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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

What happened today November 28th?

Events


1095 - On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appoints Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse to lead the First Crusade to the Holy Land.
1443 - Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja, in Middle Albania and raise the Albanian flag.
1520 - After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
1582 - In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage licence.
1660 - At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.
1729 - Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez.
1785 - The Treaty of Hopewell is signed
1821 - Panama Independence Day. Panama separates from Spain and joins the Great Colombia.
1843 - Ka Lahui: Hawaiian Independence Day - The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.
1862 - American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General John Blunt defeat General John Marmaduke's Confederates.
1895 - The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours.
1905 - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin as a political party whose goal is the independence of Ireland.
1907 - In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater.
1912 - Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
1914 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
1919 - Lady Astor is elected to be the first female to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.She was not the first to be elected.That was Countess Markievicz.
1920 - The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks opens.
1920 - Kilmichael Ambush Battle of the Irish War of Independence
1925 - Country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM.
1942 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 491 people.
1942 - Roll out of the first B-24 Liberator made in Ford's Willow Run plant.
1943 - World War II: Tehran Conference - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy.
1944 - Albania is liberated by the Albanian partisans.
1958 - Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.
1960 - Mauritania becomes independent of France.
1964 - Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.
1964 - Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that US President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.
1965 - Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
1969 - The final episode of BBC soap-opera The Newcomers is broadcast.
1969 - The Rolling Stones release the album Let It Bleed.
1974 - John Lennon performs onstage at Madison Square Garden in New York City with Elton John, as a result of losing a wager that his song "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" (which Elton also played and sang on) would hit #1 on the pop chart (on November 11). This would also be Lennon's final concert appearance.
1975 - East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.
1975 - As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.
1979 - The Mount Erebus disaster: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
1979 - Billy Smith becomes the first goalie in NHL history to score a goal in a game.
1980 - Mark Morris, choreographer, puts on the Mark Morris Dance Group's first show at the Merce Cunningham Studios.
1982 - Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.
1984 - Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made honorary citizens of the United States.
1987 - South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.
1987 - Tawana Brawley is allegedly raped by six white men, some of them police officers, in Wappingers Falls, New York.
1989 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power.
1990 - Margaret Thatcher formally tenders her resignation to The Queen and leaves Downing Street for the last time. John Major is elected her successor.
1994 - Voters in Norway reject European Union membership (see Norwegian EU referendum, 1994).
1994 - In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by an inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium.
1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.
1997 - Kosovo Liberation Army, Albanian guerrilla group fighting for freedom of Kosovo, presents in front of the people of Kosovo.
1998 - The people of Albania voted for their new Constitution in a referendum
2000 - Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz begins the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
2000 - The eighth tar drop falls in the University of Queensland pitch drop experiment.
2002 - 13 people are killed in a hotel bombing in Mombasa.
2004 - Male Po'o-uli dies of avian malaria in Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct.
2005 - The Official Opposition (Conservative Party of Canada, New Democratic Party, and Bloc Québécois) bring down the 38th Minority Liberal Government of Canada in a vote of non-confidence forcing immediate campaigning for the 39th Federal Election.


Births


1489 - Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV of Scotland (d. 1541)
1570 - James Whitelocke, English judge (d. 1632)
1598 - Hans Nansen, Danish statesman (d. 1667)
1628 - John Bunyan, English cleric and author (d. 1688)
1632 - Jean-Baptiste Lully, French composer (d. 1687)
1640 - Willem de Vlamingh, Flemish sea captain
1661 - Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British Governor of New York and New Jersey (d. 1723)
1681 - Jean Cavalier, French protestant rebel leader (d. 1740)
1700 - Nathaniel Bliss, Astronomer Royal (d. 1764)
1757 - William Blake, British poet and artist (d. 1827)
1772 - Luke Howard, British meteorologist (d. 1864)
1785 - Achille Charles Léon Victor, duc de Broglie, Prime Minister of France (d. 1870)
1792 - Victor Cousin, French philosopher (d. 1867)
1793 - Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, Swedish romantic poet (d. 1866)
1805 - John Stephens, American archeologist (d. 1852)
1810 - William Froude, British engineer and naval architect (d. 1879)
1820 - Friedrich Engels, German philosopher (d. 1895)
1821 - Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, Russian poet (d. 1878)
1829 - Anton Rubinstein, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor (d. 1894)
1837 - John Wesley Hyatt, American inventor of celluloid (d. 1920)
1853 - Helen Magill White, first American woman to earn a Ph.D. (d. 1944)
1864 - James Allen English writer (d. 1912)
1864 - Lindley M. Garrison, American lawyer, U.S. Secretary of War from 1913 through 1916 (d. 1932)
1866 - Henry Bacon, American architect (d. 1924)
1881 - Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (d. 1942)
1887 - Ernst Röhm, Nazi official (d. 1934)
1895 - José Iturbi, Spanish pianist (d. 1980)
1896 - Lilia Skala, Austrian actress (d. 1994)
1896 - Dawn Powell, American writer (d. 1965)
1904 - Nancy Mitford, British essayist and satirist (d. 1973)
1904 - James Eastland, American politician (d. 1986)
1907 - Alberto Moravia, Italian writer (d. 1990)
1908 - Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist
1911Václav Renč, Czech poet, dramatist and translator (d. 1973)
1912 - Morris Louis, American abstract expressionist painter (d. 1962)
1915 - Evald Okas, Estonian painter
1916 - Mary Lilian Baels, Princess of Rethy, Belgium (d. 2002)
1923 - Gloria Grahame, American actress (d. 1981)
1925 - József Bozsik, Hungarian international footballer (d. 1978)
1927 - Chuck Mitchell, American actor (d. 1992)
1929 - Berry Gordy Jr., American record company owner and founder of Motown
1931 - Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)
1931 - Tomi Ungerer, French graphic artist, and author
1932 - Ray Perkins, Canadian singer (The Crew-Cuts)
1933 - Joe Knollenberg, U.S Congressman from Michigan
1935 - Prince Hitachi, second son and sixth born child of the HIM Shōwa Emperor and HIM Empress Kōjun
1936 - Gary Hart, American politician
1938 - Michael Ritchie, American film director (d. 2001)
1940 - Bruce Channel, American singer
1941 - Laura Antonelli, Italian actress
1942 - Paul Warfield, American football player
1943 - Randy Newman, American composer and musician
1944 - R.B. Greaves, pop singer
1946 - Joe Dante, American film director and producer
1947 - Michel Berger, French songwriter (Starmania) (d. 1992)
1949 - Alexander Godunov, Russian composer and ballet dancer (d. 1995)
1949 - Paul Shaffer, Canadian orchestra leader and musician
1950 - Ed Harris, American actor
1950 - Russell Alan Hulse, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1952 - S. Epatha Merkerson, American actress
1953 - Sixto Lezcano, baseball player
1955 - Adem Jashari, Albanian freedom fighter
1955 - Alessandro Altobelli, Italian footballer
1957 - David Van Day, British singer (Dollar)
1958 - Dave Righetti, American baseball player
1959 - Judd Nelson, American actor
1961 - Martin Clunes, British actor
1961 - Alfonso Cuarón, Mexican film director
1961 - Jane Sibbett, American actress
1962 - Paul Dinello, American comedian and actor
1962 - Jon Stewart, American comedian, actor, and television host
1962 - Matt Cameron, American drummer (Pearl Jam)
1963 - Walt Weiss, American baseball player
1964 - Cornelia Guest, American debutante
1965 - Erwin Mortier, Belgian author
1965 - Matt Williams, baseball player
1966 - Sam Seder, American comedian
1967 - Anna Nicole Smith, American model and television personality
1967 - Stephnie Weir, American actress and comedienne
1968 - Dawn Robinson, R&B singer (En Vogue)
1969 - Robb Nen, American baseball player
1969 - Lexington Steele (Clifton Britt), American adult film actor
1971 - Rob Conway, American professional wrestler
1972 - Paulo Figueiredo, Angolan footballer
1973 - Jade Puget, guitarist, (AFI)
1974 - András Tölcséres, Hungarian footballer
1974 - Styles P (David Styles), American rapper
1977 - DeMya Walker, American basketball player
1977 - Fabio Grosso, Italian footballer
1978 - Freddie Mitchell, American football player
1978 - Mehdi Nafti, Tunisian footballer
1978 - Brent Albright, American professional wrestler
1979 - Chamillionaire (Hakeem Seriki), American rapper
1979 - Joel Maximo (Kelvin Ramirez), American professional wrestler
1979 - Daniel Henney, Korean model-actor
1980 - Stuart Taylor, British footballer
1982 - Leandro Barbosa, Brazilian basketball player
1984 - Andrew Bogut, Australian basketball player
1984 - Mary Elizabeth Winstead, American actress
1988 - Scarlett Pomers, American actress

Deaths

741 - St. Gregory III
1170 - Owain Gwynedd, King of Gwynedd
1262 - Shinran, Japanese religious leader (b. 1173)
1290 - Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I of England (b. 1241)
1574 - Georg Major, German protestant theologian (b. 1502)
1585 - Hernando Franco, Spanish composer (b. 1532)
1667 - Jean de Thévenot, French traveller and scientist (b. 1633)
1675 - Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh, English Civil War soldier
1675 - Leonard Hoar, American President of Harvard University (b. 1630)
1680 - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian baroque sculptor (b. 1598)
1680 - Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Italian architect and painter (b. 1606)
1694 - Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet (b. 1644)
1695 - Giovanni Paolo Colonna, Italian composer
1695 - Anthony Wood, English antiquarian (b. 1632)
1698 - Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France (b. 1622)
1794 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (b. 1730)
1801 - Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, French geologist (b. 1750)
1815 - Johann Peter Salomon, German violinist, impresario, and composer (d. 1745)
1852 - Ludger Duvernay, French printer and newspaper publisher (b. 1799)
1859 - Washington Irving, American writer (b. 1783)
1870 - Frédéric Bazille, French painter (b. 1841)
1872 - Mary Fairfax Somerville, British scientific writer (b. 1780)
1878 - Orson Hyde, American religious leader (b. 1805)
1907 - Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish dramatist, poet, painter, and architect (b. 1869)
1912 - Walter Benona Sharp, American oil tycoon (b. 1870)
1915 - Mubarak Al-Sabah "The Great", Emir of Kuwait (b. 1896)
1921 - `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian leader of the Bahá'í Faith (b. 1844)
1935 - Erich von Hornbostel, Austrian musicologist (b. 1877)
1939 - James Naismith, Canadian creator of basketball (b. 1861)
1945 - Dwight F. Davis, U.S. Secretary of War and donor of the Davis cup (b. 1879)
1947 - Philippe Leclerc, French general (b. 1902)
1954 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
1960 - Richard Wright, American author (b. 1908)
1962 - Queen Mother Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (b. 1880)
1963 - Karyn Kupcinet, American actress (b. 1941)
1968 - Enid Blyton, British children's author (b. 1897)
1972 - Havergal Brian, British composer (b. 1875)
1973 - Marthe Bibesco, Romanian writer (b. 1886)
1976 - Rosalind Russell, American actress (b. 1907)
1977 - Trevor Bardette, American actor (b. 1902)
1983 - Christopher George, American actor (b. 1929)
1986 - Herb Vigran, American actor (b. 1910)
1987 - Choh Hao Li, Chinese biochemist (b. 1913)
1992 - Sidney Nolan, Australian painter (b. 1917)
1993 - Jerry Edmonton, Canadian drummer (Steppenwolf) (b. 1946)
1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (b. 1960)
1994 - Jerry Rubin, American activist (b. 1938)
2000 - Liane Haid, Austrian actress (b. 1895)
2001 - William Kienzle, American author (b. 1928)
2001 - Kal Mann, American lyricist (b. 1917)
2002 - Dave "Snaker" Ray, American blues musician (b. 1943)
2003 - Antonia Forest, British children's author (b. 1915)
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UK: Brussels to slow Turkey entry talks

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Turkey will on Wednesday be told that its membership talks with the European Union should be slowed down sharply – but not stopped – as a punishment for its failure to open up its trade.
José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, is expected to outline tougher-than-expected repercussions for Turkey’s failure to open its ports to ships from Cyprus this year, as the EU had demanded.
The Commission’s proposal is expected to please countries such as France and Germany which wanted to send a strong signal to Ankara to fall into line.
British and Nordic diplomats were on Tuesday night bracing themselves for disappointment. They had hoped Mr Barroso would recommend the lowest possible level of punishment to keep Turkey’s membership bid on track.
Diplomats in Brussels said they expected the Commission would recommend that Turkey would not be allowed to start detailed membership talks on a number of areas – or chapters – related to Turkey’s failure to open its ports.
Britain and other supporters of Turkey said this ban should apply to only three out of the 35 negotiating chapters: those relating to the customs union, transport and the free movement of goods.
But diplomats in Brussels said on Tuesday night they expected the Commission to put between six and nine chapters out of bounds, in a move which is expected to infuriate Turkey.
“There is a question about whether Turkey might decide to walk away,” warned one EU diplomat. Another said that Ankara was likely to react in an unpredictable way if the number exceeded six.
Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, has the task of judging where to strike the balance between rebuking Turkey for failing to honour its commitments to open its ports to Cyprus – an EU member – and ensuring that Ankara stays at the negotiating table.
He also has to assuage many critics of the EU’s enlargement strategy, like France and Germany, which want to see the Union get tougher with candidates who do not stick to the rules. A final decision is due by member states on December 11.
Turkey defends its decision not to lift its embargo on Cypriot ships and aircraft because of what it says is the EU’s failure to end the isolation of the ethnically Turkish northern Cyprus.

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Japan: Cities seek to punish parents dodging meal fees

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The Yomiuri Shimbun
Some municipalities have begun taking legal action against parents who are financially able to pay their children's fees for school meals, but chose not to.
In July 2005, a man pulled up in a luxury imported car to a municipal primary school in Utsunomiya and told the principal that he did not have to pay his grandson's school meal fee. The school had contacted the boy's family numerous times because his meal fees had gone unpaid.
"Some mothers who have delayed their payment carry brand-name handbags. They say they'll pay, but the promise is never kept," said a principal of a different primary school in Utsunomiya.
The number of parents not paying fees for school meals at public primary and middle schools began going up in 2002 in Utsunomiya. Total unpaid school meal fees in the city reached 9.3 million yen in fiscal 2005.
At first, the schools patiently asked parents to pay, but after the man in the luxury car visited the school, the city's Board of Education began discussing taking legal action over the problem.
In September, the municipal office filed with the Utsunomiya Summary Court and other organizations to start collection procedures against 40 delinquent parents and guardians. It filed for provisional execution on Nov. 1 on seven who failed to pay even after receiving a court-ordered demand.
"I can't pay because I had to pay for repairs to my car," one guardian who failed to pay for his child's meal told an official at the Kure municipal Board of Education in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Some refuse to pay, saying the meal is part of a child's compulsory education.
In Nemuro, Hokkaido, the cost of unpaid school meals grew from 2.96 million yen in fiscal 2003 to 3.09 million yen in fiscal 2004 and 3.61 million yen in fiscal 2005.
The city's association on school meal fees, which is responsible for fee collection, in July sued three guardians who failed to pay for several years.
Two of the guardians settled their cases by agreeing to pay in installments, but the remaining one, who forfeited the case by failing to appear in court, has yet to pay.
What has brought on the reluctance of parents to pay for their children's meals?
"Economic development brought on a great increase in consumption and has encouraged individuals to indulge their desires. As a result, more and more people only think of themselves and this has lowered the level of discipline and morals in guardians," said Takahiko Furuta, the head of Research Institute for Contemporary Society.

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Palestine: Palestinians apprehensive about CIA money

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Occupied Jerusalem - Palestinian nationalist and Islamic leaders have strongly denounced efforts by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and affiliated foreign aid bodies to recruit Palestinian journalists, politicians and certain political groups to work against the Islamic group Hamas.Western news agencies on Friday reported that the US was quietly starting a campaign projected to cost up to $42 million to bolster Hamas’s political opponents ahead of possible early elections.The plan includes funding the Fatah group, providing training as well as offering “strategic advice” to politicians and some liberal secular parties opposed to Hamas. Some of the funds will also go to journalists as well as radio and TV stations that agree to work against Hamas by portraying the Islamic movement in bad light.A knowledgeable source in Ramallah intimated that some of the money would go to fund the launching of an anti-Hamas satellite TV station in the West Bank , “We know very well that American money goes hand in hand with American agenda. We also know that unclean money goes to unclean parties and unclean politicians and unclean journalists,” said Hassan Khreishe, deputy-speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.Khreishe, who was abducted from his home by the Israeli occupation army in July and imprisoned for several weeks, accused the American administration of “wanting to morph the Palestinian society into a mercenary society.”“The Americans claim that this money will restructure certain Palestinian political parties, but I’m sure that the opposite will happen. These bribes will only corrode, corrupt and eventually destroy these parties since they will lose whatever respect and stature among the Palestinian masses.”Veteran Fatah leader and former lawmaker Hatem Abdul Kader concurs.“I have no doubt that any party or even individual receiving money from external sources will incur the wrath of the Palestinian people and suffer immense social and political damage.“It would be a virtual political suicide.”Abdul Kader said he didn’t think that “the real Fatah” will allow itself to be corrupted by CIA money.“I am not sure about the authenticity of the report. It could be that things are blown out of proportion.”Hamas leaders have castigated “the CIA conspiracy” against the Palestinian people.“They are trying to buy off a few political mercenaries here and there. But I assure them that our people are not stupid and naïve. America ’s agents, like Israel ’s agents, will be thrown away like you dump a filthy rug into the garbage container,” said Ibrahim Suleiman, a Hamas spokesman in Al-Khalil district.“ America ’s agents and collaborators are being discarded everywhere in the world. Do you think they will prosper here in Palestine ? Have the Palestinian people forgotten what America has been doing and is doing to them?”US officials, while acknowledging the existence of the “aid program,” have none the less sought to downplay the growing controversy surrounding it.US Consol General in Jerusalem Jacob Walles was quoted by Reuters as saying that “there is nothing new here. The U.S. has operated programs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for many years to promote development of political parties and civil society organizations.”Earlier this year, the US reportedly paid several millions of dollars to finance the election campaigns of several Fatah and other candidates. The affair, then reported widely in the occupied Palestinian territories, proved embarrassing for the candidates and some observers contend might have contributed to their defeat by Hamas candidates especially in local electoral circles. This week, the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute, which is closely affiliated with the State Department, held talks with the leaders of Fatah and a number of other non-Islamic politicians on how they could improve their performance in any prospective election.One advice being offered is how Fatah could emulate Hamas’s election tactics by running fewer candidates per district and by fielding religious-looking women to campaign door-to-door especially with conservative households. According to reliable sources in Ramallah, the $42-million fund is part of a larger American scheme aimed at strengthening PA President Mahmoud Abbas not only against Hamas but also against his opponents within Fatah, including supporters of the Tunis-based Farouq al-Qaddumi, the more-or-less nominal chief of the Fatah movement.
Qaddumi is firmly against the dissolution of the current Hamas-led government. He also strongly condemned the burning by Fatah activists of government buildings in Ramallah a few weeks ago.Abbas’s Presidential Guard has already received a significant amount of light weaponry such as assault rifles and ammunitions, all in coordination with Israel .
Last week, Gaza journalist Imad Afaneh reported that a shipment of four containers of Russian-made rifles and ammunitions arrived from Israel via the Nahal Oz (or Mintar Crossing) and headed for the headquarters of Presidential Security at Ansar in Gaza City .The weapons reportedly were handed to Fatah activists and cadres with many rifles sold at reduced prices. The report has been denied by PA presidential spokespersons, who described it as “speculations.”
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New Zealand: Bono makes emotional plea

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U2 frontman Bono has made an emotional plea for One Tree Hill to be replanted.

His Irish supergroup became passionate about the Auckland landmark after their Kiwi roadie Greg Carroll took them there in the early '80s.
When the Wanganui sound engineer died in a motorbike accident, Bono wrote the song One Tree Hill in his honour and dedicated the album on which it appeared, The Joshua Tree, to Greg.
Bono was gutted to return more than a decade later to find the tree gone.
The 125-year-old Monterey pine was felled in October 2000, six years after Maori activist Mike Smith attacked it with a chainsaw.
Standing where the tree once dominated the Auckland skyline, Bono said: "Somebody plant a tree on that beautiful hill.
"Someone take some seeds up there."
U2's return to New Zealand - for packed concerts last night and Friday at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium - coincided with the 20th anniversary of Greg's death.
Reminiscing about the Kiwi roadie he loved like a brother, Bono told fans: "We spent some time here when our friend was lost in a car accident.
"We went to the tangi - the funeral for Greg.
"It was a really important and very moving occasion to be with him and his family.
"I've often thought that if in Ireland we had that, I'd have been there for a few weeks when my father Bob died."
U2 played One Tree Hill at both their Mt Smart Stadium gigs.
The band's manager Paul McGuinness, whose sister Katie dated Greg, said it would not be possible to play Auckland without the song.
"We asked Greg's family to come as our guests. We've kept in touch with them."
Greg hooked up with U2 when they were in the country in 1984 on their Unforgettable Fire tour.
He joined as a soundman, and became Bono's personal assistant, touring Europe and North America.
Greg, nicknamed G-Dub, was knocked off his motorbike by a drunk driver and killed in Dublin in 1986. He was 26.
A devastated Bono, drummer Larry Mullen and several members of the U2 entourage brought his body back to New Zealand for his tangi at Kai iwi Marae, near Wanganui.
The three-day tangi was led by Greg's uncle, Maori music legend Dalvanius Prime. Bono read a poem and sang.
Dalvanius' sister, Barletta Prime, said: "It was just so fabulous of the band to bring him home."
Greg's aunt Barletta said he loved the time he spent with U2.
Greg was a devoted member of the Ratana Church, and after the tangi Bono and Larry visited the religion's temple, Te Temepara, before heading back to Auckland to visit One Tree Hill which Greg loved.
At the time, Bono said: "In the short time we had together Greg became flesh and blood, he felt like my brother.
"He was one of those guys of whom you say, `He's too good for this world.'
"We haven't and I don't think we will ever get over his loss."

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South Africa: Nearly 1,4 Million South Africans test for AIDS

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More South Africans are voluntarily getting counselled and tested for HIV with figures rising annually, the Department of Health said on Tuesday.Spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said 1 715 588 people utilised the free voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services between April 2005 and March 2006."The trend is that it seems to be doubling every year," he said.In 2005/06, 1,7-million people received pre-HIV test counselling and 80%, or 1 374 638, volunteered for HIV tests.In 2004/05 one million participants were counselled and 866 000 tested.Thirty-five percent, or 479 086, people tested HIV positive in the last financial year, but this does not reflect prevalence within the general population, Mngadi said.This is because the participants are a small percentage of the total population."That 35% should not be interpreted as suggesting the prevalence for the general population," he said.Department ante-natal surveys, showing positive rates amongst pregnant clinic users of about 30%, are also adjusted to project figures of about 10% for the total population, he explained."What is critical for us is to make sure everybody participates and goes for a test. People shouldn't only go for a test if they are ill, it should become part of taking action to know our HIV status. That will give us the rate of the general population." About four million people have used the services since 2000 and the uptake is attributed to awareness campaigns that encourage people to know their status.Provincial figures show the greatest participation in the North West and lowest in the Northern Cape.The highest HIV-positive rate is in KwaZulu-Natal, with 47% of 310 215 people tested being infected and lowest in the Western Cape with 18% of 146 669 testing positive.Mngadi said 4 172 VCT points are operational in medical and non-medical sites in all nine provinces and 90% of government clinics.The national annual budget is nearly R26-million.In 2003/04, 690 000 people were counselled and 511 000 tested.Good progressResearch towards an Aids vaccine is progressing well, the executive director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Tuesday."There's a lot of intensive research and we are hoping for some breakthrough in the near future," said Professor Barry Schoub at the official opening of the NICD in Johannesburg.The institute's HIV/Aids unit is its largest research department. It is currently investigating resistance to antiretroviral drugs, including nevirapine, commonly used to prevent mother-to-child transmission. It is also developing assays (a procedure for measuring the biochemical and immunological activity of a sample) to detect possible novel mutations in HIV-1 subtype C viruses. These are predominantly responsible for the epidemic in South Africa and are relatively understudied compared to subtype B, circulating in Europe and the United States. The institute now also boasts a recently refurbished maximum security, biosafety level-four laboratory where research on viral haemorrhagic fever and the Ebola and Marburg viruses is conducted.Speaking at the launch, the deputy director general in the Health Department, Dr Kamy Chetty, said the department will continue to support the NICD financially.She said the institute's epidemiology division plays an important role in detecting and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases. It has a 24 hour hotline that gives advice to clinicians and public health officials who needed advice on communicable diseases. The NICD is a branch of the National Health Laboratory Service. It was formed in 2002 by the amalgamation of the National Institute for Virology and the microbiology laboratories of the South African Institute for Medical Research. -- Sapa

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Malaysia: Election Commission asked to investigate registration of phantom voters

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KUALA LUMPUR: Marang Umno division chief Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar has called on the Election Commission to investigate the registration of phantom voters in the Rhu Rhendang seat in Marang, Terengganu.
Abdul Rahman, who is Marang MP and Deputy Human Resources Minister, claimed that PAS had brought in hundreds of phantom voters.
He said he lodged a report with the Terengganu state EC on Nov 6, when he found 541 additional voters registered in the constituency.
“The Marang Umno division has been monitoring the situation since June – we find the number of phantom voters rising every day,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here on Tuesday.
“PAS is bringing in phantom voters because they want to retain the state seat.”
He said the phantom voters were mostly from Selangor, Klang, Petaling Jaya, Kuantan and Penang

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Cuba: Comienzan celebraciones por el 80 aniversario de Fidel

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Con la inauguración de una nueva muestra gráfica en la Casa Guayasamín ubicada en La Habana Vieja, comenzaron las celebraciones en Cuba por el 80 cumpleaños del presidente cubano Fidel Castro, organizados por la Fundación Guayasamín.
La Casa, inaugurada en enero de 1993 por el propio Fidel, representa un hito en la larga y profunda amistad que unió al líder y al pueblo cubanos con el artista.
Desde principios de la década del 90 la vieja casona de Siglo XVIII ubicada en Obrapía y Mercaderes fue una escala obligada en cada uno de los viajes del Maestro a la isla y también escenario de encuentros con amigos. Aquí se conserva aún la mesa y el caballete donde pintó el último de los cuatro retratos que le realizó al Comandante: “el hombre al que más trabajo me ha costado dibujarle el alma”, solía decir.
No es extraño entonces que la Fundación que lleva su nombre decidiera comenzar estos días de homenajes (incluye además el Coloquio Internacional: Memoria y futuro, Cuba y Fidel y la III edición del concierto Todas las voces, todas) con la donación de unas 60 reproducciones de obras a esta Casa, vitrina permanente de la vida y la obra del Pintor de América.
Las serigrafías, aguafuertes, litografías y otras de técnica mixta pertenecen a las series La edad de la ira y La edad de la ternura y fueron traídas desde Quito, Ecuador, para enriquecer la exposición permanente que se exhibe ya en las diferentes salas de la casona.
“Yo sé lo que significó esta Casa en la vida del Maestro, aseguró en la ceremonia inaugural Eusebio Leal, historiador de la Ciudad, pues él la escogió cuando estaba en ruinas no solo para ayudar a salvar algo de lo más entrañable del patrimonio de la nación cubana; sino para, de alguna manera, quedarse en Cuba”.
“Nosotros sentimos que Guayasamín está en cada una de las cosas que nosotros hacemos”, aseguró a Trabajadores Maruja Monteverde, primera esposa del pintor; mientras su hija Saskia Guayasamín comentó estar satisfecha con los preparativos:
“Esto de celebrarle el cumpleaños a Fidel fue algo que planificamos con mucho tiempo para que no se nos fuera a negar, narra. Primero le hablamos personalmente y luego mi hermano Pablo, Presidente de la Fundación y mi esposo, Alfredo Vera, le entregaron una carta.
“Después continuamos insistiendo por teléfono y con cartas hasta que, quizás por cansancio, nos dijo: Sí, hagan lo que quieran”. Nosotros le habíamos festejado cumpleaños anteriores, uno en Quito, el 62; otro en La Habana, el 70 y pensábamos que el 80 debía resonar en todo el mundo.”
“Creo que esta es también la oportunidad que tienen los cubanos de rendirle honores porque nunca antes había aceptado un homenaje de este tipo. Luego de la repentina muerte de mi padre, ocurrida en 1999, comprendí que a las personas hay que hacerles saber cuánto se les quiere y eso es lo que estamos haciendo.”
En la inauguración, a la que asistieron el ministro de cultura Abel Prieto y algunas de las personalidades cubanas y extranjeras invitadas a las celebración, también tuvieron lugar el estreno mundial de Tránsito, una creación de Isabel Busto, coreógrafa ecuatoriana residente en Cuba y directora del grupo Retazos y la apertura de la exposición Encender la luz del mestizaje del joven pintor ecuatoriano José Luis Río Frío.

(See also: http://www.trabajadores.cubaweb.cu/)

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Cook Islands: Queen Krystina glad to be home

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Winning the Miss South Pacific pageant was never an easy thing to do and Krystina Kauvai will be the first to tell you that she is loving being back home.She was back at work yesterday, behind her desk at Portcullis TrustNet (Cook Islands) Limited, minus the crown and sash - back to normal as one would say."It feels so great to be back home. Apart from work, it's such an awesome feeling not having to do 'anything' or worry about things such as talent practice, question and answer sessions and costume making," says Kauvai. In Samoa last week, Kauvai won the Miss South Pacific crown, presented to her by former holder and fellow Cook Islander Dorothea George.When the prizes were being announced, Kauvai thought she may come in as the second runner up because she didn't win any of the judged sections. "I didn't mind that much because I don't believe that a competition is all about winning. Winning is only a bonus to a competitor and within me, I felt very confident that I had done the best that I possibly could in all sections I participated in - so to me this was an achievement on its own," says Kauvai. However, she did win and actually broke what was somewhat of a trend - the runner up Miss Cook Islands winners winning the South Pacific title instead of the actual Miss Cook Islands.In fact, Kauvai's achievement extends to her being the first to win the Miss Tiare (2002), Miss Cook Islands and now Miss South Pacific.And we are lucky Kauvai titles made it as far as joining the Miss Cook Islands, because after her first pageant it didn't seem like she was heading back there again. "Pageants are not easy, there is a lot of hard work involved, stress and tears that go into it and a lot of our people think that if you have the looks or a good figure, you'll be successful - it's not that simple. You require a lot more than just the looks," she says.Helping her through this entire experience has really been her faith in the Lord and the support from family and people dear to her. "The Miss South Pacific pageant I must say was quite difficult and stressful but throughout the pageant I was constantly praying and putting things into God's hands, believing that what ever the outcome was for this pageant, it was part of His plan for my life," she says.Those plans will now include Kauvai being a part of the South Pacific Games, not as an athlete however. The deputy prime minister of Samoa announced and confirmed at the prizegiving ceremony that Kauvai will be required to be back in Samoa next year to help host the South Pacific Games.See Saturday's CINews for more from Krystina Kauvai about her Miss South Pacific experience. - Tara Carr
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