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[Caro]

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

Iran Says Sunnis, Using Pakistan as Base, Planned Fatal Bombing
TEHRAN, Feb. 18 — The Iranian Foreign Ministry charged Sunday that Sunni insurgents from Iran used Pakistan as a base to plan a bombing that killed 11 people and wounded more than 30 in the southeastern border city of Zahedan last week. The ministry said it had demanded an explanation from the Pakistani ambassador. Iran has accused the United States and Britain of provoking the Sunni insurgents.

Happy Presidents’ Day!
The Radical Fringe

The World

Iraq blasts kill 63, send grim message
Militants struck back Sunday in their first major blow against a U.S.-led security clampdown in Baghdad with car bombs that killed at least 63 people, left scores injured and sent a bloody calling card to officials boasting that extremist factions were on the run.

Palestinian leadership deal clouds talks
JERUSALEM - U.S. and Israeli dissatisfaction with a Palestinian power-sharing deal clouded talks Monday among Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel's prime minister and the Palestinian president, but Washington's top diplomat said she wanted to inject some hope by addressing the outlines of a peace deal.

Iran launches large-scale war games
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran began its largest war games in almost a year Monday, just two days ahead of a U.N. Security Council deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment or face further economic sanctions.

Biggest Mideast arms fair opens in UAE
ABU DHABI (AFP) - The Middle East's biggest arms fair, IDEX-2007, has opened in the United Arab Emirates with hundreds of manufacturers displaying state-of-the-art weaponry to oil-rich monarchies that are keen on upgrading their armed forces.

8 U.S. Troops Die in Afghan Copter Crash
SHAHJOI, Afghanistan (AP) - After radioing in an unexplained loss of power and engine failure, a military helicopter crashed early Sunday in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight U.S. service members. Fourteen survived with injuries.

66 die in India-Pakistan train attack
DEWANA, India - A pair of explosions on a train headed for Pakistan set off a fire that killed at least 66 people, some of whom became trapped when a train door was fused shut by the heat of the flames. Officials said the attack was aimed at disrupting improving relations between the rivals.

Three dead in Thailand bombings
At least three people have been killed and scores injured after an apparently co-ordinated series of blasts tore through Thailand's south, police said. More than 1,900 people have been killed in the mostly-Muslim south since rebels launched an insurgency in January 2004.

Australia to beef up military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia will send up to 70 additional military instructors to war-torn Iraq and may deploy more troops in Afghanistan, according to Prime Minister John Howard.

US to stage world's largest anti-terrorism exercise on Guam
SAIPAN, Northern Marianas (AFP) - The world's biggest anti-terrorism exercise will be held this year on Guam, underscoring the Pacific island's growing importance to Washington.

Italy Indicts 26 Americans in C.I.A. Abduction Case
ROME, Feb. 16 — An Italian judge today ordered the first trial involving the American program of kidnapping terror suspects on foreign soil, indicting 26 Americans, most of them C.I.A. agents, but also Italy’s former top spy. The indictments covered the episode in which a radical Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who disappeared near his mosque in Milan on Feb. 17, 2003, says he was kidnapped. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, was freed this week from jail in Egypt, where he says he was taken and then tortured.

The Nation

Despite setback, Democrats vow to pressure Bush on Iraq
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senate Democrats, thwarted in their bid to force a debate on President George W. Bush's planned US troop buildup in Iraq, were expected to step up their pressure on the administration in order to force it to change its strategy in the war.

Analysis: Iraq vote signals new dynamic
WASHINGTON - The House's resounding vote on a nonbinding resolution rejecting a 21,500-troop buildup in Iraq places Congress officially in step with growing public sentiment against the war. It also puts President Bush on the defensive going into a far more consequential confrontation over paying for the plan.

Support for Iraq buildup up slightly
WASHINGTON - President Bush faces widespread opposition to the troop buildup in Iraq, though he has gained support over the past month, an AP-Ipsos poll found. The president has nudged support for the troop increase to 35 percent from 26 percent in early January. Sixty-three percent of those surveyed still oppose the increase.

Clinton urges start of Iraq pullout in 90 days
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for a 90-day deadline to start pulling American troops from Iraq.

Biden: We'll Change 2002 War Authorization
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, said he wants to repeal the 2002 vote in which Congress authorized the president to go to war in Iraq, but his Republican counterpart, Sen. Richard Lugar, said the measure would never pass.

Edwards raps lack of direct talks with Iran
Calling it a huge strategic mistake not to be dealing directly with Iran, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards criticized the Bush administration on Sunday for failing to engage directly with Tehran in order to resolve problems.

Richardson urges diplomacy in Mideast
CONCORD, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said Friday that President Bush should learn from recent successes with North Korea and engage in intense diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East to end the Iraq war.

McCain says Roe should be overturned
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party s conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

U.S. has more science smarts, for the most part
People in the U.S. know more about basic science today than they did two decades ago, good news that researchers say is tempered by an unsettling growth in the belief in pseudoscience such as astrology and visits by extraterrestrial aliens.

Economy & Business

Dow ends at record, scores best week since November
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow Jones industrial average posted its best week since November on Friday, helped by optimism about merger activity and reassuring comments about inflation from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Home building at lowest level since '97
WASHINGTON - Housing construction plunged to the lowest level in nearly a decade last month as the housing industry continued to struggle with a severe slowdown. Meanwhile, wholesale prices dropped by 0.6 percent in January, the biggest amount in three months, providing fresh evidence that inflation pressures are easing.

Get Healthy--Or Else
In August, Joe Pellegrini got yet another nagging phone call. It was his health coach, a woman working on behalf of his employer, the $2.7 billion lawn-care company, Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. The 48-year-old executive knew the spiel by heart. "Have you been to your doctor yet? When are you going?" Then the prescription: "You need to lose weight and you really, really need to lower your cholesterol."

Media

Iraqis use internet to survive war
As the communal bloodshed has worsened, some Iraqis have set up advice websites to help others avoid the death squads. One tip - on the Iraq League site, one of the best known - is for people to draw up maps of their local area using Google Earth's detailed imagery of Baghdad so they can work out escape routes and routes to block. It's another example of the central role technology plays in the conflict - with the widespread use of mobile phones, satellite television as well as the internet - by all sides and for many purposes.

True ‘Fair And Balanced’ Coverage: Wallace Calls Out Feith For Lying On Fox News
Last week on Fox News Sunday, former Rumsfeld aide Douglas Feith told Chris Wallace, “Nobody in my office ever said there was an operational relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It’s just not correct. I mean, words matter.” Fox News pursued the matter and did a follow-up report this week. Wallace reported, “It turns out he did make that case in a memo he sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee in October of ‘03.”

FLASHBACK: Brooks Predicted War Foes Wouldn't Admit They Were Wrong
Brooks illustrated our Doctrine of Pundit Infallibility, or DOPI, in his Times column today by mocking those who, unlike him, were right about the Iraq war. And now we've unearthed a truly priceless gem from Brooks' oeuvre in which he predicted that despite success in Iraq war opponents weren't going to admit that they were wrong.

Snow: ‘It Seems That Some Politicians Maybe Are Trying To Protect Iran’
Today on CNN, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow claimed that members of Congress who have warned about the possibility of a military strike against Iran may be “trying to protect Iran.”

Broder falsely asserted Bush rejected idea that Dem criticism would "embolden the enemy"
In his February 16 column, Washington Post columnist David Broder falsely claimed that President Bush had, at his February 14 press conference, "endors the good motives of" the critics of his Iraq troop increase by "rejecting the notion that their actions would damage U.S. troops' morale or embolden the enemy." In reality, Bush specifically refused to reject the notion that such criticism would embolden the enemy.

In reporting GOP retraction of false attack on Pelosi, AP recycled jet, minimum wage smears
In a February 16 article on the Republican Study Committee's retraction of a news release that falsely "accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of violating copyrights of C-SPAN," the Associated Press repeated the recent Republican smear that Pelosi supports a minimum wage bill that exempts American Samoa because the exemption would help a company headquartered in her district. The article also mentioned that Pelosi "has come under criticism by Republicans over how big a plane the government should provide for her use" without noting that those Republican attacks are misleading and unsubstantiated.

NY Times quoted Lott on "horrif" "slow bleed" term without noting its origin>
A February 16 New York Times article on the congressional debate over President Bush's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq reported that "Republican leaders ... have accused some Democrats of pursuing a strategy to cut war financing gradually -- 'a slow bleed,' Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican whip, put it, 'a terminology that horrifies me.' " Lott's quote suggests that it is the Democrats who chose the "terminology" that "horrifies" him -- reflecting a false claim first made in a Republican National Committee press release. But the Times article neither refuted the claim nor explained the origin of the "slow bleed" term.

Bush Declares Iran's Arms Role in Iraq Is Certain
This New York Times headline sharply contrasts with the same day's headline from the Los Angeles Times: "Tehran's Iraq Role Unclear, U.S. Now Says". The New York Times headline would also seem to conflict with the lead paragraph of the story it appears over, which indicates that George W. Bush says that the Iranian government's role in supplying arms to Iraq is far from clear

Media are too obsessed with the very wealthy, says Powers
"By normalizing the very rich, journalists are making them boring, which is the opposite of news," says William Powers. "Did you know there are actually Americans who live very happily on five-figure incomes, without a single pied-a-terre? It's so amazing, it almost feels like a story."

AAR Snubbed in Talkers Magazine List
Talkers Magazine has put together its "Heavy Hundred" listing of the top talk show hosts in the country which appears in the February, 2007 edition of the trade magazine that calls itself the "bible the talk radio industry." Only three AAR talkers made the top 250 – Randi Rhodes, Jon Elliott, and the Young Turks. Not appearing on the list were weekday AAR hosts Sam Seder, Rachel Maddow, Mark Riley, David Bender, and Betsy Rosenberg. All of weekend hosts didn’t make the cut. Now what is interesting is that every conservative host with a weekday show affiliated with the top seven syndication companies made list.

Billionaire Icahn Sells $880 Mln Time Warner Shares
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Carl Icahn, taking advantage of a rise in share price he helped cause, sold Time Warner Inc. stock worth about $880 million in the fourth quarter. Time Warner stock gained 25 percent last year after Icahn's campaign prompted the world's largest media company to increase its share buyback and reduce costs by $1 billion.

Financial Study Shows Cutting Newsroom Expenses Kills Newspapers
The University of Missouri-Columbia released a study today whose findings belie the conventional baordroom wisdom that has sent tens of thousands of media employees to the unemployment line in the past few months: cutting funds for reporting makes your newspaper less profitable.
In the short run, it seems from the Icahn example above, cost cutting increases share price. But according to this study it starts a “slow bleed” in readership, which eventually devastates the value of the company. —Caro

It's time to think about new models for the news business
"Not-for-profit status might be one possibility," writes Steve Rattner in this subscription-required op-ed. (How about creating a free link, WSJ?) "Instead of having billionaire moguls as proprietors, we could try to turn them into philanthropists who found nonprofit organizations to buy and operate their local papers."

While Others Struggle, Norwegian Newspaper Publisher Thrives on the Web
Schibsted, which owns the biggest-selling tabloid in Norway, is now the biggest player on the Internet in Norway and neighboring Sweden.

Technology & Science

Wear A Watch? What For?
More people are carrying electronic devices that also tell time, whether a phone, an iPod or a BlackBerry. A survey last fall found that nearly two-thirds of teens never wear a watch ? and only about one in 10 wears one every day.
Deaf to sign via video handsets
Deaf people could soon be using video mobiles to chat with their friends using sign language.

Man sues IBM over adult chat room firing
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A man who was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat room at work is suing the company for $5 million, claiming he is an Internet addict who deserves treatment and sympathy rather than dismissal.

Cuba embraces open-source software
HAVANA - Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire — Microsoft Corp. — by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source software.

NASA Successfully Launches Science Satellite Quintet
Five NASA probes blasted into space Saturday, kicking off a two-year mission to hunt down the source of some of Earth's most colorful auroral displays.

Spacecraft could be used to deflect killer asteroids: scientists
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - An unmanned "tractor spacecraft" could eventually be used to drag an asteroid off course before it slams into Earth with catastrophic consequences, experts have said.

Science finding ways to regrow fingers
Researchers are trying to find ways to regrow fingers and someday, even limbs with tricks that sound like magic. The lessons learned from studying regrowth of fingers and limbs could aid the larger field of regenerative medicine, perhaps someday helping people replace damaged parts of the body.

Brain 'can beat early blindness'
The brain can learn to see in later life even if it has been deprived of visual input early on, work suggests.

Trials for 'bionic' eye implants
A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years.

Climate Change

Report: January hottest on record
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It may be cold comfort during a frigid February, but last month was by far the hottest January ever. The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world, according to U.S. scientists who reported the data Thursday.

'Now or never' for climate action
All EU nations must back proposals to cut harmful emissions by 30% by 2020 or risk jeopardising the global effort to curb climate change, warn ministers.

Corn-based ethanol's a flawed concept
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ethanol as an alternative energy source is a flawed concept -- at least when corn is used to produce it. And the consequences of using corn to create ethanol are far-ranging - they even impact consumers and the price they pay for meat.