Telegraph-Forum from Bucyrus, Ohio • 11

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 Nation World Telegraph-Forum Page 3B Busy ports of call The six U.S. ports in an acquisition deal with the United Arab Emirates accounted for 26 percent of all port traffic in th'e nation in 2004. Vessel calls, 2004, all vessel types New York (8) New Orleans (8) Philadelphia (5) 2,909 Baltimore (3) 1,747 Miami (2) 1,247 'Includes New Jersey; number In parentheses is percentage of total U.S. vessel calls SOURCE: Department of Transportation AP land Security. Defense Secretary.

Donald Rumsfeld described the United Arab Emirates as a close ally. Its a country thats been involved in the global war on terror with us, Rumsfeld said. He added that the United States and the UAE have very close military-to-military relations, as well as political and economic relations. Separately, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said port security would not be threatened. This is not a question about port security, Gonzales said.

This is a question about port operation. dent said. TheyTl look at the facts and understand the consequences of what theyre going to do. But if they pass a law, Ill deal with it with a veto. Bush, who has never vetoed a bill as president, said on the White House South Lawn: This is a company that has played by the rules, has been cooperative' with the United States, from a country thats an ally on the war on terror, and it would send a terrible signal to friends and allies not to let this transaction go through.

-Lawmakers from both parties have noted that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers used the United Arab Emirates as an operational and financial base. In addition, critics contend the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist. They say a port operator com-plicit in smuggling or terrorism could manipulate manifests and other records to frustrate Homeland Securitys already limited 'scrutiny of shipping containers and slip, contraband past U.S. Cus toms inspectors.

Rep. Pete King, and Democratic Sen. Schumer said TUesday they would introduce emergency legislation to suspend the ports deal. King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee; said the government cannot approving this contract until a much more thorough investigation takes place on this security matter. Sen.

Susan Collins, Rep. Jane Harman, said they would introduce a joint resolution of disapproval when they returned to Washington next week. Collins heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Harman' is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Frist said Congress should have veto authority over such foreign sales, which are reviewed by a Secretive U.S. panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.

The panel includes representatives from the departments of Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Home- WASHINGTON (AP) Over-. 'riding objections from Republicans and Democrats alike, President Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates. He pledged to veto efforts in Congress to block the agrefement. The president on Tuesday defended his administrations approval of the sale of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

to Dubai Ports World despite concerns in Congress that it would increase the possibility of terrorism at American ports. The transaction will allow Dubai Ports World to run major commercial port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, -New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. If there was any chance that this transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States, it would not go forward, Bush said. I want those who are ques--tioning it-to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard, Bush said. am trying Bird flu confirmed in overalls search for dead birds Tuesday near Wittower Faehre on the island Tests have confirmed another 22 cases of bird flu on the island, a lab costly and difficult Germany reported 22 more cases of bird flu on the northern island of Ruegen, raising its total to 103.

France and the Netherlands are pushing for poultry vaccination, while the EU Commission and several countries, including Britain, are opposed, saying it would be ing reporters to his conference room on Air Force One after returning from a speech in Colorado. He also stopped to talk before television cameras after he returned to the White House. I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions about whether or not our country will be less secure as a result of this transaction, the president said. But they need toknow that our government has looked at this issue and looked at it carefully. At the same time, a senior executive from Dubai Ports World pledged the company would agree to whatever security precautions the U.S.

government demanded to salvage the deal. Chief operating officer Edward Ted H. Bilkey promised Dubai Ports will fully cooperate in putting into place whatever is necessary to protect the terminals. Bilkey traveled to Washington in an effort to defuse the growing controversy. Bush said that protesting lawmakers should understand his approval of the deal was final.

They ought to listen to what I have to say about this, the presi- Hungary European Union laboratory results confirmed H5N1 in three dead swans in Hungary, government spokesman Andras Batiz said in a statement. Hungary is awaiting results for four other swans found some 100 miles south of Budapest. Most human cases of the disease have been linked to contact with infected birds. But scien-' tists fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic. More than half a million birds, have been killed in Indias Nava-pur district since the virus was found in samples from some of the 30,000 dead chickens.

The government had been planning to kill 700,000 birds within a 1.5-mile radius of the outbreak in Maharashtra state. So far, no EU nations have reported bird flu in commercial stocks or in humans. Animal far as one to three miles from the mines entrance. Each miner carried tanks with six hours of. oxygen at the time of the blast and it was impossible to know if anybody was receiving air through ventilation shafts and oxygen tanks that were scattered throughout the mine, officials said.

No sign of survivors in search at buried Philippines village GUINSAUGON; Philippines (AP) Uncertain if they were even dig-, ging in the right place, emergency crews tried to find a mud-swamped elementary school Tuesday as fears grew that time may have run out for rescuing any more survivors of a landslide. Most rescue workers left the site a few hours after dark, but a' few teams using specialized.gear stayed behind to take advantage of foe. silence to listen for sounds under foe mud. We have not found any structure to indicate the location of the school, said Joel Son, in charge of a group of miners working at the site. Its all mud.

Hopes for a miracle have focused on foe school largely because of unconfirmed reports that survivors there sent mobile phone text messages to relatives shortly after the landslide hit Friday. It was another frustrating day, with no' one found alive since just hours after a mountainside col- lapsed in a wall of mud and boulders that swamped foe farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island. The official death toll rose to 107, but authorities fear it could surpass 1,000. High-tech gear detected some underground sounds fate Monday, creating a buzz of excitement and adrenaline among, troops, miners and volunteers whose hopes of finding life had all but vanished. By Tuesday, foe buzz was gohe again, replaced by a grim workmanlike attitude.

The U.S. Marines, Philippine troops and technicians from Malaysia and Taiwan had to give up digging at foe most promising site because foe soft, wet mud kept collapsing. As wed dig deeper, wed try to dig wider, but with foe rain fast night there were little landslides happening around said Lt. Jack Farley, who was heading foe Marine contingent. The soil here is so unstable.

The school is believed to be buried by up to 100 feet of muck, and ground-penetrating radar that is capable of detecting structures up to 50 feet down has come up blank. to conduct foreign policy now by saying to the people of the world, Well treat you fairly. Bush sought to quiet a political storm that has united GOP governors and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist with liberal Democrats including Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer Frist said Tuesday, before' Bushs comments, that the pending sale raised serious questions regarding the safety and security' of our homeland. The Republican speaker of the House, J.

Dennis Hastert, asked the president for a moratorium on the sale until it could be studied further. We must not allow the possibility of compromising our national security due to lack of review or oversight by the federal government," Hastert said. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich, during a tour of Baltimores port on Tliesday, called the deal an overly secretive process at the federal level. Frist, threatened to introduce legislation to put the sale on hold if the White House did not delay the takeover.

Bush took the rare step of call Plantes also closed its aviary Tuesday and another on the citys outskirts took measures to keep its flamingos from mixing with wild ducks. The deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. It has been found in wild birds such as swans in several European countries including Italy, Germany and France. Health workers in western India expanded a massive slaughter of chickens Tuesday to contain the virus, and Malaysia began killing birds after reporting its first case, of the disease in more than a year. Kongs government said a dead magpie found near an urban flower market was infected with the deadly strain and three more birds in Hong Kong were suspected of being infected.

in the 1980s and early 1990s. At least 3,000 people have died and others remain terminally ill. Former Sago Mine foreman indicted for falsifying reports MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) A former Sago Mine foreman was indicted Tuesday on federal charges that he falsified inspection reports at the mine in 2004 an was never cer-' tified as a miner or mining foreman. The 116-count indictment against-Robert L.

Dennison is not related to the Jan. 2 explosion that led to the deaths bf 12 miners. Dennison, 35, was hired in May 2004 by the mines former owner, Anker Energy, and was fired August of that year after the company learned he was not certified to do safety inspections, according to the indictment This type of allegedly fraudulent activity has no place. in the mining' environment, especially when the safety of miners is placed at risk," U.S. Attorney Thomas E.

Johnston said. If convicted, Dennison could face up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines for each of 113 counts. He could receive up to five years and $250,000 in fines for each of the remaining counts. A call to Dennisons home in went unanswered Tuesday evening. A reporter for Bridgeport television station WDTV said Dennison declined to comment to.

the station until he consulted ran attorney. Rescue workers make slow progress in Mexican mine SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, Mexico (AP) Rescue workers searching for 65 coal miners trapped deep beneath the desert scrub of northern Mexico made excruciatingly slow progress Tuesday, working with picks and shovels as anguished relatives demanded information. More than two days after a gas explosion filled tunnels witlji rock, wood and metal, rescuers have found no sign of the workers either dead or alive in the Pasta de Conchos mine, about 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. Crews wearing gas masks and oxygen tanks got through one wall of debris, oniy to encounter another-about 1,800 feet inside the tunnel early Tuesday. At least.two conveyer belt operators may be just' beyond the wall, but most of the other miners were thought to be as German soldiers wearing protective of Ruegen, northeastern Germany.

reported Tuesday. (AP photo) health experts from the bloc failed TUesday to approve plans to vaccinate poultry against flu but were to meet again today to try to break thedeadlock. BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Ttest results confirmed Tuesday that three dead swans found in Hungary were infected with deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu and other countries reported new cases as Europeans sought measures to keep the disease from spreading. Hungary was the seventh European Union nation in addi-1 tion to Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, France and Slovenia to confirm the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu. The Tower of London moved its famous six ravens inside for protection.

Britain so far has been spared, but wardens were taking no chances legend holds that the British monarchy will fall if the ravens ever leave the Tbwer. Its purely precautionary, Derrick Coyle, the towers Yeoman Raven Master, said Tuesday. The zoo at Paris Jardin des Serbian officials find fugitive wanted for massacre of civilians BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) Gen. Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb commander accused of orchestrating Europes worst massacre of civilians since'' World War II, has been located in Serbia and authorities are negotiating his surrender, security officials said Tuesday. Mladic, considered the most ruthless commander of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, has not yet been arrested, one official who is close to the operation to'find Mladic said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Another security official, also demanding anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information and fears, of jeopardizing negotiations, confirmed that Mladics hiding place has been discovered in recent days. Both officials refused to specify the exact whereabouts of Mladics hideout, but the'private Beta news agency said the former commander was found on Cer Mountain, some 60 miles west of. Belgrade on the border with Bosnia. Beta did not.

cite its source. Officials plead not guilty in HIV-tainted blood scandal (AP) three Canadian health officials, a U.S. pharmaceutical company and one of- its senior American executives pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that their neglect allowed thousands of Canadians to contract HIV through tainted blood. After weeks of delay and initial fears that some charges would be thrown out, hemophiliacs who received the tainted blood and relatives of those too ill to come to court or who have already died were relieved when the trial finally got under way. The courtroom was filled with 1 victims and family members of those who received the contaminat-; ed blood products from Bridgewater, N.J.-based Armour Pharmaceutical Co.

One HIV-positive woman sat with her husband and two daughters, a toilet paper roll at her side as she repeatedly dabbed at her eyes and glared at the defendants. More than 1,000 Canadians became infected with HIV and up to 20,000 others contracted hepatitis after receiving blood transfusions and tainted products from Armour MEDICAL UPDATE: All-natural relief for male i urination problems New all-natural supplement for men helps restore youthful prostate function so you'll urinate less often and sleep through the night Regain your youthful prostate ability Due to the natural growth of your prostate as you age, most adult men eventually suffer some type of urination problem, including having tq get up one or more times per night to urinate, needing to urinate frequently andor urgently throughout the day, painful urination, or having trouble starting to urinate. If you're one of these men and you wish you could regain your youthful, healthy prostate ability, now you can thanks to Prostamene 11, the revolutionary new all-natural supplement for men that helps enhance prostate function and puts an end to your male urination problems. Urinate less often and sleep through the night Prostamene is unique because it works with the complex male biochemistry to help boost your prostate function and give you back the youthful, healthy prostate performance you had in your earlier years. That means with Prostamene you won't have to look for a restroom wherever you go, you can sleep through the entire night without having to get up to urinate, and you'll no longer suffer with urgency, low-flow, or dribble.

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