Sandra Bullock Stars in New Romantic Thriller "Premonition"

By Alan Silverman Hollywood 18 March 2007

Download
Sandra Bullock stars in a new romantic thriller as a woman caught between what she knows is reality and a nightmare that she fears will come true. Alan Silverman has a look at Premonition.

Sandra Bullock "Premonition"

The apparently idyllic life of suburban housewife Linda Hanson is devastated by what the police officer at the door tells her. Then she awakens the next morning to find her husband Jim in bed next to her and very much alive.

But when the pattern starts to repeat ...when she wakes up to find her family in mourning ...Linda begins to believe that she is experiencing a Premonition and becomes determined to change the tragic fate it foretells.

Sandra Bullock stars as Linda and says she had to come to terms with her own beliefs about the unsettling feeling that something is about to happen. "I do think that there is something to human nature. You can call it intuitiveness or 'gut instinct' ...people who know things that have happened. It has happened to a lot of people, so when someone says to me 'I had a bad feeling that something is going to happen and then it did,' I don't know how to explain it. It can't be explained by science, but I believe in that happening," says the actress.

Jim McMahon, a co-star of the edgy TV series Nip/Tuck, plays Linda's husband, Jim. The Australia-born actor says his character is unaware of the fate his wife believes awaits him. "He had to live his life normally, but with this wife of his who is becoming a little strange, telling him 'don't go to work tomorrow, don't go there, don't do this ...' crazy stuff and particularly at a point in time when their relationship is pretty far on the rocks. So I felt like my part was kind of to solidify things a little bit, just in regards to the fact that we were, at some point, a normal family and this is the way we live our life. While she's going all haywire, living days out of order and doing all that kind of stuff, still whenever she came back to us it was just kind of normal life," he says.

If it seems confusing to describe, Sandra Bullock says imagine what it was like to act that out. I had a really hard time. I thought I was going to lose it. I went to the director and said 'I'm having a hard time. I don't know what to do.' There was a smile on his face when he heard that and he said 'no, this is exactly where you need to be.' I answered 'no, it's not' ...but in my unraveling we played the levels right. We played the levels right. Is she just pure grief here? When does the grief go into denial and anger? And when does she get angry at [events]? You have to start infusing ...it just wasn't pretty," she says.

"For me it was important that you believe her emotional journey," says Director Mennan Yapo. He says he could not worry about loose ends in the plot that might confuse the audience. The German-born filmmaker says the film balances on believing in the emotions that Bullock's character is going through. "Once you believe that, the details and all that become less important ...and they should, because at some point the story and the film should elevate into something else, and I feel it does. It goes to a place where you clearly understand that it's not only a thriller about this-and-that; it's about loss [and] much more. It's about what goes on inside of her."

Bullock says that once she accepted that premise and stopped questioning the details, she could take the character's emotional journey. "It was all about 'what is Linda going through at this point? What did she do with her kids? What wouldn't she say? Why doesn't she say anything to him, because he's going to think she's crazier.' So you feel it when you see it, but you don't know it until the pieces get together. Then, at the end, there's that feeling of 'what would I have done? Would I have gone back and changed or would I have let him die?' What would you have done?"

Premonition is written by Bill Kelly. The cast also features Peter Stormare as a psychiatrist to whom Linda turns for answers; and Amber Valletta is a woman in the husband's life who may hold a key to averting the tragic outcome.

Bush Cautions Democrats Against Setting Iraq Withdrawal Timeline

By Scott Stearns White House 17 March 2007

Download
U.S. President George Bush says he will veto an emergency spending bill for the war in Iraq, if Democrats, who control Congress, include conditions setting a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Democrats say the president is committing American forces to an open-ended civil war. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports.

President Bush says Democrats in Congress want to force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, just as his new strategy for success is beginning to show what he calls hopeful signs of progress.

President Bush

"As these operations unfold, they will help the Iraqi government stabilize the country, rebuild the economy, and advance the work of political reconciliation," said Mr. Bush. "Yet, the bill Congress is considering would undermine General Petraeus and the troops under his command, just as these critical security operations are getting under way."

General David Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, was confirmed by the Senate without opposition.

The House of Representatives is expected next week to consider Democratic-sponsored legislation calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq no later than September next year, as part of a spending package that includes more than $95 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush says Congressional Democrats want to impose what he calls arbitrary and restrictive conditions on the use of war funds.

In his weekly radio address, President Bush said imposing an artificial timetable on the war would be disastrous.

"Many in Congress say they support the troops, and I believe them," added Mr. Bush. "Now they have a chance to show that support in deed, as well as in word. Congress needs to approve emergency funding for our troops, without strings and without delay. If they send me a bill that does otherwise, I will veto it."

In the Democratic radio address, Washington Senator Patty Murray said narrowing America's mission gives U.S troops the best chance to succeed. She says it is time for a new direction in Iraq, not more of the same.

"Unfortunately, this is a reality President Bush and a majority of Congressional Republicans still refuse to recognize," she said. "They want to stay the course. They want to ignore the lessons of the last four years. They want to commit America to an open-ended civil war."

Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, and protests are planned around the country, including a march in Washington Saturday to the Pentagon. A public opinion poll by CNN says 61 percent of Americans believe the United States is not winning.

Senator Murray says the start of the fifth year of U.S. troops in Iraq will be a solemn day.

"In Congress, my fellow Democrats and I believe it is time to bring this war to a close," she added. "Our troops, who have served bravely under difficult conditions, have done everything we have asked. As we enter the fifth year, it is time for the Iraqis to step up, secure their own country, and finally take responsibility for their own future."

White House officials say the president does not intend to mark the anniversary of the invasion.

Thousands March in Washington to Protest Iraq War

By Sean Maroney Washington 17 March 2007

Download
Thousands of anti-war protestors rallied near the Pentagon Saturday, calling on President Bush to pull American forces out of Iraq. Organizers led the march to what was the site of a pivotal rally against the Vietnam war 40 years ago. VOA's Sean Maroney followed the rally from Washington to the Pentagon and has this report.

Riot police confront protesters near the Pentagon

Demonstrators huddled close to each other against the wind outside the Pentagon.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan addressed the predominately young crowd. Sheehan's son was killed while serving in Iraq. She invoked the memory of another demonstration outside the U.S. military headquarters decades ago against the Vietnam war. "Forty years ago, there was a march on the Pentagon," she said. "And here we are, 40 years later, marching on the Pentagon in another illegal and immoral war. When is it going to stop?"

Veterans and other activists also took the stage, calling on the Bush administration to change course. "I will be brutally honest, it is insane to believe that more of the same will end it," said one Iraq war veteran. "Our clever signs, our passionate speeches and our large crowds alone -- if that could end the war, we would not be here today."

Demonstrators opposed to the Iraq war march across the Memorial Bridge in Washington

The protesters had marched across the Potomac River from Washington's Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Many held signs calling for the United States to pull out of Iraq and for the impeachment of President Bush.

Across the street, a sizable gathering of counter-demonstrators waved their own placards that read "Peace Through Strength" and "Win the War or Lose Jihad."

Jane Johnson was among them. Her 22-year-old son was killed while serving in Baghdad. "To me, they are basically spitting on my son's grave," she said.

Juan Torres led the anti-war protesters during the march. His son also died while deployed overseas. "I come from Argentina to this beautiful country for my American dream. And my American dream is destroyed forever. My only son is dead now. This is why I came here. Because I don't want to see any more kids die," he said.

Police arrested a number of people assembled outside the White House Friday evening after an anti-war religious service ended at the Washington National Cathedral.

Protests are expected to continue in the coming days in the United States and elsewhere in the world ahead of Tuesday's four-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

Chlorine Gas Attacks in Iraq Injure 350

By Margaret Besheer Irbil, Iraq 17 March 2007

Download
In the volatile Western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar, suicide bombers driving trucks filled with chemicals struck at three different locations late Friday afternoon. U.S. military officials said Saturday at least two Iraqi policemen were killed and 350 civilians and six U.S. troops required medical treatment for exposure to chlorine gas.

A US soldier keeps watch in a Shi'ite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq

The two most serious explosions happened just south of the town of Fallujah, and a third, smaller blast occurred near Ramadi. Both towns are in the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

In each attack, a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives and chlorine canisters near police and civilian targets in crowded areas.

U.S. military officials said about 350 civilians required medical treatment. Most were suffering from signs of chlorine gas exposure, with symptoms ranging from minor skin and lung irritations to vomiting.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but some observers say they bear the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The French Press agency (AFP) reports that a senior Iraqi interior ministry official (Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf) suggested the bombings may have been carried out in retaliation for recent government successes against insurgents in Ramadi.

This is not the first time insurgents have used unconventional weapons. Earlier this year, two separate bombings involving chlorine gas killed several people and sickened dozens more in Baghdad and Ramadi.

In February, the U.S. military said its troops uncovered a car bomb factory near Fallujah that had dozens of propane tanks and ordinary chemicals it believed the insurgents were going to try to mix with explosives.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, Australian Prime Minister John Howard made an unannounced visit to meet with his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, and to visit some of Australia's nearly 1,500 troops serving in Iraq.

At a joint press conference, Mr. Maliki said he did not want to put a timeline on Australian withdrawal, while Mr. Howard said his country's troops would remain in Iraq until the job is done.

"I have also told the prime minister that Australia will continue its presence in Iraq to assist in bringing about a situation where the Iraqi people are reasonably able to provide for their own future security," he said.

Most of Australia's troops are stationed in southern Iraq, along with British forces.

New Palestinian Unity Government Sworn In

By Robert Berger Jerusalem 17 March 2007

Download
The new Palestinian national unity government has been sworn in, after it was overwhelmingly approved by parliament Saturday. The ruling Islamic militant group Hamas now begins to share power with the rival and more moderate Fatah faction. The coalition agreement caps months of negotiations, and is aimed at ending infighting that has raised fears of civil war. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, the Palestinians are also hoping to end their international isolation.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas, right, raise their linked arms as they move through the crowd at a special session of parliament in Gaza City 17 Mar 2007

President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah began the parliament session with an appeal to the international community to lift crippling sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.

But Hamas has rejected key international conditions for removing the boycott, namely renunciation of violence and recognition of Israel. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas reiterated that position in a policy speech.

Mr. Haniyeh said the new government affirms the Palestinians' right to resist the Israeli occupation "by all means," understood as a reference to shooting attacks and suicide bombings. Such attacks in the past have prompted the United States and European Union to brand Hamas a terrorist organization and cut off nearly $1 billion in annual aid.

Israel says it will not deal with the new government, and it will urge the international community to keep sanctions in place.

Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Radio that if this is a government of terror and not peace, it should not be helped.

International reaction has been mixed. Russia said the new Palestinian government has taken international demands "into account," while Britain said it is "a step in the right direction."

However, the U.S. reiterated its long-term position that it will not deal with the Palestinian government until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel.

North Korea Will Not Stop Nuclear Program Unless US Releases Frozen Funds

By Heda Bayron Hong Kong 17 March 2007

Download
North Korea says it will not shut down its nuclear programs as agreed, until the United States releases millions of dollars frozen in a Macau bank. U.S. officials say that decision is up to Macau. The comments come ahead of Monday's resumption of six-nation talks in Beijing on North Korean nuclear disarmament. VOA's Heda Bayron reports from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

A branch of Banco Delta Asia in Macau (file photo)

North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, threatened to renege on his country's promise last month to abandon its nuclear programs, unless the issue of frozen North Korean funds in Macau is resolved.

Speaking in Beijing Saturday, Kim says his country will not shut down its main Yongbyon nuclear facility, until all the money is released.

The dispute erupted in September 2005, when the United States imposed restrictions on Macau's Banco Delta Asia for alleged money laundering for North Korea's illicit activities. The Monetary Authority of Macau subsequently froze about $24 million in North Korean funds.

The U.S. financial sanctions against North Korea led banks in other countries to curtail financial dealings with North Korea, cutting off much of the isolated country's access to international financing.

The United States had promised it would resolve the issue by this week ahead of crucial disarmament implementation talks in Beijing.

In a decision Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department said its investigation found that Banco Delta Asia had indeed "turned a blind eye on the illicit activity" of its North Korean clients, who the U.S. accuses of depositing money from narcotics trading and counterfeiting of U.S. currency. As a result, the United States is banning American banks from doing business with the Macau bank.

U.S. Treasury Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing And Financial Crimes Daniel Glaser

U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser met with Macau's leader and monetary authorities Saturday to discuss the U.S. findings. But he says it is not up to the United States to release North Korea's money.

"I think it is important to emphasize that it was a Macanese action to freeze the funds, and it will be a Macanese process to [determine] the release of the funds," he noted.

The financial issue had been a major stumbling block in nuclear negotiations. For more than a year, Pyongyang refused to return to the bargaining table. It only agreed to resume talks after it conducted its first ever-nuclear test last October.

At the February 13 talks, the U.S. promised to resolve the Macau bank issue after North Korea agreed to take steps to shut down its nuclear programs within 60 days, in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits.

The next round of talks resume in Beijing Monday on how to implement the February agreement. The chief U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill, says he does not believe the Macau bank issue should be an obstacle.

VOASE0317_People In America

17 March 2007

Thomas Edison, 1847-1931: America's Great Inventor
Edison is remembered most for the electric light, phonograph and his work with motion pictures.

Download
Download
ANNOUNCER:

Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around the world. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison’s major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the eighteen hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the twentieth century. His inventions made possible the progress of technology.

It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light.

These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions.

VOICE TWO:

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children.

Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented.

At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator.

He later worked in many different places. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election.

VOICE ONE:

In the summer months of eighteen sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device. The company paid him forty thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time.

This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions.

Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a “big trick” about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and it would be invented.

VOICE TWO:

Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy.

He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in nineteen seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions.

The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions.

Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music.

Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound.

VOICE TWO:

The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again -- the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important.

Before the electric light was invented, light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light.

Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful.He and his employees began work on the electric light.

VOICE ONE:

An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament.

Time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked.

At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not have electricity. There was no need for it.

Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry.

VOICE TWO:

Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film.

When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything -- a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting.

In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison’s motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called “The Great Train Robbery.” It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. “The Great Train Robbery” started the huge motion picture industry.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains.

Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of researchers.

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States.

Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen thirty-one. In the months before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one thousand ninety-three.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty.

I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

VOASE0316_In the News

16 March 2007

Presidential Candidates Crowd the Field for a Long Race to November '08
Campaign for the White House is seen as the most wide open in many years.

Download
Download
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Who will be the next person to live here?

The next presidential election in the United States is in November of two thousand eight. But a crowd of candidates and possible candidates is forming early for what is seen as one of the most wide open races in many years.

The last election without a sitting president or vice president as a candidate was either in nineteen fifty-two or nineteen twenty-eight. Political experts disagree. In any case, President Bush is constitutionally barred from a third term. And Vice President Dick Cheney says he will not be a candidate for president.

Every president and vice president has been white and male. The current group of candidates includes a woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton; an African-American, Barack Obama; a Latino, Bill Richardson; and a Mormon, Mitt Romney.

The diversity may not mean much to people who are waiting to hear more about candidates' positions. But others may feel conflicting loyalties. A black teenager in Washington, D.C., is excited that she will be old enough to vote in her first presidential election. She says that as a woman, she hopes Hillary Clinton will win. But as an African-American, she hopes Barack Obama will win.

"I'm in, and I'm in to win," says Hillary Clinton. The New York senator and former first lady is the most popular Democrat. But Senator Obama of Illinois has gained on her with a following that some call "Obamamania."

Another popular Democrat is John Edwards, the two thousand four vice presidential nominee. Also in the race are Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, Representative Dennis Kucinich and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

In the race for the Republican nomination, some early studies show former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in the lead. He gained national attention after the September eleventh, two thousand one, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Other Republicans include Arizona Senator John McCain and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. They also include former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is popular among Republicans. But he says he will wait until September to decide whether he will run.

Chuck Hagel announced that he too will make a decision later this year. The Nebraska senator is known for his criticism of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. Sam Brownback is the only declared Republican candidate who has spoken out against the recent troop increase.

The presidential nominating process involves state primary elections and party meetings known as caucuses. A lot of states are moving to vote earlier than they have, in an effort to increase their influence.

California is the most populous state. Yet Californians were feeling disrespected by candidates because of their June primary. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just signed legislation to move it to February fifth, a day when many other states may also vote.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember.