Article 9 of the current Constitution which dates back to 1921 reads: "Every law requires the approval of the Prince in order to gain legal validity." In the revised article of the government's draft a second sentence is added: "If there is no approval within six months, it is considered as turned down." The Constitutional Commission of Parliament had suggested to allow the possibility of a plebiscite in those cases in which the Prince refused his approval. A majority in a national vote should then suffice for a law to gain legal validity. However, this "overruling regulation" would not apply to law which dealt with the legal standing of the Prince.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:08 PM

A Treasury Board report distributed to all government departments advises that travel reports and hospitality expenses of cabinet ministers and political staff are no longer public information.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 12:47 PM

Google does not allow pop-up ads of any kind on our site. We find them annoying. So why do they occasionally appear when you search on Google?

Posted by at January 28, 2002 12:27 PM

Czerwonka says staffing shortages are to blame, but that the problem only occurs sporadically; the last time being on New Year's Day.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 12:01 PM

Posted by at January 28, 2002 11:09 AM

"There is needlessly, I think, a lot of tossing out the coffee cups. They are becoming an eyesore," says Gillan.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 10:08 AM

"The secretary of state has requested that you reconsider that decision," White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote yesterday in a memo to Mr. Bush. "Specifically, he has asked that you conclude that GPW [Geneva Convention II on the Treatment of Prisoners of War] does apply to both al Qaeda and the Taliban. I understand, however, that he would agree that al Qaeda and Taliban fighters could be determined not to be prisoners of war (POWs) but only on a case-by-case basis following individual hearings before a military board."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:45 AM

Possible Portrait of the Anthrax Perpetrator

• Insider in US biodefense, doctoral degree in a relevant branch of biology
• Middle-aged American
• Experienced and skilled in working with hazardous pathogens, including anthrax, and avoiding contamination
• Works for a CIA contractor in Washington, DC area
• Has up-to-date vaccination with anthrax vaccine
• Has clearance for access to classified information
• Worked in USAMRIID laboratory in the past, in some capacity, and has access now
• Knows Bill Patrick and has probably learned a thing or two about weaponization from him, informally
• Has had training or experience in covering evidence
• May have had an UNSCOM connection
• Has had a dispute with a government agency
• Has a private location where the materials for the attack were accumulated and prepared
• Worked on the letters alone or with peripheral encouragement and assistance
• Fits FBI profile
• Has the necessary expertise, access and a past history indicating appropriate capabilities and temperament
• Has been questioned by FBI

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:43 AM

...foreign-exchange speculators often seem to trade at least as much on psychology as on economic analysis, and the government of Prime Minister Jean Chrtien actually seemed to welcome a lower dollar.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:20 AM

The defence is compiling a mountain of newspaper clippings and radio transcripts about Operation Printemps 2001, last spring's police sweep. More than 100 people were arrested as suspects in the gang's drug-distribution and money-laundering networks.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:17 AM

In any ranking of Canadian prime ministers, there is Sir John A. Macdonald and there are the others. But Robert Borden is among the great ones, not only because of his resolute wartime leadership, but his continuous and persistent assertion of Canadian sovereignty.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:12 AM

[Dr. Carolyn Bennett] noted that there was only one woman ° Susan Whelan ° among the 10 new members of cabinet. And she told the reporter that the image of six men lined up to become secretaries of state sent the wrong message to Canadian women because the new group was dominated by "white male faces."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:10 AM

Power shutdowns have become increasingly common in Russia as Unified Energy Systems tries to collect unpaid bills from government agencies, including the military.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:04 AM

U.S. special forces on Monday stormed a hospital where al-Qaida gunmen had barricaded themselves for nearly two months and had threatened to blow up the facility if anyone tried to remove them.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:02 AM

Today, United Poultry Concerns' President, Karen Davis, called Larry Brayman, the Director of Corporate Affairs for CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's franchises, to inquire whether the "nuggets" ad will be removed, as UPC, other animal advocacy groups, and many California and non-California residents have requested. Mr. Brayman said the company plans to continue running the ad, which shows men poking around the body of a live chickens, looking for the bird's "nuggets." The ad implies an anal search of the chicken's body and is completely offensive. It models itself on scenes of gang rape and on a medical examination of one's body that no one would consent to have publicly aired.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 09:00 AM

"Anyone who insinuates that I dye my hair insinuates that I always lie," Mr Schroeder is reported to have said.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:58 AM

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies to give employees 60 days notice before mass layoffs or a plant closing, was originally intended to help blue-collar workers deal with plant shutdowns. Now, laid-off tech workers are finding out that it can apply to them as well, and they're taking action.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:57 AM

As he left Kabul on the weekend, Karzai told reporters that he intends to press for a larger multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. He wants more troops, as well as a promise that the soldiers will stay on past June °© when Karzai's temporary administration is replaced by a government chosen by a grand council.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:56 AM

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:53 AM

Angela Migally, a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, said the war on terrorism had "a chilling effect" on donations to Palestinian causes. She said that her group at Penn wanted to contribute to a charity that said it built playgrounds in Bethlehem but that students feared the foundation might turn up on a list of terrorist fronts and that contributors might draw unwelcome attention.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:50 AM

The Canadian Association of Journalists and the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists, in a joint submission to all parliamentarians released on the weekend, decried actions of the media giant as "a disturbing pattern of censorship and repression of dissenting views."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:39 AM

Mr. Yunas said he had found a piece of paper showing an American flag on the windshield of one of the compound's destroyed trucks. Large letters on the paper read, "God Bless America," and in one corner, someone had written: "Have a nice day. From Damage, Inc."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:36 AM

It is still unclear whether the helicopter, carrying General Mikhail Rudchenko - the man in charge of security in southern Russia - exploded in mid-air or crashed on landing north-west of the capital, Grozny.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:34 AM

Gates could probably buy Haiti without a mortgage, but he isn°Øt looking to rescue a particular country. His goal is to bridge the most fundamental gap separating the poor countries of the world from the rich ones: the gap in human health. His manner doesn°Øt betray a lot of softhearted emotion; he rocks slightly as he talks, using eye contact only as punctuation. He speaks more freely of strategies than goals, and seems more moved by numbers than by anecdotes. But the numbers are daunting and he knows them by heart. Infections that can be prevented or treated for pennies are killing 11 million people every year. Two billion lack access to basic, low-cost medicine, such as penicillin. As U.S. life expectancy approaches 80, some 27 countries have yet to achieve life expectancies of 50.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:31 AM

This site is designed to keep you informed about our efforts to stop this transaction. It includes the independent analysis of our financial advisor, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, LLC, press releases and the latest SEC filings. If you have any questions please call our proxy solicitor, MacKenzie Partners, Incorporated, at 1-800-322-2885.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 08:14 AM

This letter may be as a surprise since it is coming from someone you may have not met before. My name is Kenneth Lay, and I was the chairman of the world's largest energy trading company on paper. However, I have now resigned that position so as to become a civil advisor to the Nigerian National Petroleum Ministry (N.N.P.M.) and make you aware of a situation here in Nigeria with which your assistance could be vital.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 07:01 AM

A compilation of 555 numbers from movies, television and radio.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 06:58 AM

...last November [Ashcroft] and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson staged a major event in the Great Hall, to announce their plans for restructuring the Justice Department to address the new challenge of fighting terrorism. Many papers the next day used a photo of the attorney general with ° you guessed it ° Minnie Lou and that breast right over his shoulder.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 06:56 AM

> Lindgren wrote some 30 books and several plays, many of which have been made into films, television series, radio shows and cartoons.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 06:03 AM

Ottawa's Rideau canal, the world's longest outdoor skating rink, is the consistency of a daiquiri. It is the first time in 32 years that the five-mile-long canal has not opened by mid January.

I saw the "ice sculptures" yesterday. They looked like a snowplow left them.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 05:55 AM

"We have been very successful in making bio-gas from pig waste, so our next step is to try it on human beings," Piyasvasti Amranand, head of Thailand's energy policy office, told Reuters.

Posted by at January 28, 2002 05:49 AM

Neuroscientist Jean Decety of France's Institut de la Sant et de la Recherche Mdicale and a visiting professor at the University of Washington's Center for Mind, Brain & Learning heads up the study along with and developmental psychologist Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the center. "This work is important because imitation is a natural procedure. We don't learn to imitate. It is part of our biological nature and we are born to imitate," said Decety. "A 3-year-old feels empathy and will pat another child on the shoulder or comfort his mom when she's crying," Meltzoff said. "We believe empathy has roots early in life. It may be linked to imitation, which we know babies do from a very early age."

Posted by at January 28, 2002 05:47 AM