief U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Creppy ruled that there was no evidence to substantiate Demjanjuk's claim that he would be tortured if deported to his homeland. He said Demjanjuk should be deported to Germany or Poland if Ukraine does not accept him.Demjanjuk can appeal the ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals within 30 days...
http://broadband.zoomtown.com/news/read.php?id=13737128&ps=1011&lang=en
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Editor - 22:09:00 12-28-05
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