Sunday, May 31, 2009

Champions Trophy not part of ICC calendar

Sunday, May 31, 2009 0

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat with President David Morgan —File photo
DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the Champions League Twenty20 competition has not been incorporated into its Future Tours Programme (FTP).
ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said, ‘the ICC Board worked together last October to come up with a date for this year’s Champions League tournament that was mutually convenient for all. However, that was only as part of a wider discussion on when we could play the ICC Champions Trophy, which was postponed from Pakistan in 2008 and relocated to South Africa.’
‘The FTP does not include any fixtures between domestic teams, even those from more than one country, and only features ICC events, such as the ICC Cricket World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC World Twenty20, and bilateral fixtures between Full Member international teams.
‘I have been in touch with Lalit Modi and we are in full agreement on this matter,’ added Lorgat.
The ICC Champions Trophy, the One-Day International event between the top eight ICC Full Member sides – Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies – will take place in South Africa between 23 September and 5 October.
The Champions League Twenty20 tournament featuring domestic teams from Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies, will be held from 8 – 23 October, it was announced by Modi earlier this week.

Chambers wins sprints in Greece


Chambers won the European 60m indoors title in March
Dwain Chambers achieved a sprint double in his first outdoor meeting of the European season in Greece.
The Briton recorded an impressive time of 10.06 seconds in the shorter sprint before powering home from fourth on the final bend to win the 200m in 20.59.
"I'll take that but it took an awful lot out of me," said the 31-year-old.
Chambers is banned from meetings under the UK Athletics banner after it stated that the drug cheat would never be able to compete in their events.
The Londoner is also banned by the 50-plus members of the Euro Meetings group.
606: DEBATE
Your thoughts on Chambers
Other organisers outside that organisation have no objection to Chambers participating, believing he should be treated as a rehabilitated athlete having served a two-year suspension for testing positive for THG in 2003.
Chambers will also compete over 100m and 200m at an international meet in Dessau next Tuesday, followed by outings in Montreuil and Uden on 11 and 27 June.
His time in Greece put him top of the British rankings, ahead of the 10.11 Marlon Devonish posted in April.
The sprinter also leads the British 200m rankings with 20.51 he achieved in his US training spell.
Chambers is aiming to represent Great Britain at the 2009 World Athletics Championships.

Saudi Arabia puts executed on display as deterrent


Saudi Arabia executed a man for double murder on Friday and displayed his body in public as a deterrent, state media said. The body of the man, beheaded by sword, was put on a cross in the Saudi capital Riyadh, state news agency SPA said, quoting the interior ministry.
Ali Jarekji
RIYADH - Saudi Arabia executed a man for double murder on Friday and displayed his body in public as a deterrent, state media said.
The body of the man, beheaded by sword, was put on a cross in the Saudi capital Riyadh, state news agency SPA said, quoting the interior ministry.
Rights activists said authorities only rarely use this form of deterrent in a bid to stop crimes spreading.
Ahmad Adhib bin Askar al-Shamalani al-Anzi had been convicted of killing a man and his 11-year old son in a shop in Riyadh, SPA said.
Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, usually carries out executions by public beheading for murder, rape, drug smuggling and, increasingly, armed robbery.
Saudi Arabia says it is implementing Islamic Shariah law to the letter and that Shariah ensures full rights for Muslims and non-Muslims, who must abide by the laws of the desert country. Amnesty International protested earlier this month against the execution of a Saudi and Chadian man who it said were juveniles at the time of their crimes.
Both had been convicted for kidnapping and raping of children and consumption of drugs and alcohol, according to SPA.

Reutimann takes pole, continues winning ways


David Reutimann is all smiles after qualifying first for the Autism Speaks 400. (AP photo / May 29, 2009)
David Reutimann played the Sprint Cup waiting game and again came out on top. Reutimann ran a lap of 156.794 mph Friday and captured the pole for the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, four days after he won his first career Cup race.The victory in the Coca-Cola 600 came after three rain delays at Lowe's Motor Speedway.Reutimann then went out 11th Friday and watched other drivers take a shot on the concrete track at trying to knock him off the pole. Points leader Jeff Gordon challenged until his No. 24 car got loose and slammed into the wall. He'll use his backup car for Sunday's race and start 42nd.Once that threat was gone, Reutimann's second pole of the season was all his.
"I'm kind of a nervous person anyway, so waiting around to see if we won the race and then waiting around to see everybody have a shot at us became nerve-racking over time," he said.Kasey Kahne was second, and Juan Pablo Montoya qualified third. Reed Sorenson and Greg Biffle round out the top five.TRUCKS SERIES: The race scheduled at Dover was postponed because of rain and has been rescheduled for 6 tonight. Ron Hornaday Jr. won the pole in qualifying with a lap of 155.541 mph.DRUGS: Suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield must wait until Wednesday for a judge to rule whether his suspension for a failed test should be overturned. Mayfield filed a lawsuit challenging the indefinite suspension, saying NASCAR did not follow its drug-testing policies and left the driver with no way to prove his innocence.


‘We tried to explain that we would be the best,' Magna chairman says of quest for Opel


A two-hour meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel was pivotal in Frank Stronach's quest to take over General Motors Corp.'s key European operations.
“She just wanted to get to know us,” Mr. Stronach said yesterday of the meeting in Ms. Merkel's office in the days leading up to Germany's decision to choose a bid led by his Magna International Inc. (MG.A-T36.200.040.11%) for Adam Opel AG.
“She said: ‘How serious are you guys?' I said: ‘Well, I wouldn't be coming here on a Sunday.'”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to reporters in Berlin Saturday, May 30, after her government struck a deal with Magna for Opel
Mr. Stronach and Siegfried Wolf, Magna's co-chief executive officer, flew into Berlin from Vienna to meet Ms. Merkel a week ago yesterday, and followed that up with dinner with Vice-Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The extraordinary meeting and dinner were part of Mr. Stronach's fight to surpass Fiat SpA as the odds-on favourite bidder, a series of moves that included meeting with U.S. Treasury Department officials, enlisting Ottawa's help and lobbying German politicians and union leaders, all taking place amid a restructuring of the global auto industry.
The prize for Mr. Stronach, an entrepreneur who launched his company in a Toronto garage decades ago and built it into one of the world's leading auto parts concerns, was Opel, a major player in the European and South American markets that will provide Magna with its first ownership stake in an auto maker.
“We kind of explained how we operate, what we have in mind [for Opel],” Mr. Stronach said.
“We tried to explain that we would be the best.”
Magna will hold 20 per cent of Opel, while its partner Sberbank of Russia takes 35 per cent. GM will retain 35 per cent and Opel employees will receive 10 per cent.
Magna was up against Fiat SpA and its Canadian-educated chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne, who was fresh from making the winning bid to buy Chrysler LLC. A U.S.-based private-equity firm called Ripplewood Holdings LLC was also involved in the Opel sweepstakes.
“ We felt we could build a Canadian automobile company”
The Magna effort had begun about two months before, spearheaded by Mr. Stronach and Mr. Wolf, who runs the firm's Europe operations, including its assembly plant in Graz, Austria. The Magna executives were impressed with Opel's technology and the opportunity to hook up with Russian partners to use Opel to go into the Russian market.
“Most of all, we felt we could build a Canadian automobile company,” Mr. Stronach said.
So he spent a couple of days in Washington two weeks ago, making presentations to U.S. Treasury Department officials, who were examining all facets of GM's operations in the run-up to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing the giant auto maker is expected to make this morning in New York.
While Mr. Wolf made the rounds of German politicians and union leaders, Mr. Stronach enlisted the help of the Canadian government.
“I pretty well called everybody in Ottawa and said: ‘Look, call the Treasury Department, because in the final analysis, the Treasury Department has to agree,'” Mr. Stronach said.
The global auto meltdown has sparked a sweeping restructuring of the business. GM is scaling back from being the world's largest auto maker by selling off its Hummer and Saturn brands and shutting down Pontiac. Its Saab division is already in court-ordered restructuring in Sweden.
Both GM and Chrysler have cut the sizes of their work forces dramatically and won new contracts from both the Canadian Auto Workers and United Auto Workers unions, dramatically cutting costs and changing work rules.
“The traditional business model for vehicle manufacturing is under serious stress,” said one industry analyst. “What Magna brings is a culture of fresh thinking.”
Among that thinking is an approach to labour relations called the Framework of Fairness, which forms the basis for CAW representation at a handful of Magna parts plants in Ontario. It includes a no-strike clause, wages based on the average industrial wage in a region and other long-standing Magna human resources policies such as an employee charter of rights.
Mr. Stronach said his vision is to take that further and include a minimum of 10-per-cent employee ownership in a business and creation of a pension plan that would be prohibited from using the services of investment bankers.
“I still have a concern that we might lose the total automotive industry in Canada,” he said.

Tunisia Celebrates International Day without Tobacco


2009 a year of fight against smoking in Tunisia
Tunisia is celebrating on Sunday the 31st of May the International Day without Tobacco, considering the theme “A Warning against the health dangers of tobacco". This event has a particular dimension in Tunisia mainly after declaring 2009 a year of fight against smoking, in a concretization of the decision of the Head of State, Zine Alabidine Ben Ali.The initiative, hailed by the WHO (World Health Organization), shows the concern Tunisia has for the protection of the citizen’s health and the significance the country accords to the fight against chronic diseases.On the occasion, the Ministry of Public Health is organizing two events meant to sensitize the citizen: On May 31, 2009, at the Culture Centre El Menzah 6 and on June 2, at the Faculty of Medicine in Tunis.Smoking kills each year 8 million people in the world. Several studies showed the close link between tobacco and the emergence of certain serious and chronic illnesses such as cancer and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.In Tunisia, the situation is too much worrying as a consequence of the increase of the number of smokers of whom 55% are adults and 12,8% are teenagers (5,8% belong to the age category going from 12 to 14 years).Smoking is at the origin of the death of 6850 people per year in Tunisia. It is also responsible for 90% of the cases of lung cancer, 85% of the cases of arteries, 65% of the cases of oral cancer (mouth, lips, tongue, larynx, pharynx, esophagus), 40% of the cases of bladder cancer and 35% of the cases of myocardial infarction.To eradicate this plague, Tunisia implemented an action plan aiming at reducing the number of smokers and instating a preventive behavior to help the people concerned, notably young people.This plan aims at reinforcing awareness and information in schools, universities, workplaces, whether public or private. The efforts will depend on the various media and means of communication to report the drawbacks of tobacco and the human and financial costs of smoking.The plan also urges smokers to benefit from the services of assistance consultations created in university hospitals and centers of basic health. About sixty similar services will be established soon, in addition to the 21 currently available.Within this framework, doctors and specialists of respiratory diseases were trained to deal with smokers with medical and psychological means. Some 1800 doctors will profit from this training in 2009, carried out in collaboration with the National Sickness Insurance Fund (CNAM). The effort is centered on the application of the provisions of the law into force relating to the prohibition of smoking in public spaces.Some 1730 health officials profited from a training to control the application of the law and the recording of infringements. In addition, regional commissions were created on the level governorates to control the application of the law.A national meeting will be organized in June 2009 to discuss the role of organizations and associations in the fight against smoking. The meeting will be crowned by the proclamation of a deal to concretize the initiative of the Head of the State to declare 2009 a year against smoking.

Johnson edges Stewart for NASCAR win at Dover


Jimmie Johnson takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Autism Speaks 400 auto race, Sunday, May 31, 2009, at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del. Behind him is Tony Stewart. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Nick Wass

DOVER, Del. - Jimmie Johnson went from running away from the field to running down Tony Stewart.
Johnson nipped at Stewart's bumper, went nose-to-nose, then soared past him on an outside pass on the concrete track.
One Cup champion outduelling another in the battle for the checkered flag.
Johnson thrashed the field, then rebounded from a late pit stop that dropped him back into traffic to catch Stewart with two laps left in a thrilling finish in the Sprint Cup series race Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
"We just couldn't hold off Jimmie," Stewart said. "He was like a freight train coming."
fctAdTag("bigbox",MyGenericTagVar,1);


Johnson had one of the more dominant performances of his career, taking control early on the concrete to lead a career-high 298 laps. That seemed to be enough for the three-time defending Cup champion to cruise into Victory Lane until a botched pit stop on a four-tire change with 36 laps left knocked Johnson from the lead.
Johnson was far from sunk.
"It was a small hiccup," Johnson said.
One by one, Johnson methodically picked off the drivers in front of him. He charged past Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch until only Greg Biffle and Stewart were ahead of the No. 48 Chevrolet with 10 laps left. Johnson passed Biffle and that set up the frantic finish that rivalled Talladega for the most dramatic end so far this season.
"I don't know how it gets much more exciting than that," Stewart said.
Johnson knew Stewart was his once Biffle, who won a Chase race at Dover last year, was out of the way.
"That allowed me enough time to set Tony up and really work on that last little bit to find my line and perfect it and get by Tony," Johnson said.
Johnson won for the second time this season and the fourth time in a Cup race at Dover. He has 42 career Cup victories.
"I just had to go," Johnson said. "I had one heck of a race with Tony. That's how racing's supposed to be done."
Stewart was second, followed by Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 12th in his first race with crew chief Lance McGrew.
"We've got to do this a lot," Earnhardt said. "I don't want to give ourselves any credit yet until we can perform at this level more consistently but I'm really proud of my guys today."
Earnhardt posted his best finish since Talladega in his first race without longtime crew chief Tony Eury Jr. Hendrick Motorsports made the decision to give McGrew a shot at calling the race a week earlier than expected. Earnhardt ran in the top 10 for a portion of the first half of the race, and has to hope this kind of finish can start to turn his season around.
"One of the things I liked about Lance is I felt like I was in the pit box with him all day, and I felt like he was riding with me all day," Earnhardt said. "That was a good feeling. Hopefully we can keep that up."
Stewart passed Jeff Gordon for the Cup points lead and became the first owner/driver to sit atop the standings since Alan Kulwicki won the Cup title in 1992.
"That stat there is pretty cool to be leading the points standings this early into the new venture," Stewart said.
Gordon ran two laps down in his backup car most of the race and finished 26th to fall 46 points behind Stewart.
Stewart won the all-star race, but has yet to record a points victory since leaving Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of last year, after two championships and 10 successful seasons, to become co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing.
Johnson appeared to have the race under control and was never really challenged for most of the 400-mile race. When he came in for a four-tire pit stop with 36 laps, a faulty exchange by his crew slowed him down and dropped him back into traffic in ninth place.
Johnson took the lead for the first time on the 49th lap and twice held the lead for 67 laps. He thumped the rest of the field about as soundly as any driver had in a race this season.
"As far as us peaking or starting to win races too soon, you can never win races too soon," crew chief Chad Knaus said.
Hendrick driver Mark Martin was 10th.
"As dominant as Jimmie was, it looked like the rest of our drivers were driving for second," team owner Rick Hendrick said.
Johnson's win put the focus at Hendrick back on winning races instead of the Earnhardt crew chief switch. Johnson said his team supported Earnhardt, but the bottom line for the 48 team was winning races, not fretting about another crew.
"Once we get into the motions of the weekend, we're just really worried about the setup of our car and our strategy," he said.
It all paid off because there was no need for Johnson and crew to worry at the end.

India accused of complicity in deaths of Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers


India was accused yesterday of complicity in the killing of an estimated 20,000 civilians in the last stages of Sri Lanka’s 26-year war against the Tamil Tigers.
Major-General Ashok Mehta, a former commander of Indian peacekeeping forces in Sri Lanka, said that India’s role was “distressing and disturbing”. Two international human rights groups said that India had failed to do enough to protect civilian lives.
“We were complicit in this last phase of the offensive when a great number of civilians were killed,” General Mehta, who is now retired, told The Times. “Having taken a decision to go along with the campaign, we went along with it all the way and ignored what was happening on the ground.”
Despite being home to 60 million Tamils, India has provided Sri Lanka with military equipment, training and intelligence over the past three years, diplomatic sources told The Times. More controversially, it provided unwavering diplomatic support and failed to use its influence to negotiate a ceasefire for civilians to escape the front line, they said.
Related Links
Time for Witness
Sri Lanka's crucial role in power struggle
Sri Lanka’s hidden massacre of Tamil people
India joined a bloc led by China and Russia at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council last week to thwart a proposal for a war crimes inquiry, and instead supported a resolution praising Sri Lanka. In January India voted in favour of a war crimes inquiry into Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip, which killed an estimated 926 civilians.
General Mehta said that the Indian Government, led by the Congress Party, wanted to counterbalance China and Pakistan, its main regional rivals, which had each increased arms sales to Sri Lanka in the past few years. It also wanted to avenge the Tigers’ assassination in 1991 of Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister and late husband of Sonia Gandhi, the current Congress leader, he said.
Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said that neither reason justified failing to act when the Red Cross warned of an “unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe”. India “could have saved many lives if it had taken a proactive position — and it would not have affected the outcome of the war,” he said.
Sam Zarifi, Asia Pacific director of Amnesty International, said: “India . . . simply chose to support the [Sri Lankan] Government’s notion that it could kill as many civilians as it would take to defeat the Tigers.”
India says that it provided Sri Lanka with non-lethal military equipment and sent officials repeatedly to persuade the Government to protect civilians. “We’ve consistently taken the line that the Sri Lankan Government should prevent civilian casualties,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
However, President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka told NDTV: “I don’t think I got any pressure from them. They knew that I’m fighting their war.”
Mr Rajapaksa told The Week magazine that he planned to visit Delhi next month to thank Indian leaders. “India’s moral support during the war was most important,” he said.
Diplomats, human rights activists and analysts say that Delhi either did not use its full diplomatic force or, more likely, gave Colombo carte blanche to finish the war. India’s only real concerns, they said, were that the conflict should not create a flood of refugees to India. Some raised questions about Vijay Nambiar, a former Indian diplomat, who is chief of staff to Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General. The Times revealed last week that Mr Nambiar knew about but chose not to make public the UN’s estimate that 20,000 civilians had been killed, mostly by army shelling.

Violent protest demo against KESC


KARACHI: The angry people protesting against the prolonged power outage in Karachi area of Shah Faisal Colony and torched the furniture of the office of KESC.On this occasion, the protesters raised full-throated slogans against the management of KESC and set tyres ablaze.It should be mentioned that MD PEPCO Tahir Basharat Cheema claimed quite recently that load shedding would be minimized; but, the power outage in Shah Faisal Colony number 4 and 5 went on for several hours. On this, the people attacked on the KESC office and set the furniture on fire and damaged the company’s vehicle.Police were called on the occasion who conducted negotiations with the demonstrators and took them out of the office.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Obama sure Sotomayor would restate 2001 comment

Friday, May 29, 2009 0

AP – Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor smiles as President Barack Obama applauds, Tuesday, May 26, …
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday personally sought to deflect criticism of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who finds herself under intensifying scrutiny for saying in 2001 that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge. "I'm sure she would have restated it," Obama flatly told NBC News, without indicating how he knew that.
The quote in question from Sotomayor has emerged as a rallying call for conservative critics who fear she will offer opinions from the bench based less on the rule of law and more on her life experience, ethnicity and gender. That issue is likely to play a central role in her Senate confirmation process.
Obama also defended his nominee, saying her message was on target even if her exact wording was not.
"I think that when she's appearing before the Senate committee, in her confirmation process, I think all this nonsense that is being spewed out will be revealed for what it is," Obama said in the broadcast interview, clearly aware of how ethnicity and gender issues are taking hold in the debate.
The president's damage control underscored how the White House is eager to stay on message as the battle to publicly define Sotomayor picks up.
Obama's top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters about Sotomayor: "I think she'd say that her word choice in 2001 was poor."
Gibbs, however, said he did not hear that from Sotomayor directly. He said he learned it from people who had talked to her, and he did not identify who those people were. Sotomayor herself has made no public statements since her nomination became official Tuesday and was not reachable for comment.
A veteran federal judge, Sotomayor is poised to be the first Hispanic, and the third woman, to serve on the Supreme Court.
She said in 2001: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." The remark was in the context her saying that "our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging."
Sotomayor's comments came in a lecture, titled "A Latina Judge's Voice," that she gave in 2001 at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley.
After three days of suggesting that reporters and critics should not dwell on one sentence from a speech, the White House had a different message Friday.
"If you look in the entire sweep of the essay that she wrote, what's clear is that she was simply saying that her life experiences will give her information about the struggles and hardships that people are going through, that will make her a good judge," Obama said in the broadcast interview.
Sotomayor appears headed for confirmation, needing a majority vote in a Senate, where Democrats have 59 votes. But beyond the final vote, White House officials are pushing for a smooth confirmation, not one that bogs down them or their nominee. Plus, Obama wants a strong win, not a slim one.
Obama told NBC that part of the job of a Supreme Court justice is to stand in somebody else's shoes and that Sotomayor will do that. "That breadth of experience, that knowledge of how the world works, is part of what we want for a justice who's going be effective," Obama said.
More than one line in the 2001 speech has helped drive the debate over Sotomayor's judgment.
She also said, for example: "Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see."
"My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas in which I am unfamiliar," she said. "I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage."
At the time Sotomayor gave the speech, she was in the same job she is now, a federal appeals court judge. She said then she was reminded daily that her decisions affect people and that she owes them "complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives."
"I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage," she added, "but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate."
In announcing Sotomayor as his choice, Obama said he wanted a judge who would "approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice." But he also called her life experience essential, saying she had an understanding of "how ordinary people live."
Next week, Sotomayor will begin face-to-face meetings with senators as the confirmation process begins to take shape.

$1M bail for Pa. woman held in abduction hoax case


AP – Bonnie Sweeten, who claimed she and her daughter had been kidnapped but instead turned up at Walt Disney …
PHILADELPHIA – A woman accused of staging an abduction hoax that began near Philadelphia and ended at Florida's Walt Disney World was returned to Pennsylvania in police custody on Friday and was held on $1 million bail.
A drained-looking Bonnie Sweeten appeared in an Orlando, Fla., courtroom for a brief hearing Friday morning before detectives from Bucks County, Pa., escorted her to the airport for the flight home.
On Friday night she was taken to a court in the Philadelphia suburb of Richboro for an arraignment on misdemeanor identity theft and false-reporting charges. A judge, in setting the bail, said he thought she was a flight risk.
Sweeten can be released if she posts 10 percent of the bail amount, or $100,000.
Defense lawyer Louis R. Busico told reporters before the court appearance that Sweeten, 38, is not a flight risk and was not running from the law when she went to Florida with her 9-year-old daughter.
"It's not a crime to take your kid to Disney World," Busico said.
Local police also are investigating whether Sweeten stole money from a family member or others, but no related charges have been filed.
Sweeten phoned 911 on Tuesday from downtown Philadelphia and told dispatchers that she and her daughter had been carjacked and stuffed in the trunk of a Cadillac near their suburban home. The call touched off a frantic search that ended 30 hours later at a Disney World hotel.
Sweeten had withdrawn $12,000 from several bank accounts and flown to Florida with her daughter under the name of a former co-worker whose driver's license she had taken in a ruse, authorities said. She paid cash for the one-way tickets and for a three-night hotel stay inside the park.
Some law enforcement officials privately questioned the ease with which she bought the airline tickets and flew under the friend's name. A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman argued that Sweeten bore a "strong resemblance" to the other woman.
"The key point here is that every individual, regardless of what name they use, is being thoroughly screened at the checkpoint to make sure that they don't have any guns and explosives," said Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman in Boston.
Neither the county prosecutor nor county detectives handling the case returned phone messages Friday about the pending theft investigation, something authorities confirmed earlier in the week.
Sweeten and her husband, landscaper Richard L. "Larry" Sweeten, bought a newly constructed, 2400-square-foot home in late 2006 for $425,000. She has two other daughters, ages 15 years and 8 months.
Middle daughter Julia Rakoczy is back in Pennsylvania after being reunited with her father, Anthony Rakoczy, at an Orlando police station on Thursday afternoon. Rakoczy still lives near Sweeten, his ex-wife, and spoke well of her in interviews this week.
Larry Sweeten said that he is struggling to sort out the rumors of theft and marriage problems surrounding the case. Appearing Friday on NBC's "Today" show, he said he wanted to know "more than anybody" what caused his wife to flee. He was unaware of any money problems but said she handled nearly all of their finances.
"I might be behind on my mortgage," Sweeten said.

Amnesty: Recession Leading to Repression


A Palestinian man inspects on May 20, 2009 the damage near one of the tunnels linking the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah with Egypt following an overnight Israeli air strike on the area. The world is sitting on a "powder keg" of social unrest, which risks exploding as human rights are eroded by the global economic slowdown, Amnesty International warned. (Getty Images)
Amnesty International says global recession leading to increased repression
The global financial crisis is leading cash-strapped governments around the world to crack down on people protesting against rising poverty and unemployment, Amnesty International said Thursday.
Human rights have become a casualty in many places as attention is focused on pressing financial problems, the human rights organization said in its annual report.
Migrant workers in China, indigenous people in Latin America, and millions across the African continent are already bearing the burden of official repression as they try to protest their growing deprivation, Amnesty said.
While world attention has been fixated on the collapse of financial service titans, those at the very bottom of the economic pyramid are suffering the worst, Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan said in an interview.
Related
Italy Cracks Down on Illegal Immigration
Poll: Increased Support for Gay Marriage
300 Migrants Feared Dead off Libyan Coast
"There is a kind of domino effect ... here, and those at the most vulnerable end of the chain are feeling the brunt," Khan said. She added that the intense focus on fixing the world's troubled financial system was undermining discussions about inequality, insecurity and oppression.
"It is harder, much harder, to talk about maternal mortality when big Wall Street banks are crashing," Khan said.
Amnesty's annual roundup of human rights abuses across the world focused on the impact of the economic slowdown in countries like China, where millions of migrant workers drawn from its vast countryside have been thrown out of work by the collapse in exports. Authorities have maintained their tight grip on the country's media and continue to harass or imprison those trying to challenge government policies, the group said.
In Latin America, Amnesty said the "already critical" situation of many indigenous groups risks being exacerbated by the crisis.
And in Africa, Amnesty said the rising cost of living had sparked protests across the continent — only to be met by violent repression.
Mali, Cameroon, Tunisia, Somalia, Zimbabwe and South Africa were singled out as African countries where worsening economic circumstances had led to unrest or attacks on human rights.
Khan said the impact of the crisis was "playing out in different ways in different countries."
Related
US Complains About China's Human Rights Record
How Committed is Obama to Gitmo's End?
19 Political Prisoners Released From Myanmar Jails
Policy makers in the United States, she said, were being distracted from dealing with global human rights issues by their focus on salvaging the American economy. But she noted that the world human rights community still had high hopes for President Barack Obama's administration, and she urged the U.S. president to put human rights high on his agenda.
"Crises create opportunity," Khan said, arguing that forgetting human rights in the scramble to reverse the downturn would leave any future economic recovery incomplete.
"Ignoring one crisis for the sake of the other will solve neither," she said.

7000 prisoners awarded capital punishment in Pak : Amnesty international


London, May 29 (ANI): About 7000 prisoners have been awarded the death sentence in Pakistan, among which 36 were awarded the capital punishment last year alone, the international human rights organization, Amnesty International has said.
The international organization, its annual report for the year 2009, said that a total of 236 prisoners were awarded death sentences, but only 36 of them could be actually hanged to death, The News reports.
The report further stated that at least 1102 persons are missing from Balochistan, and the committee formed to recover those missing has only managed to gather information about 43 persons.
It may be noted that last year, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had advocated substituting the death penalty with life imprisonment.
President Asif Ali Zardari, however, issued an ordinance canceling Gilani’s orders and recommending death sentence for cyber crimes too. (ANI)

Analysis: Can Obama deliver on the Middle East?


President Obama has been reaching out to all sides in the Middle East conflict
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a problem.
Something has changed in Washington. This new US President, Barack Obama, is unlike any that an Israeli leader has faced before.
Certainly he shares Washington's traditional concerns for Israel's security. But his election victory marked a defeat for the neo-conservative Right and the Christian fundamentalists, the ideological camps that have provided the backbone of uncritical support for Israel over recent years.
Mr Obama's popularity extends to America's influential Jewish community - an overwhelming majority of whom voted for him.
The change in mood also extends to Capitol Hill where, when Mr Netanyahu visited Washington, he was left in no doubt that the president's approach is supported by many of Israel's longstanding friends in Congress.
The message has been repeated again and again; no settlement building - period
We already know a good deal about Mr Obama's approach to the Middle East, and we will know a good deal more after his keynote speech due in Cairo in early June.
For a start he has decided to grapple with the Israel-Palestinian issue from the outset of his presidency.
He has appointed a foreign policy team well versed in the intricacies of the region, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself, to his veteran peace envoy George Mitchell, and his National Security Adviser General James Jones.
Mr Obama also sees the problems of the region as interlinked. He wants to consolidate a broad Arab coalition against Iran even as he reaches out to Tehran.
To do this he believes that he needs progress on the Palestinian track.
This requires tangible changes on the West Bank to bolster the position of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This is why discussion has so quickly come to focus on one crucial issue - Israeli settlements.
'Natural growth'
The tone and content of the Obama administration's pronouncements on the settlement issue are clear and to the point.
WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS
Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Six Day War
Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank
A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem
The largest West Bank settlement is Maale Adumim, where more than 30,000 people were living in 2005
There are 102 unauthorised outposts which are not officially sanctioned by Israel
Source: Peace Now
The US wants a halt to settlement building. Now.
Mr Netanyahu seems to have at least half got the message.
He is trying to devise some sort of compromise whereby Israel will remove outposts seen as illegal even under Israeli law, but will continue to build in existing settlements to cope with what Israeli spokesmen call their "natural growth".
But this "natural growth" argument is not getting any traction in Washington.
The message has been repeated again and again; no settlement building - period.
Mr Netanyahu may well argue that he is constrained by his highly conservative cabinet, but that argument too is unlikely to carry any weight with Mr Obama.
What is clear, though, is that Mr Netanyahu has little room to manoeuvre.
One issue dominates his thinking - not the Palestinians but the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
Iranian threat
Mr Netanyahu believes the threat from Iran is imminent
It is impossible to overemphasise the hold this issue has on the Israeli political leadership of all parties.
Iran is seen as presenting an existential threat to the Jewish state.
Mr Netanyahu's greatest priority is to maintain good relations with Mr Obama in order to face up to the Iranian threat when the moment of crisis comes.
And make no mistake, Mr Netanyahu believes that the crisis will come on his watch.
So Mr Netanyahu certainly has a problem. But many other factors are in play too and there is much that we still do not know about Mr Obama's approach to the region.
On the Palestinian front, how far will he push Mr Abbas to form a unity government? In the absence of such unity, will America simply ignore the situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip?
And what about the Syrian track? Mr Obama is being very cautious about engagement with Damascus, but might this provide an option on which Israel and the US can agree, especially if the Palestinian track falters?
Some of this may become clear after the president's Cairo speech. He wants Israel to make concessions. But he also wants the Arab world as a whole to begin to shift its stance towards Israel.
It is a hugely ambitious approach. Many hardened pundits remain sceptical.
Does Mr Obama have the staying power and will he continue to have the diplomatic capital to invest in this issue? Those are two of the biggest questions of all.

Sri Lankan army accused of massacring 20,000 Tamil civilians in final assault


An aerial view of the former battlefront on the outskirts of the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya Photo: REUTERS
More than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final government onslaught on the Tamil Tigers according to confidential United Nations estimates, it has been reported.
The death toll among refugees trapped in the last Tiger redoubt in north eastern Sri Lanka is three times higher than that acknowledged by the government.
Sri Lankan authorities say their military observed a "no-fire-zone" and stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 when 100,000 Tamil civilians were trapped.
Related Articles
Sri Lanka: Tamil refugees plead for help
Sri Lanka accused of 'ethnic cleansing' of Tamil areas
Velupillai Prabhakaran
Sri Lanka accused of killing Tamil leader in 'massacre'
Sri Lanka accused of breaking artillery pledge
Sri Lanka hospital attack kills dozens
However aerial pictures and witness testimony suggest the army in fact launched a three week artillery barrage from the end of April.
Confidential United Nations documents say 7,000 civilians had died in the zone by the end of April and sources told The Times newspaper the toll then grew to around 1,000 a day.
The figures would put the final death toll, before the zone was finally overrun and Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed, at more than 20,000.
"Higher," a UN source told the newspaper, "Keep going."
Aerial photographs show makeshift sandy burial mounds in the no fire zone.
Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, has said the LTTE recruited child soldiers and used civilians as human shields during the conflict, while the military had indiscriminately shelled areas packed with civilians. Both sides have denied the allegations.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamil refugees are now being held in camps in Sri Lanka.
The UN estimates between 80,000 and 100,000 people died in the 26-year LTTE struggle for a separate state for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London rejected the newspapers allegations.
He said: "Civilians have not been killed by government shelling at all. If civilians have been killed, then that is because of the actions of the LTTE [rebels] who were shooting and killing people when they tried to escape."

Canadian astronaut has busy schedule during space station visit


Laying the groundwork for the deployment of Canadian robots on other planets and figuring out how to help people adapt to extreme environments are among the things Bob Thirsk will do now that he’s aboard the International Space Station.
The 55-year-old Canadian astronaut was welcomed with bear hugs and smiles when he and two other space travellers arrived at the gigantic orbiting laboratory on Friday.
“It is an historic day,” Mr. Thirsk told Steve MacLean, the head of the Canadian Space Agency, during a communications link-up with Earth. “It’s also a very happy day up here.
“You can’t imagine the state of elation that the six of us have right now.”
During the six months he’ll spend in space, Mr. Thirsk will participate in a York University experiment that will help people who have trouble telling up from down.
Astronauts and others who find themselves in unusual extreme environments, or who have certain medical disorders, have difficulty orienting themselves and the experiment is aimed at helping them avoid life-threatening errors.
Mr. Thirsk, who arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, will also operate a little rover-type vehicle nicknamed “Red” by remote control from space.
The robot, the size of a thick suitcase, is parked and waiting for his commands in a back lot of the Canadian Space Agency, south of Montreal.
The research will eventually lead to the operation of robots on other planets, either from a ground station located on Earth or from a spacecraft out in space.
The Russian space ferry carrying Mr. Thirsk, Russia’s Roman Romanenko and Belgium’s Frank De Winne linked up with the space station above the China coast after lifting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan two days earlier.
Mr. Thirsk’s stint will be the longest period a Canadian astronaut has ever spent in space.
The three newest arrivals boost the space station to a full staff of six for the first time in its 10-year history.
“Amongst partners that have a passion for exploration, a proven track record in innovation, and a desire to gain new knowledge, we’ve got an incredible potential for success,” Mr. Thirsk said Friday from space. “This is going to be something incredible.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” the native of New Westminster, B.C. said, adding, “Thank you, Canada.”
Mr. MacLean, a former astronaut, recalls that, as “good buddies” for eight years, he and Mr. Thirsk talked a lot about what it would be like when their turn in space finally came.
“We’ve probably spent more hours talking about space than the amount of time we’ve been up there,” he said in an interview.
“We started in this 25 years ago,” Mr. MacLean said, adding that Mr. Thirsk’s arrival was the culmination of a lot of work. “We were training together from 1984 to about 1992.”
Mr. MacLean spent a total of about two weeks orbiting the Earth during his two flights into space.
Canada was first invited to become a partner in the International Space Station in May, 1985.
“It’s taken from 1985 until today to get to the point where we have all the (five) international partners on (the) station at the same time,” Mr. MacLean added.
The combined crew, all men, now includes Mr.Thirsk, two Russians, one American, a Japanese and a Belgian.
Mr. Thirsk’s wife, Brenda Biasutti, who was on the ground at the Russian control centre near Moscow, also had a chance to speak briefly with her husband, wishing him good luck and telling him to have a good time.
Mr. Thirsk’s 81-year-old mother, Eva, even got in a few words.
“It looks good to see you there with all your friends,” she said. “Have a wonderful time and God bless.”
That prompted a response of “Thanks, mom.”
This is also the first time a Canadian has travelled aboard a Russian spacecraft. In the past, Canadians have hitched a ride aboard American space shuttles.
Mr. Thirsk will soon be joined by fellow Canadian Julie Payette. She is scheduled to blast off June 13 aboard the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour on a 16-day mission although that mission may be postponed until July because bad weather has delayed preparations.
When Ms. Payette goes into orbit, it will also be the first time Canada has had two astronauts in space at the same time.

More aids of Rs. 30.23 mln for IDPs pledged on Geo Telethon


KARACHI: More aids estimating at Rs. 30.23 million have been pledged on Friday for the IDPs displaced from Swat and Malakand Division on ‘Geo Telethon’ – the live broadcast from The Geo Television Network.The renowned Naat Khwan Siddiq Ismael has also devoted his presidential medal of pride of performance to be auctioned in order to raise funds for Swat and Malakand’s IDPs on the live Telethon of Geo T.V.Aids and funds costing millions of rupees have also been raised for the rehabilitation and assistance of IDPs through Geo’s Telethon during last some days while the funds, collected during the Geo’s campaign by the name ‘Pukar’, are also being continuously provided at the IDPs’ relief camps established in Mardan and other areas of Peshawar.At the end of the Geo Telethon broadcast, host Dr. Aamir Liaquat Hussain sought pray asking Almighty Allah for granting him, his country fellowmen and all Muslims courage and generosity for the aid and assistance of Swat and Malakand IDPs.The Pride of Performance medal of Siddiq Ismael will be up for bidding beyond five million rupees on Saturday.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

ICC wants quick end to Pakistan World Cup row

Thursday, May 28, 2009 0

Pakistan celebrate
A dispute with Pakistan over 2011 one-day World Cup games needs to be resolved as soon as possible, International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan said on Friday.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken legal action against the ICC executive board's decision last month to shift 14 games out of the troubled country due to security concerns.
The ICC will meet co-hosts India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in London on June 15 to try and resolve the issue of staging the games.
Pakistan stands to lose around $11 million in rights fees if it does not stage its share of matches.
"I hope that, through discussion, we will be able to reach a resolution to this matter as soon as possible," Morgan said in a statement.
"It is a matter that is diverting resources and energy that could be spent elsewhere as, with less than two years to go before the event, we need to be conscious that time is passing.
"The sooner we reach that resolution, the sooner everyone can proceed with the business of concentrating our efforts on working towards a successful event in 2011."

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat dismissed any suggestion the influential Indian board had a hand in shifting the games out of Pakistan.
"We know that many of the member countries will not tour Pakistan and the board had to act," Lorgat told a news conference in New Delhi.
"As we sit now, we must look through the issues and there is no reason why we should not engage in a dialogue."

Obama Urged to Take Firm Stance Against North Korea in Wake of Nuclear Test


President Obama says North Korea recklessly defied international warnings with its nuclear test. (AP Photos)
Following North Korea's nuclear test, one analyst says for the United States to engage Pyongyang in the coming months would be to "reinforce the belief that blackmail works ... every time."
The United States is using too much carrot and not enough stick to discourage North Korea's nuclear program, ex-officials and analysts said Monday after the communist nation defied international warnings with a nuclear and missile test.
The timing of the test caught U.S. officials by surprise, though President Obama noted that recent North Korean statements previewed such a move.
The White House rushed to respond, with Obama condemning the detonation in a written statement and then during brief remarks in the Rose Garden before heading to Memorial Day services. He called on the world to "stand up" to North Korea.
But the United States was already at risk of encouraging such behavior, said analysts, who advised the Obama administration to take a firm stance against Kim Jong Il and his regime.
"Do not go soft," said Andrew Lankov, a noted Seoul-based North Korean expert. He said for the United States to engage Pyongyang in the coming months would be to "reinforce the belief that blackmail works ... every time."
He was surprised that North Korea conducted a nuclear test so soon after last month's long-range missile test. "They played both cards," he said, calling Monday's actions "hysterical."
But John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the Bush administration, warned in a Wall Street Journal column last week that a nuclear test was imminent. He wrote that North Korea has been encouraged in such "belligerence," since its 2006 test was followed by the resumption of the six-party talks -- discussions among the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas aimed at encouraging North Korea to give up its nuclear program. Those talks later stalled again.
Bolton told FOX News Monday that the Obama administration should abandon the six-party talks, impose "sweeping economic sanctions" on North Korea, move to expel the country from the United Nations and return it to the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
"I think we're at a moment of real testing for the Obama administration," Bolton said. "I think this incident really is that famous 3 a.m. call that the presidential candidates debated last year."
Bolton had criticized the Obama administration for its attitude toward North Korea in recent weeks.
Stephen Bosworth, special envoy for North Korea policy, said just two weeks ago in Japan that "everyone is feeling relatively relaxed" and "there is not a sense of crisis." Bosworth called for "patience and perseverance." He said "dialogue and negotiation" is the best course, but that the decision to conduct another test is ultimately one "that only North Korea is going to be able to make."
Speaking on "FOX News Sunday" in March, Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed similar resignation to what would soon be a testing of North Korea's Taepodong 2 missile.
He said at the time there's nothing the United States could do about such a firing, though officials nevertheless warned North Korea not to go ahead with the test. North Korea fired the missile a week later. The U.N. Security Council condemned the action, and then North Korea threatened to restart its nuclear reactor.
Gates did say economic sanctions could yield more fruit than diplomacy, an assessment with which other analysts agree.
Stephen Yates, a fellow with the American Foreign Policy Council who previously worked under former Vice President Dick Cheney, suggested economic penalties be imposed not just on North Korea but any nation cooperating with North Korea. He said the time has come to put more pressure on China -- though China publicly condemned the North Korea test Monday.
"It's time that we get serious," Yates said, criticizing the administration for announcing to North Korea before its missile test in April that it would probably not try to interrupt the demonstration. "The president is going to have to reverse course on the politics of missile defense."
He said the regime proved the United States "cannot afford to wait until intelligence confirms its capability, because they can surprise us even with a test."
Analysts warn that the North Korean problem already threatens to increase the danger posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions. Not only could North Korea be sharing information about nuclear technology with Iran, but North Korea's behavior could embolden Iran.
Though Iran reportedly stated Monday that it has no weapons cooperation with North Korea, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also rejected a proposal to "freeze" nuclear work and rejected talks with world powers on the matter, according to Reuters.
The news agency reported that the Iranian navy also sent six warships into international waters.
The United Nations Security Council was holding a closed meeting to discuss the North Korea situation Monday afternoon.
Obama said the tests pose a "grave threat" to international security and that the world "must take action in response."
According to the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers Monday morning about the tests and later planned to speak with her counterparts in China and Russia.
"Secretary Clinton is engaged in intensive diplomacy," spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement. "In her conversations, the secretary stressed the importance of a strong, unified approach to this threat to international peace and security. She consulted with them on this afternoon's Security Council meeting, and reiterated our commitment to regional security and to our alliances."

Canada's Bob Thirsk blasts into space


Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, crew member of the 20th mission to the International Space Station (ISS), thumbs up prior to the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, May 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)
LONGUEUIL, Que. - Canada's landmark mission to the International Space Station could be the last visit by its astronauts to the orbiting laboratory for five years.
A Russian Soyuz space capsule blasted off on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying veteran Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk and two crewmates.
But once Thirsk returns to Earth in November, it will be a while before a Canadian returns to space.
"It'll be five years from now," said Pierre Jean, Canada's space station program manager. "And the next one (after that) will be five years later."
The next "for-sure" flight to the space station by a Canadian will also be on board a Soyuz.
Jean says Canada's next space travellers should be its two newest recruits - Jeremy Hansen and David St-Jacques, who joined the Canadian astronaut corps earlier this month.
The 55-year-old Thirsk, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Belgium's Frank De Winne, are due to arrive at the giant space station on Friday for a six-month stay.
The landmark mission will be Canada's first long-duration mission in space.
Thirsk's sojourn will also include a visit from fellow Canadian space traveller Julie Payette, whose 16-day mission starts June 13 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.
In an interview just days before his space flight, Thirsk acknowleged he won't be the person who goes to the moon for Canada.
"But I do think that the work I'll be doing during the six-month expedition aboard the space station is pioneering work. I think that, in a sense, I'll be contributing and paving the way for newer astronauts to make that voyage."
Thirsk is one of Canada's longest-serving astronauts. He made his first space flight aboard the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in 1996.
The U.S. space shuttles are tentatively scheduled to stop flying in 2010 and if that happens, the only way up and down to the space lab will be with the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Jean said that if the mothballing of the American shuttles is extended, there's a chance Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will make his third space flight on one of them.
Hadfield was standing by in Kazakhstan to serve as Thirsk's backup in the event he fell ill.
Scores of reporters, dignitaries and relatives who watched Wednesday from a viewing stand about 1.5 kilometres away from the launchpad applauded as the rocket carrying the Soyuz roared into the sky.
Among them were Thirsk's three children and his 81-year-old mother Eva.
"He's doing what he's wants to do," she said. "And he's so happy about it. And I'm so happy for him."
Footage broadcast by NASA TV from inside the Soyuz showed the three astronauts waving and giving the thumbs-up.
Thirsk's brother-in-law Emmanuel Triassi got up early to watch the lift-off from the Canadian Space Agency in Longueuil, south of Montreal, on a giant screen.
The 57-year-old construction engineer says it was an emotional moment.
"I'm extremely excited, it's almost undescribable," he said, standing in front of a life-size cardboard cutout of Thirsk.
Retired Canadian astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason, who was also at the agency, admitted he was feeling a bit envious.
"I know Bob is just absolutely thrilled now," Tryggvason said in an interview.
"He's realized his second space flight. Now he's going to be up there for six months. I'm jealous as hell of him."
Three different space shuttles are scheduled to visit the station during Thirsk's mission, as well as three cargo vehicles - two from Russia and one from Japan.
As the permanent crew of six settles in and Payette and her space shuttle crew of six arrive in a couple of weeks, there will be 13 people aboard - a record number for the space station.
Thirsk, who was born in New Westminster, B.C., will also be celebrating his birthday in space on Aug. 17.

Sri Lanka: Tamil refugees plead for help to find missing relatives


Civilians stand behind the barbed-wire perimeter fence of the Manik Farm refugee camp located on the outskirts of northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniy Photo: REUTERS
Refugees from Sri Lanka's war with the Tamil Tigers have spoken of their terrifying escape from the 'no-fire zone' and pleaded for help to find missing relatives.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph at Vavuniya, where 210,000 people are being held in five camps for "internally displaced people", ragged Tamils said they had come under attack from both sides as the 26-year civil war reached its conclusion last week.
Many clutched a razor wire fence, desperately searching the crowds on the other side for a familiar face as they tried to discover whether their loved ones were still alive and at liberty, or in another of the camps, where the overcrowded conditions and made worse by poor sanitation, inadequate food and severe water shortages.
Related Articles
More than 280,000 Sri Lankan refugees could be held in camps for up to two years
Sri Lanka's government deliberately concealed official casualty figures
Britain and France fail to persuade Sri Lanka to end war
Sri Lanka army 'to stop shelling' Tamil Tiger enclave
Sri Lankan civilians in firing line as military 'annihilates' Tamil Tigers
The refugees are not allowed to leave the camps even if they are not suspected of being Tamil Tiger fighters. While the Colombo government has said that it will clear the camps during the course of the year, it is anxious not to allow separatist fighters to evade their reach by posing as civilians and simply walking free.
Bhuvaneswari, whose son and two daughters are missing, held photographs through the wire. "Nine members of my family are missing, please help me find them," she said. "They've been missing since the mass exodus on April 20th. When the army entered the safe zone and cut the area in two, we were separated. We don't know if they've been killed by the army or what."
At "Zone Four", a camp for recent arrivals, men stripped to the waist were washing themselves in an open drain. One man showed his camp ration card which recorded only two evening meals in six days, while another emaciated elderly man was so weak from an infection that he could not stand or speak and appeared close to death as he lay in a crowded tent.
Many said they had been shelled from their homes in the army's ferocious advance across the north-east of the island, and they had been forced to flee more than a dozen times before reaching the so-called "no-fire zone".
Thangaraja, 59, a carpenter, said that his family had moved 14 times since January as the Tigers retreated into the "no-fire zone" on the north-east coast. He said they had been shelled by the army, shot at by Tamil Tigers to stop them escaping, and lost several relatives in the cross-fire.
"My son and daughter-in-law, my brother-in-law, my cousin, all died in shelling attacks. We built bunkers and kept moving from one place to another. Shells were falling everywhere. Four people died in my family while I was there. We just left their bodies in the bunker and filled them in," he said.
He wants to go back to his home "in freedom", but his main concern is for other missing relatives. "Lots of my relatives have been injured but we don't know where they are. We can't go outside the camp to contact people," he said.
An army spokesman said that up to 6,000 families had been reunited to date, and that they were working to bring separated families together.
But he added: "At the moment we don't know how many families are separated or how many disappeared."
One refugee said that thousands of fleeing civilians were separated from their families when they reached the army check-point, where they were pushed onto buses and taken to different hospitals and camps. Navamani, 43, from Vattuvagal in Mullaitivu district, said she had lost her three children, aged 16,18 and 21, in the chaos.
At Vavuniya's Zone Two, a few miles down the road, a mother and daughter who had been separated for five months had finally found one another, but were not allowed to embrace.
Kandaswamy, 73, was weeping on one side of the razor-wire, and reaching out to her daughter, Laxmi, 45, who has been in detention since fleeing the final battle earlier this month. She needed all the comfort she could get – four of her five children had been killed in shelling, she said.

Global crisis 'hits human rights'


Governments are ignoring the poorest people's basic needs, Amnesty says
The global economic crisis is exacerbating human rights abuses, Amnesty International has warned.
In its annual report, the group said the downturn had distracted attention from abuses and created new problems.
Rising prices meant millions were struggling to meet basic needs in Africa and Asia, it said, and protests were being met with repression.
Political conflict meant people were suffering in DR Congo, North Korea, Gaza and Darfur, among others, it said. 'Time-bomb' The 400-page report, compiled in 157 countries, said that human rights were being relegated to the back seat in pursuit of global economic recovery.
See region by region
The world's poorest people were bearing the brunt of the economic downturn, Amnesty said, and millions of people were facing insecurity and indignity.
Migrant workers in China, indigenous groups in Latin America and those who struggled to meet basic needs in Africa had all been hit hard, it said.
AMNESTY REPORT
Amnesty International Report 2009: State of the World's Human Rights [6.95 MB]
Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader
Download the reader here
Where people had tried to protest, their actions had in many cases been met with repression and violence.
The group warned that rising poverty could lead to instability and mass violence.
"The underlying global economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis: a combination of social, economic and political problems has created a time-bomb of human rights abuses," said Amnesty's Secretary General, Irene Khan.
The group is launching a new campaign called Demand Dignity aimed at tackling the marginalisation of millions through poverty.
World leaders should set an example and invest in human rights as purposefully as they invest in economic growth, Ms Khan said.
"Economic recovery will be neither sustainable nor equitable if governments fail to tackle abuses that drive and deepen poverty, or armed conflicts that generate new violations," she said.
See below for highlights of the report by region
AFRICA
Amnesty says the economic crisis has had a direct impact on human rights abuses on the continent.
"People came into the streets to protest against the high cost of living," Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty's Africa programme director, told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE
More from BBC World Service
"The reaction we saw from the authorities was very repressive. For example, in Cameroon about 100 people were killed in February last year."
But the bulk of Amnesty's report concentrated on the continent's three main conflict zones: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan.
In DR Congo, the focus was on the east where it said civilians had suffered terribly at the hands of government soldiers and rebel groups. The Hutu FDLR movement, for example, was accused of raping women and burning people alive in their homes.
Amnesty said it was also the civilians in Somalia who bore the brunt of conflict, with tens of thousands fleeing violence and hundreds killed by ferocious fighting in the capital, Mogadishu. It also highlighted the killing and abduction of journalists and aid workers.
In Sudan, Amnesty catalogued a series of abuses including the sentencing to death of members of a rebel group, a clampdown on human rights activists and the expulsion of several aid groups following the issuing of an international arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir.
A number of countries, including Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, were criticised for intimidating and imprisoning members of the opposition.
And Nigeria came under fire for the forced evictions of thousands of people in the eastern city of Port Harcourt.
ASIA
Across the region, millions fell further into poverty as the cost of basic necessities rose, Amnesty said. In Burma, the military government rejected international aid in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and punished those who tried to help victims of the disaster. It continued campaigns against minority groups which involved forced labour, torture and murder, Amnesty said.
In North Korea, millions are said to have experienced hunger not seen in a decade and thousands tried to flee, only to be caught and returned to detention, forced labour and torture. In both North Korea and Burma, freedom of expression was non-existent.
In China, the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games was marred by a clamp-down on activists and journalists, and the forcible evictions of thousands from their homes, the report said. Ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet continued to suffer from systematic discrimination, witnessing unrest followed by government suppression.
Millions of Afghans faced persistent insecurity at the hands of Taliban militants. The Afghan government failed to maintain the rule of law or to provide basic services to many. Girls and women particularly suffered a lack of access to health and education services.
In Sri Lanka, the government prevented international aid workers or journalists from reaching the conflict zone to assist or witness the plight of those caught up in fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Israel's military operation in Gaza in December 2008 caused a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, Amnesty said. Its blockade of the territory "exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation, health and sanitation problems, poverty and malnutrition for the 1.5 million residents", according to the report.
On the Palestinian side, both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were accused of repressing dissent and detaining political opponents.
The death penalty was used extensively in Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Across the region, women faced discrimination both under the law and in practice, Amnesty said, and many faced violence at the hands of spouses or male relatives.
Governments that included Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen are said to have used often sweeping counter-terrorism laws to clamp down on their political opponents and to stifle legitimate criticism.
AMERICAS
Indigenous communities across Central and South America were disproportionately affected by poverty while their land rights are ignored, Amnesty said. Development projects on indigenous land were often accompanied by harassment and violence.
Women and girls faced violence and sexual abuse, particularly in Haiti and Nicaragua. The stigma associated with the abuse condemned many to silence, the report said, while laws in some nations meant that abortion was not available to those who became pregnant as a result of abuse or assault.
Gang violence worsened in some nations; in Guatemala and Brazil evidence emerged of police involvement in the killings of suspected criminals, the report found.
America continued to employ the death penalty, the report noted, and concern persisted over foreign nationals held at America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre, although the report acknowledged the commitment by US President Barack Obama to close it down.
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Civilians paid a high price for last year's conflict between Russia and Georgia, Amnesty said. Hundreds of people died and 200,000 were displaced. In many cases, civilians' homes and lives were devastated.
Many nations continued to deny fair treatment to asylum seekers, with some deporting individuals or groups to countries where they faced the possibility of harm.
Roma (gypsies) faced systematic discrimination across the region and were largely excluded from public life in all countries.
Freedom of expression remained poor in countries such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other Central Asian nations.

Suicide bomber kills 3 American troops in Afghanistan


A U.S. soldier stands guard on the top of an armored vehicle near the site of an explosion in Kapisa province north of Kabul, Afghanistan.
An Afghan civilian also dies in the attack on a convoy.
Associated Press 8:09 AM PDT, May 26, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged car into a military convoy today, killing three American soldiers and three Afghan civilians in eastern Afghanistan.The attack against the American convoy came in eastern Kapisa province, an stronghold of insurgents loyal to the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Map: bombing site
Acting in a different theater of war
U.S. says contractors in Afghanistan violated gun policy
Recent coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
"I was driving my motorbike when I saw the car with a young man with a beard and white cap," said Sayed Najibullah, a 22-year-old shopkeeper.Najibullah said he heard the explosion minutes after the man, in a Toyota Corolla, waved him past.Three U.S. troops were killed in the explosion, said Tech. Sgt. Chuck Marsh, a U.S. military spokesman. The soldiers served with NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
Three civilians also died and two others were wounded, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.Taliban regularly use suicide attackers and roadside bombs in assaults on foreign and Afghan troops across the country. Such attacks were up 25 percent the first four months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.Bomb attacks will rise 50 percent this year to 5,700 -- up from 3,800 last year, U.S. military officials predict.According to military figures, 172 coalition forces were killed in such attacks last year -- and far more Afghan civilians died.In the eastern Logar province, meanwhile, U.S. and Afghan troops called in airstrikes on two groups of militants, killing 13 insurgents today, the U.S military statement said.Separately, in the eastern Khost province, a convoy of Afghan and American troops killed the driver of a car when the vehicle did not slow down in response to shouts to stop and warning shots, said Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, a U.S. forces spokesman."They fired to stop the vehicle and killed the driver," Naranjo said.In the south, U.S. forces said they killed eight Taliban fighters in a clash Uruzgan province on Monday. The coalition said two of its troops and three Afghan policemen were wounded during the clash.They were undergoing medical treatment and were in stable condition. The troops were on patrol when Taliban fighters attacked with small-arms fire and heavy machine-guns.Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, where thousands of new American troops will join the fight this year.President Barack Obama hopes the new troops can turn the tide of the Taliban successes in the last three years.

UN issues desperate appeal to help Pakistanis


UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. humanitarian chief issued a desperate appeal Thursday for hundreds of millions of dollars to help 2.4 million Pakistanis who have fled the war against Taliban militants, warning that the U.N. can only sustain its current aid efforts for one month. Last Friday, the United Nations revised an earlier appeal and urged donors to contribute $543 million to help the displaced Pakistanis through the end of December. U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said so far only $118 million have come in just 21 percent of the amount and ``not remotely sufficient.'' He noted that the total includes $17 million from the U.N.'s emergency fund. "We need to scale up this effort very significantly, in line with the scale and the speed of the displacement,'' Holmes said. “We cannot sustain the effort we are making at the moment for more than a month without some new and significant resources being contributed by the donors.'' He said the most immediate needs are funds for food, shelter, cooking utensils, water and sanitation facilities and health services. Holmes spoke to reporters after meeting with representatives from between 80 and 90 countries to appeal for help. He was joined by Pakistan's U.N. ambassador. The United Nations hopes that donors will contribute 60-70percent of the $543 million ``within a few weeks,'' Holmes said. More than 1.9 million Pakistanis have fled the recent conflict centered on the northwestern Swat Valley in recent weeks, joining more than 500,000 others who have left their homes since last summer, Holmes said. While about 90 percent of the 2.4 million people who have been displaced are living with family members or in rented accommodation, he said 220,000 are now in 26 camps south of the battle zone 12 of which the U.N. opened in the last few weeks. Holmes said the U.N. is concerned that the number of Pakistanis fleeing the fighting is increasing and could rise further if fighting worsens in Waziristan.
 
International News. Design by Pocket