Space tourism firm scouts locations for spaceport

WASHINGTON -- A company that has sent paying tourists to the International Space Station said on Tuesday it was scouting locations for a spaceport to send travelers on suborbital flights.


Sites in Australia, the Bahamas, Florida, Japan, Malaysia, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Singapore and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are all under consideration, the Arlington, Virginia-based firm Space Adventures said in a statement.

Operations at the spaceport will include suborbital flights, a space flight training center and other activities.

"Securing the location of a spaceport will be a progressive step for Space Adventures in its evolution from a space experiences provider to an actual space flight academy," said Eric Anderson, the company's president and chief executive officer.

Two space tourists -- U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito and South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth -- have flown in space with Space Adventures, and two more unidentified Americans have been chosen for space flight.

The price of a flight to orbit Earth is a reported $20 million, which covers the cost of a launch aboard a Russian spacecraft.
- posted by Dino @ 1:30 AM

 
Private sector gets role in Saudi aviation

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia have approved measures giving the state-owned civil aviation sector greater independence in a move that appeared to bring its goal of privatization a step closer.


The official Saudi Press Agency said the cabinet approved transforming the civil aviation sector into a state-owned agency with "financial and administrative independence." It said the agency would be run on commercial lines.

Government and private sector figures would both be represented on its board, SPA said.

Officials were not immediately available to give more details but the government has said it plans to privatize several sectors and public firms, including aviation and airport services in a bid to open up investment and create jobs.

The civil aviation authority said in October it was seeking "broad private sector participation" in operating local and international airports, except for security operations.

In 2002 the loss-making Saudi Arabian Airlines said its board had approved the sale of cargo and technical services as part of an overall plan to privatize the flagship carrier.

It said the board was still studying plans for an option to sell off 30 percent of the airline.

Saudi Arabia's 2002 partial privatization of Saudi Telecommunications Co., its biggest sell-off in years, has emerged as a showcase for the state's plan to float public entities after making them into corporations to help meet growing demand for services while cutting expenditure.

The move aims to help tackle budget deficits and unemployment, as well as easing the public debt, which almost equals the country's gross domestic product.
- posted by Dino @ 12:33 AM

 
Warner Music Slashes Jobs, Ousts Execs

LOS ANGELES - The transformation of Warner Music Group under new chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. began in earnest Tuesday as the company ousted several top executives and said it would slash 1,000 jobs at the largest privately owned record company.


The layoffs, which represent 20 percent of the company's global work force, are slated to be completed over the next month. The company is also consolidating the back-office functions of its Elektra Entertainment Group and The Atlantic Group labels, the first step in a plan to combine them into one label.

The cuts are widespread, encompassing jobs at the labels, corporate office and IT departments, among others. Upper management was not spared, including three senior executives: Val Azzoli, the co-chairman of Atlantic Records; the label's co-president Ron Shapiro, and Sylvia Rhone, the chairman of Elektra.

The changes at Warner, home to acts like Kid Rock, Madonna and Metallica, are part of a restructuring plan intended to save the company about $200 million a year so it can be in a better position to compete.

The recording industry has been struggling in recent years to overcome declining CD sales amid the rise of CD-burning and online music file-sharing.

"While the restructuring necessitates some painful changes, they are vital to creating a more agile organization that will allow us to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace," Bronfman, Warner's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Spokesman Will Tanous said Bronfman was not available for interviews.

Still undecided is the fate of Roger Ames, who was Warner Music's chairman and chief executive when it was still a unit of Time Warner Inc. Ames, who remains under contract, is still negotiating with Warner over what his new role at the company could be.

The company also has yet to name who will oversee the Elektra and Atlantic label combination.

Under its new structure, Warner will operate two label groups — the Elektra-Atlantic combination in the East Coast and Warner Bros. Records in the West Coast.

Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, will be staying with the company but his exact role has yet to be determined, Tanous said.

Lyor Cohen, who left the top post at Island Def Jam Music Group in January to head Warner's U.S. recorded music operations, will oversee Elektra and Atlantic until a final management team is named.

Bronfman and an investor group that includes Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners, bought Warner Music Group in November after London-based EMI Group PLC pulled its own bid. The purchase also included Time Warner's Warner/Chappell Music publishing business.

The $2.6 billion deal, which closed Monday, returned Bronfman to a top music industry position once more. He oversaw Universal Music Group as the former head of Seagram Co. before it merged with French media giant Vivendi in 2000. Bronfman later left that company as the merger unraveled.

In all of 2003, Warner had a 16.4 percent share of overall music sales, second only to Universal Music Group, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

As of Feb. 22, Warner Music acts have accounted for 14.3 percent of current album sales so far this year, third behind Universal Music Group and Bertelsmann's AG's BMG Entertainment, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
- posted by Dino @ 3:03 AM

 
Iraqis urge UN to move on election preparations; Qaeda suspect killed

Iraq's interim Governing Council urged the United Nations to start preparing for elections immediately, while the US army announced it killed an aide to the alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq.


"A date for these elections has to be set. To talk in general terms does not serve the interests of the Iraqi people," said a senior Shiite cleric, Sheikh Sadreddin al-Kubbanji.

A UN report demanded by the country's leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, on the feasibility of elections before sovereignty is handed back to the Iraqis on June 30 found that preparations would take around a year.

"Like Sistani said, the Marjaiya (Shiite religious authorities) will not allow the elections to be postponed again," said Kubbanji of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

In the report published Monday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said several months were necessary to organize "credible" elections and suggested they would only be possible at the beginning of 2005.

"We want an agreement with the United Nations for elections to be organised by the end of the year," said Muwaffaq Rubai, an independent Shiite member of the US-appointed executive body.

"We think that resorting to the United Nations is positive and we are very much looking forward to it," he added.

The UN's report has doomed a November agreement on transferring power from the US-led coalition in Iraq to a transitional government, with only the June 30 date for the handover still firm but no indication as to how it can be done.

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Tuesday the US-led occupation administration was willing to negotiate the security agreement finalizing the status of coalition forces after Iraq gains its sovereignty in July.

The announcement came amid reluctance among Governing Council members to complete such a deal by the end of March as originally called for under the November 15 accord that set June as the deadline for the occupation's end.

The new election timetable also pulled the rug from under the Governing Council members drafting an interim consitution due out in four days.

Meanwhile, amid warnings from senior US officials of stepped up activity by foreign Islamists, the US army announced its troops had killed an Al-Qaeda operative suspected of masterminding a string of deadly attacks in Iraq.

The man is allegedly the deputy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected of being Osama bin Laden's chief operative in Iraq, was killed in a raid last week.

"There was a terrorist safehouse of Zarqawi's at Al-Ramadi that we were able to raid and kill one of his operatives and arrest others," Major-General Charles Swannack said.

He was confirming a report in the Baghdad daily newspaper that a Zarqawi deputy it named as Nidal Arabiyat Agha Hamza was killed in an operation conducted north of Baghdad last Thursday.

The announcement came after a suicide car attack Monday on a police station in the northern ethnically-divided city of Kirkuk.

US overseer Paul Bremer, meanwhile, accused foreign terrorists of attempting to disrupt the transfer of security responsibilities to Iraqis.

"It's quite clear in the past three months we've seen a real step up on the part of the professional terrorists of Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam, conducting suicide attacks," he said Monday.

He blamed attacks against Iraq's security forces on a captured letter attributed to Zarqawi that allegedly outlines a strategy for sparking civil war between Sunnis and Shiites before sovereignty is returned to Iraqis.

In the northern city of Mosul, the scene of frequent attacks by insurgents, two Iraqi traffic policemen were killed Tuesday in a drive-by shooting, a police source said.

Also in Mosul, 370 kilometres (240 miles) from Baghdad, three Iraqi contractors working with US forces were killed in similar attack late Monday, police General Hikmat Mahmud Mohammed told AFP.
- posted by Dino @ 5:11 AM

 
Bush 'troubled' by same-sex marriages

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Wednesday he was "troubled" by same-sex weddings in San Francisco, California, and by legal decisions in Massachusetts that could clear the way for same-sex marriage. But he declined to say whether he is any closer to backing a constitutional ban on such vows.


"I have watched carefully what's happening in San Francisco, where licenses were being issued, even though the law states otherwise," Bush said. "I have consistently stated that I'll support law to protect marriage between a man and a woman. Obviously these events are influencing my decision."

"I am watching very carefully, but I am troubled by what I've seen," Bush said.

He didn't answer directly when asked whether he is any closer to endorsing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, as conservative groups say the White House has assured them Bush will do.

"I strongly believe marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman," Bush said during an Oval Office session with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "I am troubled by activist judges who are defining marriage."

"People need to be involved in this decision," Bush said. "Marriage ought to be defined by the people not by the courts. And I'm watching it carefully."

Gay and lesbian couples from Europe and more than 20 states have lined up outside the ornate San Francisco City Hall since city officials decided to begin marrying same-sex couples six days ago. City officials said 172 couples were married Tuesday, a pace that would bring the total number who have taken vows promising to be "spouses for life" to over 3,000 by Friday.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that it is unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage. Under the decision, the nation's first legally sanctioned gay marriages are scheduled to begin in mid-May.

Lawmakers are proposing a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and the Legislature resumes its deliberations of amendments on March 11.
- posted by Dino @ 12:37 AM

 
Pakistan may charge national heroes.

Pakistan's probe into the proliferation of nuclear secrets has narrowed to seven scientists and military officers as speculation mounted that "national heroes" could be charged.


President Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Faisal Salih Hayat and Information Minister Shaikh Rashid have all declared this week that those found guilty of selling nuclear technology to foreign countries will be "severely" punished.

Their pledges raise the awkward prospect of charging some of Pakistan's most revered men, elevated to national hero status for their contributions in making Pakistan a nuclear power.

"This is a very sensitive matter," Hayat was quoted as saying in the Dawn newspaper on Tuesday.

Families furious

"If some of those who were called national heroes have done this and are being exposed, the nation has the right to see the true faces of those who have compromised Pakistan's national interest and used its assets for personal gains."

Already the investigation, which has seen at least 14 top nuclear scientists and administrators interrogated, has infuriated their families and Islamist organisations.

They have held almost daily protests against the treatment of those questioned in recent weeks.

Rashid said the probe was now focussing on three scientists and four military officials.

"There are seven people under investigation now, four of them are associated with security matters," he told a press conference late on Monday.

Of them, "one or two" may be guilty, he said. "There may be one or two who indulged in proliferation for personal commercial gains.

"Those found involved will be dealt with severely."

Khan in the dock

The widely-revered "father" of Pakistan's nuclear programme Abd al-Qadir Khan, a metallurgist who was charged with stealing the blueprints for uranium centrifuges while working in the Netherlands in the 1970s, is among those to have been questioned.

But as one of Pakistan's most respected national heroes, he was not taken into custody as the other 13 were.

The Asian Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Khan, 66, might be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, according to an unnamed government official.

Rashid refused to comment on the report saying Khan had not been placed under any restrictions. He said he would meet Khan later on Tuesday.

The probe would be finished before Eid-al Adha next week, Rashid added.

Musharraf vows action

Musharraf, who told the BBC on Monday that guilty proliferators would be harshly punished, repeated the promise to a high-level meeting later, Rashid said.

"The meeting reiterated that those found guilty will be dealt with severely and those found innocent will be allowed to go home," the minister said.

The government probe, under way since December, was prompted by information from the IAEA and subsequent trips by Pakistani investigators to Iran, Libya and IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

Musharraf and other officials have repeatedly said that no
government or military institutions are involved in sharing nuclear techonology and know-how.

But observers are sceptical that such strategic security information could have been passed overseas without higher approval.

"The transfer of such materials is impossible without explicit permission from the security apparatus that constantly surrounds the nuclear establishment, installations and personnel," Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of physics at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, said.
- posted by Dino @ 3:51 AM

 
'Grass is greener' even if you have the perfect boyfriend.

Dear Dr. Wallace: For the past four months, I've been going out with Ron -- almost every girl's dream guy. He's the captain of the football team, homecoming king, and voted the senior guy with the best personality. He treats me great and even writes poems to me.

All my friends tell me I'm the luckiest girl in Florida. Ron was dating another girl but broke up with her to start dating me. My parents like Ron too. They are happy I'm dating "such a nice boy."

Over the Christmas holidays, Ron and two of his friends went to look at some college campuses. My best friend and I went to several holiday parties and at one of them I met a guy from another high school who was nice. I told him I was seeing another guy and he said he would respect that, but if I ever stopped seeing the guy to call him. He then gave me his telephone number. Believe it or not, I found myself thinking more about the guy I just met than I was about Ron.

I discussed this with my best friend and she told me I'm crazy. She considers Ron the perfect guy. I've seen Ron twice since he returned from campus hunting, but things just aren't the same. Even Ron has noticed it and asked me what was wrong. I told him I was having headaches.

What should I do, follow my head and stay with Ron or follow my heart and go out with the guy I met at the party? Please hurry with your answer. -- Nameless, Miami

Nameless: This might be nothing more than a case of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. The new guy is an enticing unknown, whereas Ron is "yours" and for that reason less exciting.

Don't be in a hurry to break up with Ron. Keep going out with him for a month or so, but if your feelings about the boy from the party persist, tell Ron, then call the other guy to say you're free to go out with him. Chances are, you're just not ready to be in a permanent relationship, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Don't feel sorry for Ron. After all, he stopped dating someone else so he could go out with you.

Dear Dr. Wallace: My older married sister is going to have her first child in five months. She is 22 and has been smoking since she was 14. The doctor told her to stop smoking, but she hasn't. I keep telling her she's harming her unborn infant, but she says my mother smoked a pack a day when she was pregnant with me and I turned out fine. I guess I was just lucky.

Please tell me the possible harm an unborn child can suffer when the mother smokes. I want to cut your answer out of the paper and tape it to her refrigerator. -- Maria, El Paso, Texas

Maria: The damage a fetus can suffer when the mother-to-be smokes are extensive. According to "When a Woman Smokes," a publication of the Canadian Cancer Society, the nicotine and carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke can retard the baby's growth so it's born at less than normal weight.

These small infants frequently have difficulty getting a good start in life, and their physical and emotional development during childhood might be affected. In addition, women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have a stillborn infant or a baby who dies soon after birth.

Your sister is lucky to have such a caring person in her corner, who wants to be sure her unborn niece or nephew is optimally healthy.
- posted by Dino @ 3:05 AM

 
Deadly Bird Flu Virus Spreads to Pakistan.

BANGKOK, Thailand - A 6-year-old Thai boy became Asia's seventh confirmed bird flu fatality and Pakistan on Monday joined the list of countries affected by the disease that has sparked mass chicken culls across the region.

The World Health Organization pleaded Monday with the global scientific community to accelerate the search for a cure. Attempts to tackle the virus are being frustrated by its fast rate of mutation as well as its spread across at least eight countries.

Pakistan said it had detected a form of bird flu in its chicken population. The commissioner for livestock husbandry said it was not a strain of bird flu that can spread to humans — something that has happened in other parts of Asia.

"We have confirmed this. The strand that jumps to humans is not in them," commissioner Rafaqat Hussain Raja said.

Faizullah Kakar, an official at the WHO office in Pakistan, said it had no confirmation of an outbreak of bird flu in the South Asian nation.

Laos, meanwhile, fears it might also be hit by the bird flu and is awaiting test results on the nature of an illness killing its fowl, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said.

Other Asian governments frantically slaughtered chicken flocks in a desperate bid to contain the disease, as well as the growing political fallout from accusations that officials in two countries — Thailand and Indonesia — initially covered up outbreaks.

Officials in Bangkok said they were investigating whether the virus might be being carried by migratory birds.

The Thai boy became infected after he played with chickens in his village. He died Sunday night in a Bangkok hospital, Thailand's first confirmed death from the virus.

Six people have died in neighboring Vietnam and Thai officials are trying to determine whether bird flu was also the cause of last week's death of a 56-year-old man who had bred fighting cocks.

The WHO said a search for a cure had been set back because the virus had mutated. A previous strain detected in Hong Kong in 1997 can no longer be used as the key to producing a vaccine. It said an international effort was needed.

Scientists believe people get the disease through contact with sick birds. Although there has been no evidence yet of human-to-human transmission, health officials are concerned it might mutate further and link with regular influenza to create a form that could be transmitted from person to person, triggering the next human flu pandemic.

"This is now spreading too quickly for anybody to ignore it," said WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley in Manila.

So far eight countries have reported bird flu — Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are also affected and Indonesia admitted it had a problem on Sunday.

Indonesian officials had earlier denied the disease's presence, but the country's veterinarian association said independent investigations had revealed that bird flu had killed millions of chickens over recent months.
The Jakarta Post reported Monday that Indonesian officials may have covered the outbreak there at the behest of politically connected businessmen who feared it would harm their interests. Indonesian officials denied the allegations.

"It's not true. We have zero tolerance for pressure from businessmen. We are talking about the lives of people," Agriculture Department spokesman Hari Priyono said.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, faced similar allegations that he covered up his country's outbreak.

Thaksin has said that his government had suspected "a couple of weeks" ago that bird flu had struck his nation but that he didn't tell the public because he feared mass panic.

Thailand has exterminated some 9 million chickens so far. Hundreds of soldiers and some prison inmates have been enlisted help with the cull after some poultry workers refused because of exposure fears.

The outbreak has devastated Thailand's chicken export industry — the world's fourth largest. Thailand shipped about 500,000 tons of chicken worth $1.3 billion in 2003.

Vietnam has slaughtered more than 3 million chickens.
- posted by Dino @ 2:29 AM