BILL AGAINST ARAB TERRORISM PASSES

Story 1-EU Boates and Rapid reaction forces to Spain. Story 2-ARAB TERRORISM PASSES. Story 3-Venezuala quits G-3 block. Story 4-Weather Sattelite launched.

EU force to stem African migrants

Constant Brand in Brussels and Associated PressWednesday May 24, 2006The Guardian
The EU will deploy planes, boats and rapid reaction aid teams from its member states to deal with African illegal migrants trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands, officials said yesterday. EU justice and home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini said the EU "will provide operational support as fully as we can to the Spanish government to deal with an urgent and difficult situation. He said the EU's external border security agency, Frontex, would send two emergency coordination teams to the Canary Islands, which has been at the receiving end of illegal migrants coming from western Africa.

Spain's deputy prime minister, Teresa Fernández de la Vega, said her government and the regional authorities on the Canary Islands could no longer cope and needed emergency help as quickly as possible.The Brussels talks took place after immigrants - more than 1,500 in the past week, including small children - made their way to the Canary Islands. Mr Frattini said Frontex would also coordinate, in the coming weeks, surveillance planes and boats drawn from eight EU member states to prevent the migrants from making their way to Europe.

The EU-mandated mission would patrol the coast off western Africa down to Gambia and Senegal, from where most of the migrants are sailing. Mr Frattini said EU governments, including Spain, would be able to benefit from joint EU repatriation flights. Ms Fernández de la Vega said Madrid hoped to set up so-called reception centres with other EU nations in transit countries Mauritania and Senegal, used by migrants to get to Europe, as an additional measure.

HR 4681 Passes the House: Brit Tzedek's Opposition Heard on House Floor

After months of opposition, delay, and alteration, the House of Representatives passed HR 4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. Despite widespread international dismay over Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections, this punitive legislation took nearly three and a half months to pass the House, and the more moderate Senate version is currently stalled in committee. In addition, a significant number of Representatives spoke out against the bill and resisted enormous pressure to vote "yes.

Undoubtedly, the opposition of pro-Israel organizations like ours, together with serious concerns expressed by the US Administration, helped delay and improve this legislation. Thousands of Brit Tzedek supporters called, emailed, and faxed their Representatives urging them to vote against HR4681. Our voice was heard: Brit Tzedek was mentioned from the podium of the
House floor four times during the course of debate and our talking points were read into the Congressional record by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH).

Venezuela quits G3 trade bloc www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-24 10:02:29

CARACAS, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela has officially withdrawn from the G3 trade group, a regional economic bloc consisting of Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the G3 trade bloc was bound by a "neo-liberal" treaty, not an accord designed to boost complementary trade, as it had originally been devised.

Venezuela and other Latin American nations seek agreements based on solidarity and collaborative work, but not on competition, to address each other's needs, it added. On Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that his country had decided to quit the trade bloc with Colombia and Mexico to formally become a member of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). The president said his country decided to drop out of the trade bloc to safeguard the national interests. Enditem.

New breed of weather satellite launchedGOES-N spacecraft has more storm-watching capability,John Raoux / AP

A Boeing Delta 4 rocket with a weather satellite payload lifts off from Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Wednesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After months of delay, NASA on Wednesday launched a next-generation weather satellite that will allow forecasters to better pinpoint severe storms and investigate world climate change. The GOES-N satellite took off at 6:11 p.m. ET on a Boeing Delta 4 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The last time a Delta 4 rocket flew, a test flight of the rocket's heavy-lift model in December 2004, it failed to put a dummy satellite into its intended orbit.

A launch scheduled last August was scrubbed after an alarm indicated low voltage on batteries that power the system allowing the rocket to transmit data to ground stations, including its location. The delay was the latest in a series of setbacks dating back to last May. The GOES-N is a step in the development of the GOES family of weather satellites, designed and built by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 1975. It is the first in a series of three new satellites. It's not revolutionary ... but it has evolutionary improvements said Steve Kirkner, GOES program manager for NOAA. "What this will provide is better knowledge
... better information. The satellite carries instruments that will be able to transmit high-resolution images, infrared data and temperature and moisture profiles of the atmosphere.

The instruments allow meteorologists on the ground to take images of weather problem spots and improve short-term forecasts locally. The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, but the satellite likely won't be in use for at least two years. The opportunity to talk about a new GOES launch is almost like talking about Christmas, from the standpoint of having another operational tool for us to add to our arsenal in the fight against hurricanes, tornadoes and other types of severe weather," said Steve Letro, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Jacksonville. GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellites.