The steamy, hazy jungle thrums with trilling insects, singing frogs and the steady gurgle of rushing water as we cut through thickets of head-high ferns. Prowling out there somewhere in the emerald underbrush is the big prize of our safari one of the planet's rarest wildcats. A cat so rare, it was discovered only in 1965. So threatened, only about 100 exist. So singular, it lives only on this 110-square-mile Pacific island. Yet the elusive Iriomote cat is more than just an endangered species. Heroic efforts to save it from extinction symbolize an about-turn in Japan's long-tortured relationship with Mother Nature. Not only does the struggle underline the country's newfound determination to redress decades of environmental devastation at the hands of unbridled industrialization, it proves just how tough reversing the damage can be. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
censor News |
Editor - 20:44:00 10-28-06
|
 Doctors Struggle to Save Wounded Marine On Desert Battleground of Western Iraq, Military Doctors Fight to Save Gravely Wounded Marine |
The chaplain assigned to the medical camp was drafting a homily. The heart surgeon was using the quiet spell to edit a medical paper. The medics chatted over lunch. Twenty miles away, on the desert plain outside Fallujah, an insurgent's bullet tore through the body of a young Marine. Less than a half-hour later, Camp Taqqadum Surgical's men and women were waiting as a roaring helicopter landed at their patch of sand-colored tents. And so began an urgent, hour-long effort to save the life of Lance Cpl. James W. Higgins, 22, of Thurmont, Md. For the 75 Navy doctors and medics here, it was in many ways just a normal case one of the roughly 100 seriously wounded Marines and Iraqi soldiers and civilians they see each month from this section of violent Anbar province. They stabilize the wounded, who then are taken to larger U.S. military hospitals. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2613176
full News |
Editor - 20:42:00 10-28-06
|
| Generals' assessments become less optimistic |
The sober tone adopted recently by some top generals talking Iraq has raised eyebrows in Washington.Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the spokesman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq, made headlines in mid-October when he remarked that the increased violence in Baghdad over the previous several weeks was "disheartening."Military and congressional sources say the frank tone reflects frustration among military leaders at the unexpectedly violent sectarian fighting in Iraq and ultimately concern about who will be held responsible in the public eye if the campaign there fails.Caldwell noted that despite efforts by U.S. and Iraqi forces to reduce the sectarian warfare raging in Baghdad — an operation dubbed "Together Forward" — there had been a 22% increase in attacks in recent weeks....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-28-generals-iraq_x.htm?csp=34
full News |
Editor - 19:44:00 10-28-06
|
| Third Soldier Charged With Rape, Murder Army Arraigns Soldier For Deadly Attack On Iraqi Woman And Family |
The Army arraigned a 101st Airborne Division soldier Fri who was charged with raping & killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl & killing 3 others in her family. Pfc. Bryan L. Howard is accused of plotting in March to rape & kill the teenager in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Three other soldiers and a former Army private from the division's 502nd Infantry Regiment also face charges related to the attack. Howard deferred entering a plea or scheduling a court-martial during the proceedings at Fort Campbell. Both his attorney, Cpt. Ryan Rosauer, & his father Lynn Howard in the audience, declined to speak to reporters. Two other soldiers accused of rape & murder with him in the attack — Sgt. Paul E. Cortez & Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman — could be given the death sentence if they are convicted, a military judge ruled earlier this month. Both will be arraigned soon, the military said. And the leaders who lied us into this war are not charged, but the little guys are?...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/28/iraq/main2135258.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2135258
full News |
Editor - 17:18:00 10-28-06
|
| Senator's son freed early Officers warned that Roach's son was not eligible to leave prison |
Washington Department of Corrections administrators ordered the release of state Sen. Pam Roach's son, who was in prison on drug-trafficking charges, more than 100 days early -- despite warnings from community corrections officers that such a move would violate agency policy. Two street-level officers assigned to the case raised serious concerns -- verbally and in writing -- weeks before Stephen Roach, 26, was freed May 1. They argued that the inmate had been misclassified as having a lower risk of reoffending because a prior assault hadn't been taken into account. Roach was released anyway, and some of the officers' written complaints were deleted from the department's official record of the case, according to interviews and records obtained by the Seattle P-I....
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/290340_roach28.html
full News |
Editor - 16:57:00 10-28-06
|
| A blueprint for leaving Iraq now |
Staying in Iraq not an option. Many Americans who were among the most eager to invade Iraq now urge that we find a way out. These Americans include not only civilian ``strategists'' and other ``hawks'' but also senior military commanders and, perhaps most fervently, combat soldiers. Even some of those Iraqis regarded by our senior officials as the most pro-American are determined now to see American military personnel leave their country. Polls show that as few as 2 percent of Iraqis consider Americans to be liberators. This is the reality of the situation in Iraq. We must acknowledge the Iraqis' right to ask us to leave, and we should set a firm date by which to do so. We suggest that phased withdrawal should begin on or before December 31, 2006, with the promise to make every effort to complete it by June 30, 2007. Withdrawal is not only a political imperative but a strategic requirement. ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15430.htm
full News |
Editor - 12:38:00 10-28-06
|
|
| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
|
|
