Posted 5-14-08

NewsRoom Shorts

NewsRoom Agency
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Paper Says Rams Walkthrough Story False

The Boston Herald newspaper has apologized to the New England Patriots for running a story accusing the team of videotaping a walkthrough practice the day before meeting the St. Louis Rams in 2002.

The Herald, in its apology, said it should not have run the story without better verification.

The apology came a day after a meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh produced no major revelations about the team's taping procedures.

"I felt very good seeing this paper because we have worked very hard over the last decade and a half to establish a strong bond with our fans where they could trust and believe in the integrity of the team," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Wednesday morning during an appearance on CNBC.

"This story coming out the day before the Super Bowl, the biggest game in our history, going for a perfect season, was very damaging and put a cloud over us for 3 1/2 months. I'm glad it's finally come to an end," he said.

The Patriots beat the Rams in 2002 despite being two-touchdown underdogs. But Walsh told Goodell he did not tape the walkthrough and knew of no other Patriots employees who did so.

The investigation into the videotaping scandal began after the NFL confiscated tapes from a Patriots employee who recorded the New York Jets' defensive signals during the 2007 opener.

The practice is against league rules. Pats head coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, while the team was fined $250,000 and forced to forfeit its 2008 first-round draft choice.

Troops Rush to Plug Cracks in Chinese Dam

Chinese troops are rushing to repair cracks in a dam that was damaged by a mammoth 7.9 quake earlier this week.

The Chinese government said the quake caused "extremely dangerous" cracks in the Zipingpu Dam upriver from the hard-hit city of Dujiangyan.

The government also said a number of smaller dams were also damaged.

About 2,000 troops were rushed to the Zipingpu Dam, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

He Biao, the director of the Aba Disaster Relief headquarters in northern Sichuan province, said there were concerns about a number of dams near the quake's epicenter in central China.

"Currently, the most dangerous problems are several reservoirs near Wenchuan," he said, according to published reports.

"There are already serious problems with the Tulong Reservoir on the Min River. It may collapse. If that happens, it would affect several power plants below and be extremely dangerous," he said.

Inflation Pressures Ease in U.S.

Inflation eased up somewhat in April in the U.S., the Labor Department reported, though food prices jumped last month by their largest margin in 18 years.

The government said inflation fell to 0.2 percent after posting a 0.3 percent rise in March.

Food prices jumped 0.9 percent by themselves, while natural gas prices rose 4.8 percent. The latter was offset by a 2 percent decline in gasoline costs.

Rice Prices Still Soar; Myanmar Cyclone Will Impact: UN

The destruction of Myanmar's food basket by the devastating cyclone Nargis, could lead to a worsening of the global rice production outlook, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The FAO says the cyclone, which struck the South-East Asian nation last week, flooded rice-growing areas and destroyed several warehouses and stocks. It hit Myanmar as paddy farmers were harvesting their dry season crops, which accounts for 20 percent of annual rice production.

Prices of rice in Rangoon have skyrocketed by 50 percent, and the FAO says if Myanmar turns to neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Viet Nam for imports, this could lead to a further upwards pressure on global prices.

The cyclone is one factor as to why the FAO says rice prices could continue to soar in the short term, despite production in Asia, Africa and Latin America reaching record highs in 2008.

The FAO's preliminary forecasts show global harvests will be up by 2.3 percent to reach an all-time high of over 600 million tons. However there will be no relief in the record prices as a large portion of this year's crop will only be harvested at the end of 2008.

According to the FAO Rice Price Index, international prices soared by 76 percent between December 2007 and April 2008.

The FAO's rice expert, Concepcion Calpe, says rice prices are expected to remain extremely firm, at least until the third quarter of 2008, unless restrictions on exports are eased in the coming months.

In a bid to prevent shortages in their own countries, major rice exporters, such as India and Viet Nam. have recently set export bans, taxes or ceilings.

Ms Calpe says Thailand, Pakistan and the United States are the only leading exporters selling rice overseas without any constraints.

The FAO says rising price of fertiliser, pesticides and fuel are also contributing to the soaring prices, and favourable weather conditions are needed for them to fall from their current levels.


High Court Won't Block Apartheid Victims Lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it couldn't intervene in a dispute over the rights of Apartheid victims to sue U.S. corporations in American courts because four of nine justices had to sit out the case due to conflicts.

As a result, a lawsuit will proceed accusing some of the largest U.S. corporations of cooperating with South Africa's former Apartheid-era government.

Federal laws require at least six justices to hear cases before them.

Since not enough justices were able to hear the case the high court took the only action it could and will allow a lower appeals court ruling to stand which said the suit could proceed.

White House Considering N. Korea Food Aid

The White House is considering ways to get food aid to North Korea, officials said Tuesday.

Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, said it's an issue that President Bush "talks about repeatedly, which is his concern for the humanitarian condition for the people of North Korea, many of whom are starving."

She said such aid could be made available via non-governmental organizations or via a United Nations program.

The Stalinist nation "has been open in saying it faces a major shortage in food supplies," she said.

Pastor Hagee Apologizes for Anti-Catholic Remarks

An influential Texas televangelist and supporter of Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain apologized Tuesday for anti-Catholic remarks.

John Hagee has in the past offered sharp criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and has "emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews."

His endorsement of McCain has led a number of Catholics to call on the Arizona senator to reject it.

Hagee, in a letter to William Donohue, head of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, wrote: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

Donohue has been one of Hagee's biggest critics, but he said Tuesday he accepted the apology and would meet Hagee Thursday in New York.

"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee wrote in his letter. "In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not."

Bush Says Greatest Fear is Another Attack on U.S.

President Bush said Tuesday he was disappointed with faulty intelligence before the Iraq war, but said if a Democrat wins the White House in November and pulls U.S. forces too soon it could "eventually lead to another attack on the United States."

In an interview with Politico magazine and Yahoo News, Bush also said he ditched golf in 2003 after ordering U.S. soldiers to Iraq out of respect for them and their families.

"I didn't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

In response to an online question, Bush didn't think he was "misled" about Iraq before the war.

"'Misled' is a strong word. Not only our intelligence community, but intelligence communities all across the world shared the same assessment. And so I was disappointed to see how flawed our intelligence was," Bush said

"Do I think somebody lied to me? No, I don't. I think it was just, you know, they analyzed the situation and came up with the wrong conclusion."

If a Democrat wins the Oval Office and brings U.S. troops home too soon - as both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have pledged to do - Bush said his "doomsday scenario of course is that extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would eventually lead to another attack on the United States."

Dems Propose Surtax on Millionaires

In order to pay for tens of billions of dollars' worth of education benefits for veterans, Democrats are proposing adding a surtax to Americans with incomes of $1 million or more.

"Blue Dog" conservative Democrats blocked a vote last week on a war funding bill after Democratic leaders attempted to add $51.8 billion over the next decade for veterans education to the $183.8 billion measure.

The Blue Dog Democrats instead insisted on finding a way to pay for the increase, deciding on the millionaire surtax - an idea that gained approval from House Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

"What we're talking about is a one-half percent income tax surcharge on incomes above $1 million," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of the Blue Dog group. "So someone who earns $2 million a year would pay $5,000. .. They're not going to miss it."

The $1 million income level would apply to couples. Individuals would pay the surcharge on income exceeding $500,000.

Reid Defends Clinton's Race Comment

Senate Majority Leader Henry Reid defended comments made by Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton earlier this month when she said Sen. Barack Obama's support among "hard-working Americans - white Americans" was weakening.

"I am confident that she meant nothing. I think it was taken wrong," Reid, D-Nev., said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

He said both she and husband and former President Bill Clinton both had good records on ethnic relations and that the issue should go away.

Clinton adviser Terry McAuliffe also defended Clinton's remarks on CBS's "Face the Nation." He said Clinton "absolutely" did not mean to imply that African-Americans are not hard-working or that white Americans would not vote for Obama.

In an interview, Clinton told USA Today this week that Obama's support "among working - hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again" and that "whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."