Tuesday, December 2, 2008
6:07 PM
Condoleezza Rice plays piano for the Queen
LONDON: The outgoing U.S. Secretary of State was accompanied by Louise Miliband, the wife of Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and three members of the London Symphony Orchestra in her performance of Brahms.The stateswoman – who is a concert level pianist – was allowed to use a music room at the palace after expressing a wish to play for the Queen before leaving office at the end of the Bush administration in January.
The Queen listened to part of the performance, and afterward presented Rice with an audio recording of the recital as a gift.
Rice started playing the piano as a child and planned a career in music, originally enrolling at university to study the subject before switching to political science. At 15 she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, as a prize for winning a student competition.
She was taught the instrument by her mother, who was a music teacher, and regularly performs private chamber music recitals with four friends, leading to her be described as the world's most prominent amateur musician.
Miss Rice was visiting London before heading for Brussels to attend a meeting of Nato leaders. Earlier in the day, she met Gordon Brown and Miliband.
20 people killed in China road crash
BEIJING: A Chinese news agency says at least 20 people were killed and a dozen others hurt when a bus and coal truck collided in China's northwest Xinjiang region.The local news Agency reported Tuesday that rescue work was still under way after the head-on collision on a highway in the remote area. It said the two vehicles were damaged badly but gave no other details.
US commission warns bio attack likely by 2013
WASHINGTON: The United States can expect a terror attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.It suggests that the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.
“Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,'' states the report, obtained by a foreign news agency. It is scheduled to be publicly released Wednesday.
The commission also is encouraging the new White House to appoint one official on the National Security Council to coordinate exclusively U.S. intelligence and foreign policy on combating the spread of nuclear and biological weapons.
The report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, led by former Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Jim Talent of Missouri, acknowledges that terrorist groups still lack the needed scientific and technical ability to make weapons out of pathogens or nuclear bombs.
It warns that gap can be overcome easily if terrorists should find scientists willing to share or sell their expertise.
“The United States should be less concerned that terrorists will become biologists and far more concerned that biologists will become terrorists,'' the report states.
The commission believes biological weapons are more likely to be obtained and used before nuclear or radioactive weapons because nuclear facilities are more carefully guarded.
