Signs of the Times Archive for Wed, 02 Jul 2008

- Signs of the Times Archive for Wed, 02 Jul 2008 -

Sections on today's Signs Page:

SOTT Focus
Best of the Web
U.S. News
UK & Euro-Asian News
Around the World
Big Brother
Axis of Evil
Middle East Madness
Grand Theft Economics
The Living Planet
Health & Wellness
Science & Technology
Our Haunted Planet
Don't Panic! Lighten Up!

SOTT Focus

Neil Entwistle: Psychopath

Harrison Koehli
sott.net
2008-07-02 18:55:00

©Reuters

The face of evil.

You've probably heard the story, or at least one like it. Husband kills wife and child, seemingly without remorse, then attempts to pass it off as a murder/suicide. And, remarkably, people believe him. The latest such example is Neil Entwistle, a British computer programmer, who murdered his American wife and 9-month-old daughter in 2006. He was recently sentenced to life in prison.

The trial made for a fascinating and disturbing spectacle. Aptly described by jurors as a complete narcissist, Entwistle put on quite the display during the presentation of a video of the bloody crime scene. But before we see his reaction for ourselves, let's see what the media tells us we see.

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Best of the Web

The Unburdened Mind of the Psychopath

Christopher S. Putnam
Damn Interesting
2008-01-20 06:50:00

©Unknown

In the public imagination, a "psychopath" is a violent serial killer or an over-the-top movie villain, as one sometimes might suspect Frank to be. He is highly impulsive and has a callous disregard for the well-being of others that can be disquieting. But he is just as likely to be a next-door neighbor, a doctor, or an actor on TV - essentially no different from anyone else who holds these roles, except that Frank lacks the nagging little voice which so profoundly influences most of our lives. Frank has no conscience. And as much as we would like to think that people like him are a rare aberration, safely locked away, the truth is that they are more common than most would ever guess.

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Averting our gaze from a psychopathic state

Linda McQuaig
The Smirking Chimp
2008-07-02 16:09:00

Does the president of the United States have the right to order a detainee buried alive?

Oddly, this grotesque question was posed at a U.S. Congressional hearing last week. Even odder was the answer - from John Yoo, former deputy assistant attorney general in the Bush administration, now a law professor at the University of California.

"I don't think that I've ever given the advice that the president could bury somebody alive," Yoo told a judiciary subcommittee hearing into detainee interrogations.

Well, I guess that's comforting to know. But it was striking to watch Yoo evade answering whether he considered there was any treatment so vicious and inhuman that it would be beyond the president's power to inflict it on a detainee, in the interests of national defence.

Apparently there isn't. In a public debate in 2005, Yoo was asked if he thought it would be lawful for the president to authorize crushing the testicles of a detainee's child.

It would seem like a simple "no" would suffice. But here's how Yoo responded: "I think it depends on why the president thinks he needs to do that."

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Flashback: Psychopaths Among Us

Robert Hercz
Hare.org
2001-06-22 13:15:00

©Unknown

"Psychopath! psychopath!"

I'm alone in my living room and I'm yelling at my TV. "Forget rehabilitation -- that guy is a psychopath."

Ever since I visited Dr. Robert Hare in Vancouver, I can see them, the psychopaths. It's pretty easy, once you know how to look. I'm watching a documentary about an American prison trying to rehabilitate teen murderers. They're using an emotionally intense kind of group therapy, and I can see, as plain as day, that one of the inmates is a psychopath. He tries, but he can't muster a convincing breakdown, can't fake any feeling for his dead victims. He's learned the words, as Bob Hare would put it, but not the music.

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U.S. News

Missing Vermont girl's uncle took her home for sex: Affidavit

Wilson Ring
Associated Press
2008-07-02 17:31:00

BURLINGTON. - A 14-year-old witness told investigators a missing Vermont girl's uncle brought the girl to his home to initiate her into a child sex ring, federal officials said in an affidavit released Wednesday.

The 14-year-old told authorities she helped Michael Jacques, the missing girl's uncle, take the 12-year-old to Jacques' Randolph home on June 25 to be initiated into the ring. The 12-year-old has not been seen since then.

The 14-year-old girl, a relative of Jacques, said she understood that as part of the initiation, the 12-year-old "would have sex with adult males," according to the affidavit in U.S. District Court.

The girl said she and the 12-year-old watched television for a while before Jacques told her to leave and took the girl upstairs. The witness said she left the house with her boyfriend and did not see the girl again.

The 14-year-old said she herself had been sexually assaulted by Jacques, 42, since she was 9.

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Another NASA Ames employee gets prison for child porn on work computer

Henry K. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle
2008-07-02 17:14:00

A former employee at the NASA Ames Research Center was sentenced today to five years in federal prison for possessing child pornography on his government computer.

Christopher Burt Wiltsee, 57, of Morgan Hill pleaded guilty in March, admitting that he had used his government computer to download child pornography from the Internet.

He admitted to possessing more than 600 images, including ones depicting sadistic and masochistic conduct, as well as pictures involving prepubescent minors.

At a hearing today in San Jose, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel also ordered Wiltsee to pay a $25,000 fine.

Wiltsee is at least the third person connected with NASA Ames to be convicted of possessing child pornography.

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Another reason to be afraid? Man arrested, no explosives found at LA airport

Jill Serjeant and Dan Whitcomb
Reuters
2008-07-02 17:10:00

LOS ANGELES - A man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday after claiming to have a bomb in his backpack but no explosives were found, officials said.

"A male individual on the public side of the international terminal of Los Angeles International Airport claimed to have explosive materials in his backpack," the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) said in a statement.

The TSA said that the man was arrested and that an unattended bag was found near a ticket counter in the international terminal.

"Out of an abundance of caution a perimeter was established" and the Los Angeles police bomb squad was called in, the TSA added.

Police tried to blow up the bag and a robot was brought in to examine it but no explosives were found inside, airport officials said.

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Controversy after singer substitutes 'black national anthem' for 'Star-Spangled Banner'

USA Today
2008-07-02 15:58:00

©Karl Gehring, The Denver Post

Jazz singer Rene Marie is also an actress with the Shadow Theatre Company.

A singer surprised dignitaries by singing Lift Every Voice and Sing, also known as the "black national anthem," to the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner during the mayor's State of the City address yesterday in Denver.

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Washington: Woman accused of cutting unborn child from victim's womb

Paula Horton
Boston Herald
2008-07-02 16:15:00

A 23-year-old Kennewick woman is accused of stabbing to death a pregnant Pasco, Wash., woman and then cutting her unborn child out of her womb and trying to pass the baby off as her own.

Blue mechanic's gloves soaked in blood, a box cutter, bloody paper towels, a baby bottle and mucus bulb are among items suspected of being used to kill Araceli Camacho Gomez and steal her nearly full-term baby.

Details of the gruesome slaying were revealed yesterday afternoon when Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong made a preliminary appearance in Benton County Superior Court. She was ordered held without bail in the Benton County jail on suspicion of aggravated first-degree murder.

©AP

Sisouvanh Synhavong

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Esmin Green's death: the hospital chief responds

Judith Graham
Chicago Tribune
2008-07-02 15:31:00

Many readers are outraged by the tragic case of Esmin Green, who died in June on the floor of a Brooklyn hospital after collapsing on the ground and being ignored by staff for nearly an hour.

For those of you following the story, here's a copy of the memo that went out yesterday from the president of New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation. That organization runs Kings County Hospital, where the incident occurred.

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Denver Archdiocese to Pay $5.5 Million in Abuse Suits

Dan Frosch
The New York Times
2008-07-02 14:19:00

After nearly three years of litigation, the Archdiocese of Denver said Tuesday that it would pay $5.5 million to settle more than a dozen lawsuits over sexual abuse by priests.

The 16 lawsuits and two additional claims against the archdiocese were filed by people who said that as children, they were abused by priests from 1954 to 1981 and that the archdiocese concealed the crimes.

The settlements bring to 42 the number of abuse claims the archdiocese has settled since 2005 against two priests, the Rev. Harold Robert White and the Rev. Leonard Abercrombie. A third priest, the Rev. Lawrence St. Peter, was accused in a 43rd case that was also settled. The amount of all the settlements totals more than $8.2 million. Two more abuse lawsuits against the archdiocese have yet to be resolved.

All three priests have died, and one, Father White, had left the priesthood at his own request. It is unclear if that was related to the accusations, said Jeanette DeMelo, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

©Will Powers/Associated Press

Brandon Trask, left, speaking after the settlement was announced Tuesday, was one of the first to go public with abuse claims.

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Georgia: New evidence collected in 1946 lynching case

Doug Gross
CNN
2008-07-02 14:12:00

State and federal investigators said Tuesday that they spent the past two days gathering evidence in the last documented mass lynching in the United States: a grisly slaying of four people that has remained unsolved for more than six decades.

In a written statement, the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said they collected several items on a property in rural Walton County, Georgia, that were taken in for further investigation.

On July 25, 1946, two black sharecropper couples were shot hundreds of times and the unborn baby of one of the women cut out with a knife at the Moore's Ford Bridge. One of the men had been accused of stabbing a white man 11 days earlier and was bailed out of jail by a former Ku Klux Klan member and known bootlegger who drove him, his wife, her brother and his wife to the bridge.

©Ariel Young Sullivan

Relatives of the Malcoms and Dorseys stand at their loved ones' fresh graves in this 1946 photo.

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Propaganda Alert!: Agency says 7,000 sites at 'high risk' of terrorist attack

Mike M. Ahlers
CNN
2008-06-20 18:24:00

Washington -- More than 7,000 facilities, from chemical plants to colleges, have been designated "high-risk" sites for potential terrorist attacks, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Next week, the department will send letters to the facilities notifying them that they present the highest potential consequences in the event of a successful terrorist attack, said Robert Stephan, the agency's assistant secretary for infrastructure protection.

Comment: Roll out the propaganda special: Congratulations! You have been chosen as one one of 7,000 lucky recipients!

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Report: Broadcast coverage of Iraq war is way down

Brian Stelter
The New York Times
2008-06-23 18:10:00

©Alaa Al-Marjani/Associated Press

For the people in Iraq, the war is full time. A woman wept as the body of a relative was borne to burial in Najaf.

Getting a story on the evening news isn't easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.

"Generally what I say is, 'I'm holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,' " she said last week in an appearance on "The Daily Show," referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. " 'It's aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don't put my story on the air, I'm going to pull the trigger.' "

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UK & Euro-Asian News

Parents to bury daughter whose death sparked SW China protest

Xinhua
2008-07-02 16:21:00

The parents of a girl whose death sparked a violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou Province buried her following a third postmortem examination on Wednesday afternoon.

Her relatives refused to be interviewed after last weekend's violent protest here, in which about 160 government offices and 42 vehicles were burned and more than 150 police and protesters were injured.

Hundreds of local residents attended the funeral of Li Shufen.

A neighbor of the Li family, who declined to be identified, said the parents had loved the girl very much.

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Child killed as bus falls into river in Russia's Far East

RIA Novosti
2008-07-02 15:33:00

A 10-year-old girl was killed when a bus carrying 16 children fell into a river in the Khabarovsk Territory in Russia's Far East, local emergency services said on Wednesday.

The bus was parked at a dock on Tuesday to meet the children after a river tour in the village of Belgo. After driver stepped out of the vehicle, leaving the engine in gear and the handbrake off, the bus began to move, and toppled into the water.

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Nine killed in Mi-8 helicopter crash in West Siberia

RIA Novosti
2008-07-02 15:29:00

An Mi-8 helicopter carrying oil workers crashed in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area in West Siberia killing at least nine people on Wednesday, the emergencies ministry said.

There were 16 people on board the helicopter, of which three were crew members and 13 were workers at a local drilling platform, a ministry spokesman said, adding that seven had survived.

"The survivors include three crew members and four passengers," he said, adding that they were receiving medical treatment.

The spokesman said the helicopter crash landed and caught fire on impact.

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Man shoots dead siblings, spouses in Austria

Earth times
2008-07-02 15:17:00

St Poelten, Austria - Following a month-long family row, a 66-year-old man has shot dead his two siblings and their spouses in Strasshof near Vienna, police said Wednesday. Police said the incident took place on Tuesday in the village of Strasshof, ten kilometres outside Vienna, and was discovered after the man, identified by police as Josef Branis, announced his plan to kill his siblings and himself in a letter to relatives.

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UK: Ex-Gurkhas lose pensions battle

Ananova
2008-07-02 14:32:00

Former Gurkha soldiers have lost their High Court battle over a pensions deal with the British Government they say has left them struggling to live.

Three retired members of the famous Brigade of Gurkhas failed in a legal challenge affecting thousands of others.

Lawyers for the three - Kumar Shrestha, Kamal Purja and Sambahadur Gurung, all in their late 30s and retired because of ill health - argued they had been treated unlawfully and unfairly.

They said men who enlisted before July 1997 but retired after had been denied equal pensions because their years of service up to that date were valued at only between 24% and 36% of British rates.

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Child sex trafficking 'within UK'

Ananova
2008-07-02 14:30:00

British-born children are being trafficked for sexual exploitation within the UK.

Police officers involved in a project which targeted human trafficking said it was a mistake to believe that all children targeted by pimps had been brought in from other countries.

A Government report said there was an "emerging issue" of British children, usually teenage girls, being trafficked within the UK.

It also emerged that new measures are underway to tackle the problem of children being forced into criminal activities such as working in cannabis farms and street crime gangs.

Further measures are under way to combat the trafficking of children into Britain to make fraudulent welfare claims.

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UK: PM accused of 'grubby deal-making' in rewarding 'terror law' supporter

Ananova
2008-07-02 14:26:00

Gordon Brown has faced embarrassment after it emerged a Labour MP was told he would be "appropriately rewarded" for his support for the Government's controversial anti-terror measures.

The Prime Minister was accused of "grubby deal-making" by former shadow home secretary David Davis after Chief Whip Geoff Hoon's remark to Keith Vaz was disclosed.

It came in a letter to Mr Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, a day after the Government won a crunch Commons vote on 42-day pre-charge detention for terror suspects.

Mr Vaz, who originally opposed the measure only to back it when Mr Brown was facing defeat in the Commons last month, has previously denied being promised a knighthood.

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In wake of riots over girl's death, China denies official's son involved

Agence France-Presse
2008-07-02 05:24:00

BEIJING - Police in southwestern China have ruled out allegations that a government official's son was involved in the rape-murder of a girl that sparked a riot by 30,000 people, state media reported on Wednesday.

The denial by authorities in Guizhou province, reported by the province's Jinqian Online news service, appeared to contradict a state media report a day earlier that police would reopen an investigation into the highly sensitive case.

The death of 17-year-old Li Shufen in Weng'an county triggered a violent outburst on Saturday by 30,000 residents who attacked and burned government and police targets.

The anger was fuelled by local rumours that the son of a top county official was involved in raping and killing the girl and that police had exonerated him.

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Around the World

Cuba says U.S. escalating anti-government actions

Jeff Franks, Esteban Israel and Nelson Acosta in Havana, and Arshad Mohammed in Washington
Reuters
2008-07-02 16:58:00

HAVANA - Cuba on Wednesday accused U.S. diplomats of escalating anti-government activities in recent weeks and said its ideological foe, the United States, will be held responsible for whatever happens if the actions continue.

The Foreign Ministry, in a statement published in state-run media, repeated charges from last month that the U.S. mission in Havana was providing direction and money to Cuban dissidents in violation of international diplomatic agreements.

It said there had since been an escalation of the activities that included anti-government acts in public places such as Havana's Revolution Square and supposed plans for "provocative actions" on July 4, the U.S. day of independence.

"The government of Cuba reiterates clearly that it will not tolerate the continuing of these provocations and illegal actions," the statement said.

Cuba, it said, "holds the U.S. government responsible for the consequences that may result."

The government said in May that U.S. top diplomat Michael Parmly, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, had ferried money from a jailed anti-Castro exile to dissidents in Havana.

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Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt is freed

Times Online
2008-07-02 16:49:00

French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans were tonight rescued from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops.

©AFP/Getty Images

Ingrid Betancourt as seen in the FARC video released earlier this year

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Elite police squad in Brazil killing indiscriminately

Stuart Grudgings
Reuters
2008-07-02 16:26:00

©REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

Armed police carry out an operation against rival bands of drug traffickers in the Mineira slum of Rio de Janeiro in this April 17, 2007 file photo.

Rio de Janeiro: Barked commands and the thump of helicopter blades jolted Juliana out of bed early in the morning of April 3.

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Australia: Armed police officer boards flight

The Sydney Morning Herald
2008-07-02 15:49:00

An investigation is underway after a NSW police officer managed to board a flight at Sydney airport still carrying his gun.

The officer was in full uniform and was on duty when he boarded the flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast yesterday morning, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said.

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Maoist rebels derail train in eastern India

Bappa Majumdar
Reuters
2008-07-02 14:44:00

Maoist insurgents blew up railway tracks and derailed a train in eastern India on Wednesday, police said, in response to what the Maoists say is a campaign of violence by local police against villagers.

No one was injured, but dozens of trains were held up or cancelled as rebels used explosives to blow tracks in two separate districts of Bihar state, police said.

"We found a third bomb which did not explode and the situation could have been worse then," said Sanjay Singh, a senior police officer.

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Bhutto's widower: West's support of Pakistan's military gave rise to Islamic militancy and terrorism

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
2008-07-02 07:23:00

The widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday blasted on the West, saying it had always invested in Pakistan's military and arms but not in its people, with the result of a rise of Islamic militancy and terrorism.

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Seven civilians killed in US terror strike: Afghan Governor

Kuwait News Agency
2008-07-02 07:19:00

An Afghan governor Monday said at least seven civilians have been killed in air strikes by the coalition troops against Taliban in a western Afghan province. The strike was carried out in Khashrod district of Afghanistan's western Nimroz province on Sunday.

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Big Brother

Seattle preparing for mock anthrax catastrophe

Paul Shukovsky
Seattle P.I.
2008-06-26 16:08:00

©AP Photo/Kenneth Lambert

Two biohazard investigators are prepared to enter the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001, in Washington, sweeping for anthrax.

The Department of Homeland Security has chosen the Seattle metropolitan area to stage a major exercise involving the imaginary release of anthrax spores.

At a meeting Thursday of federal, state and local officials, the still-evolving scenario was described as "big, bad and catastrophic."

It's planned that way to test what needs to happen to get Seattle back on its feet after such a devastating attack.

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New bags will let laptops go through airport security x-ray

Andrew Smith
The Dallas Morning News/Bloomberg News
2008-07-01 15:51:00

Business travelers rejoice: the NY Times reports that the TSA has approved a new design for carry-on luggage, one that will let you send your laptop through the x-ray machine without first pulling it out of your bag.

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Texas: Courts must stop laws gone wild

Matt Miller
Star Telegram
2008-07-02 12:45:00

Imagine taking your computer in for basic repairs and being told that the repair shop you've relied on for years can no longer do the work because the owner doesn't hold a state-issued private investigator's license.

Worse, imagine that if you ask the company to perform the repairs anyway, you and the person who repaired your computer could go to jail for a year and pay $14,000 in penalties.

Thousands of Texas computer repair shops and their customers now face this scenario in real life due to a recent change in the law. Under legislation brought on behalf of the private investigations industry and passed last year, any computer repair shop that analyzes data on a customer's computer must have a government-issued private investigator's license if the analysis involves data that says something about the actions of a third party.

The law is so broad that it would include looking at who a child has been chatting with on the Internet or whether an employee has been using a computer to gamble while at work. It could also include a computer repair that determined that a spouse unknowingly downloaded a virus onto the computer while visiting a disreputable website.

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Chinese bloggers scale the 'Great Firewall' in riot's aftermath

Juliet Ye, Geoffrey A. Fowler
The Wall Street Journal
2008-07-02 00:00:00

To slip past Internet censors squashing reports of a weekend riot in China's Guizhou province, some bloggers have started writing backward.

Some 30,000 rioters set fire to government buildings over the weekend to protest the way authorities handled the death of a teenager in the province's Weng'an County. While state-controlled media provided immediate coverage, government censors moved fast to delete online posts providing unofficial accounts and deactivate the accounts of those users.

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US Military to Patrol Internet

Shaun Waterman
UPI
2008-06-30 01:45:00

Washington - The U.S. military is looking for a contractor to patrol cyberspace, watching for warning signs of forthcoming terrorist attacks or other hostile activity on the Web.

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Australia: Taser trial a 'total farce'

Marissa Calligeros
Brisbane Times
2008-07-02 00:03:00

Civil libertarians have condemned a Queensland police trial of taser stun guns as a "total farce", renewing calls for a judicial inquiry ahead of a state-wide rollout of the controversial electric shock weapons.

The State Government yesterday concluded a 12 month taser trial by police across the south-east, and is now in the process of analysing the results.

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Australia: Thou shalt not annoy on Youth Day

Jano Gibson, Linda Morris and Joel Gibson
Sydney Morning Herald
2008-07-01 22:40:00

Extraordinary new powers will allow police to arrest and fine people for "causing annoyance" to World Youth Day participants and permit partial strip searches at hundreds of Sydney sites, beginning today.

The laws, which operate until the end of July, have the potential to make a crime of wearing a T-shirt with a message on it, undertaking a Chaser-style stunt, handing out condoms at protests, riding a skateboard or even playing music, critics say.

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Law Not Justice: The Thin Blue Lie

Wendy McElroy
wendymcelroy.com
2008-06-30 18:02:00

I'd rather take my chances with criminals than with the police. For one thing, criminals usually want your property, not control over your life.

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Axis of Evil

The moral depravity of the Iraq war

Twelfth Bough
2008-06-30 16:55:00

Watch this video. About seven or eight minutes in you can see bound detainees being forced off the top of a three story building. It appears that American soldiers are doing this, though you can't see them clearly from the video. People in military uniforms come and whisk away the detainees after they fall.

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The Extraordinary Chutzpah of Blackwater

Ed Brayton
ScienceBlogs
2008-06-23 14:02:00

There's irony, there's hypocrisy, and then there's plain old fashioned chutzpah. And you cannot get a better example of the latter than the arguments being made by Blackwater in a lawsuit in Raleigh, North Carolina. One of their subsidiaries, Presidential Airways, is being sued by the widows of three soldiers who died in a plane crash that the National Transportation Safety Board says was the fault of their employees.

Presidential Airways operates on a Pentagon contract in Afghanistan, transporting soldiers back and forth around the country among many other duties. In 2004, one of their flights crashed in the mountains, killing the three man crew and three soldiers on board. The widows of the three soldiers are suing Presidential for negligence and they've got a case. But now the company has made a motion to dismiss (pdf) the case, and the grounds for that dismissal simply have to be seen to be believed.

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Rice urges NKorea to give up all nuclear weapons

Hindustan Times
2008-06-28 14:58:00

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed North Korea on Saturday to give up all its atomic weaponry after the communist state delivered a nuclear declaration and demolished part of its reactor.

"In the next phase we do have to move on abandonment," she told a press conference in the South Korean capital, referring to a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal.

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From triumph to torture

John Pilger
The Guardian
2008-07-02 14:17:00

Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: "Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless."

The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, "he is a moderating voice, urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with Israel".

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Getting some fresh meat for the grinder: Pentagon to unveil new waiver process for recruits

Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
2008-07-02 13:59:00

The Pentagon has revised its policy for recruits who must get waivers for past bad behavior, but officials stopped short of eliminating waiver requirements for petty crimes, The Associated Press has learned.

After a lengthy review, the Defense Department bowed to insistence from the services that they be allowed to set their own guidelines for what offenses trigger a waiver. Instead, officials say the Pentagon will unveil a policy Wednesday that improves and simplifies the reporting process, grouping the waivers into four broad categories.

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Judging the Torture Presidency of George W. Bush

Nat Hentoff
The Village Voice
2008-07-02 07:38:00

Building a case for a prosecution that likely won't happen

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'US blocks Bin Laden murder plan'

Press TV
2008-07-02 07:33:00

The White house has blocked a secret plan into the tribal regions of Pakistan to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants.

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Why Israel Won't Accept a Two-State Solution

Bernard Chazelle
A Tiny Revolution
2008-06-22 01:28:00

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often narrated as a morality play, where offers are generous, lessons are taught, consciousness is seared, terrorism is rewarded, etc. Let's quit the blame game and focus, instead, on what's feasible and what's not. For starters, one can safely notch the right-wing fantasy of a Jordanian absorption of Palestine in the "Dream on, settlers" column. Ethnic cleansing is passé.

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Middle East Madness

US agrees to scrap immunity for security guards in Iraq: FM

Agence France-Presse
2008-07-01 15:39:00

©Unknown

Members of the US private security company Blackwater

Baghdad - The Iraqi foreign minister said on Tuesday that Washington has agreed to scrap immunity for foreign security guards in Iraq, moving the two countries closer to signing a long-term security pact.

"The immunity for private security guards has been removed. The US has agreed on it," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP after briefing Iraqi MPs on the controversial US-Iraq security pact which is being negotiated.

The US embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad, Mirembe Nantongo, declined to comment. "We do not comment on the contents of ongoing negotiations," she said.

The lifting of immunity for foreign private security contractors has been a longstanding demand from Iraqi lawmakers in the deal that would govern a long-term military arrangement between Baghdad and Washington.

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Flashback: Jenin residents had no chance to run, says Israeli soldier who bulldozed homes with residents still in them

Ben Lynfield
The Scotsman
2002-06-14 16:28:00

A MONTH after Israel thwarted a UN probe of its actions in the Jenin Refugee Camp, fresh evidence of abuses has emerged, this time from a soldier who says he demolished homes without giving Palestinians a chance to escape.

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Hiding their Crimes: Israel Bars UN Rights Team from Palestine Territories

WAFA Palestine News Agency
2008-07-01 16:24:00

Israeli authorities have barred on Tuesday a UN human rights committee from visiting Palestinian Territories on a fact-finding mission, the leader of the group said on Tuesday.

Head of the UN panel Prasad Kariyawasam said that Israeli authorities did not allow us to visit the Palestinian territories, adding that 'no reasons were given by Israel because they do not recognize our mandate'.

Kariyawasam told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman that despite the ban by the Jewish state, the committee has interviewed Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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U.S. Agrees to Lift Immunity for Contractors in Iraq

Sabrina Tavernise
The New York Times
2008-07-02 15:15:00

Baghdad - Iraq's foreign minister said Tuesday that the United States had agreed to lift immunity for foreign security contractors operating in Iraq, making them subject to prosecution under Iraqi law, according to Iraqi politicians.

In a briefing for lawmakers on the status of a complex security agreement being negotiated with the United States, the foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said Iraq had insisted on ending the immunity for private security companies, according to three Iraqi politicians who were present. American troops are operating under a United Nations mandate that expires in December.

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Palestinians storm Rafah crossing

Al Jazeera
2008-07-02 13:20:00

©AFP

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at Rafah in the hope of entering Egypt

Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have stormed the Egyptian gate at the Rafah crossing, clashing with security forces.

Palestinian youth on Wednesday threw rocks at Egyptian soldiers, who responded in kind, keeping the crowd at bay with water cannons.

At least six border guards were hurt in the exchange, Reuters news agency reported, citing an Egyptian police source.

Television footage showed some Palestinians were also wounded.

Egypt opened the crossing for two days to allow in Palestinians who need medical treatment not available in Gaza, and for Palestinians to return home.

Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered on the Gaza side of the border crossing, hoping to leave the impoverished and heavily-sanctioned strip.

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Hezbollah affirms prisoner exchange

Al Jazeera
2008-07-02 13:16:00

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has announced his group's agreement to a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, the Hezbollah leader said he expected the swap to take place in one to two weeks.

He said that the exchange should include the release of Samir Kantar, a Lebanese prisoner who is serving multiple life terms for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing three Israelis - a man, his 4-year-old daughter and a police officer.

"I will not set an exact date. The sooner it takes place the better," he said.

"I believe that in a week or two it will be implemented ... July 15 is the most probable, a bit before or a bit after."

The deal - approved by Israel on Sunday - would see Hezbollah return two captured Israeli soldiers, believed to be dead, for five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of around 200 suspected Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab fighters.

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Deaths in Jerusalem tractor rampage

Al Jazeera
2008-07-02 12:51:00

A Palestinian man killed at least three people and wounded 30 more when he rammed a bulldozer into a bus and cars in central Jerusalem before being shot dead, medics and police have said.

Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, described the incident as a "terrorist" attack by a 30-year-old man from occupied east Jerusalem.

The attack on Wednesday caused chaos in downtown Jerusalem.

After midday (0900 GMT) the man drove the 20-tonne earth moving vehicle 500 metres along Jaffa Road in the heart of west Jerusalem, hitting a crowded public bus and other vehicles including one car which was completely wrecked.

At the scene of the attack, injured people lay on the ground amid piles of
broken glass and blood stains on the ground.

Traffic was halted as hundreds of people were reported to have fled through the streets.

Several people opened fire at the man driving the earthmover.

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Israeli settlers fire home-made shells at a Palestinian village

Ghassan Bannoura
International Middle East Media Center
2008-07-02 11:51:00

Palestinian sources said that Israeli settlers fired on Tuesday midday home made shells at the village of Buren located near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

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Iran says may consider opening US interest section, direct flights

IRNA
2008-07-02 07:16:00

Iran may consider suggestion of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on opening US interest section in Tehran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

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Smuggling of goods an organized crime led by certain powers: Ahmadinejad

IRNA
2008-07-02 07:14:00

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that smuggling of goods is an organized crime supported by certain powers to rule over world markets.

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Era of nuclear weapons is over: Iran Foreign Minister

IRNA
2008-07-02 07:13:00

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday that the era of nuclear weapons is over and that WMDs failed to solve any problem.

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Israel, Russia sign mutual visa-exemption agreement

Jerusalem Post
2008-06-29 06:58:00

The Knesset's Interior and Environmental Committee unanimously approved on Sunday a mutual abolition of the need to issue a visa for Israelis traveling to Russia and for Russians coming to Israel.

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Report: Iran willing to suspend nuclear program for at least six weeks

Yossi Melman
Haaretz
2008-07-02 06:16:00

©Associated Press

Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz.

Unofficial reports from Iran, supported by several Iranian legislators, suggest that Tehran is willing to suspend its nuclear program for at least six weeks as a goodwill gesture to the West.

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Grand Theft Economics

US: Dow enters bear market as stocks slide

Kristina Cooke
Reuters
2008-07-02 17:29:00

NEW YORK - The Dow sank into a bear market on Wednesday as U.S. stocks fell on growing concerns about the toll that record oil prices are taking on the economy and corporate profits.

After flirting with bear market status for several sessions, the Dow closed 20 percent below its October peak as it was no longer able to withstand the avalanche of warnings about banking losses, surging inflation fears and weakening consumer confidence.

Merrill Lynch struck a negative chord early in the session when it downgraded General Motors, saying the automaker will need $15 billion to shore up liquidity. Merrill added that bankruptcy is "not impossible" for GM if the auto market continues to slump, sending GM's shares down more than 15 percent.

Adding to the gloom, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said high oil prices, further home price declines and capital markets turmoil will prolong the American economy's slowdown.

Nervousness abounded a day before the key monthly jobs report after data released on Wednesday showed U.S. private employers slashed 79,000 jobs in June. The ADP data raised expectations for an even more disappointing payrolls report.

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US: Maine faces energy 'catastrophe'

Tom Walsh
Ellsworth American
2008-06-29 16:22:00

Northport, Maine - Apparently, the sky is falling! That's the word not from Chicken Little, but from former Maine Gov. Angus King, who says he doesn't use the term "catastrophe" lightly.

"This is a human catastrophe coming at us in the state of Maine in terms of energy supply and costs," King said June 12 at a daylong seminar on harnessing tidal energy and offshore wind to confront runaway energy costs, costs he sees as a direct threat to Maine's being habitable.

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Oil-Fueled Catastrophe in the Airline Industry Would Cripple U.S. Economy and Eliminate American Jobs

Business Travel Coalition
2008-06-23 15:51:00

Radnor, Pennsylvania - The skyrocketing price of aviation fuel will have devastating implications far beyond new surcharges for checked bags and in-flight beverage services according to a new study prepared by the Business Travel Coalition (BTC). Not only are U.S. airlines and their passengers facing their darkest future, but fast-approaching airline liquidations will cripple the U.S. economy that depends on affordable, frequent intercity air transportation.

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Indonesia: Pricey Oil Makes Geothermal Projects More Attractive

Ed Davies and Karen Lema
International Herald Tribune
2008-07-02 15:55:00

Unlocking Potential in Volcano Zones

Faced with looming energy crises in their developing economies, power-hungry countries like Indonesia and the Philippines are looking deep into the earth for solutions.

Both are in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area peppered with volcanoes and home to the world's biggest reservoir of geothermal power.

"When I think of Indonesia and energy, I think geothermal," said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, during a speech this month to the brokerage house CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. "Indonesia has more than 500 volcanoes, of which 130 are active."

"Indonesia could run its economy entirely on geothermal energy and has not come close to tapping the full potential," he told the investment group.

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American Airlines to cut about 900 jobs

Mary Schlangenstein
International Herald Tribune/Bloomberg
2008-07-02 15:22:00

AMR's American Airlines will eliminate as many as 900 flight attendant jobs as the world's largest carrier begins grounding planes and cutting flights to combat record fuel prices.

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Fugitive Fund Manager Who Faked Suicide Surrenders

Reuters
2008-07-02 14:35:00

The fugitive hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel III surrendered to law enforcement officials on Wednesday, ending a manhunt that began shortly after he faked his suicide on the day that he was to report to prison in Ayer, Mass.

Mr. Israel, who disappeared June 9, surrendered in Southwick, Mass., at 9:15 a.m., a spokeswoman for the marshals said.

He was talking to his mother on the phone when he walked into the lobby of the local police station and surrendered to the authorities, a spokeswoman for the Southwick Police Department said. He was kept briefly in a holding cell in the Southwick station and was later by marshals to the federal courthouse in Springfield, Mass.

Marshals from the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force in Illinois had been in "close contact" with Mr. Israel's mother, Ann R. Israel, according to Carolyn Gwathmey, a spokeswoman for the marshals.

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US: Overdue Home-Equity Credit Lines Rise Most Since 1987

Hugh Son
Bloomberg
2008-07-02 14:28:00

Consumers fell behind on loans secured by their homes at the fastest pace in two decades in the first quarter, signaling deeper distress in the U.S. economy, the American Bankers Association reported.

Home-equity lines of credit at least 30 days past due rose 14 basis points to 1.1 percent of accounts in the quarter, the Washington-based group said today in a statement. Delinquent credit-card accounts increased 13 basis points to 4.51 percent, the highest since 2006. Late rates worsened in five of eight categories of non-revolving loans tracked by the group.

''It's all bad news because people who had spending plans based on credit will have to cut back,'' said Nigel Gault, research director at Lexington, Massachusetts-based Global Insight Inc. ''People overstretched to take advantage of equity in their homes, equity which may not be there anymore.''

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Mortgage ruling could shock U.S. banking industry

Gina Keating
Reuters
2008-06-30 13:50:00

Los Angeles - A lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin couple against their mortgage lender could have major implications for banks should a U.S. appeals court agree that borrowers can cancel their loans en masse when their lenders violate a federal lending disclosure law.

The case began like hundreds of others filed since the U.S. housing boom spawned a rise in sales of adjustable rate loans. Susan and Bryan Andrews of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, claimed that lender Chevy Chase Bank FSB had hidden the true terms of what they believed was a good deal on a low-interest loan.

In their 2005 lawsuit, the couple said the loan's interest rate had more than doubled by their second monthly payment from the 1.95 percent rate they thought was locked in for five years. The interest rate rose well above the 5.75 percent fixed-rate loan they had refinanced to pay their children's college tuition.

The Andrews filed the case seeking class action status; and in early 2007, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled that the bank had violated the Truth in Lending Act, or TILA, and that thousands of other Chevy Chase borrowers could join them as plaintiffs.

The judge transformed the case from a run-of-the-mill class action to a potential nightmare for the U.S. banking industry by also finding that the borrowers could force the bank to cancel, or rescind, their loans. That decision was stayed pending an appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is expected to rule any day.

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Unprecedented capital inflows test Chinese regulators

Lin Jianyang
China
2008-07-01 11:33:00

China has taken a series of increasingly aggressive measures in the past several months to blunt the impact of so-called "hot money," amid the explosive growth of its foreign exchange reserves, which have soared beyond what can be explained by trade and investment flows.

The inflows have been so massive as to raise alarms over the country's financial security.

According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), as of the end of May, forex reserves stood at 1.797 trillion U.S. dollars.

During the first five months of 2008, forex reserves increased by 18.7 percent year-on-year, or 268.7 billion U.S. dollars, SAFE figures showed.

Where is all that money coming from, and where is it going?

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India: Nationwide truckers strike from today

ANI
2008-07-02 10:01:00

Truckers across the country are on an indefinite strike today to push their demand for abolishment of toll tax and rationalization of duty of diesel.

All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) claimed the support of all state transporters' association with a combined fleet size of 48 lakh trucks.

On Tuesday, AIMTC officials had presented a note of their demands to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The demands of the truckers' body include removal of ad valorem taxes levied on diesel. They also demanded that toll taxes on old highways, where recoveries have already been made, should be removed.

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Suspicious: Lehman speculation blamed on short-sellers

Ben White
The Financial Times
2008-07-01 22:20:00

Shares in Lehman Brothers, battered in recent days by rumours of an emergency sale, stabilised on Tuesday after several analysts said what Lehman executives have been saying privately for days: that the rumours are completely bogus.

The problem for Lehman is that similar rumours circulated about Bear Stearns in the weeks leading to the investment bank's collapse and emergency sale to JPMorgan Chase. Those rumours, mainly that the bank had run out of cash, were also untrue until they became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

People close to Lehman say the bank is now convinced that it is the target of an orchestrated campaign by short-sellers attempting to force it into sharing the same fate as befell Bear.

And executives at the bank are deeply frustrated that regulators have not moved more aggressively - and publicly - to investigate who is behind the latest rumours and make clear that those who are will be punished severely.

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Fruits of globalization: Vietnam bears the brunt of global economic crisis

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning
2008-06-30 06:40:00

©Unknown

"I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do declare that said national emergency still continues to exist and pursuant to said..."

With those mealy words, America's Depression-era president ventured from bad luck into treachery. The Executive Order he issued on the 5th of April 1933 confiscated Americans' private holdings of gold, then valued at $20.67 per ounce. Then, in January, 1934, the U.S. president fixed the price of gold at $35. All of sudden, Americans' dollars had been devalued by 69.3%.

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US: High Gas Prices Threaten to Drain Small Towns' Populations

Donald Bradley
The Kansas City Star
2008-06-28 00:15:00

Leeton, Missouri - In this small town south of Warrensburg, directions usually begin with, "From Casey's, you go ..."

That would be Casey's General Store, the only gas station in town. It's where folks fill up while talking about goings-on, politics, weather and who's got the best-looking tomatoes.

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UK: Families 'going hungry' as credit crunch sends food prices soaring

Aislinn Simpson
Telegraph
2008-07-01 23:31:00

Families are going hungry as the credit crunch sends food prices rocketing, according to a study.

Almost one in eight people have skipped a meal in the past year due to rising grocery prices, rising to nearly one in five in the lowest-income households.

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US: Gas, food prices pinch elderly meal programs

P.J. Dickerson
Associated Press
2008-07-01 23:25:00

CHARLESTON, West Virginia - Ruth M. Jones doesn't know what she'd do without hot meals delivered daily to her home. The 81-year-old Charleston widow can't walk or drive since a car wreck nine years ago left her stricken by arthritis.

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The Living Planet

US: More Big Sur evacuations after wildfire jumps line

Amanda Fehd, Marcus Wohlsen and Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press
2008-07-02 17:17:00

Authorities on Wednesday ordered most of the remaining residents of this scenic coastal community to leave after an out-of-control wildfire jumped a fire line and threatened more homes.

New mandatory evacuation notices were issued Wednesday morning for an additional 10-mile stretch along Highway 1, bringing the total length of the evacuated area to about 25 miles of the coast, emergency officials said.

"The fire is just a big raging animal right now," said Darby Marshall, spokesman for the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services.

©NASA photo via Associated Press

Fires near Big Sur are shown in a photo from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument on NASA's Terra satellite on Sunday, June 29, 2008. The image combines a natural color portrayal of the landscape with thermal infrared data showing the active burning areas in red. The dark area in the lower right is a previous forest fire.

Firefighters are battling more than 1,100 wildfires, mostly ignited by lightning, that have scorched 680 square miles and destroyed 60 homes and other buildings across Northern California since June 20, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

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Arctic Seabed Alive With Volcano Action

eCanadaNow.com
2008-06-26 15:52:00

©Unknown

Study Discovers Lava Spewing Activity

In a series of different expeditions on the Arctic Seafloor, there have been a number of volcano spots located that are actively spewing red-hot lava out of the seafloor.

It has revealed itself as an explosive geographical location, with fountains of molten lava and gas that are springing out of different volcanoes under the sea near the North Pole.

The researchers that went in search of ocean floor conditions near the North Pole were surprised to discover the intensity and variety of volatile activity beneath the Arctic Ice.

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Evacuation as Chile's Llaima volcano spews lava

Simon Gardner
Reuters
2008-07-02 15:13:00

Chile's Llaima volcano, one of South America's most active, is spewing lava in southern Chile, the government said on Tuesday, ordering an evacuation just two months after the spectacular eruption of the Chaiten volcano further south.

Snow-capped Llaima, near Chile's picturesque lake region, erupted violently on New Year's Day, forcing the temporary evacuation of some tourists and residents from the surrounding Conguillio National Park, and then belched ash and lava in February.

On Tuesday the government ordered a 9-mile (15 km) exclusion zone around the 10,253-foot (3,125 meter)-high volcano and ordered the evacuation of around 40 people from the area, about 435 miles (700 km) south of the capital Santiago.

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California, US: Wildfire in Santa Barbara County Forces Evacuations

Associated Press
2008-07-02 14:02:00

A wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest has forced authorities to evacuate residents living in the canyon areas north of Goleta in Santa Barbara County.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kathy Good says the fire has burned roughly 50 acres of heavy brush in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains. She says winds are pushing the fire down a slope toward homes in the Glen Annie and La Patera canyons.

Authorities issued a mandatory evacuation for residents in those areas.

©AP

Residents watch as a brush fire burns out of control in the Santa Ynez Mountains near Santa Barbara, Calif.

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2 moderate earthquakes rattle central Peru

Economic Times
2008-07-01 18:19:00

LIMA -- The U.S. Geological Survey says a 5.5-magnitude earthquake rattled Peru's central highlands, followed by a 4.7-magnitude temblor in the same area. No damages or injuries were immediately reported.

The first quake struck at 7:17 p.m. (0017GMT) Monday evening, and the second hit 47 minutes later.

The epicenter was a sparsely populated area 70 miles (110 kilometers) east-southeast of Huanuco, the closest major city.

The first quake was the fourth with a greater-than-4.7 magnitude to strike the area in the past week.

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Health & Wellness

More than 4,000 Danes may have salmonella

Gabriel Gabiro
Associated Press
2008-07-02 17:24:00

COPENHAGEN - Danish health officials fear more than 4,000 people may be infected with salmonella and are checking everything from refrigerators to credit card receipts to find the source of what may be the worst outbreak in 15 years.

Kare Moelbak of the Ministry of Health said 330 cases have been confirmed and about a quarter of those people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

He said officials at the government's center for prevention and control of infectious diseases say the real number probably exceeds 4,000 people.

Moelbak said he suspects the source is some sort of Danish food product distributed only in Denmark, since neighboring countries have not reported an outbreak. They believe it probably is meat, but they do not know which product.

"Food control units are out to visit patients and see what they have in their refrigerators. We have even had access to electronic files to get an overview of what people have bought using their credit cards," he said.

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Are men or women more likely to have memory problems in very old age?

American Academy of Neurology
2008-07-02 17:11:00

Women over age 90 are significantly more likely to have dementia compared to men in their 90s, according to a study published in the July 2, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Research shows that dementia risk for both men and women increases from age 65 to 85, but this most recent study is one of few that looks at people over age 90.

"While men don't typically live as long as women, those who do make it to age 90 appear to be much less likely to have dementia and also have a shorter survival time when they do have dementia," according to study author Maria Corrada, ScD, with the University of California, Irvine.

Researchers reviewed an analysis of about 900 people age 90 and older. Of those, 375 had dementia.

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Study: Method to predict IVF success

United Press International
2008-07-02 15:44:00

California researchers say they have identified a method that can predict with 70 percent accuracy if in vitro fertilization will make a woman pregnant.

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U.S. Officials Stymied in Salmonella Search

Amanda Gardner and Steven Reinberg
Washington Post
2008-07-01 15:24:00

With the number of people sickened in the nationwide salmonella outbreak now standing at 869, with 107 hospitalizations, U.S. officials acknowledged Tuesday that they were no closer to identifying the source of the contaminant.

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Blue Wednesday

Ananova
2008-07-02 14:58:00

Wednesdays - and not Mondays - are the most depressing day of the week, according to researchers.

Psychologists found that, on average, people's moods remain about the same on each day throughout the week.

But Wednesdays were the low point as people were furthest away from the weekend and bogged down with work.

The psychologists also found that although we look forward to it, the weekend does not actually improve our mood.

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Spiritual fix: Spiritual effects of hallucinogens persist, Johns Hopkins researchers report

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
2008-07-01 14:50:00

In a follow-up to research showing that psilocybin, a substance contained in "sacred mushrooms," produces substantial spiritual effects, a Johns Hopkins team reports that those beneficial effects appear to last more than a year.

Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the Johns Hopkins researchers note that most of the 36 volunteer subjects given psilocybin, under controlled conditions in a Hopkins study published in 2006, continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.

"Most of the volunteers looked back on their experience up to 14 months later and rated it as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives," says lead investigator Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor in the Johns Hopkins departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neuroscience.

In a related paper, also published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers offer recommendations for conducting this type of research.

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Girls are as competitive as boys - just more subtle

Ed Yong
New Scientist
2008-06-25 07:07:00

Girls are no less competitive than boys, they simply employ more subtle tactics, a study of pre-schoolers suggests. While boys use head-on aggression to get what they want, girls rely on the pain of social exclusion.

To test the apparent differences in how very young children compete, Joyce Benenson at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, US and her colleagues divided 87 four-year-olds into same-sex groups of three. In successive trials, each trio received either one, two or three highly prized animal puppets.

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Science & Technology

Newcomer In Early Eurafrican Population?

Science Daily
2008-07-02 17:55:00

A complete mandible of Homo erectus was discovered at the Thomas I quarry in Casablanca by a French-Moroccan team co-led by Jean-Paul Raynal, CNRS senior researcher at the PACEA laboratory (CNRS/Université Bordeaux 1/ Ministry of Culture and Communication). This mandible is the oldest human fossil uncovered from scientific excavations in Morocco. The discovery will help better define northern Africa's possible role in first populating southern Europe.

A Homo erectus half-jaw had already been found at the Thomas I quarry in 1969, but it was a chance discovery and therefore with no archeological context. This is not the case for the fossil discovered May 15, 2008, whose characteristics are very similar to those of the half-jaw found in 1969.

Photograph of the fossil human mandible discovered May 15, 2008 at the Thomas I quarry site in Casablanca.

The morphology of these remains is different from the three mandibles found at the Tighenif site in Algeria that were used, in 1963, to define the North African variety of Homo erectus, known as Homo mauritanicus, dated to 700,000 B.C.

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Some fundamental interactions of matter turn out to be fundamentally different than thought, say Stanford researchers

Louis Bergeron
Stanford University
2008-07-02 17:12:00

Collisions have consequences. Everyone knows that. Whether it's between trains, planes, automobiles or atoms, there are always repercussions. But while macroscale collisions may have the most obvious effects - mangled steel, bruised flesh - sometimes it is the tiniest collisions that have the most resounding repercussions.

Such may be the case with the results of new experimental research on collisions between a single hydrogen atom and a lone molecule of deuterium - the smallest atom and one of the smallest molecules, respectively - conducted by a team led by Richard Zare, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University.

When an atom collides with a molecule, traditional wisdom said the atom had to strike one end of the molecule hard to deliver energy to it. People thought a glancing blow from an atom would be useless in terms of energy transfer, but that turns out not to be the case, according to the researchers.

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Archaeologists Find Silos And Administration Center From Early Egyptian City

Science Daily
2008-07-02 17:02:00

A University of Chicago expedition at Tell Edfu in southern Egypt has unearthed a large administration building and silos that provide fresh clues about the emergence of urban life. The discovery provides new information about a little understood aspect of ancient Egypt - the development of cities in a culture that is largely famous for its monumental architecture.

Excavation area at Tell Edfu showing superimposed settlement layers dating to various phases, with some of the silos of the 17th Dynasty (ca. 1650-1520 BC) covered by a thick ash layer on top into which several storage compartments were built which are of a later date.

The archaeological work at Tell Edfu was initiated with the permission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zahi Hawass, under the direction of Nadine Moeller, Assistant Professor at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Work late last year revealed details of seven silos, the largest grain bins found in ancient Egypt as well as an older columned hall that was an administration center.

Long fascinated with temples and monuments such as pyramids, scholars have traditionally spent little time exploring the residential communities of ancient Egypt. Due to intense farming and heavy settlement over the years, much of the record of urban civilization has been lost. So little archaeological evidence remains that some scholars believe Egypt did not have a highly developed urban culture, giving Mesopotamia the distinction of teaching people how to live in cities.

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Life Altered 12, 900 Years Ago By A Giant Comet?

Science Daily
2008-07-02 16:52:00

Geological evidence found in Ohio and Indiana in recent weeks is strengthening the case to attribute what happened 12,900 years ago in North America -- when the end of the last Ice Age unexpectedly turned into a phase of extinction for animals and humans - to a cataclysmic comet or asteroid explosion over top of Canada.

A comet/asteroid theory advanced by Arizona-based geophysicist Allen West in the past two years says that an object from space exploded just above the earth's surface at that time over modern-day Canada, sparking a massive shock wave and heat-generating event that set large parts of the northern hemisphere ablaze, setting the stage for the extinctions.

Ken Tankersley.

Now University of Cincinnati Assistant Professor of Anthropology Ken Tankersley, working in conjunction with Allen West and Indiana Geological Society Research Scientist Nelson R. Schaffer, has verified evidence from sites in Ohio and Indiana - including, locally, Hamilton and Clermont counties in Ohio and Brown County in Indiana - that offers the strongest support yet for the exploding comet/asteroid theory.

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Hubble Sees Supernova Remnant In Celestial Fireworks

Science Daily
2008-07-02 16:46:00

A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago.

On or around May 1, 1006 A.D., observers from Africa to Europe to the Far East witnessed and recorded the arrival of light from what is now called SN 1006, a tremendous supernova explosion caused by the final death throes of a white dwarf star nearly 7,000 light-years away. The supernova was probably the brightest star ever seen by humans, and surpassed Venus as the brightest object in the night time sky, only to be surpassed by the moon. It was visible even during the day for weeks, and remained visible to the naked eye for at least two and a half years before fading away.

A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago.

It wasn't until the mid-1960s that radio astronomers first detected a nearly circular ring of material at the recorded position of the supernova. The ring was almost 30 arcminutes across, the same angular diameter as the full moon. The size of the remnant implied that the blast wave from the supernova had expanded at nearly 20 million miles per hour over the nearly 1,000 years since the explosion occurred.

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Scientists solve volcanic mercury mystery

Rich Bowden
The Tech Herald
2008-06-25 15:32:00

British scientists have solved an important mystery; how traces of the element mercury with volcanic signatures ends up in polar ice cores far away from any volcanoes.

"It has always been a mystery how trace metals, like mercury, with a volcanic signature find their way into polar ice in regions without nearby evidence of volcanic activity," said Dr David Pyle of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences who led the research team with colleague Dr Tamsin Mather. "These traces only appear as a faint 'background signal' in ice cores but up until now it has still been difficult to explain."

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New Map IDs The Core Of The Human Brain

Science Daily
2008-07-01 15:20:00

An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

The work by the researchers from Indiana University, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Harvard Medical School marks a major step in understanding the most complicated and mysterious organ in the human body. It not only provides a comprehensive map of brain connections (the brain "connectome"), but also describes a novel application of a non-invasive technique that can be used by other scientists to continue mapping the trillions of neural connections in the brain at even greater resolution, which is becoming a new field of science termed "connectomics."

"This is one of the first steps necessary for building large-scale computational models of the human brain to help us understand processes that are difficult to observe, such as disease states and recovery processes to injuries," said Olaf Sporns, co-author of the study and neuroscientist at Indiana University.

The first complete high-resolution map of the human cerebral cortex identifies a single network core that could be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.

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Cluster Satellites Listen To The Sounds Of Earth

Volcano Ashes Blog
2008-07-01 15:20:00

©Unknown

The first thing an alien race is likely to hear from Earth is chirps and whistles, a bit like R2-D2, the robot from Star Wars. In reality, they are the sounds that accompany the aurora. Now ESA's Cluster mission is showing scientists how to understand this emission and, in the future, search for alien worlds by listening for their sounds.

Scientists call this radio emission the Auroral Kilometric Radiation (AKR). It is generated high above the Earth, by the same shaft of solar particles that then causes an aurora to light the sky beneath. For decades, astronomers had assumed that these radio waves travelled out into space in an ever-widening cone, rather like light emitted from a torch. Thanks to Cluster, astronomers now know this is not true.

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High density vertical growth technology

Valcent Products Inc
2008-07-02 13:32:00

Veggies growing on an overhead conveyor system

Valcent Products Inc. (OTCBB: VCTPF) introduces its revolutionary High Density Vertical Growth (HDVG) system, now producing vegetables within its greenhouse production plant in El Paso, Texas. The HDVG technology provides a solution to rapidly increasing food costs caused by transportation/fuel costs spiraling upwards with the cost of oil. Together with higher cost comes a reduction in availability and nutritional values in the food we consume.

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Earth Not Ready for Meteors or Comets

Brian Handwerk
National Geographic
2008-07-01 23:23:00

A hundred years after a mysterious and massive explosion struck Russia, experts are warning that Earth is ill prepared to face a cosmic catastrophe that could do similar damage.

The blast, known as the Tunguska event, leveled some 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of forest with the power of nearly 200 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs.

An explosion rips through the Siberian wilderness in an artist's conception. A hundred years after a mysterious blast leveled some 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of forest in Siberia, experts are saying that Earth is unprepared to face a similar blast caused by a meteor strike.

Remarkably few people witnessed the event, and debate has raged for decades about its cause.

One of the leading theories is that a comet or asteroid hit Earth or exploded upon entering the atmosphere above remote western Siberia.

"Had that same object exploded over a metropolitan area, there would have been millions of people killed," U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (a Republican from California) said yesterday at a briefing at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California.

"Right now we have no plan in place to detect these objects far enough out to deflect them."

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"Virtual man" may ease drug R&D woes: report

Ben Hirschler
Reuters
2008-06-19 18:48:00

Paris - New computing technologies and the evolution of a "virtual man" to predict the effects of new drugs before they enter clinical trials could transform the fortunes of pharmaceutical research, a report said on Friday.

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Our Haunted Planet

CA: Mystery fireball streaks across sky

Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
2008-07-01 19:50:00

Witnesses across Southern California say they saw an object 'moving very fast across the northern sky' and falling near the San Bernardino Mountains. Officials have no firm answers on what it was.

©LA Times

From Hollywood Hills to the Nevada state line, people reported seeing a fireball streaking across the sky and falling near the San Bernardino Mountains this morning. But explanations of the mysterious object were scarce.

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!

Terrorist spice: Curry grounds plane

Ananova
2008-07-02 15:15:00

A BA jet diverted after passengers thought they smelt poison gas was really grounded by curry.

The flight from Belgrade to London made an emergency evacuation after passengers panicked, fearing a terrorist gas attack.

But an official investigation into the incident at the Nikola Tesla Airport in the Serbian capital has revealed the fumes had escaped from a giant container of curry spices in the plane's cargo hold.

"The smell spread from the package of an aromatic food spice," confirmed the Serbian Ministry for the Protection of Human Environment.

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China: Man sells 10,000 mosquito corpses

Ananova
2008-07-02 15:00:00

A Chinese man who set up an online business selling dead mosquitoes says he's received 10,000 orders in just two days.

Nin Nan, of Shanghai, came up with the idea of selling mosquitoes he killed to attract visitors to his online jewellery shop.

"I locked myself in the room, thinking hard of a promotion plan. With a 'pa' sound and a dead mosquito, I came up with this weird idea," he told Qianlong News.

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Satire: Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013

The Onion
2008-06-30 14:57:00

Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013

"The worst entertainment crisis humanity has faced"

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Sarkozy TV rebuke becomes web hit: Nicolas Sarkozy gets angry with a TV technician

BBC
2008-07-02 14:31:00

Click here to see the video.

Footage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressing irritation at a TV technician ahead of an interview has become an instant internet success.

The video shows the employee clipping a microphone to Mr Sarkozy's tie, and not responding to a presidential "hello".

"It's a question of manners," Mr Sarkozy is heard muttering. "When you're invited, you're entitled to have people say 'hello' to you".

The video, posted on the Dailymotion website, has drawn about 500,000 hits.

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Satire? President Bush decries supernova conspiracy theorists

Sir Satire's New World Order News Service
2008-07-02 03:51:00

President Bush denounced what he called "solar conspiracy theories" after the sun appeared to explode today.

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