DG Rangers Pakistan, BSF quarterly meeting on Wednesday

LAHORE: The quarterly meeting between Director General Rangers Pakistan and Indian Inspector General Border Security Force (BSF) will begin from Wednesday.
The four-day meeting will kick off in the Indian city of Chandigarh.
A 15-member Pakistani delegation led by DG Rangers Pakistan will set out for Chandigarh through Wagah Border. The delegation will return through the same route on March 29.

Malian soldiers held by Tuareg rebels in Niger: source

BAMAKO  ( 2008-03-25 18:10:57 ) : 

Malian soldiers taken hostage last week by local Tuareg rebels have been moved across the border to Niger where they are being kept by another Tuareg group, a western military source said Tuesday.
"The Malian soldiers, some of whom are wounded, have been sent to be guarded by the Nigerien MNJ rebels," the source said in Bamako, referring to the Movement of Niger People for Justice.
About 20 hostages have been taken to Niger where they are being held by Tuaregs loyal to rebel leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, she added.
They count among some 29 wounded Malian troops who were abducted in northern Mali on Friday, following clashes between the army and the rebels in the mountainous Tinzaouatene region.
Four other soldiers were taken prisoner the day before in the area which is considered Ag Bahanga's stronghold.
The Malian government has since reinforced troops in the restive region.
Ag Bahanga's group, "supported by other Tuareg bands from countries neighboring Mali, attacked military supply convoys and planted mines," Mali's Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane said.
A nomadic people who have roamed the southern Sahara for centuries, Tuaregs have staged uprisings over the years both in Mali and Niger claiming autonomy for their traditional homeland.
But Ag Bahanga has refused to go along with the peace deal agreed by the majority of former rebels from the Tuareg tribes, and the Malian government believes his group is cooperating with Niger-based militants to launch attacks.
In Niger, Tuareg rebels want a share in the country's revenue from uranium.

Obama has advantage in head-to-head with McCain

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain became the likely Republican nominee after Mitt Romney decided to suspend his campaign Thursday. Now, the Democrats are debating who would do better against the Arizona Republican.

Democrats are debating who would do better against Sen. John McCain, the GOP front-runner.

Two polls this month have asked registered voters nationwide how they would vote if the choice were between McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton.

A CNN poll, conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation February 1-3, shows Clinton three points ahead of McCain, 50 percent to 47 percent. That's within the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points, meaning that the race is statistically tied..

A Time magazine poll, conducted February 1-4, also shows a dead heat between Clinton and McCain. Each was backed by 46 percent of those polled.

Sen. Barack Obama believes he can do better, arguing "I've got appeal that goes beyond our party."

In the CNN poll, Obama leads McCain by 8 points, 52 percent to 44 percent. That's outside the margin of error, meaning that Obama has the lead.

And in the Time poll, Obama leads McCain by 7 points, 48 percent to 41 percent -- a lead also outside of the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Afghanistan's harsh winter has left at least 650 people dead

 

KABUL: Bitter cold, snowstorms and avalanches have killed at least 650 people in Afghanistan this winter.
Weather-related incidents have also left 84 people injured.
The temperature dropped to the freezing point in most of the areas of the country.
Succor could not be supplied to the residents of remote areas.

Asif Zardari vows to continue Benazir’s mission

Co-Chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari Thursday vowed to take revenge of the murder of the martyred Benazir Bhutto. Addressing the chehlum of Benazir Bhutto here, he said, ‘Our leader Benazir always attempted to effect change in the prevalent system, we will change this system at all costs as this was the mission of Benazir Bhutto.” Vowing to commemorate her every year, Asif Zardari said, ‘Benazir always said that politics is my worship, accordingly; she was martyred while praying.’

Snowfall in Kashmir gets life to a standstill

Srinagar: It's been snowing continuously for the last 48 hours in Jammu and Kashmir. While most villages in South Kashmir are under nearly six feet of snow and hundreds of people are stranded, with essential goods running out fast, Amritsar and Delhi are also witnessing a prolonged winter.

French businessman, Sylvain Dronet was planning to fly out of Srinagar on Monday. But he and hundreds of other visitors are stranded, as no flights have take off from the Valley for two days due to heavy snowfall.

Dronet says, "I am stuck here and have suffered losses in my business, I have certainly no information about the flying schedule.''

As the stranded visitors look to the skies, the Valley's residents are silently praying too. The heavy snowfall has triggered fears of avalanches, and over 250 people have been evacuated from Kulgam district alone, but a bigger worry is that the essential supplies will run out.

Good snow is always thought to be a bliss in Kashmir but when it exceeds the peoples' expectations, trouble stars to ring in. People have started to resort to panic buying and are stocking up on vegetables, perhaps because supplies are not coming that smoothly as the heavy snow has also forced the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

With the Highway closed, over 800 trucks carrying essential supplies are stranded, as are thousands of commuters.

For stranded commuters like Nazia Begum and her children the last four days have not been easy, as she has been literally living on the road. "It's been difficult with the kids, we are living on the road and have even run out of money" says Nazia.

Thaksin faces arrest if he returns

BANGKOK (AFP) - Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra would face arrest on corruption and fraud charges if he returned to Thailand, a senior official at the Attorney General’s office said Thursday.
“If they were in Thailand, police can arrest him and his wife because both are still wanted on Thai arrest warrants,” Samphan Sarathana, chief of international affairs for the Attorney General, told AFP.
Thaksin told reporters in Hong Kong on Tuesday that he planned to return home by April, after his allies in the People Power Party (PPP) claimed victory in elections on Sunday, the first since a coup in September 2006.
But the self-made billionaire, who has been living in exile, and his wife Pojaman are on an immigration blacklist, meaning that they can be immediately arrested if they try to enter Thailand.
Samphan’s agency has been pushing for the couple’s extradition from Britain, where Thaksin owns a home and purchased Manchester City football club.
The Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for Thaksin and Pojaman in August over separate graft charges linked to a real estate deal in 2003. In September a Thai criminal court issued another arrest warrant against the former first couple over charges tied to alleged fraudulent filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2003.
Thaksin and his wife deny any wrongdoing and say the charges are politically motivated.
PPP won 233 of the 480 seats in the Thai parliament in Sunday’s vote. It is trying to cobble together a coalition government.

Police deployed to stop Christian-Hindu violence in India

BHUBANESWAR (AFP) - Hundreds of police were deployed in eastern India on Thursday to stop fresh clashes between Hindus and Christians after churches were attacked and a man killed in Christmas Day attacks.
“Enough police both from the state and the central reserve police force have been deployed in the affected towns and villages... to maintain order. The situation is under control,” Orissa state chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.
Some 800 police were deployed and more were on their way to the violence-hit area in Kandhamal district, 300km southwest of the state capital Bhubaneswar, officials said.
A curfew was also imposed Wednesday after Hindus, backed by the hard-line Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Council, torched six churches — mostly mud and thatch structures — and ransacked another four on Christmas night in violence that left one man dead and 30 injured.
Despite the curfew, more scuffles and stone-throwing broke out between Hindus and Christians late Wednesday and some fences surrounding churches and temples were torn down, police said, but no injuries were reported.
Christian missionaries have long found converts among India’s neglected tribal communities or “untouchable” Hindus — known as Dalits — who still face huge discrimination. Some missionaries talk of “liberating” low-caste Hindus.
In Kandhamal, the majority of Christian converts are Dalits.
Sectarian clashes erupt periodically in the billion-plus country of multiple faiths, where 2.3pc are practising Christians. Rising tensions have prompted several Indian state governments to enact anti-conversion laws.
A Hindu man is serving a life sentence for burning alive an Australian Christian missionary and his two sons as well as a Catholic priest in Orissa in 1999.
Some reports said the latest violence began after a Hindu leader who had campaigned against so-called “forced” conversions of low-caste Hindus to Christianity was attacked on Christmas Eve.

11 Shia fighters killed in Iraq by US army

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces on Thursday killed 11 Shia fighters allegedly backed by Iranian Republican Guard units and arrested two suspected militants involved in the abduction of three American soldiers.
The militants were killed in an early morning raid in the town of Kut south of Baghdad, the military told AFP.
“I can confirm that coalition forces killed an estimated 11 terrorists during operations targeting special groups criminal networks early Thursday in Al-Kut,” US military spokesman Lieutenant Patrick Evans said.
The US military refers to Shiite extremists who have broken away from the main Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as “special groups.”
It says the groups wage acts of “terrorism” in Iraq with the financial and military support of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards units, though Tehran denies backing them.
Iraqi security officials said the raid took place in Kut’s western neighbourhood of Al-Jihad, which is near Camp Delta, an American military base that is a regular target of militia attacks.
The Iraq officials said the dead included two civilians.
The US military said the raid targeted a militant reportedly responsible for attacking its troops.
It said that during the raid the troops were attacked by “direct enemy fire” from assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers returned fire and called in air support, leaving around 11 militants dead.
“We commend all those who honour Al-Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr’s ceasefire pledge,” US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson said in a separate statement giving details of the operation. “Significant progress has been made in the fight for a secure and stable Iraq, but dangerous criminal elements still exist.”
In late August, Sadr ordered a six-month freeze on the activities of the Mahdi Army militia, which had fought against US forces since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US military accuses “rogue” elements of breaking away from the militia to form special groups that continue attacking its troops despite Sadr’s call.
On Thursday the American military also said it had captured two Al-Qaeda militants suspected of involvement in the May kidnapping of three US soldiers.
Troops captured the pair in the city of Ramadi in the western Sunni province of Anbar on Monday and Tuesday after intelligence reports linked them to the abduction of the soldiers following an ambush, a military statement said.
The three-Private Byron Fouty, Specialist Alex Jiminez and Private First Class Joseph Anzack-were seized on May 12 south of Baghdad near the town of Mahmudiyah.
An Al-Qaeda front group later claimed in a video that it had killed them. Anzack’s body was found floating in the Euphrates River a few days later, but American forces are still searching the other two.
The three were snatched during an insurgent ambush on a US unit manning an observation post near Mahmudiyah. Four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack.
One of the two suspects captured this week was believed to have used his home to hide the abducted soldiers, the statement said.

More than 130 feared dead after Indonesian rains

TAWANGMANGU (AFP) - Indonesian rescuers hunted Thursday for victims of landslides and floods on Java island that have left more than 130 people feared dead and tens of thousands displaced, officials said.
Landslides hit two districts in Central Java in the early hours of Wednesday morning, engulfing entire homes and blocking roads, while floods in East Java swept away a bridge, leaving an estimated 50 missing.
Health ministry official Rustam Pakaya said at least 28,000 people were displaced in Central Java, where figures were still being compiled, while the Red Cross said 45,000 people fled their homes in East Java.
Five tonnes of instant meals and biscuits, 10 tonnes of baby food and several boats were dispatched to the disaster zones from Jakarta, he said.
In Central Java, hundreds of troops, police, local officials and residents used their hands, hoes and shovels to search for bodies, with the arrival of earth-moving equipment delayed by slides and poor roads.
In worst-hit Karanganyar district, the head of the local disaster management centre Heru Aji Pratomo said 12 bodies were plucked from the muddy wreckage, bringing the number of bodies recovered to 48.
Most of the bodies were recovered from mud as deep as three metres (10 feet) using heavy machinery, he told ElShinta radio.
He said another 20 bodies were believed missing, adding that due to heavy rains the search had been halted and would not resume again until Friday.
A witness in Karanganyar said that the landslide had felt like an earthquake.
“Suddenly I felt my house shaking, and I thought it was an earthquake. When I got outside, I saw that the houses next to mine were already covered by earth,” resident Siswo told AFP.
Twelve of his neighbours’ homes were hit, he added.
In an adjacent district, the head of the disaster management centre Sri Mubadi told AFP that two more bodies were recovered, bringing the toll to six, with 11 missing, he said.
Only manual equipment was also being used here, he added.
In East Java, operational unit chief of Madiun district police Alit Suyasa said that at least 100 rescuers were deployed to search for the estimated 50 people believed to have been on a bridge swept away by a swollen river.
“We found today three motorcycles stuck not far from the bridge,” he said, adding that no bodies were recovered.
“Floodwaters are still high and the current is very strong.”
The search was abandoned when heavy rains again began falling, he told AFP.
Meanwhile firebrand Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir toured a village in Karanganyar and said people had probably brought the disaster on themselves.
“This was likely caused by immoral acts going on here,” 69-year-old Bashir told reporters during his 10-minute visit, without elaborating.
“This could be a lesson to be learned,” he admonished.
Bashir served more than two years for his role in a “sinister conspiracy” that led to the 2002 Bali bombings, which left 202 people dead. The Supreme Court last December overturned his conviction.
Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years, with activists warning that logging and a failure to reforest denuded land in the world’s fourth-most populous country are often to blame.
But in Central Java, officials insisted deforestation was not to blame.
“The hills are unstable and vulnerable to landslides anyway,” said district disaster management centre head Mubadi.

Nuns in aging study leaving their brains behind-After major Alzheimer's findings, research will end with final sacrifice

WILTON, Conn. - When Sister Kathleen Treanor's soul ascends to heaven, her brain will go to a less ethereal realm: a medical lab in Kentucky.

Two decades ago, Sister Treanor and 677 other members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame granted a young researcher's request to test them each year in order to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders.

The 61 surviving nuns recently completed their last round of intellectual and physical tests for the Nun Study, one of the world's most comprehensive neurological research projects.
One final sacrifice remains: When they die, their brains will be taken for further study, joining a collection of hundreds of other brains donated by the the nuns who died before them.

Sister Treanor, a 93-year-old former school principal who is one of the last of the volunteers at a Wilton convent, looks at her participation as service, not sacrifice.

"I've tried to do good while I'm alive, and I liked the idea that I could do something good after death," she said.

With the modesty of their calling, the nuns attribute the study's success to researcher Dr. David Snowdon, downplaying their own countless hours of interviews and testing over the decades.

"I never minded having my brain checked out. It kept me out of trouble," said 96-year-old Sister Antoine Daniel.

Romney backpedals on statements - again-Explains Martin Luther King, Jr. comment, NRA endorsement statement

BOSTON - Mitt Romney, who earlier this year had to backpedal on his hunting exploits, is explaining himself again after claiming an endorsement he did not receive and saying he witnessed his father in civil rights marches he could not have seen.

"It's a figure of speech," Romney said Thursday after media inquiries into the Republican presidential contender's statement during his recent religion speech that he watched his father, the late Gov. George Romney of Michigan, march with Martin Luther King Jr.

Romney, who was in high school at the time, later said he only heard of his father marching, and some historians have questioned whether his father, in fact, did march with King. The Romney campaign provided books and news articles it said supported his statement.Romney said it was akin to him stating, "I saw my dad become president of American Motors." He told reporters in Iowa, "I wasn't there when he became president."

Romney similarly backtracked after telling a national television audience Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "I received the endorsement of the NRA" in 2002 while running for governor of Massachusetts.

The gun rights group did not endorse either candidate, and gave a higher issues rating to his Democratic opponent.

Romney said Monday, "It was, if you will, a support phone bank, which is not an official endorsement."

Battle for Iowa
The questions are especially sensitive for Romney, who is trying to rebound against rival Mike Huckabee in Iowa and maintain a lead in New Hampshire, the leadoff contests in the voting for presidential nominees.

Throughout his campaign, he has been dogged by allegations of flip-flopping on key issues, from abortion rights to gun control and gay rights.

"It's the fine-tuning that's created the problem. It's always that one extra step that causes him the trouble," said Tobe Berkovitz, a longtime Romney observer and the interim dean of Boston University's College of Communication. "You can't just say that African-Americans were accepted into the church and I was happy, you have to say you pulled over and you cried."

Transgender student asked for proof

A transgender student at Southern Utah University is being told he must prove he is a male before housing officials will accommodate him. The school's policy requires that Kourt Osborn, 22, who two years ago initiated transgender treatment and has been living as a man, must either provide school officials proof he's undergone medical interventions or that he's been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday. "That they would require someone to have surgery to live in the dorm is just wrong. It's absolutely irrelevant. They don't ask anyone else for proof of gender. They shouldn't be checking his genitals," said Mara Keisling, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality. Osborn, a sociology major, has filed a formal grievance with SUU, the newspaper reported. "I never was a woman. I was a boy trapped in this foreign girl's body," Osborn said. "Transgendering allowed me to take off the costume and make-up and allowed me to be who I am."

Train crash kills 50 near Sukkur-Pakistan

SUKKUR - At least 50 passengers were killed and more than 200 injured as 13 coaches of Lahore-bound 15-Up Karachi Express derailed on Tuesday night at Goth Chaudhry Muhammad Din Arain between Mehrabpur and Sialabad Railway Stations after its departure from Padidan Railway Station.The condition of more than two dozen passengers is said to be critical. After the information of the incident, the high officials of Railways, police, Rangers and Army rushed to the spot and started rescue and relief work.The injured were shifted to different hospitals of Nawabshah, Mehrabpur, Khairpur and Sukkur. The up and down railway traffic was suspended.Scores of people on 25 passenger and goods trains were stranded as several of them were halted at Kotri, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Rohri,Khairpur and Khanpur Railway stations.According to Railway officials, 30 to 48 hours time would be needed to repair and make the railway track workable. Caretaker Federal Railways Minister has announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for those killed and Rs 50,000 each for those injured in the train accident.The relief work was started immediately but due to dark and cold weather difficulties was faced by the rescue teams.The first relief train was sent from Rohri to the spot of incident early in the morning.Abdul Sattar Edhi alongwith two helicopters and 35 ambulances also reached the spot and started removing bodies and injured from the train coaches.Those killed in the accident include Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Yousuf, Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Hussain, Islamuddin, Rasheed, Hameed, Nasreen Abro, her son Abdul Rehman 5, Shan Muhammad, Imran Khan, Muzaffar, Shamoo Masih, Muhammad Nawaz, Fayaz Hussain, Shahid Khan, Fauzia Begum, Asif Raza, Tanveer Ahmed, Fayaz Ahmed, Muhammad Ramzan and others.The injured includeMuhammad Idris, Muneer, Muhammad Amin, Shahbaz, Syed Islam, Muhammad Shoaib, Tayyab, Faisal, Saeed, Imran, Ghulam Mustafa, MuhammadAnwar, Muhammad Sarwar, Asghar, Muhammad Imran, Umer Farooq, Sufia, Umeed Ali, Waseem, Muhammad Saleem, Afzal, Bilawal, Karam Hussain and others who were shifted to Kandiaro, Halani, Naushero Feroze, Ranipur and Hingorja hospitals while 15 injured who were in critical condition were shifted to Pano Aqil Cantt,Ghotki and Karachi hospitals.The driver of the train Asif Javed in his initial statement said that the accident was the result of terrorism as fish-plates and nuts of the track were missing.He further said that at the time of accident the train was running at the speed of 105km per hour, which was normal speed of a non-stop train.Efforts were still under way to restore railway traffic on down track after repairing the track.Agencies add: Pakistan Railways ruled out sabotage and said a piece of track appeared to have broken in the extreme cold, sending the 17-carriage train hurtling over an embankment outside Mehrabpur near Sukkur. Several carriages were crushed or torn to shreds. “We hope there are no bodies left inside,” said Brigadier Mazhar Jamil, who led the army rescue team that worked through the night and morning, treating the wounded and picking through the mangled wreckage for the dead. The Karachi Express was en route to Lahore, filled with hundreds of people getting ready to celebrate Eidul Azha, when the train derailed outside Mehrabpur, 200 kilometres northeast of Karachi. The carriages then slid down an embankment four metres high. Some simply tipped over while others were ripped open, as terrified survivors scrambled through the pitch dark and freezing cold to safety. The operations manager of the state-run rail company, Asad Saeed, said that 45 bodies had been counted and that more than 100 people had been injured. But he later acknowledged that there had been differing tolls throughout the course of the day - from between 28 to 56 dead. Rescue teams found a badly injured four-year-old girl, weeping in pain amid the debris. Her parents were missing and presumed dead, said Abdul Hameed of the Edhi Welfare Trust, a major national aid group. “We have tried to find her relatives,” Hameed said. “But nobody has come forward.” Several carriages were destroyed, and wheels from the train were found a half-kilometre from the site of the wreck. Rescue workers gathered the scattered belongings of passengers that littered the site - shoes and quilts, schoolbooks, broken furniture - in a separate tent, waiting for those owners who were still alive to come and claim them. “We were almost asleep when we heard something - a big bang. Then I felt I was flying through the air and the carriage was tumbling to the ground,” said Shahid Khan, a 24-year-old salesman. “We were grappling in the darkness. Somehow we managed to make it out,” a shaken Khan said. “People were screaming and scrambling to get out,” said Mohammad Jamil, who fractured his arm. “It was the middle of the night and we couldn’t see anything.” Jamil said the military found no signs of foul play in the train wreck. Meanwhile, General Manager Pakistan Railways Asad Saeed said broken track joint caused the derailment of Lahore bound Karachi Express.Talking to PTV, he ruled out possibility of terrorism. “A welded track joint broke. Tracks shrink in winter. There are many forces on the track and sometimes this joint breaks,” he said giving probable reasons behind the tragic accident. Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf Wednesday directed immediate inquiry into the causes leading to the derailment of the Karachi Express and the heavy loss of life.The President directed the Pakistan Railways to investigate into the matter and fix responsibility so that the culprits may be punished and measures taken to ensure such incidents do not recur.President Musharraf also expressed deep sorrow over the loss of life in the accident 5 km north of Mehrabpur, near Sukkur.He directed the concerned authorities to provide best possible medical treatment to those injured and to facilitate the passengers of the train.Staff Reporter from Lahore adds: “The train jolted violently as if a bike was passing over a bumpy road, before it seemed that we are being crushed under the weight,” Mohammad Yousaf of Daroghawala narrated his experience to TheNation after reaching Lahore onboard Jinnah Express here Wednesday night. He was accompanied by his foster grandson who was also injuried. When asked if the train was moving at a fast speed, he said that the velocity of the train was considerable at that time. He also claimed that about 200 people were hospitalised. He also pointed out that the adjoining area villagers also took part in the relief work. He also spoke of his belongings being taken away by people.Among the passengers in bogey 3 were three cadets Hasan, Faisal and Tauseef who were lucky enough to come out of the accident unscratched. They said that they were fast asleep when the accident occurred. Saleem, a resident of Karachi, currently on the visit to Lahore was visibly disturbed as he still needed support. He was asleep when the jolts derailed the ill-fated Karachi Express.

Santa Clara County public school leaders don't mirror ethnicity

The Mount Pleasant school district in East San Jose came under fire recently for not having a single Latino principal even though 74 percent of the students are Latino.
But Mount Pleasant is hardly alone.
A Mercury News analysis of the ethnic makeup of Santa Clara County's public school administrators found that most of the county's 32 school districts with a large majority of Latino, Asian and African-American students are mostly led by white principals and vice principals.
In five large selected districts where white students make up 50 percent or less of the student population, more than 80 percent of principals and vice principals are white, the analysis shows. In one of those school districts where minorities make up almost two-thirds of all students, Campbell Union Elementary, all but three of 17 administrators are white.
The analysis paints a picture familiar to school districts across the state. It is one that resonates in particular with Latinos, who have become California's largest single group of students but are poorly represented among administrators.
While the number of Latino administrators in California has grown over the years, the increase has not kept pace with the burgeoning number of Latino students in public schools.
State figures on all administrators - the pool includes superintendents, principals, vice principals, administrative assistants, driver education coordinators and various kinds of employees - showthat more than two-thirds, or 69 percent of public school administrators statewide, are white; 17 percent are Latino, 8 percent African-American and 4 percent Asian. To get a truer picture of the top administrators who interact regularly with students, the Mercury News analyzed only the numbers and ethnic makeup of principals and vice principals in Santa Clara County.
Latino leaders and advocates for diversity argue that having more Latino principals and vice principals will be important to help bridge the lagging achievement of Latino students, who now make up 48 percent of California's 6.2 million public school students. Demographers say they will become the majority in 2010.
"When you look at who's sitting in our classrooms, we should be reaching out to folks who can be those role models," said Fernando Elizondo, a former principal and retired Salinas school superintendent who is now executive director of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators, or CALSA. The state program pairs emerging Latino administrators with school principals.

Bush Calls for Continued Pressure on Iran

Bush says there will be no change in U.S. policy on Iran following the release of a new U.S. intelligence assessment of Tehran's nuclear capabilities and ambitions. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports from the White House, Mr. Bush says the world must continue to keep the pressure on Tehran."

The president called a press conference at the White House to specifically address the new intelligence report on Iran that was released on Monday.

According to the report, the U.S. intelligence community now believes Iran halted a secret nuclear weapons program in 2003, and had not resumed work as of mid-2007.

President Bush told reporters the new National Intelligence Estimate does nothing to shake his belief that the international community must be vigilant when it comes to Iran's nuclear intentions.

"Iran was dangerous," he said. "Iran is dangerous. And Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

Iran has never acknowledged the existence of a nuclear weapons program. The president said the intelligence community report shows Tehran secretly tried to circumvent the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and is attempting to enrich uranium today in defiance of international calls to suspend.

"And so I view this report as a warning signal," said President Bush. "They had the program, they halted the program. And the reason why it is a warning signal is they can restart it and the thing that would make a restarted program effective and dangerous is the ability to enrich uranium, the knowledge of which can be passed on to a hidden program."

The president stressed that Iran halted its nuclear development program in 2003 at about the same time Germany, France, and Britain launched an effort to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear intentions through diplomatic means.

Mr. Bush said the fact that Iran suspended the program shows that Tehran does respond to international pressure. He said pressure is more important now that ever.

"This report is not [saying], okay, everybody needs to relax and quit," he said. "This is a report that says what has happened in the past can be repeated, that the policies used to get the regime to halt are effective policies, let's keep them up, let's continue to work together."

The president said the most effective diplomacy is one in which all options are on the table, implying he would not rule out the military option.

Congressional critics of the administration's Iran policy welcomed the intelligence findings on Iran and urged the White House to tone down its rhetoric..

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emmanuel spoke for Democrats in the House of Representatives.

"We now have the NIE report on Iran, and we can abandon a policy based on hype and fear and go to a policy that is clear-eyed and hard-headed as it relates to Iran," he said.

In a written statement, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - Democrat Tom Lantos of California - struck a similar chord. He said the White House needs to engage in more diplomacy on Iran and less saber-rattling.

JUI not to honour APDM decision

ISLAMABAD: Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI has refused to accept the APDM’s decision to boycott the polls, lodging a strong protest with the MMA and APDM leadership and threatening to quit both the alliances.

“All the JUI-F members have been asked to go ahead and file their nomination papers without paying any attention to the boycott call given by MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed,” sources told media.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the APDM leadership, including MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, that he would not accept the decision as his party was not taken into confidence. He also described it as “a decision taken in haste”.

The JUI-F, despite being a component party, boycotted the APDM meeting held here on Saturday wherein it was collectively announced that the component parties would not take part in the elections if the government did not lift the state of emergency in the next four days.

Amongst the opposition parties, the JUI-F and Benazir Bhutto’s PPP are two parties that have announced to participate in the general elections, saying they could not leave the field open for those enjoying the backing of General Pervez Musharraf.

The JUI-F leaders say they would not boycott the elections till the PPP also joins the opposition.

In his contacts with Qazi Hussian Ahmed and the APDM leadership, Fazlur Rehman not only strongly protested over the boycott announcement but also told them that he would come up with a decision shortly whether or not to remain a part of the alliance since his party was being ignored in collective decisions.

“The APDM decision of boycott is not binding on our party though we have not closed this option,” JUI-F General Secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said when contacted. Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not available for comment.

Haideri recalled that just two days back, the MMA Supreme Council, with Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair, had decided unanimously to file the nomination papers and go ahead till a collective decision on the part of the entire opposition was taken.

“We are unable to understand as to why Qazi Sahib and the APDM leaders are in such a hurry to boycott the elections.”

Haideri added: “We have conveyed our reservations to the APDM that we will not participate in its programmes till our demands, including an unconditional apology from Imran Khan, are met.”

How would you characterize the Russian voters' mood ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections?

Lev Gudkov: I'd point out that people have become increasingly content with their lives over the past year and a half. We're noticing for the first time that the general mood is positive: people are more satisfied than dissatisfied with their lives. For 15 years -- after 1991 -- the mood was decidedly negative: people believed that the country was not developing in the right direction, that their opinions and interests were not considered, that their income was falling.

All that, of course, is not equally distributed among different groups. Only 15 to 20 percent of people have actually benefited from all the changes, but the bulk of the people feel that they're living like before. For the first time after the crisis of 1998, however, people have calmed down and they are not expecting any commotion in the near future. This leads not so much to confidence and optimism as to the weakening of their feeling that something negative could happen. We're dealing here not so much with the formula: "Look how well off we are," but rather with the principle: "Thank God, nothing bad is going on."

PPP not to boycott polls: Bhutto

RAWALPINDI: Former prime minister and Pakistan People's Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has reiterated that her party would not boycott the upcoming general election and would contest it as protest to stop poll rigging. She expressed these views while speaking at a gathering of party workers here at the residence of PPP candidates for the forthcoming election Zamrud Khan and Aamir Fida Piracha. PPP other local leaders were also present on the occasion. All Parties Democratic Alliance which includes PML(N) on Thursday announced

ABC News' Brian Ross on War Vets and Drug Addiction

ABC News' Brian Ross talks about a "20/20" investigative report on returning war veterans and drug addiction. Is the problem worse than the Army is willing to admit? Can drug addiction be rightly linked to wartime service? Should the Army do more to help these servicemembers recover beyond discharging or even jailing them?