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Show DAILY A4 HERALD Monday, February U 2007 FAST FACT M orning Briefing The apple of one's eye is the pupil, which was likened to an apple because, in the ninth century, it was believed to be a solid round mass. Source: The Book of Answets Compiled from Daily Herald wire services The WORLD The Nation Gates brushes aside Putin's criticisms - PS Id I . If if Wf f -r- v ; - J4 d ' v' ,. tf ,i . V" l;1' it , fmmmS JARRETT BAKERPost Dispatch Pets on parade named Storm entertain the crowd Sunday with an antique street organ before the start of the Barkus Pet Parade in St. Louis. Dan Hoadley and his dog Harvard names first the White House had distorted intelligence to rationalize female president the invasion. Trial testimony so far CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Harvard University on Sunincluding eight hours of day named historian Drew Libby 's own Gilpin Faust as its first female testimony to a grand jury in 2004 president, ending a lengthy suggest that a White and secretive search to find a House known as disciplined was anything but that. successor to Lawrence SumWhat has emerged, inmers and his tumultuous five-- ' stead, is: year tenure. r HarThe I a vice president fixated on finding ways to debunk a vard Corporation elected former diplomat's claims that Faust, a noted scholar of the American South and dean of Bush misled the U.S. people Harvard's Radcliffe Institute in going to war and his sugfor Advanced Study, as the gestion Cheney might have played a role in suppressing university's 28th president. The board of contrary intelligence. I a presidential press secreoverseers ratified the selection. tary kept in the dark on Iraq Faust, 59, recognized the policy. I top White House officials significance of her appointment. meeting daily to discuss the "I hope that my own apdiplomat, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, and somepointment can be one symbol of an opening of opportunitimes even his wife Valerie Plame. ties that would have been inconceivable even a genLibby is accused of lying to the FBI and the grand jury eration ago," Faust said at a about his talks with reportnews conference on campus. But she also added, "I'm ers concerning Plame. Libby not the woman president of got the White House press Harvard. I'm the president of secretary to deny he was the source of the leak. He says he Harvard." With Faust's appointment, thought he first heard about half of the eight Ivy League Plame's CIA job from NBC's Tim Russert. schools will have a woman as president. Her selection is noteworthy given the uproar Mother, 4 children die over Summers' comments in Philly house fire that genetic differences between the sexes might help PHILADELPHIA A fire engulfed a dilapidated explain the dearth of women in top science jobs, comments house early Sunday, killing a which sparked debates about mother and four children who were staying in the home deequality at Harvard and nationwide. spite relatives' warnings that it was unsafe, officials said. Firefighters found the vicLibby trial shines unresponsive on a bed light on White House tims inside the West Philadelphia WASHINGTON Sworn house's boarded-usecond floor, Fire Commissioner testimony in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Lloyd Ayers said. Rescuers has shone a spotlight on rushed to pass the victims out White House attempts to sell of windows and paramedics a war in Iraq to tried to revive them, he said. the nation and Vice President "It's just a catastrophic Dick Cheney's aggressive thing," he said. role in the effort. Ayers did not name the vica woman Special prosecutor Patrick tims and her children, a Fitzgerald rested his case against Cheney's former chief girl and three boys ages 1 12, of staff on Thursday in a trial 3 and 4. The house was owned by that has so far lasted 11 days. The defense planned to begin the deceased mother of the woman and had been abanits presentation Monday. The drama being played doned after her death. The out in a Washington courtyoung mother was living room goes back in time to there despite safety warnings from family members, Ayers the early summer of 2003. said. The Bush administration audio-recorde- d seven-membe- CIA-offic- - p gone-wron- g was struggling to overcome growing evidence the mission in Iraq was anything but accomplished. The claim about weapons of mass destruction that was used to justify the U.S. led invasion in March 2003 had not been supported. Insurgent attacks were on the rise. Accusations were growing that -- At least eight states - in- cluding Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania - use public funds to subsidize crisis pregnancy centers, Christian homes for unwed mothers and other programs explicitly designed to steer women away from abortion. As a condition of the grants, counselors are often barred from referring women to any clinic that provides abortions; in some cases, they may not discuss contraception either. Most states stilPsptnd far more money subsidizing comprehensive family planning, but the flow of tax dollars to groups has surged in recent months, as grants took effect in Texas and Minnesota. The trend alarms abortion-right- s supporters, who assert that the funds would be better spent - and would prevent more abortions - if used to expand access to birth control. But to activists such as Nancy McDonald, the funding is both practical and symbolic, a way of putting the state's stamp of approval on their work. "It's a subtle thing," said McDonald, who runs five crisis pregnancy centers in south Florida. "But people seem to think if you're affiliated with the state, you must be good." n n McCain uses cash he sought to limit - WASHINGTON Just about a year and a half ago, Sen. John McCain went to court to try to curtail the influence of a group to which A. Jerrold Perenchio gave $9 million, saying it was trying to "evade and violate" new campaign laws with voter ads ahead of the midterm elections. As McCain launches his own presidential campaign, however, he is counting on Perenchio, the founder e of the Univision media empire, to raise millions of dollars as of the Arizona Republican's national finance committee. In his early efforts to secure the support of the Republican establishment he has frequently bucked, McCain has embraced some of the same political-monefigures, forces and tactics he pilloried anti-aborti- Iran offers . .. I I -r-a PAULO DUARTEAssociated Press holds his daughter Madalena, as he prepares to vote in the national referendum on whether to legalize abortion Sunday in Porto, northern Portugal. Portuguese Rui Bessa Portugal abortion law vote meets low numbers Voters failed to overturn PortuLISBON, Portugal gal's strict abortion law Sunday because of low turnout at the polls, but the prime minister nonetheless vowed to relax the restriction through legislation in the conservative Roman Catholic country. With nearly all the votes counted, almost 60 percent of voters approved the referendum allowing women to opt for abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy, while slightly more than 40 percent opposed it. However, under Portuguese law more than 50 percent of the country's 8.9 million registered voters must participate in a referendum to make the ballot valid. The turnout Sunday was 44 percent. Prime Minister Jose Socrates, leader of the center-lef- t Socialist Party, said he was undeterred by the failure of the referendum and would stick to his pledge to change the law through parliament. "The people have spoken and they have spoken in a clear voice," Socrates said. The result "reinforced the political and legislative legitimacy" of his plan to introduce a bill that would legalize abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy, he said. His party holds an overwhelming majority in pre-ball- to resume nuclear negotiations FacMUNICH, Germany ing the prospect of broader international sanctions, Iran's president and national security chief on Sunday offered to resume negotiations over their country's nuclear program and eased up on some of the contentious rhetoric of the past, including threats to destroy Israel. In Munich, Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, briefly met with European diplomats for the first time since talks collapsed last September and said Iran was willing to return to formal discussions. He also said his country had "no intention of aggression against any country," adding that Iran "posed no threat to Israel" in particular, despite past vows from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to "wipe Israel off the map." Meanwhile in Tehran, Ahmadinejad also said Iran was willing to resume negotiations, although both he and Larijani rejected a condition for talks set by the U.N. Security Council that Iran first freeze its uranium enrichment program. "We are prepared for dialogue but won't suspend our activities," Ahmadinejad said. In an address commemorating the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the shah of Iran, Ahmadinejad said his government had made recent progress in nuclear development but did not give specifics. Some diplomats and analysts had expected him to announce that Iran had made a breakthrough in its efforts to enrich uranium. U.S. and European officials expressed doubt about the sincerity of Iran's stated willing- - trol. Inflation and the development of huge underground market in goods including sugar were simply symptoms of mismanagement, they say. Venezuela is rolling in oil wealth with about $46 billion in energy sales last year, and there is little risk of a financial crisis Munich Conference on Security Policy, an annual gathering in the near term. Chavez in reof top defense officials and dip- cent years has tried to transfer lomats from around the world. much of the wealth to the poor In Paris, French Foreign via welfare programs including Minister Philippe Douste-Blaz- y cheap or free housing, the donasaid it would be "unacceptable" tion of cash and government assets to worker cooperatives and to hold negotiations unless free education. Iran first agrees to freeze its nuclear activities. "We have to Among the most ambitious be exceedingly clear and very and popular programs has been the setting up of the Mercal rerigorous on this proposition," he said. tail chain. Since early 2003, the network of some 14,000 retail Chavez can't control outlets, in mainly poor barrios, has sold basic foodstuffs and markets underground household goods at discounts of 35 percent off standard superCARACAS, Venezuela - Police swooped down last week market prices. on a grimy central market disChavez has imposed price controls on a variety of goods, trict, forced open a warehouse and seized seven tons of a including 29 basic food items white substance. It wasn't coproduced in Venezuela includcaine. The contraband was sug- ing beans, cooking oil, meat and chicken. He also has imar, and the seizure of at least 184 tons nationwide showed ported goods like Uruguayan how President Hugo Chavez's pasta and Brazilian pork that he then resells at heavily subsiefforts to remake the economy dized costs to the poor. are fraying at the edges. The bust near the Quinta But mismanagement, ramCrespo market came as double-dig- pant corruption and scarcities inflation and scarcity have cut into Mercal's operahave hit Venezuela's markets. tions. At the same time, low The seizures were efforts to prices set by the government strike at what one Chavez sup- have caused manufacturers porter, Carabobo Gov. Luis Fe- and other suppliers either to lipe Acosta, claims is hoarding cut production or divert output to an enormous black market. by "terrorist capitalists who A recent government report want to destroy the country." But economists and industry found that Mercal sales in Noofficials describe the raids as vember fell in volume to half the latest in a sequence of that of a year earlier and that customers were increasingly politically motivated attempts to rein in market unhappy with how the stores forces beyond Chavez's con are run and what they sell. ness to talk. "Offering to negotiate but saying suspension's off the table raises a real question about the sincerity of what he said," U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt told reporters in Germany after Larijani's appearance at the it ham-hande- Spanish-languag- y crusade to during a reduce the influence of big s and lobdonors, counselors in elections. That inbyists cludes enlisting the support of AUSTIN, Texas - In an experiment that's opening a Washington lobbyists as weU new front in the culture wars, as key players in the g a growing number of states machine that helped acPresident Bush defeat Mcare paying tivists to counsel women with Cain in the 2000 Republican unplanned pregnancies. primaries. States subsidize MUNICH, Germany Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Sunday sought to dismiss accusations by Russia's president that a militaristic U.S. foreign policy was destabilizing global security, brushing aside the remarks as the "blunt speaking" of a fellow former spy. Speaking at an international security conference here less than 24 hours after the harangue by Vladimir V. Putin, Gates, who spent most of his career as a Soviet analyst at the CIA, made light of the charges, saying they reminded him of his former profession. "As an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday's speeches almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time," Gates joked. "Almost." Putin's criticisms were among the harshest of his presidency, accusing the United States of ignoring international law to impose its will in all aspects of international affairs, spreading fear in smaller counties that has forced them into seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Gates did not address the charges directly but noted that he and Putin shared backgrounds as intelligence officers, where directness is highly valued. He added that his stint as head of Texas A&M University had taught him how to "be nice". "I guess old spies have a habit of blunt speaking - however, I have been to camp," he said, drawing widespread laughs from an audience made up of senior U.S. and European officials. He also said he had accepted an invitation from Putin to visit Russia, adding: "One Cold War was quite enough." on fund-raiser- fund-raisin- n f : v ACHMAO Cleaning in IBRAHIMAssociated Pret the calm after the storm An Indonesian man $atvage hi$ belongings out from rubble following the flood in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday. Waters haw receded with a break in weather, allowing lens of thousands of displaced people to return home for the first time this weekend to clear away mud and debris, many finding that almost everything was lost. |