Rangoon - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday he was “hopeful” the military junta would honour its pledges to allow expert help to cyclone-ravaged Burmese. But 25 days after the tragedy, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama and foreign aid experts complained the regime was already backtracking on a promise to give access for international workers.
The military government has yet not allowed free access of international aid to reach cyclone victims, said Mr Noppadon. The junta is “insisting on case-by-case consideration” for all requests to help, he told the Thai News Agency in a telephone call from Rangoon.
He said the international conference pledged to donate money for 2.4 million survivors. Burmese officials said they want $10.7 billion in assistance for long-term reconstruction.
Mr Ban spoke at the close of the United Nations-Asean sponsored pledging conference held in Rangoon.
Commenting on the junta’s promise to facilitate access for international aid workers to stricken areas such as the Irrawaddy delta, Ban said: “I sincerely hope that they will honour their commitment.”
Ban said there had not been an outpouring of pledges for aid to Burma and that the UN would launch a flash appeal in June.
“This effort will have to continue. I don’t think we have completely agreed on everything,” he said.
“I hope this marks a new spirit of cooperation between the Myanmar government and the international community,” he added. Ban uses the junta’s name for Burma.
Most donor nations on Sunday stopped short of making new pledges for relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis as they awaited more details on access and accountability, but observers described the meeting as a step forward.
“It was a reasonable success,” said Frederich Hamburger, European Union Ambassador to Burma and Thailand, of the conference almost three weeks after Cyclone Nargis smacked into the country’s central coast leaving at least 133,000 people dead or missing.

bangkokpost.com

MADRID (AFP) — The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro said in an interview published in a Spanish newspaper on Saturday that Cubans should be free to leave the country as they wish.
Cubans have to seek advance authorisation to travel abroad and the communist authorities in Havana prevented Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez from travelling to Madrid this week to receive a top journalism prize from Spain’s El Pais daily.
“It is not necessary to deprive people of their right to leave. I think we should grant permission to all those who want to leave,” Mariela Castro said in reply to a question about the desire for Cubans to be allowed to travel freely, in an interview with La Vanguardia.
“People can leave, but with a great amount of difficulty,” admitted the sexologist who defends the rights of gay and lesbian minorities but who says she does not seek a political role in her homeland.
She believes her father, who in February succeeded his ailing older brother Fidel — the 81-year-old revolutionary icon — wants to usher in reforms but “slowly.”
“We do not want to install a consumer society, but to produce the goods and the services that people need,” Mariela Castro said.
She added that Cuba’s Communist Party was far less rigid than it once was but would remain in power as long as Cuba was a “besieged country,” a thinly-veiled reference to the United States and US sanctions.
The Spanish daily El Pais in April cited an unnamed government official as saying Raul Castro will give a green light soon to migration reform, simplifying exit and entry permits and ending the requirement for people to get permission to leave the country.
The potential shift would be the most momentous to date by the 76-year-old president, who took office in February and has ended several smaller prohibitions.

afp.google.com

Northwestern South Dakota might appear to be on the road to nowhere. That would - and would not - be true since mixed in with the miles of wide-open ranch terrain you’ll find Highway 85, the “Can-Am Highway,” which stretches across the U.S. into Canada.
Also, you’ll find a few, scattered units of the Custer National Forest. With the consolidation of Forest Service units, this one’s headquarters are clear over in Billings, Mont. Yes, it’s quite a ways from anywhere. Facilities are almost non-existent with little to no usage.
Therefore, I loved the area.
Especially the Slim Buttes unit, located between Buffalo and Bison (that highway sign made for a cute photograph). In July of 2007, my summer road trip had wound its way from Wyoming’s Big Horn Mountains back to Slim Buttes to take part in a Passport in Time (PIT) volunteer archaeology project.
For the third year, I would be part of a team under rock art expert Linea Sundstrom’s watchful eyes. This time around we would do interviews with ranchers to get oral histories of the area. (I figured I should be able to do an interview, right?), plus doing a pedestrian survey.
Linea had given me the OK to arrive Wednesday morning. After setting up camp late Tuesday in the unknown area, the next morning dawned to a bunch of familiar faces. Linea and her husband, Doris, Larry and Lonnie… plus new people.
This location featured the Battle of Slim Buttes, which occurred Sept. 9 and 10, 1876. A monument by the road marks the area, since the battlefield itself is on private land.
A sign stated: “Following the disastrous battles of the Rosebud and Little Big Horn (Custer) in Montana in June 1876, the Sioux, save Gall and Sitting Bull with 400 lodges who went to Canada, and Crazy Horse and his band, in the main, started to drift back to the agencies on the White and Missouri Rivers burning the grass as they went.

hometown-pages.com

WELL, you have to laugh. According to the leader column in a national newspaper, and I won’t name it, other than to say that there is a “Daily” and a “Mail” in there somewhere, we are suffering from a “Leftish-leaning monoculture in Britain”.
And it’s all the fault of the BBC.
Not for the first time, I am forced to wonder if other people watch the same BBC as I do.
The one I gaze at with half a bloodshot eye leans towards tawdry populism at times, what with all these dancing celebrities and would-be musical stars. But politically, it plays everything more or less straight, and if it does wander we are talking about nuances rather than deliberate bias.
The general liberal-mindedness might annoy some people, especially if they are sitting down to write a leader article on a rightwards-tipping newspaper, but it isn’t the same thing as leaning to the left.
What got the leader writer agitating was a suggestion that the BBC should give some of its licence fee to struggling commercial television companies, including Channel 4 and ITV.
This strikes me as a bad idea, because what sense can it make to tip publicly raised funds into a big private hole? It won’t improve matters much for the commercial companies, and it will damage the BBC, which, for all its faults, is still something this nation should cherish.
Sadly, such a move would fit with this Government’s peculiar private-is-good mantra, which is increasingly to be heard in the “honest-it’s-not-privatised” NHS.
But here’s a thought: if private business is so good and wonderful at everything, where do they find all those bumbling berks on The Apprentice? Then again, perhaps that show is all part of a Leftish BBC plot designed to make private business appear ridiculous.
Anyway, the leader writer glowering at the BBC opined that slicing off some of the licence fee and giving it to other broadcasters would be an “excellent idea”. Rather more worryingly, this frowning middle-aged grump who catches the train in each day from somewhere nice in the Home Counties - well, it’s a guess, but that’s how I imagine him or her - also supported a parallel proposal being floated by the Tories.

yorkpress.co.uk

Initially pegged as a 5.4 earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey revised its estimate to give it a value of 5.2. The quake was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. Trembling was also felt in Chicago, Cincinnati and Des Moines, Iowa.
Randy Hines with the U.S. Geological Survey in La Crosse says as of 9:30am, there were 20,000 reports of tremors being felt in a five-state area covering 2,100 zip codes. Hines says the tremors were even felt as far away as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Davis says his office received calls from sheriff's departments in Rock, Dane and Kenosha counties looking for information about what happened.
Diane Strozyk lives in apartment in downtown Milwaukee near the lakefront. Strozyk says she was sleeping and woke up when the tremor hit about 4:37 a.m. Strozyk says she felt shaking for about 20 seconds and thought she was dreaming and that someone was shaking the bed.
NewsChannel 8 will have much more on the earthquake tonight in our 5:00 and 6:00pm newscasts.

wkbt.com

In the small hours of Monday March 12 1984, hundreds of Yorkshire miners moved across the border from Yorkshire into Nottinghamshire. Their destination was Harworth pit, and by the evening shift they had picketed it out.
Over the next few days, hundreds of Yorkshire pickets came down over the border again and spread out across the Notts coalfield. Their mission was to persuade Nottinghamshire’s miners to join them in a strike to stop the pit closures announced by the National Coal Board chief, Ian MacGregor. Their tactic was to picket Notts to a standstill.
In the great miners’ strikes of 1972 and 1974, miners had picketed coke depots and power stations. In 1984, for reasons which we examine, it had to be miners picketing out miners. That fact dominated and shaped the course of the strike.
Within hours, 1000 extra police had been thrown into Nottinghamshire against the picketing miners. Within days there would be 8000 extra police - highly mobile, centrally-controlled, semi-militarised police -moving - around the coalfields of Nottinghamshire.
The state had spent a dozen years preparing for this strike and everything had been made ready. Plans to beat mass picketing had been refined; police had been trained; special equipment had been assembled; and a national police nerve centre had been prepared and readied for action.
The Tory government had manoeuvred for years to avoid a premature battle with the miners. In 1981 sweeping pit closures were announced, and then withdrawn when a wave of strikes swept the coalfields. The Tories were determined that the battle would come when the government was ready and thought the time right. In 1981 they weren’t ready. The labour movement had not been softened up enough. So Thatcher backed off from a showdown with the NUM.
In 1984 they were ready. Now they would provoke the miners to fight back by giving them the alternative of surrendering and letting the NCB do as it liked with the industry.

workersliberty.org

Cincinnati Shriners for Children is the 2008 recipient of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council’s third annual Innovative Solutions Award.
The award was presented on March 6 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council at its 12th annual Solutions Conference and Expo.
The award was created to celebrate unique approaches to clinical or non-clinical hospital process improvements, patient care initiatives, or innovative/creative projects.
The Shriners won for its project to improve methods of evaluating pain in young children unable to talk, or patients too ill to talk.
“A significant percent of our patients population is too young or too ill to verbally communicate their pain,” said Marla Barone, nurse manager and team leader for the project.
She said by using the Shriners’ Observational Pain Assessment Scale, the hospital is able to improve pain assessment and management. The scale measures restlessness, muscle tension, facial expression, vocalization and wound guarding.
The Shriners’ project was one of 10 submitted by area hospitals for consideration.
McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford and The Christ Hospitals earned honorable mentions.
McCullough-Hyde was recognized for its Professional Development Assistance Program, which provides financial aid for education and training to people who will work at the hospital.
The Christ Hospital was acknowledged for The Heart Link Program, an initiative designed to help patients with congestive heart failure transition from the hospital to home.
For more information, call 513-531-0200
SCPA MAGAZINE HONORED
Pandora’s Backpages, a literary magazine produced by students at the School for Creative & Performing Arts, has been recognized by a national organization.
The National College of Teachers of English gave the publication an excellent rating in its 2007 National High School Literary Magazine Competition.
The publication featured creative writing, visual art and musical compositions. The students plan to expand the publication this year and rename it Journal of Creative Arts.

news.enquirer.com

After leaving the Orlando Magic and returning to Gainesville, one might wonder if the National Invitational Tournament was on UF coach Billy Donovan’s mind.
Take a guess.
But after back-to-back national titles and nine consecutive trips to the Big Dance, that’s exactly where he’s headed.
“That may be the path we need to go,” Donovan said. “These guys may need to be totally humbled in a way.”
When the Gators (21-11) ducked out 80-69 to Alabama in the first round of this year’s Southeastern Conference Tournament, the team showed its lack of humility and maturity in the opening minutes.
UF came out barely breathing and fell behind 14-0 to an Alabama squad just two games above .500.
Similar to the loss against Kentucky less than a week before, the Gators didn’t play desperate until they truly were, and as in all walks of life, desperation is just steps away from failure.
“They manhandled us,” center Marreese Speights said. “We came out playing soft and we paid for it.”
The Gators failed to bring the proper disposition and fell behind 30-5 at one point, and 46-23 heading into intermission.
UF was a pathetic 9 of 31 from the field in the half and allowed Alabama players Richard Hendrix and Mykal Riley to combine for 29 points, six more than UF.

read_more

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Asian stocks advanced, led by financial companies, after the world's largest bond insurers retained top credit ratings, easing concern that global economic growth will slow on new credit losses.
National Australia Bank Ltd. climbed after Standard & Poor's kept MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc.'s AAA debt ratings. Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. led gains in Hong Kong on speculation the city's record budget surplus will prompt the government to waive property taxes. Aeon Co. paced declines in Japan after Credit Suisse Group said worsening consumer sentiment will drag on retailers' earnings.
“It's a temporary boost for Asia,'' said Mushtaq Ibrahim, who manages about $1.4 billion at Amanah SSCM Asset Management Bhd. S&P's move “has prevented a snowballing effect that would have dragged down banks'' globally.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.4 percent to 146.02 as of 7:20 p.m. in Tokyo, trimming earlier gains of as much as 1 percent. Advances today helped reduce the benchmark's 2008 loss to 7.4 percent.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 0.7 percent to 13,824.72, reversing an earlier advance of 1 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8 percent, led by Woolworths Ltd., after the nation's biggest retailer reported increased profit.
Auckland International Airport Ltd. fell by a record in Wellington trading on speculation a Canadian pension fund's takeover offer will fail after a tax loophole was closed and the city's mayor rejected the proposal.
U.S. stocks staged their biggest rally this month yesterday, lifting the Standard & Poor's 500 Index by 1.4 percent.
National Australia Bank, the country's largest, climbed 3.4 percent to A$30.11. Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia's No. 1 securities firm, jumped 5.7 percent to A$58.64. HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank by assets, added 2.8 percent to HK$119.70, the biggest advance since Feb. 14.
MBIA is no longer under review for a downgrade by S&P, indicating the bond insurer is a step further away from losing its AAA insurance credit rating. Ambac, which ranks second to MBIA among bond insurers, is still being reviewed for a possible downgrade, the ratings agency said.
“S&P's move doesn't fix the problem completely, but it does buy some time to find solutions,'' said Yoshinori Nagano, who helps oversee about $70 billion at Daiwa Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.
Real-estate stocks climbed in Japan on speculation developers will be able to finance projects as the credit squeeze eases. The Topix Real Estate Index, which plunged 21 percent in the past three months and was the worst performer among the broader index's 33 industry groups, jumped 1.7 percent today.
Mitsubishi Estate Co., Japan's biggest developer by market value, surged 4.1 percent to 2,685 yen. Mitsui Fudosan Co., the second-largest, added 2.8 percent to 2,210 yen.
Sun Hung Kai, Aeon
Sun Hung Kai, Hong Kong's No. 1 developer by market value, advanced 4.1 percent to HK$135.70, halting a four-day, 6.9 percent retreat. Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd., the second biggest, rose 2.1 percent to HK$114.40.
Hong Kong will probably report a record budget surplus of HK$113 billion ($14.5 billion) for the year ended March 31, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. The government may waive property taxes for the full financial year, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP predicted.
Financial Secretary John Tsang is due to deliver his maiden budget speech tomorrow.
Aeon, Japan's second-largest retailer, declined 3.6 percent to 1,344 yen, halting a three-day, 5.2 percent advance. Lawson Inc., Japan's No. 2 convenience store operator, retreated 5.3 percent to 3,970 yen.
“Some retailers are struggling under sluggish sales as consumers tighten their purse strings,'' Dairo Murata, an analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a note to clients. “Consumer spending is unlikely to improve in the short term.''
Also in Japan, KDDI Corp. slumped 5.5 percent to 615,000 yen after Nomura Holdings Inc. cut its rating on shares of Japan's No. 2 mobile-phone operator, to “buy'' from “strong buy.'' Power producers fell after Nomura said companies may not be able to pass on higher raw materials costs to consumers. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Asia's biggest utility, lost 1.5 percent to 2,695 yen.
Woolworths gained 4.2 percent to A$30.23, the highest close since Jan. 29. First-half profit rose 28 percent after the Australian retailer won market share, cut costs to supply its supermarkets and added more profitable groceries.
ABC Learning Centres Ltd. plunged 43 percent to A$2.14, the biggest slump by percentage on MSCI's Asian index, on concern the world's biggest publicly traded owner of child-care centers will struggle to repay debt. QBE Insurance Group Ltd. slumped 10 percent to A$25.75, the biggest decline since Sept. 20, 2001, after Australia's biggest property and casualty insurer reported net income that missed analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Auckland Airport fell 13 percent to NZ$2.45 after Mayor John Banks said his city, the largest holder, won't support Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's offer and the government removed a tax deduction the fund manager had planned to use to recapitalize its investment.
In South Korea, Posco advanced 4.1 percent to 535,000 won. Asia's third-largest steelmaker is “very likely'' to raise prices for its products as early as March, Hyundai Securities Co. said in a report.
“Regional steel prices are exploding, driven by a powerful mix of surging costs and a steel shortage,'' HSBC analysts including Daniel Kang wrote in a report. “We expect this shortage to continue into the second quarter, driving further price hikes as mills look to recover massive cost increases.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Chen Shiyin in Singapore at schen37@bloomberg.net ; Chan Tien Hin in Kuala Lumpur thchan@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 26, 2008 05:24 EST

bloomberg.com