As Post-9/11 Security Increases Pressure on the Undocumented, Emerald Isle Offers Haven

The green is draining out of the Irish immigration boom that revitalized neighborhoods across New York over the past two decades. Fear of getting caught in a post-Sept. 11 net coupled with the booming economy in Ireland is drawing thousands of Irish back to the Emerald Isle. Numbers vary on how many have left: The Irish government estimates that about 14,000 Irish returned from the United States since 2001, with more than half of them coming from New York. The Census Bureau reported that between 2000 and 2004, the Irish population throughout the United States shrank by 28,500 people, to 128,000.

A more vivid picture of the exodus is the Gaelic downtown of the northern Bronx, on the border with Yonkers, where green signs and shamrocks decorate store windows.

The Padded Wagon, a popular moving company among the Irish, shipped 30 containers to Ireland in the past three months, each containing the possessions of an Irish family. The Irish games -- Gaelic football and hurling -- have suffered losses. More than 200 players returned to Ireland in the past year, said Seamus Dooley, president of the Gaelic Athletic Association, which has its games at Gaelic Park in the Bronx.

Last month, the Irish minister for social affairs visited New York, to unveil "Returning to Ireland," a guide for Irish preparing for a permanent return trip.

"A travel agent was saying they had sold 1,700 one-way tickets to Ireland," said Geraldine McNabb, an Irish-born naturalized citizen, while she sipped a cranberry cocktail at a pub. "They're not coming back."

Sweden's foreign aid agency said yesterday it will give 50 million kronor (5.3 million euro, $6.4 million) in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The announcement follows an appeal by the United Nations for continued humanitarian support to aid efforts in the occupied Palestinian areas.Sida, the agency that distributes Swedish foreign aid, said in a press release that the aid will be channeled through the UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, the UN children's agency UNICEF and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

The Swedish money will mainly go to health care, food and education, Sida said. Last year, Sida distributed 92 million kronor (9.8 million euro, $11.7 million) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

Israel branded the Palestinian government a "terrorist authority" Sunday and halted the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money after Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament.

NEW DELHI -- India and France yesterday decided to sign nine key agreements that extraordinarily includes a declaration on strategic bilateral civilian and defence nuclear cooperation.

This formal signing of declaration even before New Delhi and Washington sort out their differences over their nuclear deal has paved way for a joint defence convention between India and France days before United States President George Bush arrives. Both India and France are also working on a joint agreement on space science technology.

The visiting French President Jacques Chirac stressed France's cooperation with India in this sector stating that the bilateral ties with India was set to prosper. French President met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh here before the two sides penned a series of agreements on nuclear energy cooperation and defence contracts.

While the 'Declaration on the Development of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes' was signed by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar and French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste Blazy, the agreement on defence cooperation was signed by French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

The deals were signed in the presence of the Dr Singh and President Chirac. The joint statement later released stated that the agreement was an important element of the strategic partnership between the two nations and was aimed at building upon and expanding cooperation in defence and military fields.

The Olympics are many things: a global television festival, a crucible for national pride and the ultimate test of an individual's sporting prowess.

But the current winter games in Turin have served another extraordinary purpose: as a possible re-uniter of a top American skier with his long-lost birth-parents living half a world away.

Last week, Toby Dawson, a Korean-American with Elvis-sized sideburns and daredevil skills to match, won the bronze medal in the men's freestyle moguls. His heroics made headlines in the US. In distant Busan, South Korea, they created a sensation.

After watching the event, friends and relatives of Kim Jae-su called him to say that Dawson looked exactly like the son Kim had lost in 1981, when the two-year-old boy became separated from his mother in the town's market. His father never set eyes on him again. Until, perhaps, now.

"I looked at the pictures in the papers and confirmed it myself, the 52-year-old told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. "There is no doubt this is the son I lost 25 years ago." And the circumstantial evidence cannot lightly be set aside.

PRAGUE -- A twin baby girl has become the first child to be left in one of the two "baby boxes" installed last year in the Czech Republic for mothers to abandon their children without risk, the local Press reported yesterday.

The two kilogramme girl, named Sonya, was left with a birth certificate and letter from her mother explaining that she is a single parent who had given birth to twins and could not take care of them both, the daily Dnes reported.

Europe's urban sprawl increased by an area three times the size of Luxembourg in the 1990s, highlighting the continent's failure to protect the environment, a report warned yesterday.
Experts at a biodiversity conference in Croatia this week will be told Europe is performing poorly in eight of nine biodiversity targets set in Kiev in 2003.

"It is clear that achieving the 2010 biodiversity target in Europe requires not only a redoubling of efforts ... but a firm commitment by the parties to act," it says.

The report, by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Council of Europe, says there are 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of built-up areas on the continent. The impact of urban areas on the environment is highlighted by the example of London, whose "ecological footprint" - the standard measure of environmental impact - is two times the size of Britain.

"Humanity continues to use resources at an unsustainable level," the report says, warning that Europe's failure to protect the environment is threatening wildlife species. The numbers of Iberian Lynx and British moths are said to be declining at an alarming rate.

LONDON: Britain's largest Hindu group launched a campaign on Monday targeting a major Hollywood studio over a French comedy film which, it alleges, mocks a revered Hindu god.

In a statement, the Hindu Forum of Britain said "Les Bronzes 3: Amis Pour La Vie" (The Sun-Tanned Ones 3: Friends for Life) shows the main characters swearing, laughing and tearing up images of Lord Shiva.

It appealed to Britain's large Hindu community to complain in writing or by e-mail to the London office of Warner Brothers, the Hollywood studio that is distributing the summer holiday farce, directed by Patrice Leconte.

Press Release: United Nations

Secretary-General welcomes Moscow talks on Iran's uranium enrichment

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed reports confirming that Iran will hold talks in Moscow on 20 February on a Russian proposal on uranium enrichment, according to a statement released by his spokesman today.

"As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Russia's contribution to bringing all sides back to the negotiating table is vital," said the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

Mr. Dujarric said that the Secretary-General trusts that Iran will use the talks in Moscow and the period between now and early March to take the necessary steps to rebuild confidence that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

"He hopes that Iran will respond positively to the resolutions adopted by the IAEA Board of Governors on the implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.

"It is time for all those Governments who support and rely on this regime for their own and our collective security to help resolve this crisis in a way that maintains the regime's integrity and effectiveness," concluded Mr. Dujarric's statement.

French battery hens marketed as 'hygienic'

Battery cages have never seemed an obvious ploy for marketing poultry, but they are since bird flu hit France.

Duc, one of two publicly quoted poultry companies in Europe's biggest poultry producing country, has begun to attach photographs of its chickens' accommodation to distinguish them from free-range counterparts that are more susceptible to contagion from wild birds.

Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. "The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism," she said, "and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. They have extensive booklets on creationism which they put in my pigeon-hole ... it's a bit like the southern states of America." Many of them came from Muslim, Pentecostal or Baptist family backgrounds, she said, and were intending to become pharmacists, doctors, geneticists and neuro-scientists.
(Guardian)

Cash-rich German utility E.ON <EONG.DE> launched a bid on Tuesday for Spanish peer Endesa <ELE.MC> at 27.50 euros per share in cash, trumping an offer from rival Gas Natural <GAS.MC>.

E.ON said it could create the world's top gas and power company with its bid of around 29.1 billion euros ($35 billion), which tops an unsolicited 22 billion-euro offer from Gas Natural <GAS.MC>. Endesa has been fighting the Gas Natural offer which it says is too low.

Energy for the future

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday warned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to "mess with" him days after Rice described Venezuela as a menace to regional democracy in the midst of tense diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"Don't mess with me Condoleezza. Don't mess with me, girl," Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast, sarcastically offering her a kiss and jokingly referring to her as "Condolence."

The warning comes days after Rice described Venezuela as one of the "biggest problems" for the Western Hemisphere and promised to develop regional alliances as part of an "inoculation" strategy to expose what the State Department calls anti-democratic behavior in Venezuela.

Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of trying to topple him, and says the United States will attempt to sow chaos this year as he launches a re-election bid.
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, have been strained since Chavez accused the United States of plotting a coup d'etat that briefly ousted him in 2002.

The wildlife in East Africa is dying of thirst and starvation, the people are suffering - and now the lack of rain threatens even the Serengeti migrations

In cracked riverbeds once flowing with water,dozens of hippos lie decomposing in the stifling heat. Elsewhere, the thin delicate frames of rare Grevy's zebras lie on parched grass, felled by anthrax.

East Africa should now be preparing for the migration of the wildebeest - the biggest movement of wildlife in the world - but instead, the animals are slowly starving. The people are suffering too. The UN estimates that 11 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Burundi will need food airlifts to survive this drought.

Soon, more than one million wildebeest are due to thunder their way through the Mara River, on their Spring migration through the plains of the Serengeti in Tanzania and onto the golden expanse of the Masai Mara in Kenya.

Hidden in the dust kicked up by their hooves 200,000 zebras and 300,000 Thomson's gazelles will run alongside. On the fringes there should be an army of predators, waiting to pick off the weakest as they stumble in the vast crowds. But this year, there is nowhere for the animals to go.

The Masai Mara, dry at the best of times, is a dustbowl - parched from a season of pitiful rains that has driven many animals out of their natural homes in search of water. The few wild animals that remain are spooked by Masai herdsmen who have driven their cattle into the nature reserves searching for a few patches of grass where their livestock can feed.

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Saying the nation is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that would ``startle'' most Americans, President Bush on Monday outlined his energy proposals to help wean the country off foreign oil.

Less than half the crude oil used by refineries is produced in the United States, while 60 percent comes from foreign nations, Bush said during the first stop on a two-day trip to talk about energy.

Some of these foreign suppliers have ``unstable'' governments that have fundamental differences with America, he said.

``It creates a national security issue and we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us,'' Bush said.

Bush is focusing on energy at a time when Americans are paying high power bills to heat their homes this winter and have only recently seen a decrease in gasoline prices.

One of Bush's proposals would expand research into smaller, longer-lasting batteries for electric-gas hybrid cars, including plug-ins. He highlighted that initiative with a visit Monday to the battery center at Milwaukee-based auto-parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc.

Osama bin Laden vowed never to be captured alive, in an audio message posted on a militant Islamist website yesterday.
"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," the al-Qaida leader said, also accusing the US of "barbaric" tactics in Iraq similar to those used by Saddam Hussein.

The recording, 11 minutes 26 seconds long, appears to be the full version of a tape sent to al-Jazeera last month, breaking a year-long silence from Bin Laden. US officials declared the tape, only extracts of which were broadcast, to be authentic.

In the longer version that surfaced yesterday, Bin Laden mocked George Bush's "mission completed" declaration aboard an aircraft carrier in April 2003 when he said major conflict in Iraq had ended: "The Pentagon's figures indicate an increase in the number of your killed and injured in addition to the massive material losses, not to mention the collapse of troop morale and increase of the suicide rates."

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he hoped a power struggle at the United Nations between the major powers and developing countries would not derail U.N. reforms.

Many of the developing nations that make up a majority of the U.N. membership have expressed outrage in recent days over what they see as a power grab by the 15-nation U.N. Security Council led by the United States.

A group of countries known as the Non-Aligned Movement and a bloc of 132 developing nations and China have formally protested that the council, chaired this month by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, was trespassing on U.N. General Assembly turf by scheduling meetings this week on procurement fraud and sexual abuse by peacekeepers.

The two blocs argued these were General Assembly matters rather than the council's, a stand Annan supported.

Bolton dismissed their concerns, saying the two U.N. bodies shared jurisdiction over the matters and the assembly was free to hold its own meetings.

"While others talk, the United States will act to solve problems," Bolton told reporters on Monday. "When we uncover problems, we want to solve them. The Security Council is perfectly capable of doing that."

When you use the Internet today, your browser glides from one Web site to another, accessing all destinations with equal ease. That could change dramatically, however, if Internet service providers are allowed to tilt the playing field, giving preference to sites that pay them extra and penalizing those that don't.

The Senate held hearings last week on "network neutrality," the principle that I.S.P.'s -- the businesses like Verizon or Roadrunner that deliver the Internet to your computer -- should not be able to stack the deck in this way. If the Internet is to remain free, and freely evolving, it is important that neutrality legislation be passed.

In its current form, Internet service operates in the same nondiscriminatory way as phone service. When someone calls your home, the telephone company puts through the call without regard to who is calling. In the same way, Internet service providers let Web sites operated by eBay, CNN or any other company send information to you on an equal footing. But perhaps not for long. It has occurred to the service providers that the Web sites their users visit could be a rich new revenue source. Why not charge eBay a fee for using the Internet connection to conduct its commerce, or ask Google to pay when customers download a video? A Verizon Communications executive recently sent a scare through cyberspace when he said at a telecommunications conference, as The Washington Post reported, that Google "is enjoying a free lunch" that ought to be going to providers like Verizon.

The solution, as far as the I.S.P.'s are concerned, could be what some critics are calling "access tiering," different levels of access for different sites, based on ability and willingness to pay. Giants like Walmart.com could get very fast connections, while little-guy sites might have to settle for the information superhighway equivalent of a one-lane, pothole-strewn road. Since many companies that own I.S.P.'s, like Time Warner, are also in the business of selling online content, they could give themselves an unfair advantage over their competition.

The planned execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was delayed until Tuesday night after two anesthesiologists refused to participate because of ethical concerns.

With the execution scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, defense lawyers requested a stay from the federal judge who last week ordered San Quentin State Prison to have an anesthesiologist on hand to minimize Michael Angelo Morales' pain as he was put to death by lethal injection. A second anesthesiologist was retained as a backup.

Yes, what preceded him was the Russian equivalent of the 30 Years' War in terms of general misery and population decrease.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}