- Signs of the Times Archive for Wed, 07 May 2008 -



Sections on today's Signs Page:

SOTT Focus
Obsessive Sarkosis: The new neurosis

Sott Editors
SOTT.NET
2008-05-07 15:40:00

La Sarkose obsessionnelle
©Unknown


French psychiatrist Serge Hefez has written a book about the ever-present character of the French president in the minds of the French, La Sarkose obsessionnelle.

The following is a translation of a description that appeared on the French news site rue89:



After a year of familiarization, how to stop being Sarkointoxicated?

by HUBERT ARTUS | Rue89 | 06/05/2008

[...] Smoking Narcissism is bad for your health

"When I think of him, I feel overwhelmed by an obscene substance of which I am unable to rid myself."




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Best of the Web
Bush's Conspiracy to Create an American Police State: Part I, Police States Begin With False Flag Attacks

Len Hart
OpEdNews
2008-05-02 16:31:00

Image


It was David Hume's 1758 Of the First Principles of Government that stated:



Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.

When we inquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find that, as force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded, and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments as well as to the most free and most popular.

-David Hume, Of the First Principles of Government



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The 9/11 Psychopathic Merry, merry Month of May

Les Visible
Smoking Mirrors
2008-05-07 10:40:00

Softly... softly... stepping carefully among the possibilities of critical hours; I have been thinking about the bombing of the Madrid Train Station on 3/11. I have been thinking about the bombing of the London Tube on 7/7 and the Mac daddy wack on 9/11 and I ask myself; what about May? You have a 3 and a 7 and a 9 but you have no five. I guess it's foolish to wonder about things like this but that's how the mind works sometimes.

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U.S. News
The Biggest Threat to American Freedom Is Racial Disparity, Not Terrorism: Report

Emma Schwartz
USNews.com
2008-05-05 17:42:00

The United States' counterterrorism policies are hardly without problems, but they are not the most significant threat to American freedom. That is the essential critique of a report released today by Freedom House, a nonprofit research organization.

Though the report concludes that the United States remains largely free, it highlights how long-standing racial inequalities and the flaws of the criminal justice system take away more freedom for more people than anything else.

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US: Giant 4,000 Acre Fire in Florida

Jay Cashmere
WPTV
2008-05-06 17:35:00

If you haven't seen or smelled it chances are you will soon. 3 South Florida counties are dealing with the effects of a stubborn wildfire burning on the rim of Lake Okeechobee.

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Challenges of 21st century require cosmic perspective

John M. Crisp
Scripps Howard News Service
2008-05-05 17:07:00

Here's one way of looking at our solar system and our place in it: If the vast span of time between the two events that bookend the lifecycle of our solar system -- that is, from its coalescence in a cosmic cloud to its destruction in the sun's final flameout -- were telescoped into a single year, all of recorded history would be represented by less than a minute in early June. The entire 20th century would flash by in less than a third of a second.

This is the way that Martin Rees depicts our tiny slice of cosmic time in his ominously titled book "Our Final Hour." Rees means to provide perspective: Our place in time is as minuscule as the infinitely tiny spatial stake we claim out of an unimaginably vast universe.

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Cult members suspected in tot's death


Trinidad and Tobago Express
2008-05-06 14:10:00

Child's body found in suitcase

A religious cult in Philadelphia, in which a Trinidad-born woman was a member, is suspected of killing the woman's 18-month-old baby, allegedly because he refused to say "amen".

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, police there acted on a tip on April 28, which led them to a rowhouse where they came upon a suitcase containing the remains of a dead baby.

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Man with HIV gets 12 years for exposing two women to virus

Scott F. Davis
Northwest Arkansas Times
2008-05-02 12:57:00

A 33-year-old man from Washington, D. C., faces a 12-year prison sentence for exposing two Arkansas women to HIV.

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Trial opens in latest sex case against Diocese

John Curran
Associated Press
2008-05-07 12:00:00

BURLINGTON, Vt. - A lawyer for a former altar boy who says a priest molested him in the 1970s told jurors Monday it could have been prevented if the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington didn't coddle pedophile priests at the expense of children.

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Killer Gary Hilton to be extradited to Florida


North Florida News Daily
2008-05-05 00:00:00

Confessed killer Gary Michael Hilton is expected to be extradited to Florida to face trial for the murder of 46-year-old Cheryl Hodges Dunlap. Her body was found December 19 in the Apalachicola National Forest, southwest of Tallahassee. She had been decapitated.




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Journalist released from Gitmo calls it 'most heinous mankind has ever known'

John Byrne
The Raw Story
2008-05-06 09:05:00

An Al Jazeera cameraman who returned yesterday to his home of Sudan from Guantánamo Bay and delivered a speech broadcast live on Sudanese television described the US facility as "heinous."

His speech was broadcast live on Sudanese television. He was held at Guantanamo for seven years, and was never charged.

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In his final moments, Carnaby made calls to FBI, HPD as he fled

Lindsay Wise and Dale Lezon
The Houston Chronicle
2008-05-02 07:10:00

The patrol officer who stopped Roland Carnaby for speeding Tuesday morning was about to detain him as a possible CIA agent impersonator when he took off in his SUV, Houston police said Thursday.

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Chasing the Truth; Was it a spy, or would-be spy, in that SUV?

Lindsay Wise, Dale Lezon and Mike Tolson
The Houston Chronicle
2008-05-01 06:54:00

Much about Roland Carnaby's life speaks to a long career as a devoted intelligence officer - from his effort to build a local chapter of the professional association to his personal friendships with current and former members of the intelligence community to his respect and affection for law enforcement and its dignitaries.

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Wife of man who claimed CIA link sues

Dale Lezon
The Houston Chronicle
2008-05-02 07:01:00

The wife of a man fatally shot by Houston police and who claimed to be a CIA agent filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the city, accusing the officers of violating his civil rights.

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'CIA operative' faced arrest for impersonating federal agent

TJ Aulds & Allison Triarsi
11 News
2008-05-03 07:04:00

The widow of a man gunned down by Houston police after a high-speed chase Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against the Houston Police Department on Friday. Susan Carnaby claims the chase that lead to her husband's death was unnecessary and that police failed to follow proper chase procedures.

Roland Carnaby
©Family of Carnaby




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Don Clark's Big Lie About Roland Carnaby


Gene Dios
2008-05-07 06:02:00



"...the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil...therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one..." - Adolph Hitler



I'll try to make this brief. Being modern Americans, both you and I have short attention spans. That's how stories like the following get memory holed. We don't pay attention.

On April 29, 2008, Roland Carnaby, A CIA agent, was shot down in the street by the Houston Police Department. The capital crime he committed was running from the cops after a traffic stop.

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A Tale of Three Sons

Cindy Sheehan
OpedNews
2008-05-04 03:15:00

In the spring of 2000, my oldest son, Casey Sheehan, was at a crossroads. He was completing his third year at a community college and he had finished all of his lower division requirements. Casey earned an AA in Theatre Arts and was hoping to transfer to Sacramento State and get his teaching degree to teach elementary school. However, working full time and going to college was taking its toll on Casey.

Somehow, an Army recruiter got hold of him at the right time and he was beguiled by the promises of instant wealth (a $20,000 signing bonus that somehow metamorphosed into $4500 when he finished basic training); a specialty that was attractive to him (Chaplain's assistant) that was transformed into being a humvee mechanic when he reached basic and promises of education that never, ever materialized. After Casey was KIA in Iraq, we got a check for $1200; his educational benefit that was taken out of HIS pay for the first year he was in the Army: One hundred dollars a month for twelve months. Not even one penny of interest for the entire time that the government had his money.

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Pennsylvania senator says slavery would pass in a secret ballot


The York Dispatch/Associated Press
2008-04-30 03:06:00

Harrisburg, Pa. -- A state senator told a black pastor testifying at a committee hearing that, given the chance to cast secret ballots, his fellow legislators would vote to legalize slavery.

Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, D-Philadelphia, made the comments Tuesday during a hearing on a Republican-sponsored bill to amend the state Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages and civil unions, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site Wednesday.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
UK: Chelsea siege ends as gunman is shot dead after firing on police

Vikram Dodd, Esther Addley
Guardian (UK)
2008-05-07 13:49:00

An independent investigation was begun last night when a man was shot dead after repeatedly opening fire on police, and gunfire was exchanged with officers across an exclusive west London square.

Scotland Yard said officers were shot at three times and returned fire each time at a man who was in a flat in Markham Square in Chelsea, just off Kings Road.

Image
©Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters
Police wear gas masks as they prepare to enter the besieged flat.



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Flashback: UK: Want to lock up an MP? Help me put Gordon in jail

Mark Thomas
Guardian (UK)
2007-12-13 13:40:00

If MPs pass ridiculous laws to limit our freedom, they should be forced to abide by them too.

Rarely do first lines have the potential to cost thousands of pounds (outside of libel), and rarely do I get to write words quite like those that follow; so forgive me an over-dramatic opening sentence, but yesterday lawyers acting for me started an attempt to get Gordon Brown into the dock.

With lawyers and police working on the ongoing Donorgate inquiries, Downing Street can be quite crowded if you are trying to bring a legal action.

Nonetheless, my lawyers delivered a letter to the director of public prosecutions yesterday afternoon calling for an urgent investigation into allegations that the prime minister broke the law by demonstrating unlawfully in Parliament Square last summer. If found guilty he could face 50 weeks in prison - though, after serving 10 years at No 11, he should do his bird with ease.



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Petty ponerology hits Freecycle


Freecycle
2008-05-07 13:07:00

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,355 groups with 5,062,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free.

Some freecycle members recently received the following message from the moderators:



There is a particularly nasty spam doing the rounds of Freecycle® members.




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EU Plans International Embassies

Bruno Waterfield
Telegraph
2008-05-03 12:18:00

The European Union will open its own embassies under a plan critics fear represents a "power grab" by Brussels officials pushing for a federal superstate.

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UK: Call to examine 50s killer case


BBC
2008-04-30 05:24:00

Vital information about Scotland's most notorious serial killer may have been suppressed to ensure he was hanged, a legal expert has claimed.

Peter Manuel
©Unknown
Police officers lead Manuel into court during his appeal


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Flashback: Police charged Down's syndrome boy with mental age of five

Melanie Reid
Times Online
2008-04-17 10:50:00

Jamie Bauld who has Downs Syndrome
©Times Online
Jamie Bauld who has Downs Syndrome


When two police officers came to interview Jamie Bauld, a polite, friendly Down's syndrome boy with a mental age of about 5, he welcomed them with a big smile and a handshake. As the officers read him his rights and charged him with assault and racial abuse, he agreed with everything they said, then thanked them for coming to see him.

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Turkish Cypriots demand termination of settling in occupied areas


Financial Mirror
2008-05-06 05:58:00

Turkish Cypriot political party ''United Cyprus'' is demanding the termination of settling in the Turkish occupied areas, saying it is a war crime and alters the demographic character of the Turkish Cypriot community.

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How one UK wife coped with her soldier husband's post-traumatic stress

Justine Smith
Mirror
2008-05-06 00:04:00

Carl and Susan White
©Pic:DM
Carl and Susan White


Initially, he was turned down for a War Pension, meaning he didn't get the preferential medical treatment the government promised.

I'd hoped the new start in Greece would help but instead it tipped Carl over the edge and, three days after he was allowed home from hospital he started stabbing the sofa with a knife.


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UK tightens rules for skilled migrants


The Sydney Morning Herald
2008-05-06 22:34:00

Australian accountants, teachers and bankers could find it harder to land jobs in Britain when tough new rules come into force later this year.

Under a major overhaul of its immigration system, Britain is cracking down on the requirements needed by skilled workers from countries outside the European Union (EU) before they can work in the UK.

The changes mean that most skilled workers will effectively need a job offer from a British company willing to sponsor them before they set foot in the country.

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Around the World
Philippines: House deliberates on freedom of information bill

Kathleen Martin
Inquirer.net
2008-05-06 17:27:00

Floor deliberations on House Bill 3732 also known as the "Freedom of Information Act of 2008" has begun at the House of Representatives.

"I proudly stand before you today with high hopes that we shall be adding on and enhancing our democratic ideals and further empowering our people," Congressman Lorenzo Tañada III said in his sponsorship speech.

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Liberia: Illegal Detention, Rape Top Child Right Abuses


AllAfrica.com
2008-05-05 14:14:00

The national Child Rights Observatory Group (NACROG) has noted that during the period January - December 2007, Illegal detention and rape dominated abuses among children in Liberia.

NACROG's Acting Officer-In-Charge, Senyon Kieh told a news conference Friday that during the reporting period (January-December 2007), with planned activities in Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Bong and Nimba counties and response interventions, it was established that children are still faced with violence in many forms.

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Burma given two days' cyclone warning, ruling junta did nothing

Mark Dodd
The Australian Times
2008-05-07 13:07:00

BURMA was given two days' warning that Cyclone Nargis was about to hit, the Indian Meteorological Department has revealed.

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"It looks like the end of the world here"

Jürgen Kremb
Salon
2008-05-07 13:04:00

The Burmese dissident had actually only intended to contact the media to say he was still alive, but his phone call sounded more like a cry of outrage.

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Burma death toll 'likely to hit 80,000'


ABC Australia
2008-05-07 13:01:00

An aid official in Burma says the death toll from Cyclone Nargis may be 80,000 or more.

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Germany's RWE makes new oil find in Libya


Reuters
2008-05-05 12:24:00

Tripoli - German utility group RWE has made a new oil discovery in the Libyan Sirte Basin, the third since April last year, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Monday.

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Naively led into the predator's web

Joanne McCarthy
Newcastle Herald
2008-05-07 11:56:00

For 18 years a Lower Hunter woman who has lived with the burden of knowing she innocently handed little girls to a pedophile priest has waited for the Catholic Church to share the load.

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Jakarta, US at odds over 'spy' lab

Stephen Fitzpatrick
The Australian
2008-05-03 11:29:00

Negotiations over whether a controversial US military laboratory should remain in Indonesia have reached a knife-edge, as officials argue about biological sample-sharing and the diplomatic status of staff in the facility.

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Marines ignore poppy crop to not upset Afghan locals

Jason Straziuso
Associated Press
2008-05-07 10:31:00

The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.

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Wartime atrocious sex slavery by Imperial Japanese army published


ExpressIndia
2008-04-30 03:19:00

Tokyo: A newly published booklet detailing sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army has been published to serve as a bridge between the victims and those who have not had sufficient opportunity to learn about the history of such wartime atrocities.

'Field Work -- 'Comfort Women' of the Japanese Army,' compiled by the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo, or WAM, is a general history of sex slavery -- why it was launched, how it was managed, how 'comfort women' were procured and what happened to them after the war - and includes testimonies of former comfort women from 10 countries.

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Update: Northern Territory police investigate 'sighting' of missing boy


ABC News
2008-05-06 00:57:00

Missing Perth Toddler
©SA Police
Police investigate a possible sighting of Imran Zilic.




* Map: Katherine 0850

The search for a missing Perth boy has been extended to the Northern Territory with unconfirmed sightings of the three-year-old at Timber Creek, 300 kilometres south-west of Darwin.

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Helicopter joins search for South Australian toddler


ABC News
2008-05-02 00:36:00

Missing Perth Toddler
©SA Police
A police helicopter joins an outback search for missing boy Imran Zilic.


The disappearance of a Perth toddler in South Australia's far north has been declared a major crime.

A police helicopter has flown to Coober Pedy in the state's outback to join a search for a missing three-year-old Imran Zilic.

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Philippine rice tender fails with only 1 bidder


International Herald Tribune
2008-05-06 23:02:00

The Philippine government failed to buy rice Monday after a tender to increase its buffer stock attracted only one bidder, highlighting global anxiety over the staple.

The National Food Authority, the state-run grain importer, was seeking to buy 675,000 tons of rice to shore up its stockpiles. The government said last week it has already secured enough volume to make up for a 10 percent domestic shortfall.



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Indonesia, no longer exporting oil, considers quitting OPEC


Associated Press
2008-05-06 22:49:00

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia said Tuesday that his country was considering quitting OPEC because it was no longer a net oil exporter.

"Our wells are drying," he said in a nationally televised speech, adding that the country needed to concentrate on increasing domestic production, which has dropped to less than a million barrels a day even as consumption rises.

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China mounts cyber attacks on Indian sites

Indrani Bagchi
The Times of India
2008-05-05 22:14:00

China's cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability.

The sustained assault almost coincides with the history of the present political disquiet between the two countries.


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Big Brother
Canada: District violates teachers' rights: arbitrator

Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun
2008-05-05 17:36:00

British Columbia - The province's teachers say they have won a significant freedom-of-expression victory in a dispute with their employers over what information they may send home with students.

An arbitrator ruled this month that Southeast Kootenay school district violated teachers' rights when it refused to allow them to give a union pamphlet to students for delivery to their parents. The pamphlet criticized standardized tests known as the Foundation Skills Assessment and urged parents to request that their children be excused from writing them.

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Canadian Government Hopes to Implement Tighter 'Exit Controls'

Andrew Mayeda
CanWest News Service
2008-05-06 17:08:00

The Harper government hopes to implement tighter "exit controls" on deportees, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Tuesday after the auditor general revealed that Canada's border-protection agency has lost track of about 41,000 individuals ordered to leave the country.

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US: House OKs genetics discrimination bill


United Press International
2008-05-01 17:14:00

A bill that would bar companies from firing, refusing to hire or discriminating against workers based on genetic information has passed the U.S. House.

The House approved the provisions on a 414-1 vote in legislation that would also would prohibit employers from requesting, requiring or buying genetic information, the publication Business Insurance reported.


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Genetics and Privacy: Hands off, maybe


The Economist
2008-05-01 17:11:00

Congress bans certain abuses of genetic information

LOUISE SLAUGHTER is a woman ahead of her time. Informed by her university studies in microbiology decades ago, this congresswoman from New York decided early on that the much-trumpeted genetics revolution would also bring risks. Over the past 13 years she has repeatedly tried to get Congress to adopt legislation to prevent the abuse of an individual's genetic information by insurers or other third parties. Her efforts have had popular support and bipartisan appeal, but have faltered in the teeth of business opposition.

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Tape Captures Philly Cops Beating Suspects


CBS/Associated Press
2008-05-07 13:21:00

More than a dozen police officers will be taken off the street as authorities investigate a video showing three suspects being kicked, punched and beaten after they were pulled out of a car during a traffic stop, the mayor's office said.


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Ashamed to be an American

Mickey Z.
Tehran Times
2008-05-07 00:55:00

I was reading Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo, by Murat Kurnaz, when I came across a passage about Kurnaz being subjected to gruesome electric shock torture at the hands of America's brave volunteer warriors. After passing out and being tossed back in his cell to sleep it off, Kurnaz was soon awakened by harrowing screams.

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Police Tasered psychotic man in own home, mom tells inquiry

Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun
2008-05-06 22:11:00

The mother of a Vancouver man who was jolted by a police Taser about two months ago told an inquiry Tuesday that there should be a better understanding of the mentally ill.


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Axis of Evil
Palfrey Suicide: Wayne Madsen Goes On Record Against Cheney

Richard Volaar
OpEdNews.com
2008-05-02 15:50:00

Maybe it's the booze they serve at Cafe Milano in Georgetown. Maybe it's just Madsen being Madsen. After all, journalists and writers with any lick of integrity have been shamed, shocked and traumatized by the "suicides" of both Hunter S. Thompson and Gary Webb -- not to mention the sudden "fading into the discredited bastion of mental health treatment" of Mike Ruppert.

Having seen this vast panoply of weirdness unfolding before our very eyes while creampuffs and lightweights like Matt Lauer and Brit Hume have made all the money -- perhaps Madsen has just had enough. Perhaps he is ready to be a hero. Or a martyr.

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Pentagon Targeted Iran for Regime Change after 9/11

Gareth Porter
IPS
2008-05-05 15:26:00

WASHINGTON - Three weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of not only removing the Saddam Hussein regime by force but overturning the regime in Iran, as well as in Syria and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted extensively in then Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of the Iraq war decisions.

Feith's account further indicates that this aggressive aim of remaking the map of the Middle East by military force and the threat of force was supported explicitly by the country's top military leaders.

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More hysteria: Israel says Iran could have nukes by '09

Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon
The Jerusalem Post
2008-05-07 15:18:00

With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.

Iran, a senior defense official said on Tuesday, had encountered numerous technical obstacles on its way to enriching uranium but was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.

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Now Iran is also threat in Latin America, according to U.S. State Department


AFP
2008-05-07 14:46:00

WASHINGTON - Isolated Iran sees Latin America as a place to push back US influence, from which it could maintain a terrorist threat against the United States in the event of a conflict, a senior US official warned Wednesday.

Iran views Latin America as a chance to break out of some of its international isolation and defy Washington's major power status in its back yard, State Department official Thomas Shannon said in Washington.

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Pot calls kettle black! Peres labels Iran worst Hitlerite nightmare


Press TV
2008-05-07 13:30:00

Israeli president Shimon Peres says a nuclear-armed Iran is not only a 'nightmare' for Israel but also 'for the entire world'.

"In a way it's more complicated than in the time of the Nazis. Hitler didn't have a nuclear bomb," Peres claimed in a press conference held ahead of Israel's 60th anniversary.

Referring to Iran, Peres described the combination of 'a weapon of mass destruction' with 'a rhetoric of mass destruction' as 'worrisome'.


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Southern California Residents Gear Up for New Fight to Stop Secretive Expansion by Blackwater

Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!
2008-05-02 11:13:00

Just two months after local opposition thwarted its effort to build a massive outdoor training facility near San Diego, the private military company Blackwater USA is being accused of secretly trying to build a new one just blocks from the US-Mexico border. Blackwater received approval for the 61,000 square-foot indoor facility in Otay Mesa, California, by filing for permits using the names of two subsidiaries.

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Leaked U.K. Cabinet Office Paper Involving Iraq Invasion


DarkGovernment
2008-05-07 05:51:00

Leaked Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action

The paper, produced by the Cabinet Office on July 21, 2002, is incomplete because the last page is missing. The following is a transcript rather than the original document in order to protect the source.

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Flashback: Injunction Lifted, 'DC Madam' Can't Confirm Cheney On List - Phone Records To Be Shared With Media and Bloggers

by Joseph Cannon
The Brad Blog
2007-07-05 10:31:00

For months, the so-called "DC Madam" --- Deborah Jeane Palfrey --- has been forbidden by a court injunction from discussing or sharing the contents of the meticulous phone records she kept of her Washington D.C. client base.

Before the injunction was handed down, ABC News' Brian Ross had received a partial list. Ross declared, in a broadcast report, that the phone records did not point to any "newsworthy" individuals beyond the three known names of Randall Tobias (former head of the Agency for International Development), Harlan Ullman (developer of the "shock and awe" military doctrine) and former presidential adviser Dick Morris.


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Flashback: D.C. Madam Wants Washington Clients to Testify

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood
ABC News
2007-04-30 14:18:00

The woman charged in a federal indictment with running a high-class Washington, D.C. call girl service says she plans to call her prominent clients to testify at her trial.

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Flashback: State Dept. erases all references to top official who quit over DC Madam list

Michael Roston
Raw Story
2007-05-09 13:25:00

The State Department and the US Agency for International Development have instructed employees to remove all references in publications and other materials to a top official who resigned after his name turned up as a former client of "DC Madam" Deborah Jean Palfrey. The news appears in Wednesday morning's edition of the "In The Loop" column at the Washington Post.

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ABC News Shielding Cheney after DC Madam Hanging?

by Gustav Wynn
OpEdNews
2008-05-07 10:17:00

Florida police made public two notes handwritten by Deborah Jeane Palfrey this weekend, touching off debate on whether her hanging was in fact suicide or staged to look so. At least one reporter is claiming the DC Madam mentioned she'd kill herself before returning to prison, but another interviewer has aired recent audio of Palfrey warning that if she was found dead, it would be murder.

Initial reports of Palfrey's death conclusively ruled it a suicide, unbelievable considering the magnitude of the sensitive secrets she held. I first heard the news on an NPR broadcast Thursday afternoon which included an official's soundbyte on how relatives are victimized in suicides, a strange generalization that pointed blame at Palfrey for hurting her own mother before any other details of the case were released. This statement was attached to the breaking news by an "imbedded pundit", only raising suspicion of media manipulation in the earliest going.

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Israel's Peres says nuclear Iran would be 'nightmare'


AFP
2008-05-07 09:35:00

JERUSALEM - Israeli President Shimon Peres warned on Monday that if Iran becomes a nuclear power it will create a "nightmare" for the whole world and not just the Jewish state.

"Iran is a danger not only for Israel but also for the rest of the world," Peres told foreign journalists.

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Former UN inspector Scott Ritter says attack on Iran 'virtual guarantee'

John Byrne
The Raw Story
2008-05-05 09:11:00

US denies again on Monday

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who was among the original experts to question Bush Administration claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, now says he believes an attack on Iran is a "virtual guarantee."

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Warpimp Bolton: US should bomb Iranian camps

Damien McElroy
Telegraph
2008-05-06 03:35:00

John Bolton, America's ex-ambassador to the United Nations, has called for US air strikes on Iranian camps where insurgents are trained for war in Iraq.

Mr Bolton said that striking Iran would represent a major step towards victory in Iraq. While he acknowledged that the risk of a hostile Iranian response harming American's overseas interests existed, he said the damage inflicted by Tehran would be "far higher" if Washington took no action.

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Guantánamo Briton sues UK over 'torture evidence'

Sadie Gray
Guardian.co.uk
2008-05-06 00:00:00

The last British resident left in Guantánamo Bay is suing the UK government for refusing to produce evidence that he was a victim of extraordinary rendition and torture.

Binyam Mohamed faces a US military commission which could sentence him to death, and his lawyers say proving that the case against him is based exclusively on evidence extracted by torture, following his rendition by the CIA, is vital to his defence.

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Middle East Madness
Iran clerics query president's religious remarks

Edmund Blair
Reuters
2008-05-07 17:56:00

Teheran -- Iran's president has alarmed some conservative clerics with remarks suggesting he believed a mystical Shi'ite religious leader backed his government, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

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Too quiet in Gaza's harbor

Mohammed Omer
Inter Press Service
2008-05-07 17:40:00

Gaza habour
©Mohammed Omer/IPS
Dark clouds above Gaza.


It's been strangely quiet for some time at the port in Gaza. No clanging of hooks, no sounds of creaking cranes or of thumping of nets upon decks. Boat engines, normally puttering and spewing exhaust, lie entombed under covers.

Of the 40,000 fishermen and others who make a living from the catch, only about 700 are still busy, according to the Fishing Syndicate in Gaza. The boats need oil, and Israel will not let the fishermen have it.

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Gaza sewage pumped into the sea over past three months

Akiva Eldar
Haaretz
2008-05-02 17:39:00

Millions of liters of sewage have been released over the past three months into the Mediterranean Sea from the Gaza Strip, according to a new United Nations report.

According to the report, an estimated 50-60 million liters of waste per day have been pumped into the sea. This was done in an effort to prevent an overflow of sewage in residential areas.

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Gaza Strip shortages bite hard

Aleem Maqbool
BBC
2008-05-01 17:25:00

When Hamas violently took control of Gaza last summer, Israel's response was to impose sanctions on the territory. All but basic humanitarian aid and some fuel supplies has been prevented from getting in, shortages of everyday goods have been become commonplace, and the impact has been wide-ranging.


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Walls and War Crimes

Felicity Arbuthnot
Uruknet.info
2008-05-07 17:20:00

Sadr City wall
©Unknown
U.S. Army soldiers from 1-27IN, 25th infantry division guard construction of a concrete wall running through the Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Baghdad, on Sunday, May 4, 2008


Baghdad's Sadr City (formerly named Al Thawa in the 1950's, then Medina al Saddam - Saddam City) dismissively and degradingly dubbed 'a slum', by the main stream media, has suffered grievously. Grindingly poor, proud, with both the criminality that poverty brings and the hardest of working, determined never to sink to it - and all the complexities in between, Sadr City is now America's latest victim. In Washington's unique interpretation of 'liberation', it is being walled in, so residents have no escape - and the trapped bombed. Add your own metaphor, starting with General Norman Schwartzkopf's 1991: 'Turkey shoot.' This is the neighborhood-wide equivalent of the homicidal maniac with arsonist tendencies, who locks in the family, pours gasoline over the surrounds and through the letter box, following up with a few lighted matches.

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War of the virtual Wiki-worlds

Alex Beam
Boston Globe
2008-05-03 15:17:00

What if they decided to pursue the Arab-Israeli conflict by other means? Inevitably, it would take place on the Internet. And inevitably Wikipedia would be involved.




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U.S.-Iran security talks postponed indefinitely, Iraq reports


Associated Press
2008-05-07 14:04:00

The Iraqi foreign minister said Wednesday that security talks between Iran and the United States had been indefinitely postponed because of an "exchange of accusations" between the sides.

As Washington escalated its accusation of Iranian backing for extremists, Tehran on Monday called off further Iraq security talks with the United States until American forces stopped their crackdown on Shiite militias. U.S.-led forces have been engaging in fierce street battles in Sadr City, a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad.

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Sixty years on, Palestinians mourn loss of homeland

Alistair Lyon
Reuters
2008-05-07 09:57:00

While Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, Palestinian refugees mourn the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) when they lost their homeland. Often ignored in Middle East peace talks, they cling to a "right of return".

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Love and resistance in the Gaza Strip


International Solidarity Movement/The Guardian
2008-04-30 05:06:00

In an apparent softening of its position, Hamas has said it will accept a partial truce covering the Gaza Strip. But the lack of water, fuel and medicine has taken its toll and Palestinians continue to die of malnutrition and lack of medical resources. Mona el-Farra is a doctor and human rights activist working with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. She is also the author of From Gaza With Love, a blog through which she keeps the world abreast of conditions under the Israeli occupation

Mona el-Farra
©The Guardian
Doctor Mona el-Farra, top left, poses with a group of children in the Gaza Strip


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Palestinian newspaper banned in Gaza appears again


Reuters
2008-04-30 03:30:00

Gaza - A three-month ban in the Gaza Strip of a Palestinian newspaper critical of a Hamas leader expired on Wednesday and authorities said it was free to publish in the territory again.

"(Al-Ayyam) can resume distribution from tomorrow," said Hassan Abu Hasheesh, deputy information minister in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

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Propaganda Report: Major anti-Semitic attacks triple in 2007

Amnon Meranda
Ynet
2008-04-30 03:22:00

Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism's report reveals alarming increase in number of violent attacks against Jews worldwide; study cites threefold rise in number of particularly violent assaults

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We Didn't Mean to Kill Them

B. Michael
Ynet
2008-05-05 11:17:00

Israel says it doesn't mean to kill Palestinian children, yet they keep on dying

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Shu'la Hospital in Baghdad Attacked

Dr. Omar Al-Kubaisy
Wafaa' Al-Natheema Blog
2008-05-05 00:18:00

Today, Monday, May 5th, the Shu'la hospital in Karkh district was attacked. This hospital has been supporting a large popualtion in Shu'la city. There, the military operations and confrontations errupted between civilians in this neighborhood and the U.S. occupation and Iraqi forces under the banner of "eliminating the gangs of death and murder." Historically, I am unaware of military operations targeting civilian hospitals!! The doctors as well as the director were being humuliated and beaten by, what unjustly called, the Iraqi army. In fact, the director of the hospital the colleague Yassin al-Rikabi is essentially a doctor and a military officer in the marginalized (and not dissolved) Iraqi army.

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Israel imposes hermetic closure on West Bank, suspends prison visits


The Palestinian Information Center
2008-05-06 23:51:00

West Bank lockdown
©Unknown


The Israeli occupation authority on Tuesday imposed a hermetic closure on the West Bank at the orders of war minister Ehud Barak that would extend till Friday.

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Israeli siege contaminates potable water in Gaza Strip


The Palestinian Information Center
2008-05-06 21:02:00

Gaza water
©Unknown


The spokesperson of the Gaza-based anti-siege popular committee Rami Abdo has warned on Tuesday that the Israeli blockade on Gaza Strip caused a sharp decrease in drinking water, putting lives of the 1.5 million Gazans at risk.

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The Loan Gunmen
Monsanto expects to double gross profit by 2012

Jim Salter
Bnd.com
2008-05-06 17:51:00

Monsanto Co. is on track to double its gross profit by 2012, the agribusiness' chief financial officer said Tuesday.

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Monsanto's Harvest of Fear - Now Targets Milk Production

James Steele
Indybay.org
2008-05-06 17:41:00

Monsanto already dominates America's food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation's tactics- ruthless legal battles against small farmers- is its decades-long history of toxic contamination. We speak to James Steele, contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

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US intervenes to flood Europe with dollars

Dearbail Jordan
Times Online (UK)
2008-05-02 16:23:00

The US Federal Reserve today led another intervention to ease global liquidity by joining the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in efforts to flood the Continent with dollars while pumping a further $50 billion (£25.3 billion) into the American financial system.

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Dawn of an energy famine

Jeremy Leggett
The Guardian (UK)
2008-05-02 16:21:00

This week the shape of the global energy crisis came into its sharpest focus yet. The world needs renewable energy fast, but as BP and Shell announced record profits, they also demonstrated that they are in essence retreating from renewables, perhaps with the exception of biofuels. They intend to focus their record billions on expanding production of what remains of traditional oil and gas, plus tar sands and liquid fuels from coal - ruinous in their effect on the climate.

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N. Korea again headed toward outright famine, says US think tank


MCOT English News / Thai News Agency
2008-05-02 16:18:00

North Korea is once again headed toward widespread food shortage, hunger and risk of outright famine, a U. S. think tank said in a report released Wednesday.

''Food prices have almost tripled in the last year, skyrocketing at a rate faster than either the overall rate of inflation or global food prices,'' said the report issued by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based nonprofit research institute.

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The public is proved right: GM crops are no panacea

Tom Wakeford
The Guardian (UK)
2008-04-30 16:01:00

The IAASTD last week concluded that "data on some GM crops indicate highly variable yield gains in some places and declines in others". The door was left open, on the basis that it would be unwise to rule out GM crops for the future, but as the charity Practical Action commented, "the report rightly concludes that small-scale farmers and ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis".

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South Korea begins imports of biotech corn

Jae-Soon Chang
Associated Press
2008-05-01 15:55:00

Major South Korean corn processors have begun importing genetically modified varieties of the crop because of shortages of conventional corn on the world market since China began limiting its exports, officials said Friday.

About 63,000 tons of genetically modified U.S. corn arrived in South Korea on Thursday, the first large-scale imports for human consumption since the government began regulating biotech crops in 2001.

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Tomgram: Steve Fraser, The Two Gilded Ages


Tomdispatch.com
2008-04-22 14:07:00

Think of it as gilding the pain. Last year, hedge fund manager John Paulson of Paulson & Co. hauled in a nifty $3.7 billion. (Yes, you read that right.) Mainly, he did so, according to the Wall Street Journal, "by shorting, or betting against, subprime mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations." And he wasn't alone. Hedge fund money-maker Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners raked in a comparatively measly $1.7 billion in 2007, also by shorting subprime mortgages. These are fortunes beyond imagining, made in no time at all by betting on the pure misery of others. Think of them as Las Vegas with a mean streak a mile wide.

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Food crisis reaches Canada: Rising food costs plague needy

Dustin Walker
Nanaimo Daily News
2008-05-07 14:28:00

Eating healthy meals is an option some can't afford due to increase in price.

Charlene Barrick and her son have already cut back on meals and are surviving off only the cheapest products available on store shelves.

But as food prices rise higher, she's worried her grocery list will have to be even shorter.

"You have to buy cheaper, cheaper, the cheapest you can get," said Barrick while at the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank last week, a plastic bag of canned goods slung over her arm.

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Oil nears $123 on $200 oil prediction, supply concerns


Associated Press
2008-05-07 10:10:00

Oil futures blasted to a new record near $123 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks.

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Food crisis payback for '20 years of mistakes': UN expert


Breitbart.com/Agence France Presse
2008-05-02 05:36:00

The UN's new top advisor on food blamed two decades of wrong-headed policies by world powers for the food crisis sweeping the globe, in a stinging interview published on his first day in office.

Frenchman Olivier de Schutter, a law professor and human rights campaigner, told Le Monde newspaper the world needed to prepare for the end of "cheap food", saying the failure to anticipate the current crisis was "unforgivable."

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Native People Warn U.N. of Biofuels Disaster

Haider Rizvi
Inter Press Service
2008-05-06 23:14:00

Growing demand for biofuels by the world's rich nations is propelling attacks on indigenous people and destroying their lands and forests, according to native leaders attending a three-week international meeting here.

"[There are] increasing human rights violations, displacements and conflicts due to expropriation of ancestral lands and forests for biofuels plantations," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairperson of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

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UBS Faces U.S. Tax Evasion Probe; Senior Employee Detained

Otis Bilodeau
Bloomberg
2008-05-06 22:43:00

UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, said the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the firm helped clients evade U.S. taxes.

One senior bank employee was "briefly detained'' by U.S. authorities as a "material witness,'' the firm said in an e- mailed statement. The Financial Times reported that the employee was Martin Liechti, the Zurich-based head of UBS's international wealth management business for the Americas. Rohini Pragasam, a UBS spokeswoman in New York, declined to comment on the FT report. Liechti could not immediately be reached for comment.

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More losses for Fannie Mae

Lynn Adler
Reuters
2008-05-06 21:57:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae on Tuesday posted a massive quarterly loss, its third straight, on the protracted U.S. housing market slump, prompting it to slash its dividend and set plans to raise $6 billion of fresh funds.

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The Living Planet
Flood and landslide dangers continue in Norway


Afterposten.No
2008-05-05 17:58:00

Floods In Otta
©KRISTOFFER ØVERLI
A photo from the landslide area of Otta.


Although most of those who were evacuated from their homes in Otta after Friday's landslides have returned home, flood warnings continue in many areas in southeast Norway.

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6.8 M earthquake strikes near Honshu Island


Associated Press
2008-05-07 14:00:00

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck near the east coast of Japan's Honshu island in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

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Globe may be cooling on Global Warming

Deroy Murdock
Scripps News
2008-05-01 03:26:00

Australia, the land where sinks drain the other way, has alerted Americans that we see Earth's climate upside down: We're not warming. We're cooling.

"Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously." Dr. Phil Chapman wrote in The Australian on April 23. "All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead."

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Flashback: Aussie Finds Meteorite Crater on Google Earth

Brook Borel
Cosmos Online
2008-03-10 20:48:00

Sydney: A rare meteorite impact crater in remote Western Australia has been discovered by an Australian geologist using Google Earth.

The Hickman Crater, located in the Pilbara region around 1000 km northeast of Perth, was named for its discoverer, Arthur Hickman, who was using Google Earth to conduct research on channel ore deposits.

If confirmed, the Hickman Crater will be Australia's second largest preserved rim crater - one that has not eroded significantly from its original shape. The crater's rim, which is 80 per cent preserved, stands 30 m above its floor, and consists mainly of rhyolite, a rock similar to granite.

Image
©Google Earth
The Hickman Crater as viewed from satellite


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Chile volcano blasts ash 20 miles high, forcing evacuations

Eduado Gallardo
Associated Press
2008-05-06 21:54:00

Santiago, Chile - The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash some 20 miles (30 kilometers) into the Andean sky on Tuesday, forcing thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.


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First international aid reaches Myanmar after cyclone


Associated Press
2008-05-06 21:31:00

Yangon, Myanmar - International aid began to trickle into Myanmar on Tuesday, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation's rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as many are missing, remained cut off from the world.

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Health & Wellness
Korea: Mandatory GMO Labeling Is the Best Solution


Chosun.com
2008-05-06 17:48:00

Korean food makers have decided to import a total of 1.2 million tons of genetically modified corn by the end of this year, including the 57,000 tons they imported on May 1. Until now, food producers have used unmodified corn as key ingredients to make starch and starch sugar, which are used to create the sweet flavors in cookies and soft drinks. But from now on, they are going to use GMO corn. As a result, supermarket shelves will be piled high with products such as cookies, bread, soft drinks and ice cream that contain primary ingredients made from GMO crops, which are still controversial for their safety. This is something parents are extremely concerned about. Environmental groups said they will boycott products made by food makers using GMO crops.

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Vaccine propaganda alert! CDC fears major measles outbreak

Deborah L. Shelton
Seattle Times
2008-05-07 17:17:00

Federal health officials warned Thursday that the United States could be on the verge of a major outbreak of measles.

The official tally of measles cases between Jan. 1 and April 25 was 64, the highest in recent years, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

That count doesn't include Washington state, where eight cases were reported this week. Those cases stemmed from an international church conference in suburban Seattle in March, according to the state health department.

Most of the cases have been traced to outbreaks overseas and are mainly in children who were not vaccinated for religious or other reasons or were too young, according to the CDC. Since measles vaccinations began in the early 1960s, cases have dramatically declined in the U.S.

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Tips to avoid GMOs

The Institute for Responsible Technology
Pew Research / FoodConsumer.org
2008-05-07 16:05:00

Are you one of the 9 out of 10 Americans opposed to unlabeled GM foods?

This guide will help you determine which products are made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) so you can make healthier non-GMO brand buying choices. GMOs are made by transferring genes from one species, such as bacteria, viruses, or animals, into the DNA of other species, such as corn.

Though most industrialized countries require labeling of GMOs, the U.S. does not. 9 out of 10 Americans want genetically modified (GM) foods to be labeled. Most people say they would avoid brands if labeled as GM.



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Flashback: How the Cancer Industry Controls Women

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
2007-10-09 15:02:00

cancer controls women
©Mike Adams/www.NaturalNews.com




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Scientists Agree That EMFs Pose a Threat to Your Health

Barbara L. Minton
NaturalNews
2008-04-22 14:42:00

Electricity has become an integral part of our lives, with electromagnetic fields (EMFs) all around us. Electricity certainly makes our lives easier in many ways. Is it possible that electricity is also making our lives shorter?

Most experts agree that some limited exposure to EMFs is not a threat. We can feel reasonably safe using a toaster, for example. The problem comes when we are chronically exposed to large does of EMFs such as encountered when living near power lines or sleeping in the room where the power enters the house. Unfortunately, this type of chronic exposure to EMFs applies to millions of Americans.

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Phoenix, US: Superbug threatens Valley; antibiotics can trigger infection

Tony Arranaga
ABC15.com
2008-05-06 14:40:00

Health officials in the Valley, and across the nation, are preparing for a new medical superbug that could become the country's next big public health threat.

The Centers for Disease Control website says several states have reported increased rates of clostridium difficile-associated disease, noting more severe disease and an increased number in deaths.

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How Child Abuse Gets Into the Brain

Sharon Begley
NewsWeek / LabNotes
2008-05-06 14:37:00

This has been the enduring mystery: How do events in the outside world get inside your head? That is, how do things that affect whether a child grows up to be contented and well-adjusted or a neurotic mess - things like abuse and neglect - change the gray matter to produce the brain activity and circuitry that corresponds to these psychological states? By turning some genes on and other genes off, according to a study posted this evening in the May 6 edition of the online PLoS ONE.

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Child abuse may trigger gene changes in brains of suicide victims


Thaindian News
2008-05-07 14:34:00

A team of McGill University scientists has found that suicide victims who were abused as children have clear genetic changes in their brains.

During the study, researchers discovered what they say are key differences between the brains of ordinary people, and of those who took their own lives after suffering child abuse.

They found that the genetic sequence wasnt significantly different in the suicide and non-suicide brains, but there were differences in their epigenetic marking a chemical coating influenced by environmental factors.

Researchers found that all of the 13 suicide victims in the study had experienced abuse as children.

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Mutation Makes Bubonic Plague More Lethal


Science Daily
2008-05-05 14:21:00

Bacteria that cause the bubonic plague may be more virulent than their close relatives because of a single genetic mutation, according to research published in the May issue of the journal Microbiology.

Image
©CDC / Courtesy of Larry Stauffer, Oregon State Public Health Laboratory
Yersinia pestis, direct fluorescent antibody stain (DFA), at 200x magnification.



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Respiratory Infections Continue to Plague San Antonio


WOAI.com
2008-05-06 14:17:00

For the fourth week in a row, people in San Antonio are going to see the doctor because of upper respiratory infections.

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Conservatives Happier Than Liberals Because They're Better at Creating Their Own Realities


LiveScience
2008-05-07 14:02:00

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

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MfD: Girl suddenly stops thinking


Czech News Agency (ČTK)
2008-05-07 13:46:00

Prague, May 2 (CTK) - A Czech woman, now aged 28, absolutely lost ability to think 14 years ago and has not recovered since, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote Friday.

The 14-year-old girl started her eighth grade. Her mother was called by the school staff telling her that her daughter was standing in front of the school and does not know where to go. She forgot who she was and what she was doing there, MfD writes.

All of a sudden, the girl's brain stopped rightly working.

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Deadly Animal Virus May Soon Come to U.S. Mainland

Barbara L. Minton
NaturalNews
2008-05-02 13:19:00

The nation's food supply may soon be under significant threat as the result of a Bush administration decision to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland, placing it near herds of livestock.

caged-cows
©Unknown
Caged Cows


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Australia: Ross River virus breakthrough - Transcript

Lindy Kerin
abc.net.au
2008-05-06 12:10:00

Tony Eastley: A team of Australian researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in treating the debilitating arthritis triggered by the Ross River virus.

The disease is the most common mosquito borne virus in Australia and can cause painful inflammation and arthritis.

The research published in the latest Journal of Infectious Diseases offers new hope and some relief for sufferers as Lindy Kerin reports.

Lindy Kerin: Ross River Virus is now found across the country and affects between five and eight thousand Australians every year.

About a third of those infected will suffer severe aches and pains in their joints.

Professor Suresh Mahalingam and his colleagues at the University of Canberra have been studying Ross River virus for the past four years.

Now they've identified the cell responsible for causing the joint inflammation and tissue damage.

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Doctors punished in China for mishandling deadly virus: Xinhua


Agence France Presse
2008-05-06 12:04:00

Beijing - Ten doctors and officials in China have been punished for mishandling a virus that has killed 26 children, state media reported as the number of infected youngsters rose to nearly 12,000.

The punishments have been meted out in the eastern Anhui province, where the bulk of the deaths have occurred and local officials have been accused of being too slow to report the disease, Xinhua news agency said late on Monday.

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Science & Technology
Digital Tattoo Interface

Jim Mielke
Core77: Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008
2008-05-01 09:07:00

Her cell phone is ringing, but the display is turned off. She lightly pushes a small dot on the skin on her left forearm to suddenly reveal a two by four inch tattoo with the image of the cell phone's digital display, directly in the skin of her arm. She answers the call by pushing a tattooed button on her arm. While she's talking, the tattoo comes to life as a digital video of the caller. When she finishes, the tattoo disappears.

Tattoophone
©Jim Mielke


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Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide asteroid travelling at 28,000mph

Ian Sample
Guardian
2008-05-07 15:10:00

· US eyes 2000SG344 for Armageddon-type mission
· Rock seen as stepping stone to deep space

It was once considered the most dangerous object in the universe, heading for Earth with the explosive power of 84 Hiroshimas. Now an asteroid called 2000SG344, a lump of rock barely the size of a large yacht, is in the spotlight again, this time as a contender for the next giant leap for mankind.

asteroid
©Science Photo Library / Guardian
Initial calculations showed that there was a chance that the asteroid Apophis would strike Earth at its close approach on April 13 2029.


Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne asteroid, which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a potential landing site for astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's plans to venture deeper into the solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars.

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Part of cosmos' missing matter is found


United Press International
2008-05-06 14:12:00

The European Space Agency says its orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has uncovered part of the missing matter in the universe.


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Swine, Avian Flu Genes in Same Virus


The Pig Site
2008-05-02 13:01:00

US - An unknown pathogen isolated from infected pigs at two midwestern swine production facilities in 2006 has proved to be a new strain of H2 influenza virus.

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DNA Jigsaw Puzzle


ScienceDaily
2008-05-05 12:53:00

A new mathematical and statistical method allows the virus population in a diseased organism to be determined quickly and economically. Using this method, medicines and vaccines against diseases caused by viral infections could be developed and deployed in a more targeted way in the future.

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'Destruct' Triggers May Be Jammed In Tumor Cells, Geneticists Say


ScienceDaily
2008-05-01 05:13:00

Tumor cells living in the cross hairs of radiation or chemotherapy may be able to escape death because their self-destruct mechanisms are jammed, say University of Florida scientists writing in a recent issue of Developmental Cell.

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Scientists Turn Ethical Embryonic-Like Stem Cells Into Heart, Blood Cells

Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com
2008-04-30 05:01:00

Los Angeles, CA -- Stem cell researchers continue to make progress with induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells, which are embryonic-like stem cells that don't require the destruction of human life to obtain. After their discovery last year, pro-life groups hailed the cells as an ethical alternative to embryonic stem cell research.

The UCLA researchers that have advanced the use of the iPS cells before were able progress further and grow functioning heart and blood cells.

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'Cloning is not beneficial to livestock breeding'


PigProgress.com
2008-04-30 05:03:00

The practice of cloning should not be regarded without scepticism, said Dr Roel Veerkamp, researcher at the Animal Sciences Group (ASG) of Wageningen University and Research Centre.

"Before a clone is made of a good bull three years have passed," Veerkamp said.

"Using the conventional route, that period of time would yield better bulls than the original one that would be cloned. In addition, cloning is expensive. Genetic improvement is lost when old clones are being used instead of other bulls."

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Dogs Cloned For Drug Sniffing Jobs


Inventor Spot
2008-04-28 04:56:00

cloned puppies
©AP


These puppies are really sweet-looking, aren't they? According to the South Korean Customs Service, the seven Labs you see here are all very good-natured dogs, highly trainable, and exceptionally good at sniffing out drugs. They should be; they've been cloned from Korea's best drug sniffing dog.

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World's first cloned horse gives birth in Italy


Xinhua
2008-04-30 04:54:00

Rome -- The world's first cloned horse Prometea has given birth to a foal in Italy's northern city Cremona, Italian News Agency ANSA reported Tuesday.

Italian animal-cloning pioneer Cesare Galli, who created the foal's mother Prometea in 2003, said both parent and child were doing well, according to ANSA.

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Our Haunted Planet
Argentina: Chupacabras Changes Diet


Inexplicata
2008-05-02 15:44:00

A dog was found dead with a puncture mark in its throat and completely drained of blood in the Argentinean city of Rosario. No signs of a struggle were evident, nor were bloodstains found on the ground. The animal shared a terrace with another dog that did not suffer any violence whatsoever.

This incident likely took place in the early morning hours of Thursday. Daniel Angel R., a resident of the Echesortu district of Rosario, heard some barking from the terrace on which he kept his dogs, but paid no attention to it, since there was nothing unusual about the situation.

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Wisconsin, US: Dells, Lake Delton residents report UFO sightings

Kay James
WiscNews.com
2008-05-07 14:42:00

Accounts of bright moving lights in the sky and even alien abduction have been reported from the Dells area, and UFO reports can be found on a Web site and in a new book.

The site, [here] lists reports of the sightings from across Wisconsin including in the Dells area and in other nearby towns such as Baraboo, Portage, Oxford, Lyndon Station. The Web site and the book, "UFO Wisconsin: A Progress Report" are the work of paranormal researcher Noah Voss of Sun Prairie.

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Flashback: Mysterious booms rattle the coastline of Israel

Translated from Hebrew
Ynet
2007-12-09 14:11:00

Concerned citizens reported to Ynet about loud sounds of explosions in the area of Central District. Some feared it was an earthquake, although Geophysical Institute refuted this possibility. Later this day IDF responded that it is probably a sonic boom.

Several loud explosions were heard at the afternoon in Central District area. IDF responded that apparently those were sonic booms, and the matter is under investigation. They added that during their activity, IAF makes all the possible effort to avoid interfering with citizens' quality of life.

Not long after 16:00, Ynet was flooded with "red email" reports from concerned readers. Many readers from the Central District reported extremely loud noises and strong tremors.

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'UFO' Sighting in Saltcoats, Scotland


ardrossanherald
2008-05-01 00:45:00

Two Herald readers have been stunned after seeing what they believe to be alien space crafts hovering through the skies of Saltcoats.

UFO?
©Unknown




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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
What do Wayne Gretzky, The Beatles and Peeka the poodle all have in common?

Wendy Gillis
TheStarPhoenix.com
2008-05-05 00:25:00

Answer: Each is in a hall of fame

The unusual behaviour of his family dog Peeka first tipped Ed Anderson off something strange was happening outside his door on a freezing winter day on Feb. 3, 2007.

But Peeka wasn't just acting up - she helped save the life of a newborn infant girl, leading to Peeka's induction Monday into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame as a Canadian animal heroine.

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