Ralph Nader is launching a third-party campaign for president. The consumer advocate made the announcement Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said most Americans are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties, and that none of the presidential contenders are addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labor rights. He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida.
Kurdish rebels claimed they shot down a Turkish military helicopter during fighting in northern Iraq, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported, but there was no confirmation from the Turkish military. The Firat news agency, which often carries statements of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, reported Saturday that the guerrillas downed a Cobra attack helicopter near the village of Hore, close to the Turkish border. The Turkish military says seven of its soldiers and at least 79 rebels have been killed in Iraq since it began a ground incursion to chase the rebels late Thursday.
The world’s first commercial flight powered by biofuel has taken off from Heathrow Airport in London. The goal of Sunday’s Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet test flight from London to the Netherlands is to show that biofuels can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels. Before it took off, Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic’s president, said the breakthrough would help Virgin Atlantic to fly planes using clean fuel sooner than expected.
