Please write for further details of any items of particular interest.

National Post 11 May 2004: Some headlines -
1. Little has changed at Abu Ghraib - squalid conditions - Defence contract firms at centre of the prisoner abuse scandal remain employed at the prison. - by Tony Harnden
2. British cemetery in Gaza desecrated - Iraq abuse photos posted - by Nidal Al-Mughrabi
3. Army Times adds to calls for Rumsfeld to resign - 'this was a failure that ran straight to the top' by Charles Aldinger
Porn of another kind - To sexually humiliate someone is to destroy his sense of self - by Anne Kingston

Vancouver Sun 11 May 2004: Israeli rabbis suspicious of evangelical Christians - They fear conservative American groups want to convert Jews - by Josef Federman JERUSALEM -
Prominent Israeli rabbis are for the first time speaking out against Israel's profitable alliance with evangelical Christians in the United States who have funnelled tens of millions of dollars to the Jewish state. The rabbis fear the Christians' real intent is to convert Jews, their aides said Monday. Others are concerned about the evangelicals' support for Israel's extreme right wing, opposing any compromise with the Palestinians. The dispute touches on an increasingly sensitive issue in Israel: The country's dependence, both economically and politically, on conservative American Christians. Besides contributing tidy sums to projects in Israel, some evangelical Christians have lobbied in support of the Israeli government in Washington. Troubling to Israelis is the fact that one influential group of evangelicals believes in a final, apocalyptic battle between good and evil in which Jesus returns and Jews either accept him or perish, a vision that causes obvious discomfort among Jews...[Brief: 2 col. illus.] AP

National Post 12 May 2004: Headings -
1. Australians owe it to their country to have more babies, treasurer says.
2. The Diamond Sutra - Printed book dated 868 AD goes on display at London's British Library.

National Post 13 May 2004: Headings -
1. New Photos 'Worse than anticipated' - members of Congress are divided over whether 'disgusting' images should be made public - Sex and Violence - by Sheldon Alberts.
2. 10 suicides linked to video gambling in Nova Scotia - 'Its devastating information,' says gaming corporation chief, promising action - Medical Examiner's Findings - by Murray Brewster.
3. Powell commissions Scottish Coat of Arms - In memory of his father - Swords to depict Secretary of State's military career.

Vancouver Sun 13 May 2004: The Power of Purpose -
We are what we choose - For some, God is the hard ruler of destiny. For others, God is the parent of opportunity - by Doug Todd Vancouver Sun - One was a bad news story. The other was a good news piece. On the surface, the two articles that ran on the front pages of newspapers across North America in February seemed to have nothing to do with each other. The first described the trampling deaths of more than 260 Muslims in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The Saudi minister responsible for the event, which drew two million pilgrims, said the tragedy was "God's will." The other story was positive news from the world of health. It reported on research at Harvard Medical School and the University of B.C., describing how patients with cancer and heart disease are much more likely to recover if they have "hope." The two stories go to the heart of this essay: The importance of purpose in human life, in nature, in the cosmos... [Brief: 2-page 98 columns) colour-illustrated spread which includes views quoting eminent figures, past and present. Some examples: Charles Darwin wrote: 'I cannot think the world . . . is the result of chance, and yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of Design.' Stephen Hawking, believes 'even the nothingness that existed before the universe began had a sense of its own potential.' Rene Descartes philosophized that animals were unthinking. It is now argued that even DNA has a sense of purpose. Isaac Newton viewed the cosmos as a machine. Some contemporary thinkers see it as made up of energy and events... Many views emerge in this interesting essay. ]

Jane's Intelligence Digest 7 May 2004: Iraq's nuclear 'exports':
[Opening paragraph: "Amid the chaos of the ongoing conflict in Iraq, nuclear related material and equipment - including parts of Iraq's neutralised Osirak reactor located 40km from Baghdad - are reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have turned up in European ports and scrap yards. JID's nuclear correspondent investigates how this equipment, and even whole buildings, have disappeared from Iraq's nuclear sites." ... IAEA investigates vanishing material ... Is looting being authorised?]

Jane's Intelligence Digest 14 May 2004: Sudan: little hope for peace -
[Opening paragraph: "Despite enormous international pressure and intensive ongoing high-level negotiations between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), prospects of finding a comprehensive and long lasting solution to Sudan's decades long civil war remain low. JID's regional analyst reports on why the stakes are so high for Washington." ... Serious fault lines: it is important to note that the Sudanese civil war, which is often described as being a dispute between the Muslim north of the country and the Christian (or animist) south, has much deeper and complex fault lines drawn during the conflict over ethnicity, ideology, oil wealth and cross-border interests.]

Jane's Intelligence Digest 21 May 2004: Nuclear war by accident:
[Opening paragraph: Although the nuclear standoff of the cold war-era seems a distant memory the USA and Russia still maintain arsenals of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) on high alert. The policy of 'launch on warning (LOW)' - being prepared to launch a nuclear strike if the opponent's missiles are perceived by radar and satellites to be on their way - increases the possibility of the unthinkable; an accidental nuclear exchange. JID's nuclear correspondent highlights the continuing risks."]

SCIENCE Vol 304 No 5674, 21 May 2004:
1. pp. 1093, 1095, 1160-1164:Genetic Structure of the Purebred Domestic Dog - Heidi G. Parker, 1,2,3, Lisa V. Kim, 1,2,4, Nathan B. Dutter, 1,2, Scott Carlson, 1, Travis D. Lorentzen, 1,2, Tiffany B. Malek, 1,3, Gary S. Johnson, 5, Hawkins B. DeFrance, 1,2, Elaine A. Ostrander, 1,2,3,4*, Leonid Kruglyask, 1,3,4,6
[Brief: An introductory 1-page, illustrated article "Genome Resources to Boost Canines' Role in Gene Hunts" (pp. 1093-1095) is followed by a more in-depth scientific presentation "Genetic Structure of the Purebred Domestic Dog" (pp. 1160-1164) which describes investigations in detail concerning the genetic tree of relationships between a multitude of breeds of dogs. Two pages contain coloured graphs conveying extremely detailed connections which are established in a clustering assignment of 85 breeds of domestic dogs. A second graph does the same but with gray wolves included.
The Globe & Mail May 21, 2004 carried an illustrated report written in more popular style, Dog DNA provides a clue to the warp and woof of life - Genetic map of purebred canines offers a hint at the genesis of illness in humans. This article reports on the above studies in the SCIENCE articles.]

2. pp. 1096-1097:Iranian Dig Opens Window on New Civilization - Berlin - (by Andrew Lawler)
The third millennium B.C.E. is known for the rise of complex cultures that produced the pyramids in Egypt, the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, and the large cities of the Indus River valley. At a meeting here last month, archaeologists presented evidence from an obscure valley in southeastern Iran indicating that there was another sophisticated civilization at this time. The finds-including a massive stepped structure, signs of contact with distant societies, and possible examples of writing-are sparking both excitement and controversy among archaeologists. They "shed light on what is happening in a resource-rich area of the Near East during the explosion of urbanism," says archaeologist Roger Matthews of University College London. The site near the Iranian city of Jiroft came to the attention of researchers only in the past 4 years, after looters stripped ancient cemeteries and hundreds of carved stone vessels began to appear on the art market (Science, 7 November, 2003, p. 973). Large scale excavations began in January, when an Iranian team led by archaeologist Yousef Majidzadeh dug on two large mounds not far from the devastated graveyards. [Brief: Fascinating details of the articles found so far indicate much of interest probably still buried at the site.]

3. Monsanto Pulls the Plug on Genetically Modified Wheat -
[Brief: Under "News - Biotechnology", the above heading introduces over a page of comments relating to the attempts by the large agriculture-business to persuade use of its products. One item mentioned is the reluctance of consumers in Asia and Europe to consume wheat in which genetics have been altered. European Union and Japan are the largest buyers of hard red spring wheat, and they have intimated that they would boycott all U.S. wheat if a GM variety were grown. (Other GM agricultural produce: corn, soybeans, canola and cotton have not encountered such resistance.)]

Leasureways June/July 2004 notes that the Eternal Egypt -
Masterworks of Ancient Art display from The British Museum, which was lately presented in the Royal Ontario Museum, now travels to The Royal BC Museum, Victoria BC, (July 10 - October 31), 2004, and then on to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (January 22 - May 15 2005).

The Weekly Telegraph No 667, May 5 - 11, 2004:
1. Immigration hits record level with half a million arrivals - by Philip Johnston Home Affairs Editor - BRITAIN had record immigration in 2002, when more than 500,000 people arrived to settle or work. A fifth were from Africa, the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. Net immigration - the difference between the numbers arriving and those leaving - stood at 153,000, lower than the previous two years because of a record number of departures. ... Just under a third of non-British immigrants in 2002 were from the EU and Old Commonwealth countries while two thirds were from the New commonwealth and other foreign countries.

2. Orthodox Church in crisis - by Harry De Quetteville in Athens -
A POWER struggle that pitches the head of the Greek Church against Orthodoxy's counterpart to the Pope is threatening to descend into a religious war and possible schism.

3. Welcome back to the free family - After more than half a century of division and conflict, the continent is united in peace and democracy for the first time. - by Ambrose Evans-Prichard in Brussels -
THE European union embraced 10 new members last Saturday, May 1, in the most ambitious expansion in its history, creating a vast political, economic and judicial union stretching from the Atlantic to the borders of Russia. [Brief: a half-page with illustrations is devoted to the topic.]

4. Legend of Cook's leg disproved -
DNA testing has demolished the legend that an arrow displayed in an Australian museum was made out of a leg bone taken from the explorer Capt. James Cook after his murder. Scientists said that it was probably made from an antler or a bone from a sea mammal such as a seal. Capt. Cook and four Royal Marines were clubbed to death by cannibals in Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands, in 1770.

5. China says no to free elections in Hong Kong - by Richard Spencer in Beijing -
China has ruled out full and free elections in Hong Kong for the foreseeable future. "Conditions do not satisfy the general election of the chief executive," the standing committee of the National People's Congress, the Chinese parliament, ruled after a Beijing summit on the issue.

6. Did Einstein get all his sums right? - It has taken 45 years and £390m, but now one of the foundations of physics is being tested at last. David Derbyshire and Roger Highfield report -
IMAGINE a saucepan of milk. Place the handle of a wooden spoon into the milk and turn the spoon very slowly. The milk will soon start to move. Dragged by the wood, it, too, will begin to swirl around the rotating spoon. The same thing is happening right now with the space and time that surrounds the earth. As our world spins on its axis, it is dragging the very fabric of the universe with it. Distortions in the fabric of space and time are the stuff of Star Trek. But it is one of the many mind-boggling outcomes of the general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein's theory of gravity. But now an American probe had begun an 18-month mission to put Einstein's predictions to the test, 90 years after he unveiled his ideas in Berlin... . [Brief: 6-columns, illustrated.]

7. Two letters to the Editor: follow that camel:
(a) SIR - Some time ago in Morocco, I hired a taxi to drive me to a village 190 miles south of Tan-Tan (Letters, 666). After some hours driving, the owner of the cab got out and handed me the keys saying he would go no further. I asked how to get to the village. He pointed down a dusty track into the distance. "Take this road," he said, "and on Tuesday turn left." Patrick Delap, London SW6

(b) SIR - I took a taxi in Nigeria about 10 years ago. On leaving Port Harcourt, my driver crossed the central reservation on to the other carriageway, driving into oncoming traffic. When I asked what he was doing, he said: "The road surface is much better on this side." Cliff Green, Portsmouth

8. South Africa, 10 years on [Brief: 2-pages, colour spread.]

9. Shrek: the runaway celebrity sheep -
SHREK, the New Zealand merino sheep which spent the past six years on the run from his owners, finally had his long-postponed encounter with a pair of shears last week. The woolly creature was shorn of his 15-in-long, 59lb fleece during a live television broadcast. Viewers around the country watched eagerly to see the wool carefully snipped away by a former world champion shearer, Peter Casserly. Despite his years as a hermit, Shrek was as meek as a lamb and co-operated fully. "He is probably looking forward to getting this lot off," Mr. Casserly said confidently as he got to work. He had survived freezing winters in rugged country 4,900 ft above sea level. He was almost unrecognisable - a shapeless bundle on legs - when found by Ann Scanlan, a musterer on the Bendigo sheep station in the Otago region of the South Island. About 20 minutes after the shearing began, Shrek was left with a fleece just thick enough to shelter him from the coming winter. Some of Shrek's wool - estimated at enough for 20 suits - will go into jackets, one of which will be presented to Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand-born Everest pioneer.

10. Shake-up for gold fixing -
THE LONDON Gold Market has announced changes to the twice daily "fixing" of the metal's price following N M Rothschild's withdrawal from the market, Starting this week the market's four remaining members have agreed to rotate the chairmanship that Rothschild's had held since 1919. The fixing, held at Rothschild's offices since its creation after the First World War, will also take place over a conference call in future. The changes bring to an end one of the city's oldest traditions and bring gold fixing into line with silver and platinum-palladium fixes.

The Globe & Mail May 1 2004:
1. Canadian scholarship gives the Bard a boost by Monika Stephenson -
it is a peculiar Canadian trait, some say, to shy away from the applause that should go to Canadian achievement. One such example surfaced last week, when professors and archivists from all over Britain congregated in Oxford to celebrate a made-in-Canada project that might finally settle the centuries-old argument over whether William Shakespeare's plays really were the work of the man from Stratford himself. The ceremony, held in the renowned Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford on April 22, focused on the latest volume - the combined 24th and 25th - in a series of hefty books on a branch of English history that the British have always jealously guarded as their own. The books are part of the Records of Early English Drama (REED) project, based at the University of Toronto, containing the original research of hundreds of scholars who have tracked ancient records of the popular "travelling theatre," which are stored in England's great houses, guild halls and churches. The period studied is 1350 to 1642, a time when English society was largely illiterate and any political, social and religious discussion was carried out through the theatre, So the REED volumes have become a giant search engine for economic, social and religious historians of that period... [Brief: 5-columns.]

2. [Editorial]: No charge, no hearing -
President George W. Bush is fighting a just battle against terrorism, but it does not follow that everything done to win that battle is just. Having jailed two American citizens indefinitely, and attempted to hold them without access to lawyers or the court process, the government argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this week that the president possesses wide latitude to fight a war as he sees fit. In effect, the court is being asked to decide the rules of engagement for a democracy in wartime... .

3. Just another day at the palace -
New exhibits at three top London sites reveal the details of daily life from Tudor cooking to torture techniques. [Brief: 5 columns, illustrated.]

Globe & Mail May 3 2004: Headings -
1. Outrage over abuse has U.S., U.K. scrambling - Officials deny problem is widespread, but Amnesty cites 'patterns of torture'
2. Sharon faces chaos after losing vote

Globe & Mail May 4 2004: U.S. jailers get strictest reprimands -
Six soldiers first punished in scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Globe & Mail May 5 2004: Headings -
1. 'We did not think that we would survive' - former Iraqi prisoner recounts details of alleged abuse at hands of U.S. captors. [Brief: 6 columns, illustrated.]
2. Chronicling the abuses [Brief: 15 points distinguished.]

Globe & Mail May 6 2004:
1. Israeli funds used for illegal settlements - Extreme right-wing Housing Minister misspent $9-million, auditor finds
[Brief: 6 columns amplify heading.]

2. Social Studies, by Michael Kesterton -
(a) Older eyes: older people won't see the blue colours in artwork as well as they see the reds, reports the associated Press. The eye's light-sensing abilities change with normal aging, according to neuroscientist Dahlia Zaidel of the University of California, Los Angeles.

(b) Faster in 1779? - Today is the 50th anniversary of the race when Roger Bannister cracked the four-minute mile. However, this barrier may have been broken two centuries earlier, according to a controversial claim by Peter Radford, a professor of sports studies at Britain's Brunel University and a former world record holder at 200 metres. His research suggests that, in 1770 a London market trader named James Parrot achieved the feat over a measure mile. "There is increasing evidence that these athletes from 200 years ago were far better than we have been prepared to give them credit for." He told the London Observer. "[Everyone today] has to go down to the gym to get fit because we live in an era where we have so many labour-saving devices yet we think we're in an age where we produce the best athletes."

3. Valkyrie to ride at Glastonbury - London -
This year's Glastonbury festival will feature opera for the first time in the music festival's 23-year history The English National Opera will stage the third act of Wagner's The Valkyrie(Die Walkure) at the June festival, organizer Michael Eavis said yesterday.

4. Obituary: Evelyn Mandela, 82 -
She was the first wife of Nelson Mandela - deeply religious daughter of a mineworker - divorced in 1955... .

5. Rescue workers train for hybrid accidents - by Patrick Walters, Philadelphia -
Three decades after air bags started posing a risk to first responders, the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles is presenting a whole new potential danger for rescuers at accident scenes. As more drivers buy hybrids because they are fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly, emergency crews are scrambling to learn more about how to avoid catastrophes that could be caused by their high-voltage electric systems. "You don't want to go crushing anything with hydraulic tools," said Samuel Carolluzzi, an assistant chief with the Norristown Fire Department outside Philadelphia. "It's enough to kill you from what they're telling us in training." Hybrids draw power from two sources, typically a gas or diesel engine combined with an electric motor. The battery powering the electric motor is often up to 500 volts, more than 40 times the strength of a standard battery. That worries those who must cut into cars to rescue people inside. If you can't shut it down, you don't know where the high-voltage is," said David Dalrymple, an emergency medical technician in New Brunswick. AP [Brief: 4 columns.]

Globe & Mail May 7 2004:
1. Foreign medics face firing squad - In controversial verdict, Libya sentences health workers for giving children HIV AP [Brief: 6 Bulgarian nurses accused. 5-col.]
2. Peacekeepers push prostitution in Kosovo, Amnesty report finds - by Ian Traynor, Zagreb
Western troops, police and civilians are largely to blame for the rapid growth of sex slavery in Kosovo in the past five years, Amnesty International said yesterday. It's a mushrooming trade in which hundreds of women are tortured, raped, abused and then criminalized.
3. Career spy named head of Britain's MI6 - London -
A career spy who presided over and approved a much-disputed British government dossier that asserted that Iraq had unconventional weapons was named yesterday as the next chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. Also The Weekly Telegraph No 668, May 12 - 18, 2004: Row as Iraq dossier man takes over MI6.
4. How a single angry Canadian made world titans see the light -
Czechs, Slovaks, church issue apologies - [Brief: A blind woman insists her seeing-eye dog must not be barred.]

Globe & Mail May 8 2004: Some Headlines and Opinion Pieces:
1. U.S. citizen-soldiers terrified, overwhelmed by chaotic Iraqi prison -
Scene inside notorious Abu Ghraib jail, Red cross says, one of complete disorder [Brief: 6 col. illus.]
2. Hard-nosed Rumsfeld finds himself in a sorry mess. -
Defence chief didn't relish apologizing for abuse of prisoners by U.S. troops.
3. Cut and run, and do it now - to hell with Wilsonian crusades -
the U.S. must get out of Iraq. The longer it stays, the worse things will get for everyone, says John MacArthur
4. Bad apples as prison guards? They're just doing it by the book. - Ken Wiwa.
5. [Editorial]: Abu Ghraib's abuses require a wider focus
6. Iraqi horror picture show - A smirking female soldier has done the U.S. war effort more damage than its enemies. - by Margaret Wente
7. Their first mistake: Iraq is not the 51st state - by Jeffrfey Simpson
8. Obituary: Clifford Holliday 1898-2004 - Canada's last Vimy vet. [Brief: 5 col.]
9. Rumsfeld: it gets worse - U.S. defence chief apologizes to Iraqis but warns of even grislier abuse images - (front page heading & photo).

Globe & Mail May 10 2004: Headlines -
1. Soldier faces court-martial while whistleblower praised
2. Troops kill 18 al-Sadr followers
3. Public denunciation of U.S. abuse of Iraqis not useful, Red Cross says
4. New image from Iraq fuels abuse scandal - Soldiers seen in latest prison photograph from different group than those charged - Practices allegedly condoned

The Weekly Telegraph No 668, May 12 - 18, 2004:
1. A flower for every county -
EACH COUNTY in Britain has been allocated its own wildflower after a national vote organised by the charity Plantlife. & pp. 12-13.
2. Unholy row over prayer rooms -
BUSINESS leaders have criticised new rules that require companies to provide prayer rooms and give religious holidays to non-Christians as "unacceptable and ridiculous". In a 99-page document published last week the Commission for Racial Equality set out draft guidance on how companies should prevent discrimination against religious and racial minorities.
3. Maoris on warpath bring capital to a halt - by Paul Chapman in Wellington:
THOUSANDS of bare-chested Maoris in flax skirts brought New Zealand's capital to a halt as they marched on parliament to protest at plans to place the coastline in crown ownership. [Brief: an impressive sight! 4-columns, colour illustrated.]
4. Ancient sea chart proves a revelation - by Roger Highfield:
A SATELLITE image of the north-east Atlantic has revealed that medieval cartographers knew much more about ocean currents than was thought. The ornate Carta Marina, published in 1539, appears crude by today's standards, depicting sea monsters off the coast of Scotland, sinking galleons, sea snakes, and wolves urinating against trees. But when oceanographers examined swirls and whorls drawn off the south east of Iceland, along with ships, a giant fish and red sea serpent, they found it corresponded with the Iceland-Faroes front - where the Gulf Stream meets cold waters from the Arctic, causing huge swirling currents that could sweep a ship off course.
5. Picasso's "Boy with a pipe" (painting) sets world auction record of $114m.
6. Zimbabwe begins offensive on schools - by Peta Thornycroft in Harare:
ZIMBABWE began an offensive against "racist" private schools last week by arresting headmasters and members of governing bodies, for "raising fees without permission". Teachers and others in the private sector went into hiding as the education minister told a delegation of parents: "We will do to you what we did to the white farmers and take over your schools." ... Up to 30,000 children attend about 45 private schools which have raised fees by up to 75 per cent since January because of inflation of about 600 per cent. [Brief: 3 columns.] COMMENT: A disastrous move!
7. Writing on the wall for Chinese -
TAIWAN is to end the practice of writing from top to bottom and right to left, breaking a Chinese tradition that has lasted for hundreds of years. From next year, bureaucrats have been told, all government documents will have to be written horizontally and from left to right, as in the West.
8. Obituary: The Duke of Devonshire:
Custodian of Chatsworth who secured the house's future. 11th Duke of Devonshire - Also in Globe & Mail 13 May 2004.

Globe & Mail 12 May 2004:
1. Chain of command in prison tangled - Paul Koring Washington
[Brief: Gives a short outline history of the U.S. dispositions and their explanations for loss of direction.]
2. Israel seeks return of body parts - by Matthew Kalman, Jerusalem:
Red Cross urges Palestinian groups to respect remains of six bomb victims. [Brief: After Israeli armoured forces penetrated into Gaza City, one of their vehicles was blown to pieces by a 45kg bomb, including the bodies of the six soldiers manning it.]
3. [Editorial]: Shredded Wheat: [Brief: the words "Monsanto has blinked" lead off the Editorial, and that conveys the essence of the message.]

Globe & Mail 13 May 2004:
1. Shroud lifting on global gulag set up to fight 'war on terror' - Secret detention centres come to light as groups probe human-rights violations:
[Brief: A 5-column article is accompanied by a map of the world displaying "Major detention facilities" (Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Qatar, Afghanistan), "Unacknowledged detention facilities" (Diego Garcia, Thailand, Pakistan, Afghanistan), and "Renditions" (countries where suspects have reportedly been transported for interrogation by non-U.S. intelligence services).
A second map, that of Iraq shows locations of 8 "Major" detention centres listed as: 1. Abu Ghraib Prison, 2. Camp Cropper (at Baghdad airport), 3. Ministry of Defence, Baghdad, 4. Presidential Palace, Baghdad, 5. Al Khaim (near Syrian border), 6. A former Mukhabarat office in Basra, 7. Tikrit holding area, 8. Al-Baghdadi, Heat Base and Hubbania Camp - Ramadi.
Separate notes are added under the headings "Afghanistan", "Guantanamo Bay", "CIA Detention Centres" and "Renditions". The world map names Renditions: "Morocco", "Jordan", "Syria", "Egypt" and "Saudi Arabia"
2. Nazi code crackers taking on new enigma by Jill Lawless, London -
The experts who cracked Nazi Germany's secret codes are tackling a 10-letter enigma that has stumped fine minds for more than 250 years: D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M. Former code breakers from Britain's wartime intelligence centre at Bletchley Park set out this week to decipher a cryptic inscription on an 18th- century monument at an English country estate. Legend says it reveals the location of the Holy Grail. Some believe it is a private message to a deceased beloved. No one knows for sure. "The inscription is obviously a classical reference," said 85-year-old mathematician Oliver Lawn, a Bletchley Park veteran who is leading the quest along with his linguist wife, Sheila. "It's either Latin or Greek and based on some historical happening." The mystery is carved on a marble monument tucked away in the gardens of Shugborough House in central England. Based on a painting by French artist Nicholas Poussin, but carved in reverse, the etching depicts three shepherds pointing at an inscription on a tomb that reads "Et in arcadia ego" (And I am in Arcadia, too). Below the image is a line of letters - O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V. - and beneath that, on either end, the letters D and M. [Brief: The above is half the article.]
3. Obituary: James Mace, 52 - Scholar showed Ukraine famine act of genocide.
4. Obituary: The 11th Duke of Devonshire 1920-2004 (see Weekly Telegraph No 668, May 12 - 18, 2004 - #8 above)

Globe & Mail 14 May 2004: First two are Headings:
1. Violence between Nigeria's Christians and Muslims escalates.
2. Abu Ghraib: the rule, not the exception - Americans are no novices to inflicting pain and humiliation, says torture expert Miles Schuman. U.S. -sanctioned torment has a long and diverse pedigree.
3. Ethical investing - Fund may dump firms linked to Iraq prison scandal -
CACI International Inc. and Titan Corp. may be removed from the Calvert Social Index, a list of "socially responsible" companies, following allegations their employees were involved in abuse of Iraqi prisoners. [item: Gen. Taguba also alleged that John Israel, a civilian interpreter, lied when he said he didn't witness improper interrogations. His report refers to Mr. Israel in one place as a Titan employee, and in another as a CACI worker. Mr. Israel is not a Titan employee and the report erred in saying that he is, Titan spokesman Wil Williams said.

Globe & Mail 15 May 2004: First 6 are Headings -
1. Reporter still a thorn in his government's side - thirty-five years after exposing My Lai, Hersh uncovers abuse of Iraqi prisoners
2. Australian bride joins Denmark's royal family
3. Top U.S. court refuses to rule on gay marriages
4. Nigerian Christians flee sectarian violence
5. CBC issues 'clarification' on item linking Israel to Iraq torture
6. The Bible goes forth and multiplies (p. R9)
7. Globe Focus - Section F: Our (Canadian) Abu Ghraib (Somalia)
(Incl. 2-p. multi-illus. spread "The timely exit: Call it the battle of the escape plans. Since the revelation of the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities, the question is no longer how to 'win' in Iraq but how to get out, and those offering answers are as far apart as can be, Doug Saunders lays out the options.

Globe & Mail 17 May 2004: Plan to deceive public hatched before Dieppe raid - Minutes outlining public-relations strategy uncovered by B.C. graduate student.

Globe & Mail 18 May 2004:
1. Rare cedar water pipes discovered in Hamilton (Ontario) -
Long-hidden pieces of Hamilton's history have been dug up from underneath a city street. Public works crews have found sections of a wooden water main that date back to the mid-1800s. It is believed the cedar pipes have not been used in more than a century. The pipes are a rare find in Hamilton, said Ian Kerr-Wilson, curator of the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology. Most of the city was laid with cast iron pipes in the 1850s. Mr. Kerr-Wilson said the recently uncovered pipes are in the best condition of any he has seen. "They really are remarkable workmanship for pipes that were buried, he said. If the pipes are to be preserved, they will need to be dried slowly, a process that could take up to a year, he added. CP
Some Headings:
2. Massachusetts marriages make U.S. history - Same sex couples line up for country's first state-sanctioned gay weddings [6-col. colour-illus.]
3. Cannes 2004 - call it gunning for Dubya - Michael Moore's anti-Bush film arrives on a wave of hype and is greeted with cheers in Cannes, Liam Lacey writes... (p. 2: 'Bush wrote all the funniest lines')
4. Obituary: Paul Wehrle, 82 - Doctor's vaccine helped eradicate smallpox.

The Weekly Telegraph No 669, May 19 - 25, 2004:
1. Editor (of Daily Mirror) is sacked over fake photos (of British troops torturing Iraqi prisoners)
2. Monsanto suspends GM wheat (see SCIENCE Vol 304 No 5674, 21 May 2004, and G&M 12 May 2004 Editorial above)
3. 41pc babies born out of wedlock by Sarah Womack Social Affairs Correspondent -
A RECORD number of babies in England and Wales are now born outside marriage. More than 41 per cent of babies were born to single mothers and women in cohabiting relationships last year, according to the Office for National statistics. The figures caused alarm among family campaigners who said children of cohabiting couples were more likely to see their parents split up. Many children would then be raised in poverty and some were more likely to become single mothers themselves, they said. Relationship counsellors have even predicted that marriage could become virtually extinct within 30 years with most adults choosing a series of long-term relationships instead.

4. Navy to borrow ships for Trafalgar
[Brief: Lacking Government cash, next year's Fleet Review in the Solent needs sponsorships, borrowed ships (and Tall ships, "prestigious merchant vessels", racing and cruising yachts, fishing boats, work boats and family boats) to make up the numbers!]
5. 600 staff line route for duke's funeral (Duke of Devonshire) - see Weekly Telegraph No 668, May 12 - 18, 2004 & Globe & Mail 13 May 2004 above.
6. A wily old bird gets ready to breed again at 52 by Zoe Griffin -
ONE of the world's oldest known wild birds is preparing to breed again at the age of 52. The Manx Shearwater, estimated to have flown around five million miles during its lifetime, was caught outside its burrows on an island off the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales and later released. Ornithologists said it had just returned from a winter in South America and could already have laid an egg. "The bird was found outside its burrows, which leads us to think it was returning to watch its nest," said a British Trust for Ornithology spokesman. The pigeon-sized bird was first ringed by scientists as a five-year-old in 1957 and spotted again in 1961, 1977, 2002, and 2003. A Royal Society for the Protection of Birds spokesman said: "Sea birds can live up to quite considerable ages. The main reason for this is their rate of reproductivity. "They have few young over a long period of time unlike blue tits or sparrows, who have a lot of babies at once."

7. N Sea oil is dropped from latest EU draft by Ambrose Evans-Prichard in Brussels
AN ATTEMPT to bring Britain's North sea oil reserves under the ultimate control of the EU has been dropped from the latest draft on the European constitution, much to the relief of Downing Street. The updated draft leaked last week eliminates a clause that would have given the EU "competence" for the first time over the whole of energy. It also "neuters" an article on justice policy that could have been used to develop a fully-fledged EU justice department. [Brief: 2 columns of amplifications.]
8. Single body for all discrimination:
PLANS to create a single all-powerful commission to fight all forms of discrimination ran into an immediate row with unions about its funding, and with the CBI on a "non-adversarial" relationship with business. The new body, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, will replace the commissions for racial equality, disability rights, and equal opportunities. It will also oversee laws to stamp out ageism and discrimination over religion or sexual orientation.
9. Voters 'fed up with lying elite' [Expected to support the UK Independence Party.]
10. Estate agent from Tasmania marries her fairytale prince [Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark marries Crown Princess Mary (nee Donaldson).]
11. Australia acts to refloat island -
AUSTRALIA is sending police and government officials to run the riches to rags Pacific island of Nauru. A police commissioner and officers will maintain law and order while financial experts will try to repair one of the world's most dysfunctional economies to prevent it becoming a haven for drug runners.
12. Number of lifers in US jails doubles in decade by David Rennie in Washington -
A DECADE of "getting tough on crime" campaigns - especially demands that a life sentence should mean life - has created a record 127,000 lifers in the American prison system, almost double the figure in 1992 and four times the 1983 level... .
13. Even apartheid was better, says Suzman - & De Klerk joins frail Mandela in last hurrah by Jane Flanagan in Johannesburg -
HELEN SUZMAN, for years the lone anti-apartheid voice in the South African Parliament, has turned her fire on the African National Congress government for being "anti-white" and abandoning the country's poorest blacks. [Brief: 6 columns, illustrated.]

The Globe & Mail 19 May 2004:
1. Penguin reunited with mate - London -
A rare penguin was reunited with her mate yesterday after being snatched by intruders from a British wildlife centre and abandoned in a garden, a stunt condemned by zoo managers as "sick." Piglet, an endangered Humboldt, or jackass, penguin, was retrieved from an overgrown garden in Scarborough, northeast England, a day earlier after residents heard her distinctive donkey-like cries. Piglet's ordeal began Sunday night after thieves scaled a two-metre-high wire fence and other barriers at Scarborough Sea Life Centre to reach the penguin enclosure. The traumatized bird must now also take antibiotics as the incident may have damaged her immune system, also posing a risk to George, her partner. (Penguins pair for life.) "I'm extremely concerned. This may have been a prank, but these are an endangered species, there are only 500 pairs left in the world and we're now having to look at increasing security to protect them from people who live in or who are visiting Scarborough," said Ian Hawkins, the centre's general manager. "There are some sick, sick people out there, I'm afraid." Piglet, originally rescued from the shores of Peru, is one of seven Humboldt penguins at the centre. Agency France-Presse

2. State of emergency declared in Nigerian state - Lagos, Nigeria -
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in a troubled central state yesterday, invoking sweeping powers in a bid to halt religious and ethnic bloodletting that he said poses a "great threat" to national unity. Mr. Obasanjo sacked the state of Plateau's governor and dissolved its legislature in a televised declaration that came amid reports of new violence by suspected Muslim militants against four predominantly Christian villages. Separately yesterday, the northern state of Kano appeared to be preparing to reverse a boycott against polio inoculations, which have caused a resurgence of the crippling disease. State officials said they had received a "safe" batch of vaccines manufactured in Indonesia - countering rumours spread by clerics that the drugs were a Western plot to make Muslim women sterile. AP, Guardian

3. [Editorial]: The court seals off a Charter freedom -
Six justices of the Supreme Court of Canada got it dead wrong yesterday on the question of third-party advertising during election campaigns. They endorsed a clear violation of the right to free political expression and attempted to justify the injury by deferring to Parliament. Parliament is the last body the court should defer to on this matter. Since the 1980's, Parliament has done everything it could to prevent "third parties" - any individual or group other than a candidate, a registered political party or an electoral district association - from making their voices widely heard during a campaign. In 1983, it prohibited third-party spending entirely. After being trounced in the courts, it passed a 1993 law allowing the ridiculously small outlay of $,1000. After another court defeat, it raised the limit in 2000 to total national spending, of $150,000 for each interest group or individual with a maximum of $3,000 in any riding. Two Alberta courts struck that down again, but the majority on the Supreme Court yesterday said it was reasonable. It is not reasonable. It allows a third party to spend only 1.3 per cent of the amount a registered political party can spend during a campaign. The Canada Elections Act defines election advertising to include any message" that takes a position on an issue with which a registered party or candidate is associated." If a group wanted to pay to broadcast a message across the country urging voters to support or oppose gay marriage, it couldn't spend the money necessary without breaking the law. The dissenting minority on the Supreme Court - Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Mr. Justice John Major and Mr. Justice Ian Binnie - observed that the Canada Post bulk mailing rate for some ridings is more than $7,500, well above the $3,000 limit. They cited testimony by the Chief Electoral Officer that to buy a one-time full-page advertisement in every major Canadian newspaper would cost about $425,000, well above the $150,000 limit. They wrote that Parliament's limit "puts effective radio and television communication within constituencies or throughout the country beyond the reach of third party' citizens." ... . [Brief: continuing in the second column with an explanation of the rational for their decision being creation of a "level playing field" during lead-up to an election, the Editorial points out the essential rights lost thereby.]

4. Cartoon - Older couple seated before marriage counselor. Wife complains "he's all hanky and no panky... !

The Globe & Mail 20 May 2004:
1. Obituary: Evelyn Rakeepile 1922-2004 -
Mandela's first wife gave him an ultimatum - A Jehovah's Witness, she told him: Choose me or the ANC. By that time their home had already become a battleground for religion and politics [Brief: 6 columns.] See above G&M 6 May #4.

Three headlines which summarise thrust of the contents:
3. Generals deny knowledge of abuse [Brief: 5 columns, illustrated]
4. Families of dead heckle Giuliani at 9/11 inquiry
5. Europe allows GM corn under U.S. pressure

The Globe & Mail 21 May 2004: Social Studies by Michael Kesterton held this item:
A new intrusion? An Internet service is about test the frontiers of e-mail privacy, US Today reports. DidTheyReadIt.com, which will launch Monday, allows anyone to secretly track e-mails they send. You'll see whether someone opens your e-mail, how long the recipient keeps it open - even where geographically the recipient is reading it. "It will freak people out," predicts Internet expert Esther Dyson.

The Globe & Mail 24 May 2004: Social Studies item: Victoria Day - Victoria's secrets -
Queen Victoria kept a journal from the age of 13 almost until her death at 81 in 1901. Some of her private thoughts: (After her wedding night) "What heavenly bliss." (On giving birth) "One has a strong wish to give a husband a good strong ducking. . . . What humiliations to the delicate feelings of a poor woman, especially with those nasty doctors. One really felt more like a cow or a dog at such moments." (On children; she had nine) "I am no admirer of babies. I can't . . . have numbers of them about me, making a great noise. They are, I suppose, a great blessing and brighten one's life. It would be very sad not to have them. But what are children compared to a husband?"

The Globe & Mail 25 May 2004: Between a wall and a hard place in Jerusalem - Thousands of Palestinians are moving from the suburbs to the Old City for fear of losing residency status, Mark MacKinnon reports. [Brief: 6 columns, map, illus.]

The Globe & Mail 26 May 2004:
1. Iraqis hostile over plan to raze Abu Ghraib
[Brief: Americans favour removing it and its reminders of shame. Iraqis view it as their history, not to be destroyed.]
2. Coverage of buildup to war in Iraq flawed, NYT admits. [America's "paper of record" acknowledged last night that it erred in its coverage of the buildup to war in Iraq.]

The Globe & Mail 27 May 2004:
1. Israel arrests journalist who interviewed Vanunu
[Brief: He was planning another interview when Israeli authorities arrested him. Reuters
2. Credit card scam tricks people on phone - Regina -
People in Regina are being warned of a new credit card scam that's already happening across Canada. Some residents have been tricked into giving out the three-digit number on the back of their credit card to a caller who pretends to be a Visa or MasterCard representative. The three-digit code allows the caller to get past on-line security measures and make purchases on the card. CP

The Weekly Telegraph No 670, May 28 - June 1, 2004:
1. Surge by UKIP hits big parties - Lib Dems running fourth in Euro campaign, says poll
2. Britain yields to Brussels on criminal justice veto [The heading is the message.]
3. Nelson oaks to restore Victory -
OAKS planted 200 years ago on the recommendation of Admiral Lord Nelson have been felled to restore his flagship, HMS Victory, in time for the Battle of Trafalgar bi-centenary next year. Lord Nelson urged that trees be planted in the forest of Dean, Glos, in 1802 when he learned that it had been plundered for charcoal. In a report to Parliament, he said the trees should be replanted to provide timber for future warships.
4. Poaching peril of last rare white rhinos
[Brief: only 12 northern white rhinos left in Garamba Park on the border of the Democratic reublic of the Congo.]
5. Scottish King seeks seat as Czech MEP
[Brief: Bonnie Prince Charlie descendant, Prince Michael of Albany seeks election to the EU parliament.]
6. Roses are blue, my dear -
SCIENTISTS in the US have found a way to produce a blue rose. A chance discovery in a laboratory.
7. US soldiers mount a raid on Chalabi, their former ally - Man on billion-dollar timebomb -
AHMAD CHALABI is in possession of "miles" of documents with the potential to expose politicians, corporations and the United Nations as having connived in a system of kickbacks and false pricing worth billions of pounds... .
8. We are looking into the abyss, former general tells Senate committee
[Brief: Gen. Joseph Hoare, former head of US Central Command, articulated concerns of retired military.]
9. Michael Moore's war on Bush wins him top award
[Brief: The film concerns Bush and 9/11.]
10. Obituary: David Brown, Aged 68.
Made an important contribution to the taxonomy of freshwater snails, particularly those belonging to the genera Bulinus and Biomphalaria, the intermediate hosts of the tropical and sub-tropical parasitic disease bilharzia.
11. Obituary: Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer
d. at 97, Museum curator whose persistence led to the discovery that the coelacanth, a prehistoric "fossil fish" which had been assumed to have been extinct for 70 million years, was alive and well in the sea off South Africa. [4 columns, illus.]

The Globe & Mail 28 May 2004:
Social Studies by Michael Kesterton: Grieving elephants -
Some 100 elephants wailed for three days to mourn the killing of a herd member by poachers in southeastern Bangladesh, a report said last week. The dead animal lay in a pool of blood surrounded by wailing elephants after the shooting, the Manabzamin daily reported Source: Agence france - Press

The Globe & Mail 29 May 2004:
Cowards or commanders with a conscience - a growing number of Israel's army refuse to serve in Palestinian territories - Israeli refuseniks get boost from Attorney-General.