Half million Californians forced to flee wildfires; fossil record shows high temps correspond to mass extinction; China launches lunar probe...

24 October :: More than 500,000 Californians have been evacuated as wildfires blaze out of control, more than 1,000 structures destroyed; firefighters admit they cannot control the fires, can only hope at present to protect people; Gov. Schwarzenegger has warned the White House the fires are too vast to be dealth with by state agencies... UK researchers have found link between elevated global temperatures and mass extinction throughout fossil record; findings suggest escalating global temperatures could lead to a new mass extinction; Le Monde Diplomatique has reported UN figures showing high concentrations of CO2 correspond to highest temperature spikes... Sentence for Pinochet security forces chief extended 15 years; he has been found guilty of masterminding, ordering abduction of dissident last seen at Villa Grimaldi detention center in 1974... China launches unmanned orbiter, its first lunar probe; Japan has just put its first satellite into lunar orbit, with India planning to follow; some worry 'nationalism' in region fueling new 'space race', though for now there does not appear to be a plan to militarize... Turkey has admitted it launched airstrikes against PKK positions inside Iraqi Kurdistan, crossing as far as 20km into Iraqi airspace; pres. of Kurdish regional assembly, Iraqi pres. Talabani, also a Kurd, have called on PKK to renounce the use of violence; Turkish ground forces have allegedly made isolated incursions as well, through for now no large-scale ground invasion has occurred... NYT reports "In a report made public on Tuesday, a review panel found that there were too few American officials in Iraq to enforce the rules that apply to Blackwater and other security contractors. It also found that the conduct of the contractors had undermined the broader mission of ending the insurgency and establishing a democratic government in Iraq"... China, world's #2 oil consumer, tells OPEC oil prices are too high; contacts were part of OPEC-China 'roundtable' to help steer OPEC policy with regard to China's explosive growth in petroleum demand...

CA plans to sue EPA over emissions; Kurdish rebels offer truce with Turkey; Microsoft cedes to EU regulators...

23 October :: California attorney general Jerry Brown has said he plans to file suit against the EPA, for stalling permission for CA, 11 other states to force automakers to produce cleaner vehicles; suit aims to push emissions regulations designed to reduce threat/pace of human-induced global warming... Kurdish rebel group offers Ankara truce, saying "Our movement and people have the strength to defend itself under any condition; however, we prefer to solve the problems by democratic and peaceful ways rather than armed struggle"; Turkish gov't has explored launching cross-border raids against PKK rebels inside Iraq, US reported to be contemplating airstrikes against rebel positions inside Iraqi Kurdistan... Microsoft has surrendered to antitrust regulators in Brussels, after years of litigation and fines, agrees to free up dozens of patents for license-free consultation by developers; regulatory office says interoperability issues still remain, Microsoft is on warning that other cases are being looked at, dealing with DRM in Vista, 'integrated security' solution, browser functionality... NYT reports "More than a quarter of a million people were urged to flee their homes on Monday as wildfires ravaged Southern California for a second day, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and charring swaths of scrub and forestland"; the 'paper of record' also reported homes burning "with no firefighters in sight", as shifting winds, spreading fires made it difficult to strategically contain blazes... Scientists rush to get first glimpse of gravity waves, phenomena predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity, but which have yet to be observed in any astronomical event...

67% of Greeks believe wildfires arsonist conspiracy; RMT Union shuts down London transport; US negotiator says DPRK not 'de-listed'...

4 September :: Greece political climate soured by nationwide fires; 67% of those polled believe fires started deliberately by arsonist conspiracy, 31% say foreign entities, while 26% suspect property developers; Christian Science Monitor reports "European Commission's European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) estimates that 469,000 acres burned between Aug. 24 and 28 alone. The financial ministry now estimates the damage to be more than $1.6 billion, or 0.6 percent of Greece's GDP", while the Greek gov't is saying the fires appear to be part of an "asymmetric threat" plotted by unnamed conspirators; 6 people have been detained so far on arson-related charges; ecological experts, European officials say fires likely linked to extreme dry conditions, climate anomaly across southern Europe, poor land management tied to agricultural practices, and global warming... A strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) has halted Underground trains across London; authorities said trains were running with severe delays or not at all on all lines except the Northern and Jubilee; RMT says failed maintenance-service managing firm Metronet has not provided unequivocal guarantees not to lay off workers or cut pensions in future; another strike is planned by RMT after the current three-day strike, if Metronet does not provide signed guarantees... One day after North Korea's state-run news service reported it had been delisted by the US as a state sponsor of terrorism, in exchange for shutting down Yongbyon nuclear facility, US assistant sec. of State Chris Hill says no such thing has occurred, DPRK still listed as terror-backer, that other unnamed steps are required... La Vanguardia newspaper reports US security, biotech/health sectors seeing surge in investment, Washington, DC, locations, due to Iraq war, with gov't spending soaring, industrial concentration increasing around the funding capital, the Congress, and a massive and growing economic gap between the wealthy interests that rim the city and the inner-city poor that make up a large part of Washington's hometown population...