Suspect Admits Killing Swedish Foreign Minister; Foiling Aircraft Terror Attacks Isnt Rocket Science; Enrons Fastows to Plea Bargain; Research Says Ozone Limits May Still Pose Risk

Suspect Admits Killing Swedish Foreign Minister

The man suspected of killing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh has admitted committing the fatal stabbing on September 10. According to a BBC News Online story, Mijailo Mijailovic, a 25-year-old Swede of Yugoslavian origin, was arrested on 24 September and initially denied the killing. Lindh was a popular politician in Sweden, who had been seen as a potential prime minister. She had been trying to persuade Swedes to vote in favor of joining the European single currency, an act voters ultimately rejected. According to an AP report posted on The New York Times, Mijailovics lawyer said in an interview with Swedish radio, that Lindh’s stabbing wasn’t political but didn’t give a motive. When asked if it was a random act, he said, You could say that.Foiling Aircraft Terror Attacks Isnt Rocket ScienceBoston Globe. The Bush administrations look-good feel-good approach to air transport security leaves the country in grave danger, they say. The sensible course is to use already proven technologies and operational procedures to build a truly secure air transport security system. One element of this system would be aimed at greatly increasing the situational awareness of crews on aircraft in flight. The other element would be technical and procedural steps that could make it nearly impossible for an aircraft to be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

If there is a next attack with a commercial airliner that kills thousands of people, it will not be the result of clever, ruthless and maniacal enemies; it will be the result of our own failure to protect ourselves by means that are already well within our reach, write two MIT scientists in an Op-Ed piece in todays

Enrons Fastows to Plea BargainHouston Chronicle, former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and his wife, Lea, a former assistant treasurer at Enron, are negotiating plea bargains that could send them to federal prison. Federal prosecutors are discussing a 10-year sentence for Andrew Fastow, and the plea bargain for a five-month term offered to Lea Fastow, which fell through in November, is back on the table. U.S. District Judge David Hittner must agree to Lea Fastow’s plea bargain. Despite the negotiations, the judge has not withdrawn his order that 250 prospective jurors be called to the courthouse Thursday morning to see if they are fit to serve as jurors in Lea Fastow’s Feb. 10 trial on six criminal charges, the Chronicle reports. And U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt would have to sign off on Andrew Fastow’s plea bargain. He faces nearly 100 charges and has asked the judge to move his trial out of Houston, preferably out of the state. It is likely the Fastows would be forced to pay restitution.

According to a sory in todays

Research Says Ozone Limits May Still Pose RiskUnited Press International story today, new research suggests the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit on emissions of lung-damaging ozone gas—which some groups have called too strict—actually could be underestimating the health risks ozone poses. While ozone high up in the atmosphere helps protect the planet from damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun, on the ground it is one of the chief ingredients of smog, and according to atmospheric chemist Daniel Jacob of Harvard University, the number one air pollutant in the United States. “The standard EPA uses [80 parts per billion] actually does not protect the population to the level it’s supposed to, Jacob told UPI. In the short run, ozone inflames the lungs much like a sunburn. Long-term effects are not fully known. The U.S. Treasury Department, the American Trucking Association and the White House Office of Management and Budget are among those who have protested the EPAs standards, with complaints focused on the multi-billion-dollar price tag industries must pay to comply.

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