SINGAPORE — Oil prices climbed over $73 on Monday after Iran hinted it might use oil production as a weapon in its nuclear dispute with the West and hitches at U.S. refineries spurred worries over fuel supplies. U.S. light crude for July delivery traded 82 cents or 1.1 percent higher at $73.15 a barrel by 0408 GMT, after a high of $73.55 and gains of $1.99 on Friday. London Brent crude rose 92 cents to $71.95 a barrel. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said if the United States makes a ‘wrong move’ over Iran, energy flows from the world’s fourth-largest exporter will be endangered. ‘The gains are a combination of everything but most importantly it’s Iran,’ said broker John Brady from ABN AMRO in New York. ‘We’ve had mixed messages before but it certainly stokes fears.’ Tension between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program have helped drive oil’s 20 percent rally this year. Iranian officials have previously ruled out using oil as a weapon in their nation’s nuclear standoff with the West, but Khamenei’s comments suggested Iran could disrupt supplies if pushed. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reacted to his […]
OTTAWA — Montrealer Viviane Maraghi has always considered herself pretty good when it comes to avoiding pollution. She works with an environmental group and makes an effort to buy organic and biological food whenever possible. Her son Aladin Bonin, 10, has been raised on organic food ever since he was a baby. So it came as even more of a shock for Maraghi to learn that not only did she and her son test positive for dozens of toxic chemicals in their blood but, in the case of several chemicals, Aladin’s level was even higher than hers. In fact, Maraghi and her son’s results were the highest among a half dozen families tested across in the country. ‘I was staggered,’ said the Plateau Mont Royal resident. The comments came after the group Environmental Defence released a new study Thursday revealing that children as young as 10 are showing signs of contamination by toxic chemicals. While some, like insecticides, are in the environment, others are found in such innocuous everyday items as non-stick pans, computers and mattresses or furniture treated with stain repellent chemicals. Among the five families tested, on average parents tested positive for 32 […]
In the wake of a cluster of avian flu cases that killed seven members of a rural Indonesian family, it appears likely that there have been many more human-to-human infections than the authorities have previously acknowledged. The numbers are still relatively small, and they do not mean that the virus has mutated to pass easily between people – a change that could touch off a worldwide epidemic. All the clusters of cases have been among relatives or in nurses who were in long, close contact with patients. But the clusters – in Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Vietnam – paint a grimmer picture of the virus’s potential to pass from human to human than is normally described by public health officials, who usually say such cases are ‘rare.’ Until recently, World Health Organization representatives have said there were only two or three such cases. On May 24 Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, estimated that there had been ‘at least three.’ Then, last Tuesday, Maria Cheng, a W.H.O. spokeswoman, said there were ‘probably about half a dozen.’ She added, ‘I don’t think anybody’s got a solid […]
MACKINAC ISLAND – The war in Iraq has become so unpopular that it could cost Republicans control of Congress, statehouses and governor races around the country, national pollster John Zogby said Friday. He said 70% of voters believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, adding, ‘I have never seen a number like that since I’ve been polling.’ He said 68% of voters believe the war in Iraq wasn’t worth the loss of American lives. He added, ‘Americans want their wars to be won, they want it won quickly and their troops home and out of harms way.’ Zogby offered a sweeping view of the political landscape to the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac policy conference, which wrapped up Friday afternoon. Zogby, considered one of the country’s top pollsters, said Gov. Jennifer Granholm faces a difficult re-election campaign, but could benefit from a national Democratic landslide. ‘It’s not a good time to be governor anywhere,’ he said. ‘But Republicans are swimming upstream, they have a hell of a lot of work to do in what could be a big Democratic year.’ But he cautioned: ‘The Democrats have no program on any issue, they have […]
Black men in America today are deeply divided over the way they see themselves and their country. Black men report the same ambitions as most Americans — for career success, a loving marriage, children, respect. And yet most are harshly critical of other black men, associating the group with irresponsibility and crime. Black men describe a society rife with opportunities for advancement and models for success. But they also express a deep fear that their hold on the good life is fragile, in part because of discrimination they continue to experience in their daily lives. This portrait of the divided black man emerges from a survey conducted by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. The survey of 2,864 people, including a sample of 1,328 black men, aimed to capture the experiences and perceptions of black men at a time marked by increasing debate about how to build on their achievements and address the failures that endure decades after the civil rights movement. At the tipping point In many ways, the outward and inward struggles of black men appear to reflect where the nation is on its journey toward racial […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
