| White House 01 May 2007 |
DownloadPresident Bush has vetoed more than $124 billion worth of funding for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because the measure includes a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.
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| President Bush speaking at the White House, 1 May 2007 |
In a nation-wide address moments after vetoing the spending bill, the president called it a prescription for chaos and confusion.
"I believe setting a deadline for a withdrawal would demoralize the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East, and send a signal that America will not keep its commitments," said President Bush. "Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure. And that would be irresponsible."
Because the measure passed the House and Senate by close votes, it is highly unlikely opposition Democrats can find the two-thirds majority to over-ride this veto.
Still, Democratic leaders sent the doomed legislation to the White House Tuesday to show their opposition to what Senate majority leader Harry Reid says are U.S. troops mired in the middle of an open-ended civil war.
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| Senator Harry Reid (left) and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi |
"But if the president thinks that by vetoing this bill he will stop us from working to change the direction of the war in Iraq, he is mistaken," said Harry Reid.
A public opinion poll by CBS News and the New York Times says more than 70 percent of Americans disapprove of how the president is handling the war. Two-thirds of those surveyed support setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
President Bush says he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq as well, but only when the government there is better able to handle its own security.
Mr. Bush vetoed the legislation on the fourth anniversary of his much-publicized appearance on the deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln under a banner which read: Mission Accomplished. At the time, he told sailors that they had freed Iraq and made America more secure.
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," he said. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
Fewer than 200 Americans had been killed in Iraq when the president spoke four years ago. The death toll now is over 3,000.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says the United States and its allies did prevail in terms of toppling the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein. She accused Democrats of a trumped-up political stunt that is the height of cynicism for delaying the bill until this fourth anniversary of what has come to be known as the Mission Accomplished speech.
The president meets Wednesday with Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate to talk about how to move forward on new legislation to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
| State Department 01 May 2007 |
DownloadSenior U.S. and Japanese cabinet members Tuesday called on North Korea to immediately fulfill its part of the February six-party agreement on its nuclear program. The issue figured heavily in Washington talks Tuesday involving Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and their Japanese counterparts. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
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| Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, second from right, gestures during a news conference at the State Department in Washington 1 May 2007 |
Pyongyang was to have shut down its main reactor complex with 60 days of the March 13 agreement, under which North Korea committed to eventually scrapping its entire nuclear program, including weapons, in exchange for energy aid and other benefits.
But it has not yet closed the Yongbyon reactor, citing problems in collecting $25 million in frozen funds from a Chinese bank that had been sanctioned by the United States as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity.
Wrapping up talks involving herself, Gates, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma, Rice said the allies - both parties to the six-nation talks - want to see immediate North Korean action.
She said the process of freeing the North Korean money was more complicated than anyone had expected, but that the implementation process is not open-ended.
"We are going to continue to consult," she said. "We don't have endless patience. We do recognize that North Korea has continued to publicly affirm its obligation under the February 13 agreement, and to affirm its intention to carry through. We expect them to do so."
Ms. Rice did not say what would happen if the impasse continues.
However last weekend at a Camp David meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Bush said if the North Korea fails to make the right choice, there is a strategy to assure that pressure initially applied to that government becomes greater.
North Korea entered into the February nuclear deal a few months after being hit with strict U.N. Security Council sanctions for the nuclear test it conducted last October.
On other issues, Rice, Gates and their Japanese counterparts pledged to make steadfast progress on the sweeping agreement reached last year to realign U.S. forces in Japan in order to reduce the burden American bases pose to the country's population.
A U.S. Marine Corps air station is being moved from next to a busy city in Okinawa to a more remote location, and several thousand Marines are being shifted from Okinawa to Guam, a U.S. Pacific territory.
A joint statement issued here called the U.S.-Japanese security relationship the bedrock of Japan's defense and the keystone of peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.
It said North Korean provocations, including its nuclear test and missile launches last year, were stark reminders of the importance of transforming the U.S.-Japan alliance to ensure its continued effectiveness.
The statement also said it is a strategic objective of the two countries to encourage China to conduct itself as a responsible international stakeholder, to improve the transparency of its military affairs, and to maintain consistency between its stated policies and its actions.
Foreign Minister Aso reiterated concern over China's anti-satellite test in January, the first known test of a satellite-killer system in 20 years.
Defense Secretary Gates welcomed the Japanese decision, also in January, to elevate its defense agency to the status of a full ministry.
He said the move is a reflection of the importance Japan places on making a positive contribution to global peace and security.
| Dakar 01 May 2007 |
DownloadAs workers around the world mark May Day, in Liberia, a strike is ongoing at the rubber plantations of the Firestone tire company, highlighting long standing problems between the country's biggest private employer and its workforce. VOA's Nico Colombant has the story from Dakar, with additional reporting by Prince Collins in Monrovia.
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| Billboard of Firestone, Liberia's biggest private employer |
A protest leader, Ida Collins, expressed her dismay.
Several others were arrested. Protest leaders are asking for their release, as well as higher salaries and the removal of a top manager.
James Makor, a Monrovia human rights activist, says Firestone, a subsidiary of Japanese tire giant Bridgestone, has also prevented the establishment of a union independent of management.
"Firestone will do everything to suppress workers on grounds that they do not want rapid change into their system," he said. "They want their people to remain silent so they can use them as much as they want to, to maximize their own systems."
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| Firestone gets rubber the traditional way at its plantation in Liberia |
"Firestone when it started, there was a virtual agreement between it and the government of Liberia to recruit workers, illiterate workers from the interior, more or less on a forced labor basis, and the modifications have been minimal," explained Byron Tar, a former government official.
Information Minister Laurence Konmla Bropleh says that with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf now at the helm of Liberia it is not business as usual.
"The workers cannot be subjected to dehumanizing conditions, that is one aspect of it. The other aspect is how is management [is] treating them in terms of their employment circumstances," he said.
"The Ministry of Labor, and Ministry of Agriculture, are at the current moment working with Firestone to make sure these various concerns are hammered out and that the proper solutions have been in the interest of workers, yet understanding the Firestone investment needs to be protected. But we will not protect the Firestone investment at the detriment of the Liberian workforce," he added.
But some Liberian lawmakers, like Dave Kumeh, believe the government should be more pro-business and prevent any outbreaks of violence by workers.
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| Children of Firestone workers in Liberia also go to work |
Firestone's concession agreement was renegotiated during Liberia's post-war transitional period, but is being reviewed again.
The government is also looking into complaints chemicals from the plantations are causing serious environmental degradation to local waterways.
Officials from Firestone refused requests to be interviewed for this report. They have said they are continually striving to improve the conditions of the workforce and deny wrongdoing.
| Jerusalem 01 May 2007 |
DownloadThere is political turmoil in Israel after an official probe issued a damning report on the government's handling of last year's war in Lebanon. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, Israel's embattled leader is in the hot seat.
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| Israeli PM Ehud Olmert during a swearing in ceremony for incoming Israeli Police Commissioner David Cohen, 01 May 2007 |
The Prime Minister suffered a further blow when Cabinet Minister Eitan Cabel quit.
"Ehud Olmert must resign," Cabel said. "I cannot sit in a government headed by Ehud Olmert."
Cabel is a member of the Labor Party, the senior coalition partner in the government. Some members of Mr. Olmert's own Kadima party are also calling for his resignation, though most are standing behind the Prime Minister. Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter.
Dichter praised Mr. Olmert for the way he led the country in the months after former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a sudden, massive stroke in January of 2006.
Nevertheless, Mr. Olmert is taking the blame for Israel's failure to deal a knockout blow to some 5,000 Hezbollah guerrillas during a 34-day air and ground assault on Lebanon. The report said he acted hastily by going to war after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. It said he did not have a detailed military plan and did not ask for one.
"There were mistakes and failures...and they will be fixed," Mr. Olmert said. "But to resign, he added, would be inappropriate."
The Israeli public sees things differently. A poll shows that 69 percent believe Mr. Olmert should resign.
01 May 2007| Discovery Could Ease Blood Shortages in Hospitals | |
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DownloadThis is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Scientists may have found a way to reduce shortages of type O blood. Type O is the kind of blood that hospitals most often need. What the researchers are testing is an easier way to make type O blood out of other kinds of blood.
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| Health worker collects freshly donated blood |
Type O is known as the universal blood type. It can be safely given to anyone. So it is commonly used when a person is injured or sick and has to have a blood transfusion.
Type O is the most common blood group. But the supplies of it available in hospitals and blood banks are usually limited. This is because of high demand. Type O blood is used in emergencies when there is no time to identify the patient's blood type.
Giving A, B or AB to someone with a different blood type, including O, can cause a bad reaction by the person's defense system. Their immune system can reject the blood. This immune reaction can be deadly. For example, people may die if they receive transplanted organs from someone with the wrong blood type.
The difference between blood types is related to whether or not red blood cells contain certain kinds of sugar molecules. These molecules are found on the surface of the cells. They are known as antigens. These antigens are found with type A, B and AB blood but not with type O.
More than twenty-five years ago, scientists found that the antigens could be removed to create universal-type cells. They could be removed with chemicals called enzymes. But large amounts of enzymes were required to make the change.
Now, a report published in Nature Biotechnology describes two formerly unknown bacterial enzymes. The scientists say these enzymes remove the antigens more easily. To find these enzymes, the researchers examined more than two thousand five hundred kinds of bacteria and fungi.
Doctor Henrik Clausen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark led the study. He worked with researchers from France, Sweden and the United States.
The next step, they say, is to complete safety tests. The team is working with the American company ZymeQuest to test the new method. If it meets safety requirements and is not too costly, it could become a widely used life-saving tool to increase the supply of universal blood.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
01 May 2007| Discoveries Throw New Light on Stonehenge, but Mysteries Remain | |
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DownloadVOICE ONE:
I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
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VOICE ONE:
For thousands of years, the circle of ancient stones called Stonehenge has been one of the most mysterious places on Earth. Scientists say Stonehenge has stood in England for at least four thousand years. Millions of people from all over the world have visited the ancient monument.
Stonehenge is the best known of a number of such ancient places in Britain. It stands on the flat, windy Salisbury Plain, near the city of Salisbury, England. Early Britons built Stonehenge from bluestone and a very hard sandstone called sarsen. Experts believe the builders of Stonehenge knew about design, engineering and sound. These ancient people did not have highly developed tools. But they built a huge monument of heavy stones.
VOICE TWO:
Some of the monument's standing stones have lintel stones on top. The lintels lie flat on the standing stones. Most of the stones of Stonehenge stand in incomplete formations of circles. They differ in height, weight and surface texture. One of the largest stones weighed about forty thousand kilograms. Some stones are more than seven meters high. Other broken stones lie on the ground.
Work on Stonehenge may have started as early as five thousand years ago. Scientists believe it was completed over three periods lasting more than one thousand years. Archeologists have studied Stonehenge for many years. For centuries, people have questioned the meaning of the stones.
VOICE ONE:
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| A woman celebrates the winter solstice at Stonehenge last December 22 |
The huge monument did not stand alone. Stonehenge may have been part of a larger religious complex. The theory also proposes that people held events in the village and at Stonehenge to celebrate the change of seasons and honor the dead.
The scientific process of radiocarbon dating found that the village is about four thousand six hundred years old. The archeologists believe the inner circle of Stonehenge was also built at about that time. The timing led them to believe that the people of the village could have built Stonehenge.
VOICE TWO:
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| Durrington Walls |
Mike Parker Pearson was the main archeologist for the Stonehenge Riverside Project. Mister Parker Pearson said placing the plan of Stonehenge over that of the wooden structure at Durrington Walls proves the great similarity of design.
VOICE ONE:
The team of researchers discovered the remains of several houses. Mister Parker Pearson says his team found remains of stone tools and bones of humans and animals in the houses. The researchers also found jewelry and broken clay containers. The large amount of animal bones and pottery suggested that the people might have been taking part in a celebration. The floors had marks that showed where fires had been built.
Julian Thomas of Manchester University discovered the remains of two houses that were separated from the others. They lacked all the objects and remains found in the other houses. Mister Thomas said religious leaders might have lived in the two houses. Or the houses might have been religious centers. Study of the area is far from finished. As many as twenty-five or thirty houses may be found in and near Durrington Walls over time. The Stonehenge Riverside Project will last several more years.
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VOICE TWO:
Researchers believe that no people ever lived at Stonehenge. So the village might have provided places to stay for the people attending celebrations at Stonehenge. Many scientists believe the early people gathered in the area to mark the change of seasons -- the winter and summer solstices.
The winter solstice takes place when the sun reaches its most southern point. It is the shortest day of the year. The summer solstice happens when the sun reaches its most northern point. It is the longest day of the year.
VOICE ONE:
The researchers also found a stone road near Durrington Walls. The road is about thirty meters wide. It goes to the Avon River. A similar road goes from Stonehenge to the same river. Mister Parker Pearson said Stonehenge and the Durrington Walls area had many similarities.
For example, Stonehenge was in line with the sunset during the winter solstice. The wooden structure at Durrington Walls was in line with the sunrise that same day. The road from Stonehenge to the Avon River was aligned with the sunrise during the summer solstice. The road from Durrington to the Avon was in line with that day's sunset.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Parker Pearson said he believes the discoveries show that Durrington and Stonehenge may have represented the living and the dead. The temporary wooden circle at Durrington represented life. The permanent stone monument at Stonehenge represented death.
Mister Parker Pearson said he believes that the ancient people had celebrations at Durrington. Then they went down the road and placed human remains or dead bodies in the Avon River. The river carried the remains downstream to Stonehenge.
The people traveled by boat to Stonehenge. There they burned and buried the remains of the dead. Scientists have found evidence of funeral fires near the Avon River not far from Stonehenge. Earlier discoveries produced burned remains at Stonehenge. And the Stonehenge Riverside Project uncovered burned remains of about two hundred fifty people.
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VOICE ONE:
Joshua Pollard of Bristol University and his team discovered a sandstone formation that marked an ancient burial area. They found a sarsen stone almost three meters long. It was lying in a field next to the Avon River, about three kilometers east of Stonehenge. The scientists say it had been standing upright, like the stones that form the main structure of Stonehenge.
They also found partly burned remains of two people buried next to the stone. And they found stone tools, clay containers and a rare rock crystal. Mister Pollard said the crystal possibly came from as far away as the Alps mountains.
VOICE TWO:
Today, the work of the Stonehenge Riverside Project is increasing knowledge about ancient life in Britain. The research team says there is evidence from old maps and ancient sources for other similar monuments near Stonehenge and connected to it. Another theory says that people from other areas in Europe traveled to Stonehenge for the observances held there.
Some day, researchers may be able to tell the whole story of the ancient village and the stone and wood monuments. But until that day, Stonehenge and its ancient partners are keeping many secrets.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. You can read scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.
