Top Stories
UN calls for further Syrian cooperation The United Nations Security Council unanimously called on Syria to detain suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The resolution stopped short of threatening sanctions in the event of non-compliance. Bush nominates Alito to U.S. Supreme Court U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito of New Jersey as Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court in a formal announcement on Monday.

Featured story
Japan likely to change law to allow female heirs to the throne Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi suggested yesterday that the government would submit a draft allowing female heirs to the Japanese Throne.

Wikipedia Current Events
3 Palestinian militants die following an Israeli attack in the West Bank city of Jenin. 6 US Soldiers die in two separate insurgent attacks. In Germany, Social Democratic Party chairman Franz Müntefering announces his intention to retire after the party convention on November 14. The decision came after his candidate for Secretary General of the SPD, Kajo Wasserhövel, lost to left-wing candidate Andrea Nahles. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announces his fifth cabinet. Shinzo Abe, former Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Chief Cabinet Secretary and is widely speculated to be Koizumi's chosen successor. Economic advisor Heizo Takenaka becomes Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications. A report published by the Pentagon suggests that since 2004 around about 26,000 Iraqi people have been either killed or injured in attacks by insurgents. Reports indicate that 40 people have died following a US Air raid near Karabilah in Western Iraq. The military says it was a targeted strike against Al Qaeda, whereas doctors treating the injured and dead said the dead were all civilians, including many women and children. The Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi tries to distance himself from the US President George W. Bush and claims that he "tried on several occasions to convince the American president not to wage war". A Catholic priest, Father Athanase Seromba, denies charges of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The Spanish telco Telefónica announces a £18 billion deal to buy the British mobile network operator O2 plc.

UN calls for further Syrian cooperation
Today, the fifteen-member United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for Syria to cooperate fully with the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC). The Security Council demanded that Syria detain suspects indentified by the UNIIC until such time as they could be questioned. The resolution warns of "further action" if Syria fails to cooperate with the investigation.

Ministers from the United States, Britain, and France, were circulating a draft of the resolution with stronger wording on action in the event that Syria failed to cooperate. After the vote US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said: "With our decision today, we show that Syria has isolated itself from the international community through its false statements, its support for terrorism, its interference in the affairs of its neighbours and its destabilising behaviour in the Middle East."

Russia and China had signaled they opposed wording the resolution in a way that threatened sanctions. Chinese Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing, told the council, "The commission itself believes that the investigation is yet to be completed and there is no final conclusion. Under such circumstances it is inappropriate for the council to prejudge the outcome of the investigation and to threaten to impose sanctions."

The final wording was endorsed by all 15 members of the Security Council.

Hurricane Beta makes landfall in Nicaragua
Hurricane Beta hit the Nicaraguan coast early on Saturday, sending powerful rain and winds their way.

Although it lost some speed during landfall, Beta was still a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of up to 110 Mph (175 kph) and was expected to dump up to 15 inches of rain. Residents from the local coastal fishing villages rushed into flimsy makeshift shelters as the hurricane approached.

"We had a very bad night. The water leaked in, the children were cold. They brought us here without telling us anything. We don't have food or water," Norma Smith, a mother of six, said on Sunday morning.

Neighboring Honduras declared a national emergency, and planned to evacuate 125,000 people. However, residents in the isolated coastal regions are usually wary of outsiders, and many failed to heed the warnings.

"These people do not believe in danger until they really feel it," said Col. Mario Perez-Cassar, the head of Nicaragua's civil defense.

Emergency officials say there have been no deaths so far, but the projected path of Beta takes it straight across Nicaragua, raising the posibility of lethal mudslides in mountainous areas.

Beta, which was not expected to hit the United States, was the 13th hurricane this year, more than any Atlantic season on record. This season has also seen more storms than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851. The previous record of 21 was set in 1933.

Last week Tropical Storm Alpha formed, the first time a letter from the Greek alphabet has been used because the list of storm names was exhausted.

Bush nominates Alito to U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito of New Jersey as Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court in a formal announcement at 8 a.m EST (13:00 UTC) this morning.

Bush called Alito one "of the most accomplished and respected judges in America" and stressed that he has "more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years."

Alito is currently a judge at the 3rd Circuit Appeals Court in Philadelphia. He is viewed as a staunch conservative and has been compared to current Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.

The nominee, when and if confirmed, would succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who announced her retirement in July. This latest nomination process was made necessary when Harriet Miers withdrew herself from consideration after being met with harsh criticism among Democrat and Republican lines alike.

The debate over the conservative candidate is expected to be largely partisan, unlike the Harriet Miers nomination that was widely criticized by both legislative parties for her lack of judicial experience.

Alito, 55, has served on his circuit court since 1990 and was orginally nominated by President George Herbert Walker Bush.

IBM partners with Google to produce a corporate desktop search program
IBM and Google have partnered to start production on a desktop search program for corporate users.

Previously, IBM's OmniFind could only look inside standard applications such as Oracle, and Google's Desktop Search program didn't have any extensive network capabilites. The end product of this collaboration will allow for searching managed databases, as well as many unmanaged files, such as personal e-mails, Microsoft Word documents, and rich media files, within corporate servers.

"Getting these two products together makes sense for both of us," David Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business unit. "If you want to have a good corporate search product, you have to have desktop search," he said.

No exchange of money has been made between the two companies, and this announcement comes only a few weeks after Google announced its partnership with Sun Microsystems, Inc. Some speculate that Google is making a move to directly challenge Microsoft Corp. in the field of PC Desktop software.

Bush narrows choice to Supreme Court
Reuters is reporting that President Bush is expected to announce his choice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court on Monday.

The Chicago Tribune reports that President Bush narrowed his short list of Supreme Court nominees to two, with a possible third. The two top individuals in consideration are Judge Samuel Alito of New Jersey and Judge Michael Luttig of Virginia. Judge Priscilla Owen of Texas may remain as a third possibility. Reuters late Sunday also listed Appeals Court Judges Michael McConnell, Edith Jones and Alice Batchelder as possibly under consideration. CBS added that the list may include Appeals Court Judge Karen Williams and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan.

The nominee, when and if confirmed, would succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who announced her retirement in July. This latest nomination process was made necessary when Harriet Miers withdrew from consideration.

Since Congress returned from summer recess, there have been significant changes at the court. When Justice O'Connor originally announced her intention to retire, President Bush nominated Judge John Roberts to replace her. However, when Chief Justice Rehnquist died in September from thyroid cancer, Roberts became the replacement for the Chief Justice.

Both Alito and Luttig are viewed by many as staunch conservatives with strong qualifications. The debate over either conservative candidate is expected to be largely partisan, unlike the Harriet Miers nomination that was widely criticized by both legislative parties for her lack of judicial experience.

Samuel A. Alito, age 55, has served as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia since 1990. J. Michael Luttig, age 51, has served as a judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond since 1991. Both were orginally nominated by President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Today in History
1512: The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (pictured) was re-painted in fresco by Michelangelo.

1521: Ferdinand Magellan led the first European expedition to navigate the Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.

1755: A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed Lisbon, and killed over 100,000 people in Portugal and Morocco.

1954: The "Front de Libération Nationale" began the Algerian War of Independence against French rule, with guerrilla attacks in various parts of Algeria.

1963: The Arecibo Observatory, with the world's largest radio telescope, officially opened in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

November 01 is Independence Day in Antigua and Barbuda (1981), Diwali in Hinduism (2005), All Saints' Day in Catholicism, Day of the Dead in Mexico.

Quote of the Day

I am everything

—Tonight I'll be your mother —

I will

Do such things to ease your pain —Free your mind and you won't feel ashamed.

~ Sophie B. Hawkins ~

About Wikinews
We are a group of volunteer journalists whose mission is to create a diverse community where citizens from around the globe (including you) can collaborate to report the news on a wide variety of current events. By making our content perpetually available for free redistribution and use, we hope to contribute to a global digital commons. Got news and no computer? Call the Wikinews Hotline +1-866-653-4265 (toll-free in the U.S.) +1-202-742-5918 (outside the U.S.)
License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Articles published in this Print edition were created by Wikinewsies. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor San Francisco, California, 94105, USA
About Wikinews Print Edition
For more information about Wikinews Print Edition visit: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Print

Tuesday, November 1, 2005	Wikinews	Page 3

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit www.wikinews.org

November 1, 2005	The free-content news source that you can write!	Page 3

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit en.wikinews.org

Wikinews Back Page

2005-10-31T20:11:55