Overnight News Digest: Fired For Refusing to Sign Loyalty Oath

Top Story

• LA Times - Teacher fired for refusing to sign loyalty oath

  When Wendy Gonaver was offered a job teaching American studies at Cal State Fullerton this academic year, she was pleased to be headed back to the classroom to talk about one of her favorite themes: protecting constitutional freedoms... She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to "defend" the U.S. and California constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." ... She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job. "I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist," said Gonaver, 38. "I was really upset. I didn't expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this."

USA

• AP - McCain clarifies remark about Iraq war for oil

  Republican John McCain was forced to clarify his comments Friday suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict. At issue was a comment he made at a town hall-style meeting Friday morning in Denver. "My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East," McCain said. The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn't mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

  Hat tip dday.

• NYT - Fed Takes Steps to Add Liquidity

  The Federal Reserve announced new steps on Friday to help ease tight global credit markets by increasing the size of its cash auctions to banks and allowing financial institutions to put up credit card debt, student loans and car loans as collateral for Fed loans. The Fed also acted in coordination with central banks in Europe to make it easier for European banks to obtain dollars in currency swaps.

• WaPo - White House Plans Proactive Cyber-Security Role for Spy Agencies

  America's spy agencies for the first time would be tasked with gathering intelligence on threats to the nation's computer networks under a policy set to be detailed by the White House next week... Most of the 18 strategic goals laid out in the cyber initiative are currently classified, and few within the government have been fully briefed on the the plan... Agencies like the NSA, he said, are in a bit of a tight spot in sharing new threat information with allies and the private sector, because spy agencies very often glean intelligence by exploiting the very same security vulnerabilities in hardware and software used by enemies of the United States.

• Chicago Tribune - Health officials fear return of measles

  Federal health officials warned Thursday that the U.S. could be on the verge of a major outbreak of measles, a viral disease that had been declared wiped out in this country in 2000. The official tally of measles cases between Jan. 1 and April 25 totaled 64, the highest number in six years, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said... Although the numbers seem small, two developments could set the stage for a major resurgence in this country: an increase in the numbers of people choosing not to get vaccinated and ongoing outbreaks of the disease in Israel and Europe, CDC officials said.

• Kansas City Star - Kansas legislature upholds governor's veto of coal plants

  Opponents of two power plants proposed for western Kansas won a stunning victory Thursday that they hope signals the end of a six-month war over coal. The Kansas House failed Thursday night to muster the 84 votes needed to defy Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and approve the plants over her veto. The vote was 80-45. But plant supporters said they would keep trying until the legislative session ends... Plant opponents called the vote historic, saying it may go down as a turning point in which Kansas becomes a leader in the movement away from old energy sources toward sustainable, environmentally friendly technologies and energy efficiency. They hoped Thursday’s vote was decisive.

• NYT - Congress Passes Bill to Bar Bias Based on Genes

  A bill that would prohibit discrimination by health insurers and employers based on the information that people carry in their genes won final approval in Congress on Thursday by an overwhelming vote... The measure passed the House on Thursday by a 414-to-1 vote, and the Senate by 95-to-0 a week earlier.

• Independent - Pregnant staff at Bloomberg claim sexual prejudice

  At least 58 female employees at the financial news service Bloomberg are filing claims against the company after it was alleged they were sexually discriminated against after becoming pregnant. The workers claim their pay was cut; they were demoted; or they were denied opportunities at the company, owned by the billionaire Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. Lawyers for the women say they expect more alleged victims to come forward to join the class action which has grown from three complainants when it was first filed in September last year. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is filing the lawsuit on behalf of the women, has sent questionnaires to 478 women who have taken maternity leave whilst working for the company since 1992.

• Guardian - US releases al-Jazeera cameraman

  An al-Jazeera cameraman detained by American forces in Afghanistan was last night released after spending nearly six years imprisoned without charge at Guantánamo Bay. Sami al-Haj, 39, was arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan on December 15 2001, while on assignment to cover the war against the Taliban. Although he had a valid visa to work in Afghanistan, US intelligence alleged that he was an al-Qaida operative, and he was transferred to Guantánamo in June 2002.

• Guardian - Salmon fishing halted on US west coast

  The US government has ordered west coast salmon fishing, a vital contributor to the regional economy and culture, shut down for the year due to the decimation of the wild fish population. The "fishery failure" declaration made yesterday by the commerce department deals an estimated $290m blow to America's west coast... Hundreds of thousands of adult chinook salmon typically migrate into freshwater rivers in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. But this year, fewer than 60,000 of the fish showed up, driven away by rising ocean temperatures that are attributable to climate change as well as human diversion of water for irrigation purposes.

• StarTribune - Deal reached for I-35W bridge collapse victims

  A $38 million special fund to compensate survivors of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse last August was unveiled early today as victims embraced at a press conference and Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he would sign the agreement into law. The compromise, which was reached at midnight, would established two separate funds for the 183 victims who were atop the bridge when it collapsed. One fund, totaling $24 million, would be paid to all victims and their families but would be capped at $400,000 per individual. A second fund, totaling $12.64 million, would be established to cover damages beyond $400,000 for those who were "extraordinarily impacted" by the tragedy.

• Miami Herald - Jim Morin - HONK! If you favor a gas tax holiday!

Europe

• Guardian - Brown admits fall to third place amounts to 'bad night' for Labour

  Gordon Brown today acknowledged a "bad night" for Labour after the party's national share of the vote plummeted to 24% - its lowest level since the 1960s – in his first electoral test as prime minister. With about two thirds of the results declared, the Conservatives had 44% of the national share of the vote – enough to give David Cameron a landslide majority if it were replicated in a general election. The Liberal Democrats, on 25% of the vote, pushed Labour into third place for only the second time in their history.

• Independent - The May Day massacre

  A battered Gordon Brown was struggling to restore his authority yesterday after suffering a humiliating setback in his first elections as Labour leader. In the party's worst council results for 40 years, Labour lost more than 330 seats in local elections on May Day, finishing third with a 24 per cent projected share of the vote behind the Liberal Democrats (25 per cent) and the Conservatives (44 per cent). Less than a year after he succeeded Tony Blair with high hopes of enhancing Labour's electoral appeal, Mr Brown had to promise to listen to the unmistakable message from the voters who had rejected his party.

• BBC News - Detained migrants riot in Belgium

  Migrants at a detention centre in Belgium have rioted after an illegal immigrant from Cameroon was found hanged there on Thursday... The migrant's lawyer said the man had been mistreated by the police during a failed repatriation attempt last week. It is the latest case raising concerns about the treatment of illegal immigrants in Belgium.

• IHT - News Analysis: Russia steps up effort to keep Georgia out of NATO

  Russia's decision to send 1,000 extra troops to Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia is part of the Kremlin's policy to thwart the ambitions of the small Caucasus country to join NATO, according to Georgia's foreign minister. Foreign Minister David Bakradze, who last week started a major diplomatic offensive among NATO capitals in Europe, warned his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, last Friday about Russia's actions in Georgia. Bakradze said Russia would do everything possible to stop his country from being offered a NATO membership action plan, or MAP, which would put the country on a fast track toward joining the U.S.-led military alliance when its foreign ministers meet in December. Russia, too, is stepping up its campaign, both militarily and diplomatically, against Georgia's aspirations, NATO diplomats say.

• Guardian - Italian stars protest after government website publishes 38m tax returns

  Italians dying to know how much their neighbour, boss or favourite footballer gets paid saw their dreams come true on Wednesday when a government website briefly published the income of every Italian taxpayer. The posting of 38m tax returns from 2005 was no bureaucratic bungle or the result of a hacking attack but a deliberate last push for fiscal transparency by the outgoing government of Romano Prodi. But a stampede by curious Italians to the site caused it to crash, before Italy's privacy watchdog demanded it be shut down a few hours later after howls of protests from celebrities and politicians.

• Independent - 'Modernist sewer' falls foul of Rome's Rightwing Mayor

  Rome's most controversial modern building, designed by the American architect Richard Meier, could soon be dismantled and moved out of the city centre under proposals by the new Mayor, Gianni Alemanno. The Ara Pacis Museum, an assemblage of hulking travertine walls, flat white roofs and plate glass on the banks of the Tiber, was the first modernist building to rise in Rome's historical heart alongside famous landmarks such as the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain since the end of the war. But since it was inaugurated two years ago the building has become the butt of furious criticism, and during his first press conference as Mayor, Mr Alemanno said he would make good on his campaign promise to banish it. "Meier's building is a construction to be scrapped," he said. "The building should be removed," he declared, "though obviously it's not my first priority".

• Spiegel - Allied Museum Wants to Move into Tempelhof Airport

  Berlin's Tempelhof Airport is set to close after those campaigning to keep it open failed to win a referendum last weekend. Now Berlin's Allied Museum has said it would like to move into the building which West Berliners will forever associate with the 1948-1949 Berlin Airlift.

Africa

• WaPo - Zimbabwe to Hold Run-Off Election

  Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election but failed to win a majority of the vote, requiring a run-off election on a date to be determined, the Zimbabwe Electoral commission announced today. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected the results and accused the ruling party of stealing the election. Opposition spokesmen gave conflicting statements on whether their candidate would participate in a run-off and indicated that the matter remains to be decided. A spokesman for Mugabe said the long-ruling president accepted the outcome and would contest the run-off election.

• Daily Nation - Is re-colonising the decaying parts of Africa the solution to its woes?

  As Africa’s budding democracies like Kenya emerge from ethnic violence, cynics are entertaining the idea of a new scramble for Africa which would entail re-colonisation and loss of sovereignty. With China’s economic shadow looming large over the continent, voices prodding for Africa’s re-colonisation, particularly by the West, are growing louder and brazenly bolder... Colonialism in whatever garb or shade is the worst form of dictatorship. The Trusteeship debate has a racist streak to it.

• allAfrica - Illegal Fishing Costs Continent 10-23 Billion Dollars a Year

  The scale of illegal fishing across Africa is now so serious that it is in danger of decimating stocks across the continent, a new report says. The report represents the first detailed quantitative analysis of the problem on a global scale and studies indicate that losses for sub-Saharan Africa total $1 billion per year. Britain's minister for Trade and Development, Mr Gareth Thomas, said that the scale of illegal fishing could be double earlier estimates with weak international governance hampering progress in tackling the problem. His comments follow publication of the 'Global Extent of Illegal Fishing' report which reveals that global annual losses from illegal fishing could be double earlier estimates at $10 to $23 billion (between Sh62 and Sh142.6 billion) annually.

• BBC News - Secret trial for Nigeria militant

  A Nigerian court has ruled that the treason trial of the Niger Delta militant leader Henry Okah will be held behind closed doors. The Nigerian government had argued that the trial should be held in secret for reasons of national security. Lawyers for Mr Okah say they will appeal against the decision. A militant faction, loyal to Mr Okah, recently carried out a string of attacks on oil pipelines in protest at his continued detention. The attacks forced a cut in Nigerian production, helping to push up the world price of oil.

• AP - Treasure trove found in 500-year-old shipwreck off Africa

  The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins — and cannons to fend off pirates. But it had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable African coast, and it sank 500 years ago. Now it has been found, stumbled upon by De Beers geologists prospecting for diamonds off Namibia.

• BBC News - Fears over Congo elephant killing

  Fourteen rare elephants in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park have been killed since mid-April, a conservation group says. A 2006 survey showed there were only 350 elephants in the war-ravaged park, a Unesco World Heritage Site. "We've been taken by surprise by the intensity of the killings," Emmanuel de Merode of WildlifeDirect told the BBC. He said that he feared it may be linked to South Africa's decision to lift a 13-year moratorium on elephant culling.

Middle East

• LA Times - Iraq sends team to Iran to discuss U.S. accusations

  Iraq has sent senior Shiite Muslim leaders to Tehran to discuss new evidence that Iranian security services are providing weapons and training to militiamen locked in a deadly showdown with U.S. and Iraqi forces, Iraqi officials said Thursday. The visit follows some of the most heated U.S. accusations in months of Iranian meddling in Iraq, charges denied by Tehran.

• Guardian - Al-Qaida blamed for wedding blasts

  Al-Qaida in Iraq was today blamed for a double suicide attack on a wedding procession which killed 35 people and injured another 65. The first bomb, triggered by a woman, went off yesterday evening in Balad Ruz while people were dancing in the street, clapping and cheering the wedding party as it passed through the market. The second bomber attacked minutes later as police and ambulances arrived. "Al-Qaida in Iraq continues their malicious tactics against the people of Iraq and their way of life," the US military said. "They seek violence and chaos in Iraq."

• Independent - Blockade puts Gaza on brink of serious food crisis, says UN

  Destitution and food insecurity among Gaza's 1.5 million residents has reached an unprecedentedly critical level, according to unpublished UN findings that they now need "urgent assistance" to avert a "serious food crisis" in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report revealing that Gaza's population has already passed the internationally-agreed threshold at which it needs concerted measures to prevent a "deterioration in their nutrition" has been drafted on the eve of a donors' conference to discuss Palestinian political and economic prospects in London today. Showing that Palestinians are having to spend a higher and higher share of their shrinking incomes on food, the findings are that the proportion of Gazan incomes now going on food is 66 per cent – significantly higher than the 61 per cent recorded for Somalia. Seventy per cent of Gazans are at a "deep poverty" income level of $1.20 (60p) per head per day or less.

• AP - Motorcycle bomb explodes outside Yemen mosque, killing 18

  A bomb rigged to a motorcycle blew up amid a crowd of worshippers leaving Friday prayers at a mosque in a rebel stronghold of northern Yemen, killing at least 18 people and wounding about four dozen, officials said. The attack occurred in Saada, a city in a mountainous Shiite Muslim area on the border with Saudi Arabia where a rebellion by members of the al-Zaydi sect erupted in 2004. Thousands have died in violence between the rebels and the government of this predominantly Sunni country. Both sides blamed each other for the attack in Saada, where officials said most of the 18 dead and approximately 45 injured were worshippers filing out of the Bin Salman mosque.

• NYT - Iran Protests to U.N. About Clinton Comments

  Iran has lodged a formal protest at the United Nations about comments by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States would "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons, the state-run news agency, IRNA, reported Thursday. Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, sent a letter of protest on Wednesday to the United Nations secretary general and the United Nations Security Council denouncing the remarks, according to IRNA... Mr. Danesh-Yazdi wrote in the letter that Mrs. Clinton’s comments were "provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible" and "a flagrant violation" of the United Nations charter, IRNA reported. "I wish to reiterate my government’s position that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention to attack any other nation," the letter said.

• Spiegel - Radar Camouflaging Paint Invented in the United Arab Emirates

  A German inventor has created a radar-evading camouflage paint in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. An institute back in Germany tested the paint and discovered -- to everyone's surprise -- that it actually works. The German defense industry is starting to take an interest... Werner Nickel... has patience. After spending thousands and thousands hours in the laboratory, he finally mixed the paint he was looking for. He sent a can of it to Helmut Essen, a radiation physicist who runs the radar technology department at the Research Establishment for Applied Science (FGAN) near Bonn. Essen examined Nickel's paint and was surprised to learn that it works "and for all militarily relevant frequencies," he says. When a house, a ship or a car that would usually light up on a radar screen is coated with AR 1, it disappears almost completely into the darkness. Essen hasn't been able to figure out why this happens.

South Asia

• Reuters - Pakistani judges to be reinstated on May 12

  All the Pakistan judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf during emergency rule last November will be reinstated on May 12, the leader of the second largest party in the ruling coalition government said on Friday. "I want to inform the entire nation that on Monday, May 12, 2008, all deposed judges will be restored," former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), said in a televised news conference from Lahore.

• USA Today - Marines and Taliban battle in Afghanistan poppy fields

  U.S. Marines called in reinforcements Friday after meeting fierce resistance from the Taliban in the poppy fields of southern Afghanistan. Two dozen Marines arrived here from the military base at Kandahar Air Field to join hundreds already engaged in an offensive here in southern Helmand Province, a center of opium production and sanctuary for Taliban insurgents... Behind the Taliban's resolve: The Marine Operation Azada Wosa – "Stay Free" in the local Pashto language – threatens to disrupt the Taliban's lucrative trade in opium, says Maj. Tom Clinton Jr., executive officer of the Marines' infantry battalion. "We're sitting on their money," Clinton said at this military base near Garmsir, a Helmand market town seized earlier this week by the Marines. "If they don't have money, they can't buy weapons."

• Times of India - States must crack down on child labour: Panel

  National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has directed state governments to take immediate steps to check child labour and rehabilitate rescued children. The commission has also sought a code of conduct for employees of all public sector institutions, government undertakings, government funded institutions and government offices for not engaging children as domestic workers or encourage child labour in any form at their work places. The commission has asked state chief secretaries to conduct raids and book cases against employees to deter them from employing young children as domestic helps and in other forms of labour.

• BBC News - US in contact with Nepal Maoists

  The United States has made its first official diplomatic contact with the leader of Nepal's former rebel Maoists. The Maoists came first in last month's national elections but are still listed as a terrorist group by Washington. US ambassador to Nepal Nancy Powell met Maoist leader Prachanda on Thursday, a statement from the US embassy in Kathmandu said.

Asia-Pacific

• LA Times - China and Tibetan envoys to hold emergency talks

  With unrest in Tibet casting a shadow over the summer Olympics, Chinese officials will hold an emergency meeting Saturday with the Dalai Lama's negotiators, the office of the exiled Tibetan leader said today. It will be the first time the Dalai Lama's representatives have been invited to China since last summer. A major topic is expected to be the arrests of hundreds of Tibetans accused of participating in the largest protests against Chinese rule in Tibet since the mid-1980s.

• NYT - Virus Kills 22 Children in China

  A fast-spreading viral outbreak in eastern China has killed 22 children, sickened nearly 3,600 others and caused panic among parents in an impoverished corner of Anhui Province, government health officials said Friday. All of the fatalities, from lung problems and other complications, have been in children younger than 6, the majority of them under 2. The outbreak, caused by a particularly strong intestinal virus, enterovirus 71 or EV-71, has been spreading in the city of Fuyang, in central China, since early March but provincial health officials only announced the outbreak this week, raising questions about whether they had been trying to conceal it.

• Spiegel - How China Leads the World in Web Censorship

  "Golden Shield" is the term Chinese officials use for what may be the most sophisticated censorship system in the world. Critics like to refer to it as the Great Firewall of China (GFC). Whichever term you choose, it’s clear that over the past two weeks this virtual wall has withstood its first major trial by fire... Surveillance computers form the backbone of the Chinese security system, monitoring the bulk of online communication round the clock. The machines are supported by an army of government censors, whose numbers are estimated at over 30,000. This Herculean effort is on the increase as Internet users multiply at a record rate. As of February, China officially has the most Internet users in the world (221 million to America’s 220.6 million). And what happens in China can easily change the Internet as a whole. Experts believe that the country has already exported its innovative censorship methods to countries such as Iran and Vietnam. Dozens of media researchers are now studying the architecture of the Great Wall 2.0 with a mixture of horror and fascination. What they’re discovering is how surprisingly dynamic, subtle and state-of-the-art the censors of the 21st century are.

• LA Times - China moves to curb smoking before Olympics

  As part of a bid to create a "smoke-free Olympics," new regulations effective Thursday in Beijing require separate smoking and nonsmoking areas in bars, restaurants, hotels, parks, Internet cafes and airport lounges. There's an outright ban in places such as offices, hospitals, sports stadiums, museums and universities... The tighter rules, which apply only to Beijing and a few other cities, replace less stringent, rarely enforced, measures in place since 1995. The government is counting on newfound cooperation from smokers as well as enforcement by way of 100,000 voluntary monitors and fines of up to $700 for companies that don't comply.

• AP - Malaysia will not abandon Philippine peace talks

  Malaysia will proceed with a plan to withdraw cease-fire monitors from the southern Philippines but will not abandon its role as mediator in peace talks between the Manila government and Muslim guerrillas, Malaysia's defense forces chief said Thursday. Gen. Abdul Aziz Zainal did not clearly state the reason for the withdrawal, but Malaysian officials last week cited a lack of progress in the talks for its planned withdrawal of its truce monitors. They make up the bulk of a 60-man international contingent credited with preventing major fighting in southern Mindanao region the last four years.

• AFP - Malaysia to spend 778 mln dlrs on food security: minister

  Malaysia will spend 2.49 billion ringgit (778 million dollars) this year to increase food production, a top minister said Friday, amid soaring costs globally for staple items like rice. Agriculture Minister Mustapa Mohamed said the money would be spent on increasing rice farming and raising buffer stocks of the grain to match growing local demand, the state Bernama news agency reported.

• WaPo - In Hungry World, Japan's Farmers Are Stuck With High-Priced Rice

  When it comes to rice, Japan inhabits a strange and faraway planet. Consumption of rice has been falling for nearly half a century, yet rice paddies still account for 60 percent of all farmland. Rice farms here are inefficient and tiny -- about 4,000 times smaller, on average, than rice farms in Australia. Yet Japan's harvest vastly exceeds domestic demand. But what's truly otherworldly about this country's rice is its price -- especially in a year when the cost of Asia's staple food crop has exploded, causing hoarding, riots and hunger. The price of rice on international markets has nearly doubled since January, to about $1,000 a ton. But it remains an absolute steal compared with rice grown in Japan, which costs more than $2,300 a ton.

• BBC News - Thailand calls for a rice cartel

  Thailand wants to form an Opec-style rice cartel to give it more control over international rice prices. The world's biggest rice exporter plans to talk to Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam about co-operating on prices. Rice prices have tripled so far this year with countries such as India and Vietnam restricting their exports.

• SMH - Grain transport fears undermine farmers' crop boost

  While their southern counterparts battle drought, farmers in north-west NSW are celebrating the best sorghum harvest in two decades. Sorghum, a summer cereal grown for stockfeed and destined mostly for the domestic market, is grown in northern NSW and southern Queensland. A record 2.5 million tonnes, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, will be stored in silos on farms and at railway sidings until it is delivered. With forecasts for a bumper wheat crop later this year, grain storage, handling and transport facilities will be in big demand. Therein looms a big logistical problem. The freight company Pacific National announced late last year that it would no longer be transporting export grain by rail when its five-year contract with the State Government expired in March.

• SMH - Rare Cook collection to be sold

  The world's finest collection of Captain Cook memorabilia in private hands... [was sold] in a fixed-price sale organised by Hordern House, the rare books specialist. Included are two pieces of paper that are the Cook collector's Holy Grail: a history-making map and a rare handwritten letter by the great navigator. Each will sell for more than $200,000 when Hordern House unveils its sale catalogue at the end of May (the precise figures are "by application only"). The so-called "Banks map" was engraved in 1772 on the orders of Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, the scientists on the Endeavour, soon after Cook returned triumphantly to London. Only one other copy has survived - a version printed on inferior paper held by the British Library. "The Banks map shows, for the first time, the whole of Australia," a director of Hordern House, Derek McDonnell, said.

Americas

• Independent - Portugal pays lip service to Brazil's supremacy

  Portugal may have to recognise the inevitable by bowing to the economic and cultural predominance of Brazil, its former colony. The once proud imperial power is considering reforming its language to accommodate recent linguistic developments in the South American economic powerhouse, with which it shares a language. However the proposed reform of the Portuguese language in favour of Brazilian usage has sparked a heated polemic among the Portuguese, with the distinguished poet Vasco Graça Moura leading the rearguard action. "There is no need for us to take a back seat to Brazil," he protests. A more relaxed view of the proposed changes is taken by José Saramago, Portugal's only Nobel literature laureate, who recently infuriated compatriots by suggesting that Portugal become part of Spain. "We must get over this idea that we own the language," the 85-year-old said. "The language is owned by those who speak it, for better or for worse." The proposal to be put before parliament on 15 May would standardise Portuguese around the world and change the spellings of hundreds of words in favour of the Brazilian versions. The measure is largely a response to commercial interests.

• AP - Chile volcano erupts, villages evacuated

  Hundreds of people fled remote villages in southern Chile on Friday after a snowcapped volcano erupted, sending minor earthquakes rippling through the region. The Chaiten volcano belched fire and ash on Thursday night, causing more than 60 small tremors in Los Lagos, a region about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of the capital of Santiago.

• LA Times - Ecuador leader shakes up military

  Intelligence failures, security lapses and the lack of civilian oversight brought to light by a recent Colombian military incursion into his country have prompted Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to overhaul the command of his armed forces. Correa's shake-up comes in a nation where the military enjoys a high measure of autonomy, wields considerable economic and political power and has played a hand in the overthrow of three presidents since 1997... Correa is expected to appoint a seven-member commission in the next several days to look into what he says is possible CIA infiltration of his military's intelligence.

• Miami Herald - Colombia claims Venezuela sought FARC for training

  President Hugo Chávez asked Colombia's main leftist guerrilla group to ''share its experience in guerrilla warfare,'' citing a possible U.S. invasion, according to documents obtained by The Miami Herald. A senior Colombian official said the documents were retrieved from a computer belonging to Raúl Reyes, the FARC leader killed March 1 in a Colombian military strike on a rebel hide-out in neighboring Ecuador... The authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed.

• McClatchy - Brazil can't find world market for its ethanol

  The ethanol giants of southeastern Brazil have transformed how 185 million residents of this South American nation power their cars and trucks. Now, they say they're ready to start the same ethanol revolution in the rest of the world, if only the world will let them... The rest of the world doesn't seem to want what the Brazilians have. In the United States, a 54 cent-per-gallon tax blocks most Brazilian ethanol from reaching U.S. consumers. Similar tariffs also block access to Europe, China and other major energy markets... The United States continues to block Brazilian ethanol while boosting production of ethanol made from corn, which produces much less ethanol per acre than sugar does, cuts into food supplies and does little to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Other countries also have avoided Brazilian ethanol, instead experimenting with wheat, rapeseed and other crops that also produce less biofuel per acre.

• AP - Autonomy vote bares Bolivia's deep divisions

  Proponents of autonomy speak of economic independence: Santa Cruz churns out almost 30 percent of Bolivia's gross domestic product and its soy and cattle barons are loathe to share with western highlands where poor Indians scratch out a living on tiny potato patches. But the reasons why a referendum Sunday asking voters to approve a broad declaration of autonomy is expected to pass in a landslide have more to do with divisions of culture and race that have tormented Bolivia for centuries. Many white and mixed-race middle-class Bolivians here feel that President Evo Morales, the nation's first Indian president, doesn't represent them... Morales says he won't recognize the results of Santa Cruz's "illegal survey" after a court ordered it postponed. But five more states — most in Bolivia's relatively prosperous lowlands — may soon follow the example of Bolivia's largest state and hold their own autonomy votes.

• MercoPress - Argentine farmers plan soft protests and continued dialogue

  Argentine farmers’ organizations announced on Thursday the end of the 30 days truce which was agreed to dialogue with the government over taxing and other grievances, and warned they would return to protest in the country’s main routes. "We’re signaling the end of the truce. We will begin a gradual mobilization process but without road blocks and no shortages", said Eduardo Buzzi president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation.

• AP - Border crackdown, US slowdown has Mexican migrants giving up sooner

  A U.S. crackdown is causing the longest and most significant drop in illegal migration from Mexico since the Sept. 11 attacks. Officials say the U.S. economic downturn, tighter security and a more perilous and expensive journey are persuading many who try to sneak into the U.S. to give up sooner. Border Patrol arrests are down 17 percent so far this year along the U.S.-Mexico border after falling 20 percent all of last fiscal year and 8 percent the year before that. While it's impossible to know how many people are crossing illegally, the Patrol uses apprehensions to estimate the ebb and flow of traffic. The downturn in illegal immigration has created labor shortages throughout the United States and several states are considering temporary-worker programs, especially in agricultural fields, where produce is going bad. Mexicans in the U.S. are starting to send less money home, too.

• Reuters - Mexico accepts talks with leftist rebels

  The Mexican government agreed... to talks with a group of leftist guerrillas who bombed energy pipelines last year, if they agree to swear off future violence. The Popular Revolutionary Army, or EPR, set off a series of explosions in July and September that disrupted oil and gas supplies and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage but no injuries.

• LA Times - Made in Mexico: domesticated sunflowers

  New evidence confirms that the sunflower was domesticated in Mexico more than 4,600 years ago, contrary to the widely held belief that it was converted into a food crop only in the Mississippi Valley. "Given all the available data, the best explanation is that the sunflower was domesticated twice," said archaeologist David L. Lentz of the University of Cincinnati .

• Globe and Mail - Flood may close Trans-Canada Highway

  The RCMP warned Friday that rising flood waters may force them to close the Trans-Canada Highway between Fredericton and Moncton... Prime Minister Stephen Harper got a first-hand look Friday at flood damage along the St. John River in southern New Brunswick. Mr. Harper surveyed the flood damage near Maugerville by military helicopter, but he didn't get into any details on what financial assistance might be available to deal with the flooding.

• Globe and Mail - A hot season in the Arctic Circle

  Once a barren icescape as inaccessible as Mars... the pole is a more popular destination than ever as adventurers try to get there before it melts. Despite the increasing ease of travel, the North Pole hasn't lost much of its final-frontier status over the past century. Travellers are willing to spend between $20,000 and $200,000 to reach the "dead world of ice," as Dr. Cook referred to it. Contrast that with conquering Mount Everest, a far more death-defying feat that has become something of an adventuring cliché and can cost as little as $13,000.

• LA Times - Oxygen-poor ocean zones are growing

  Oxygen-starved waters are expanding in the Pacific and Atlantic as ocean temperatures increase with global warming, threatening fisheries and other marine life, a study published today concludes. Most of these zones remain hundreds of feet below the surface, but they are beginning to spill onto the relatively shallow continental shelf off the coast of California and are nearing the surface off Peru, driving away fish from commercially important fishing grounds, researchers have found... Researchers believe these phenomena are linked to subsurface layers of hypoxic water in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans that have been thickening over the last 50 years, according to the analysis published today in the journal Science.