Midday News Roundup (06 Apr)

Fie... had a frustrating start to the day with our home internet gone kerflooey (seems to be a West Seattle-outage from Comcast... or so they say). But, on the bright side, got some great great plants at the South Seattle Community College Garden Center (if you're in the area, get there today, April 6, as they're having a 20-25% sale to start the season). Anyhoo... what the heck is going on (I feel so closed off from the world when I can't open the BBC or NYTimes first thing in the morn)... (and I'll stop venting...)

• Oh shit, part 1: A car bomb has killed at least 10 people and injured about 30 others in Najaf, southern Iraq. Police said the blast happened about 300m (330 yards) from the Imam Ali shrine, which is among the world's most sacred sites for Shia Muslims. [BBC]
  
  
• Whoa: The WaPo sez that Scooter Libby told the PlameGate federal grand jury that President Bush authorized him to disclose classified intelligence information about Iraq as a way of rebutting criticism from the Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson. BUT... he was not authorized to divulge Plame's name and blow her cover. There's more over at the National Journal from The Intrepid Murray Waas.
  
  
• Errors? What errors? We don't make no stinking errors: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of "tactical errors" in handling the war in Iraq. [WaPo]
  
  
• Pigeon races? A swan found dead in Scotland has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. The dead mute swan is the first wild bird in Britain to be discovered carrying the virus. The Scottish Executive has set up a 2,500 sq km wild bird risk area in which farmers are being told to keep poultry indoors. Bird gatherings, such as pigeon races have been banned in the area, and surveillance of wild birds will be stepped up. [Guardian and BBC]
  
  
• People living in areas where bird flu has been found in poultry or wild birds should keep their cats indoors, say scientists who believe the potential role of felines in spreading the virus is being overlooked. [AP via ENN]
  
  
• Oh shit, part 2: Iran said Wednesday that it had successfully test-fired a "top secret" missile, the third in a week. Last week, Iran said it tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said could evade radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. [LATimes]
  
  
• The NYTimes describes the basics of today's Senate compromise on the immigration bill:
  

  ¶Those who have lived in the country at least five years would be put on a path toward guaranteed citizenship, provided that they remained employed, paid fines and back taxes, and learned English. Mr. Frist said said this group accounted for about 60 percent of the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants believed to be living here.
  
  ¶Those who have lived here for two to five years, said to number about three million, would have to leave the country briefly before reporting to an American port of entry, where they would be classified as temporary workers. They would be allowed to apply for citizenship but would have no guarantee of obtaining it. Those who did not would have to leave after participating in the temporary worker program for six years.
  
  ¶The remaining one million or so, those who have lived in the country less than two years, would be required to leave. They could apply for temporary worker status but would not be guaranteed it.

• Current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is losing support to continue in that post. The Kurds have fallen out with him and suspect he's been quietly sabotaging their attempt to incorporate the oil-rich city of Kirkuk into the Kurdistan region. The Sunnis don't want him as prime minister because they think he is too pro-Iranian and because he has been unable to stop the interior ministry from becoming a haven for Shi'ite militias and operating secret Shi'ite death squads. [Radio Netherlands]
  
  
• Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. [WaPo]
  

  Employees and contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with a U.S. Geological Survey scientist working at an NOAA lab, said in interviews that over the past year administration officials have chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether.
  [...]
  Several times, however, agency officials have tried to alter what these scientists tell the media. When [Pieter] Tans [of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder] was helping to organize the Seventh International Carbon Dioxide Conference near Boulder last fall, his lab director told him participants could not use the term "climate change" in conference paper's titles and abstracts. Tans and others disregarded that advice.