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Experts doubt Al Qaeda link in Mumbai attacks
International Herald Tribune
2008-11-27 14:24:00
The men came wearing black hoods, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades, taking hostages, attacking two hotels, a cinema, a café, a train station and other popular and undefended "soft targets."
An e-mail message to Indian media outlets that claimed responsibility for the bloody attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday night said the militants were from the Deccan Mujahideen.
Global terrorism experts said Thursday they had never heard of the group. And based on its tactics, they said, it was probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda.
"It's even unclear whether it's a real group or not," said Bruce Hoffman, a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the author of the book "Inside Terrorism." "It could be a cover name for another group, or a name adopted just for this particular incident."
Chrtistine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was careful to say that the identity of the terrorists could not yet be known. But she insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested that the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims - and not linked to Al Qaeda or the violent South Asian terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
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Following the script
Nobody
churchofnobody
2008-11-27 16:54:00
Mumbai is ablaze. This attack is huge. My guess is that over a hundred people are involved. All of the people in on this plot ran on a well laid out schedule. Whatever the f*** is going on has been well organised. And whatever it was the organisers intended to achieve, they've achieved it.
Sure enough, it's Muslims. Or so the media tells me. Apparently the terrorists are unhappy with the treatment of Muslims in India. Their plan, as best I can tell, is to kill Indians and foreigners indiscriminately, set fire to major pubic buildings, and take hostages and refuse to release them until Muslims are treated better. Good thinking. Am I alone in wondering at this disconnect?
Between me and the media, it sure looks like it. But it's early days yet. Me, I confidently look forward to the members of the media stating the obvious and saying, 'This doesn't make any sense at all. Who in their right mind would expect that a huge Muslim murder spree would improve the lot of Muslims? How will this achieve anything but having Hindus and Muslims at each other's throats? How would this be in the interest of Muslims?'
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U.S. News
Indiana woman dies at 115 as world's oldest person
Associated Press
2008-11-28 21:48:00
Shelbyville, Ind. - Edna Parker, who became the world's oldest person more than a year ago, has died at age 115.
UCLA gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles said Parker's great-nephew notified him that Parker died Wednesday at a nursing home in Shelbyville. She was 115 years, 220 days old, said Robert Young, a senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records.
Parker was born April 20, 1893, in central Indiana's Morgan County and had been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest person since the 2007 death in Japan of Yone Minagawa, who was four months her senior.
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Government by Contractor Is a Disgrace
The Wall Street Journal
2008-11-26 21:39:00
Back in 1984, the conservative industrialist J. Peter Grace was telling whoever would listen why government was such a wasteful institution.
One reason, which he spelled out in a book chapter on privatization, was that "government-run enterprises lack the driving forces of marketplace competition, which promote tight, efficient operations. This bears repetition," he wrote, "because it is such a profound and important truth."
And repetition is what this truth got. Grace trumpeted it in the recommendations of his famous Grace Commission, set up by President Ronald Reagan to scrutinize government operations looking for ways to save money. It was repeated by leading figures of both political parties, repeated by everyone who understood the godlike omniscience of markets, repeated until its veracity was beyond question. Turn government operations over to the private sector and you get innovation, efficiency, flexibility.
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Banned firms got new U.S. contracts in Iraq
Matt Kelley
USA Today
2008-11-18 21:29:00
A firm suspended from U.S. government contracts for allegedly bribing Army officers was awarded a new contract in Iraq two days after the suspension was imposed, government investigators found. The Pentagon paid the suspended company more than $1 million under the new contract.
Contracting officers gave Lee Dynamics International a new contract in July 2007 despite warnings from military lawyers, according to a report issued by Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR). The Joint Contracting Command-Iraq did not return calls on why Lee Dynamics was awarded the new contract.
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Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
JOE GOULD
New York Daily News
2008-11-28 13:59:00
A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.
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Flashback: Living The American Dream: All Work, No Play
Silja J.A. Talvi
In These Times
2008-10-22 00:16:00
Jack Torrance, Jack Nicholson's character in the 1980 film The Shining, should get credit for popularizing (and making terrifying) a proverb that dates as far back as the mid-1600s: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
Nicholson's character sure looked like he could have used a vacation before his psyche disintegrated and he went on a murderous rampage.
In the real world, the danger isn't that we'll start obsessively and repeatedly typing proverbs at the Overlook Hotel before taking an ax to the door (one would hope), but that our country's hard-working denizens will keep getting sicker, sadder, less productive and more miserable.
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Stepfather Is Convicted in Beating That Left Stepdaughter With Severe Brain Injury
Katie Zezima
The New York Times
2008-11-26 23:45:00
A jury in Springfield, Mass., convicted a man on Wednesday in connection with a beating that left his stepdaughter with a severe brain injury that led to an end-of-life dispute.
The stepfather, Jason Strickland, was convicted of five of the six assault and battery charges that stemmed from the September 2005 beating of the girl, Haleigh Poutre. Haleigh, then 11, was left comatose and on life support with severe brain damage.
The case drew national attention when the state sought to end life support after doctors determined that Haleigh was in a permanent vegetative state. Mr. Strickland, who had been charged, opposed the move.
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UK & Euro-Asian News
Americans eye possible Cyprus oil reserves
Famagusta Gazette
2008-11-26 17:39:00
An American company is believed to have made an agreement in principle with the Cyprus government to exploit oil and gas in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus.
The revelation is made by Politis newspaper and comes at a time of heightened tensions off the coast of Cyprus.
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Two dead and five missing in Airbus crash in France
Reuters
2008-11-27 07:51:00
An Air New Zealand Airbus A320 on a test flight crashed into the sea off France's southwest coast on Thursday, killing at least two people with a further five still missing, authorities said.
France's BEA civil aviation safety authority said the crash took place at 4:46 p.m. (3:46 p.m. British time) when the aircraft, made by the Airbus unit of European aerospace group EADS, was approaching the airport at Perpignan, in southwestern France after a flight that had lasted about an hour.
A witness told French radio he saw the plane dive abruptly and plunge into the Mediterranean sea.
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Hundreds of young girls fleeing North Korea forced into slavery and prostitution in China
Holly Williams
Sky News
2008-11-13 00:58:00
Hundreds of young girls fleeing North Korea are being forced into lives of slavery and prostitution in neighbouring China. A Sky News investigation reveals they are crossing the border to escape the North Korean regime only to become embroiled in a hidden underworld.
Prostitution is illegal in China, but in the red light districts of the country's far north you would never guess it. Brothels line the streets, masqueraded as karaoke parlours. With names like Don't Tell Mama and CEO VIP Club they advertise their presence in shameless neon.
Inside the brothels, young women - the foot soldiers of China's massive sex trade - wait for customers in locker rooms. Adorned in clinging nylon dresses and gaudy make-up, they chat flirtatiously with passing males.
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Around the World
£300m British shipping tycoon shot dead in Mumbai siege
The Evening Standard
2008-11-28 18:33:00
A British shipping tycoon died after being gunned down by terrorists in a Mumbai hotel today.
Andreas Liveras, a 73 year-old entrepreneur spoke of his terror on his mobile phone, as he and other guests were locked in the basement of the five-star Taj hotel while gunmen ran amock and bombs exploded.
Mumbai's St George's Hospital told the Standard that Mr Liveras had suffered several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on arrival.
A hospital administrator said: "We can confirm a British national Andreas Liveras, aged in his 70s, was brought in by ambulance. He had been shot multiple times, causing heavy bleeding and fatal injuries to his major organs. Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival."
"The matter has been referred to the police and the British High Commission."
Before his death, the self-made millionaire, who emigrated to Britain from Cyprus in 1963 told the BBC that he was with over a '1000 people living on their nerves."
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Mumbai gunmen 'were British'
The Evening Standard
2008-11-28 18:29:00
Two British-born Pakistanis are among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources revealed today.
They were captured with eight others after commandos stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages.
Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh revealed that up to 25 terrorists were responsible for the series of bomb blasts and shootings that targeted tourists and foreign interests. At least 125 people have been killed and 327 injured. Security services in Britain were studying images of the attackers in an effort to identify them. Gordon Brown said today it was "too early" to reach any conclusions about British involvement.
Seven terrorists have been confirmed killed in gun battles with Indian special forces, which were still ongoing today in dramatic stand-offs at the three buildings. Between six to eight Islamic militants, professing to be part of the Deccan Mujahideen, were believed to be still holed-up, spread between the five-star Taj Mahal and Trident Oberoi hotels and the Nariman House Jewish centre.
Three terrorists arrested at the Taj Mahal hotel have been officially identified as a Pakistani national and two Indians. Indian authorities have not released any details about the two Britons and the Foreign Office has refused to confirm Indian television reports.
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Falling cars and rattling windows mark deadly collapse in Montreal parking garage
The Canadian Press
2008-11-26 18:02:00
Cars literally fell out of the air. Apartment windows rattled. Witnesses compared the sonic boom to a bomb.
An entire storey of a Montreal parking garage collapsed on Wednesday, with a giant slab of concrete dropping to the floor below, crushing vehicles and killing at least one man.
Authorities described the collapsed floor as a giant, falling pancake - a plummeting concrete chunk 30 metres long and 30 metres wide in size and untold tonnes in weight.
The split-second tumble triggered immediate chaos: 500 people evacuated from an apartment highrise; toddlers whisked from a daycare centre; and people screaming and crying that they'd narrowly escaped death.
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India declines Israeli offer of aid delegation to Mumbai
Amos Harel
Haaretz
2008-11-28 14:09:00
Israel sent a number of intelligence officers to India Thursday to assist in analyzing the major terrorist attack on Mumbai.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak Thursday offered India security, intelligence and humanitarian aid in dealing with the situation.
It appears the Indian government is not interested in high profile security assistance from Israel. Throughout the day, the Homefront Command prepared to send an aid delegation to India, but efforts were halted when it became clear that Mumbai was not enthusiastic about the prospect.
The Israeli defense establishment Thursday avoided stating explicitly if the attack on Chabad House in Mumbai was planned or coincidental. One scenario raised was that the terrorists arrived there randomly while fleeing after an exchange of gunfire with Mumbai police. It is also possible that Chabad was targeted as part of an attack in which hotels were "marked" as points for the abduction and murder of Western tourists, centrally American and British citizens.
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Indian troops storm Mumbai Jewish centre
Al Jazeera
2008-11-28 07:25:00
Security forces in the Indian city of Mumbai have stormed a Jewish centre in an attempt to flush out attackers who had taken part in deadly co-ordinated attacks across the city. The security operation at the headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch comes after at least 120 people were killed in a series of assaults across Mumbai, India's financial capital.
Early on Friday, Indian television showed troops descending from a helicopter into Nariman House, which houses Chabad Lubavitch's headquarters. The attackers had holed themselves up inside the building more than 24 hours earlier.
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Big Brother
'Sci-Fi Film' CCTV Predicts Crime
Sky News
2008-11-27 14:42:00
CCTVs are taking a step closer to the science fiction idea of the Minority Report with a predictive system being installed in a British city for the first time.
The CCTV system has gone up in sites across Portsmouth and it will reportedly help predict crimes before they actually happen.
The city's council has set up the network of "intelligent" cameras that can alert an operator to suspicious behaviour.
The system is able to spot "unusual" incidents like somebody loitering or a vehicle travelling too fast.
It then alerts CCTV operators so they in turn can assess the situation and decide what action - if any - needs to be taken.
The system is being set up to watch quiet areas like car parks, stairwells or corridors in buildings and streets at night-time.
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Axis of Evil
Israel to bomb Iran through Turkey?
Press TV
2008-11-28 18:24:00
Israel will be resolved to use Turkish air space to attack Tehran's nuclear facilities, says a prominent US political strategist.
In a recent political panel, Charles Krauthammer ruled out the possibility of Israeli warplanes flying through US-controlled Iraqi airspace to launch potential air strikes on the Islamic Republic and claimed that Tel Aviv would most likely opt to use Turkish air space instead.
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The Corruption That Makes Unpeople Of An Entire Nation
John Pilger
Johnpilger.com
2008-11-27 14:20:00
I went to the Houses of Parliament on 22 October to join a disconsolate group of shivering people who had arrived from a faraway tropical place and were being prevented from entering the Public Gallery to hear their fate. This was not headline news; the BBC reporter seemed almost embarrassed. Crimes of such magnitude are not news when they are ours, and neither is injustice or corruption at the apex of British power.
Lizette Talatte was there, her tiny frail self swallowed by the cavernous stone grey of Westminster Hall. I first saw her in a Colonial Office film from the 1950s which described her homeland, the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, as a paradise long settled by people "born and brought up in conditions most tranquil and benign". Lizette was then 14 years old. She remembers the producer saying to her and her friends, "Keep smiling, girls!"
When we met in Mauritius, four years ago, she said: "We didn't need to be told to smile. I was a happy child, because my roots were deep in Diego Garcia. My great-grandmother was born there, and I made six children there. Maybe only the English can make a film that showed we were an established community, then deny their own evidence and invent the lie that we were transient workers."
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'Evidence could prove Cheney's crime'
PressTV
2008-11-28 13:56:00
The district attorney of Willacy County says he has records that could be used to prove Vice President Dick Cheney is guilty of criminal activity.
"Greed will get you discovered and arrested every time, and that's what happened to Cheney," said Juan Angel Guerra in an interview with KRGV Newschannel 5, an ABC affiliate in Texas.
Earlier, Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on charges related to alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County federal detention facilities.
Cheney is accused of 'organized criminal activities' and 'at least misdemeanor assaults' on detainees due to the misuses of his authority.
He is also charged with conspiring to profit from the Vanguard Group which holds interests in the private prison companies that run the detention centers.
Gonzales is accused of using his position during his time as Attorney General to block an investigation into abuses at the detention centers, located in south Texas.
Guerra has found connection between the financial records of Cheney and the prison companies.
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Rights: Escalating Violence Against Women in Swaziland
Mantoe Phakathi interviews Hlobisile Dlamini-Shongwe
IPS News
2008-11-27 23:47:00
Still wearing a campaign t-shirt with the slogan "FED UP: with violence against women", Dlamini-Shongwe, the public relations officer for the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) is fresh from the Nov. 25 launch of the16 days activism against gender-based violence at Jubilee Park in Manzini.
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Middle East Madness
Iraq: Security agreement puts detainees at risk of torture
Amnesty International USA
2008-11-27 20:34:00
Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces will be at risk of torture or even execution if they are handed over to the Iraqi authorities, Amnesty International today warned.
The warning came as the Iraqi Parliament ratified the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Iraqi governments. Under the agreement, which will take effect on 31 December 2008, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody from the end of the year.
"The Status of Forces Agreement does not provide any safeguards whatsoever for prisoners transferred to Iraqi custody," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.
"These prisoners will potentially be moving from the frying pan into the fire," said Malcolm Smart. "We receive persistent reports of gross human rights violations - including torture - taking place in Iraqi prisons and detention centres. The US must ensure that no one is transferred to Iraq custody if they would face a real risk of torture or other human rights violations."
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Iraqi parliament delays troop pact vote over unrelated issues
Adam Ashton
McClatchy Newspapers
2008-11-26 18:15:00
Baghdad - Iraq's parliament postponed a pivotal vote on a U.S.-Iraq security agreement on Wednesday while key lawmakers sought compromises that would appease an alliance of Sunni parties.
The conditions in the pact, which would end the U.S. presence here by 2012, aren't up for debate.
Instead, members of parliament are trying to craft a companion measure that would persuade more political blocs to back the security agreement.
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IAEA overrides U.S., clears Syria nuclear aid plan
Mark Heinrich
Reuters
2008-11-26 18:09:00
Vienna - The U.N. atomic agency approved a contested Syrian bid for nuclear aid on Wednesday, overcoming U.S.-led resistance to the project while Damascus is under investigation for covert activity that could lead to atom bombs.
The United States, Canada and Australia mounted last minute objections to a compromise deal on the project but finally joined a consensus in favor since they could not have won if they forced a rare vote by International Atomic Energy Agency governors, diplomats in the closed meeting said.
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Aid boat en route from Libya to Gaza
Ibrahim Barzak
Associated Press
2008-11-27 17:51:00
Gaza City, Gaza Strip - A boat loaded with humanitarian aid has left Libya and will try to reach Gaza despite an Israeli naval blockade, a Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza said Wednesday, raising the possibility of a confrontation between an Arab vessel and Israeli sailors.
Independent legislator Jamal Khoudary said the ship left the Libyan port of Zawara carrying 3,000 tons of food, medicine, blankets and powdered milk. He said it would arrive in Gaza early next week.
Libyan officials declined comment, but witnesses saw the al-Marwa leave the port Tuesday evening.
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Piracy in the Red Sea: Saudi points towards Israel
Habib Trabelsi
Middle East Online
2008-11-25 14:03:00
Columnists fear that a plan is underway for 'internationalization' of security in the Red Sea.
Not only do columnists and analysts openly accuse Israel of sponsoring acts of piracy that multiply off Somali waters, but they also do not hide their fears of an internationalization of security in the Red Sea, where Israel plays a decisive role.
"What is happening in the Horn of Africa is not a simple case of piracy. These acts of piracy raise various questions about the capabilities and equipment of simple outlaws who are seeking ransoms," wrote Tuesday (November 25) Nawaf Al-Meshal Sabhan in the Saudi daily Al-Iqtissadia.
"These acts triggered statements on the internationalization of the Red Sea, in which the enemy state of Israel would be a crucial element," he adds.
"Who has got an interest in such an internationalization?" Asks the analyst, echoing "another disturbing development represented by the decision of a shipping company (AP Moller-Maersk, the world's largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator) to divert its huge merchant fleet from Suez Canal and take the route via the Cape of Good Hope."
"Who has got an interest in putting pressure on Egypt, by diverting cargo ships of Suez Canal and by making Egypt lose daily income of over $15 million?" the analysts asks again.
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Gaza: Still Looking for Salvation in a News Broadcast
Ramzy Baroud
Uruknet.info
2008-11-27 07:59:00
When Gaza's electricity is in working order, most Palestinians in the impoverished and overcrowded Strip huddle around their television screens. It's neither "American Idol" nor "Dancing with the Stars" that brings them together. It's the news.
Gazans' relationship to news media is both complex and unique. Like most Palestinians everywhere, they intently watch and listen to news broadcasts the world over, with the hope that salvation will arrive in the form of a news bulletin. Evidently, salvation is yet to be aired.
That infatuation is hardly coincidental, however, as their purpose of reading, listening and watching is unmistakable. Palestinians deeply care about what the rest of the world is saying about their plight and struggle. Most importantly, they wonder if anyone out there cares.
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Grand Theft Economics
Spain adds €11bn spending to its fiscal stimulus plan
Victor Mallet
The Financial Times
2008-11-28 07:47:00
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's Socialist prime minister, has announced an extra €11bn of urgent government spending on infrastructure, the motor industry and other targets: the latest part of a multifaceted fiscal stimulus plan he called "unprecedented in its magnitude".
Mr Zapatero's generosity with state funds underlines the divisions within the European Union over how to handle the recession arising from the global financial crisis. His deliberate use of heavy government spending differs markedly from the more cautious approach of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
Speaking in parliament yesterday, Mr Zapatero boasted that the Spanish state was in a strong position to revive the economy because of its relatively modest debt burden and the fiscal prudence of the Socialist government over the past four years.
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China downturn deepens, European rate cut sought
Keith Weir
Reuters
2008-11-28 00:05:00
China warned on Thursday that its economic downturn could threaten stability as pressure grew on the European Central Bank to make a big cut in interest rates to help contain the global financial crisis.
In India, emerging Asia's other economic titan, financial markets were closed after Islamist militants killed more than 100 people in the commercial capital, Mumbai.
Violence in India and political unrest in Thailand highlighted political risk as another potential threat to emerging markets battered by the global crisis.
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US: In Nearly Half of the States, More Than One in Ten Residents Are On Food Stamps
Jen Adach
Food Research and Action Center
2008-11-25 23:55:00
As joblessness increases, wages fall, food prices rise and hunger grows, millions more Americans are seeking SNAP/Food Stamp benefits. (SNAP is the acronym for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the new federal name of the Food Stamp Program.) Growth in the program has been so pronounced that, as of August 2008 (the last month for which data have been released):
* In nearly one-half of the states (22 states plus the District of Columbia), at least one in ten residents was receiving SNAP/Food Stamp benefits. Those states are: Mississippi; District of Columbia; Missouri; Louisiana; West Virginia; Kentucky; Tennessee; South Carolina; Maine; Arkansas; Oregon; Alabama; New Mexico; Michigan; Oklahoma; Georgia; Texas; North Carolina; Arizona; New York; Illinois; Indiana; and Ohio.
* In 14 of those states, more than one in eight residents was receiving SNAP/Food Stamps. Those states are: Mississippi; District of Columbia; Missouri; Louisiana; West Virginia; Kentucky; Tennessee; South Carolina; Maine; Arkansas; Oregon; Alabama; New Mexico; and Michigan.
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The Living Planet
Magnitude 6.0 quake hits Indonesia's Sumatra
Telly Nathalia and Sanjeev Miglani
Reuters
2008-11-28 22:51:00
Jakarta - A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, although there was no tsunami warning or reports of damage or casualties.
The quake was centered 141 km (88 miles) south southwest of Bengkulu city at a depth of 35 km, the agency said in a bulletin on its website.
An official at Indonesia's meteorology agency said the quake could be felt in Bengkulu and Lampung provinces in southern Sumatra, but there was no report of damage or casualties.
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Faroe islanders told to stop eating 'toxic' whales
Debora MacKenzie
New Scientist
2008-11-28 22:34:00
Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic - as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.
The remote Atlantic islands, situated between Scotland and Iceland, have been one of the last strongholds of traditional whaling, with thousands of small pilot whales killed every year, and eaten by most Faroese.
Anti-whaling groups have long protested, but the Faroese argued that whaling is part of their culture - an argument adopted by large-scale whalers in Japan and Norway.
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Canada: Fragments of last week's 10-tonne meteor found
The Star Phoenix
2008-11-28 19:24:00
Remnants of the 10-tonne space rock that lit up the prairie skies last week have been found near Lloydminster.
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Rocks evolve too, geologists claim
Randy Boswell
Canwest News Service
2008-11-25 18:37:00
A landmark scientific study co-authored by a Canadian geologist has identified a sudden explosion of mineral diversity after the emergence of life on Earth, and advanced a "revolutionary" theory that rocks have been evolving -- much like plants and animals -- throughout the planet's history.
Wouter Bleeker, an Ottawa-based researcher with the Geological Survey of Canada, is one of eight members of an international team whose theory of "mineral evolution" -- the idea that many of the Earth's rocks are dynamic "species" which emerged and transformed over time, largely in concert with living things -- is generating a major buzz in the global scientific community since its publication last week in a U.S. journal.
"The key message," Mr. Bleeker told Canwest News Service, "is how closely intertwined the mineral world is with life and biology." He said human teeth -- with their key ingredient of apatite -- are vivid reminders that the "seemingly static, inorganic" physical Earth should be viewed more like a "living organism" underpinning the biosphere.
But the new theory is also being hailed as a potential tool in the search for life on other planets since it offers new ways of perceiving the interactions between rocks and living things. Probes of distant planets should be seeking evidence of biological processes that may have shaped alien landscapes, the scientists contend.
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Underwater volcano found off Washington coast
Terra Daily
2008-11-24 14:15:00
Crew members of a research ship say they were surprised to find a volcano more than 10,000 feet underwater off the coast of Washington.
Jeremy Weirich, the operating officer on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Okeanos Explorer, said the volcano was found while crew members were testing a new mapping program on underwater topography 200 miles off the Washington coast, The Seattle Times said Monday.
"It turns out we had this great volcano in the spot we were testing," Weirich said.
The discovery of the large underwater volcano was not an entire surprise to researchers as NOAA scientists have estimated that 95 percent of the world's oceans haven't been explored.
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410 low temperature records set in the US during the past week
Hamweather
2008-11-27 07:31:00
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Health & Wellness
Suicide: Being Seen Through All Life's Phases, Even Death, is Epidemic Among Teens
Sandy Sand
OpEdNews
2008-11-24 19:02:00
It's been 10 years since the hit movie, The Truman Show, ripped its way through box offices throughout the country, causing people to wonder if anything like that were possible.
The script writers of this movie, like so many keen observers of societal trends, have predicted future events with amazing accuracy; the premise of The Truman Show is alive and thriving throughout the United States.
It's alive and well on so-called reality TV and on the internet.
The Truman Show story is that of an enterprising, maniacal television producer, who adopted Truman after his mother died in childbirth, and televised every moment of his life 24/7 beginning with his birth.
I always wondered if that meant there was a potty-cam in addition to the hundreds of cameras that follow Truman's every move. Of all of our activities, I would put that at the top of the 'privacy' list.
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Monsanto's Bt dreams to be nurtured at PAU
Amrita Chaudhry
expressindia
2008-11-28 03:16:00
Ludhiana- While the jury is still out and debating on the safety of introducing bio-transgenic crops in the food chain, Punjab Agricultural University is all set to enter into a business relationship with Monsanto, a biotech company. The institute has so far unabashedly promoted Monsanto's Bt crops, including Bt cotton.
Monsanto is all set to fund research programmes at PAU, where topping the list are bio-transgenic crops, followed by plants efficient in nitrogen uptake and crop varieties that can break the current yield barriers.
Interestingly, while PAU, being a research and educational institute, is still working out its gains, Monsanto, on other hand, is very clear about the collaboration. "The first right on the technology and product developed through PAU and Monsanto collaboration stays with Monsanto, while PAU will get its share of royalties," says Dr Amarjit Singh Basra, a senior scientist with the multi-national company, who is currently on a visit to PAU.
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Puff-a-Day Marijuana Dose Helped Older Rats Remember
Rob Waters
Bloomberg.com
2008-11-19 02:25:00
A daily puff of a compound like marijuana, the plant blamed for ruining potheads' recall, might help maintain memory in old age, researchers who tried it on rats reported today at a neuroscience meeting.
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Spotting a sociopath
Mark Easton
BBC
2008-11-28 02:08:00
How could anyone do those unimaginably cruel, inhuman things?
That is the question that, to most people, immediately flows from hearing the ghastly details of both the Sheffield man who fathered nine children by raping his two daughters and, of course, the tragic story of Baby P.
We seem to have any number of inquiries and investigations now under way into trying to find what went wrong, but I wonder whether the real answer lies buried in that initial question.
The 56-year-old Sheffield businessman who raped his children and the woman and two men who tortured a baby in Haringey would all appear to fit the definition of sociopaths: individuals with a deficit or absence of the social emotions (love, shame, guilt, empathy and remorse), but with a clear facility to deceive and manipulate others.
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FEMA Trailer Children Sickened
Joaquin Sapien
ProPublica
2008-11-26 23:11:00
A review of medical records released this week by the Children's Health Fund, a New York City non-profit, has renewed concerns about the health of children who lived in the formaldehyde-contaminated trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided to Hurricane Katrina victims. The report suggests that children who lived in these trailers may have had more colds, allergies and skin irritations, as well as developmental and behavioral problems.
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Mothers' Mental Games Increase Depressive Symptoms In Daughters
Science Daily
2008-11-26 22:56:00
A new study in the journal Family Relations examined the effects of a mother's psychological control on the risk for depression of African American adolescents.
Researchers found that girls whose mothers played mental games with them like making them feel guilty or withdrawing expressions of love reported much higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of personal agency.
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Science & Technology
Researchers find oldest-ever stash of marijuana
Canadian Press
2008-11-27 19:20:00
Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.
The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
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Whispers from the dark side: Physicists could be receiving signals from 'dark matter'
Dennis Overbye
New York Times
2008-11-24 18:42:00
Is this the dark side speaking?
A concatenation of puzzling results from an alphabet soup of satellites and experiments has led a growing number of astronomers and physicists to suspect that they are getting signals from a shadow universe of dark matter that makes up a quarter of creation but has eluded direct detection until now.
Maybe.
"Nobody really knows what's going on," said Gordon Kane, a theorist at the University of Michigan. Physicists caution that there could still be a relatively simple astronomical explanation for the recent observations.
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The Gladiator Diet: How to eat, exercise, and die a violent death
Andrew Curry
Archaeology
2008-11-28 18:30:00
The Café Westend, just across the street from Vienna's main train station, is a city landmark. Its green felt-lined booths and weary waiters in wrinkled black suits have seen a lot over the years. But when he agreed to meet me here instead of in his lab on the edge of town, Karl Grossschmidt, a paleo-pathologist at the Medical University of Vienna, promised to show me something new even to this century-old coffeehouse. Pushing aside empty cappuccino cups and the remains of a dry croissant, Grossschmidt takes a quick look over his shoulder to see if our waiter is out of sight. Coast clear, he reaches into a plastic grocery bag and pulls out a white cardboard box. Inside, padded with crumpled paper towels, is a jawless skull. Grossschmidt lifts it gently and passes it to me. "Don't drop it--it's real," he says.
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Jupiter Has Large, Rocky Core Surrounded By Layer Of Ice
Staff Writers Berkeley CA (SPX)
Space Daily
2008-11-26 00:38:00
Jupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, according to computer calculations by a University of California, Berkeley, geophysicist who simulated conditions inside the planet on the scale of individual hydrogen and helium atoms. The results were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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Our Haunted Planet
UK: Fireball spotted over Worcester
Sally Jones
Worcester News
2008-11-12 00:39:00
A "fireball" was spotted over Worcester this evening. Joseph Smith, of Beaconhill Drive, St John's, had stepped outside for a cigarette at about 5.30pm when he saw a large ball of orange.
"It was the size of the moon," he said. "I've never seen anything like it. It looked like a fireball."
Mr Smith said the unidentified object looked to be over the racecourse direction.
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Argentina: UFO or Condor Over Tupungato?
Inexplicata
2008-11-27 19:41:00
A tour operator organized a tour to La Carretera in Tupungato and took a photo of the landscape. Upon downloading the file to his computer, he saw a strange object. He had it analyzed by [Argentina's] most prestigious ufologist and she confirmed that it was indeed a UFO.
Is it a UFO, a condor or a spot? Those were the questions that ran through the mind of Flavio S., 31, when he downloaded the photo to his computer and saw a sort of round disk in the air. The event occurred on November 8, 2008, while he was on a tour with Mendozan tourist operators who intended to visit a local estancia (ranch) in La Carretera, Tupungato.
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Argentina: An Entity in Colonia Elia
Andrea Pérez Simondini and Daniel Szauter
Inexplicata
2008-11-25 19:28:00
Very early in the morning on October 8, a team from Vision Ovni headed for the locality of Colonia Elia in the Province of Entre Rios to research the manifestations of a strange creature that appears in smallholds and fields, slaying farm animals as well as calves and sheep. This was the information presented to us by the national media, which had taken an interest in the story. It was thanks to this interest that we became aware of the case.
Once we had reached the site, 260 kilometers distant along Route 14, we entered Colonia Elia through a dirt road in search of the witnesses. As always, we employed an old but sure-fire strategy to get information. We stopped a man who was riding along on horseback, and he quickly indicated the location of the Restayno family home. This was the family that had witnessed the events involving the unusual creature.
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Argentina: West of Buenos Aires-Reports, Lights and Strange Beings?
Daniel Valverdi, Daniel Szauter and Jorge Marron
Inexplicata
2008-11-25 19:11:00
On October 4, 2008 we headed out to this area once more, which has recently become the focus of our efforts, given that one report leads us to another and we successively begin to close out a large number of "unusual" episodes reported by qualified local witnesses.
Jorge Marron, Daniel Valverdi and Daniel Szauter met at 16:00 hours at Reserva Los Robles in the Municipality of Moreno, Greater Buenos Aires, and we traveled together to the Archeological Museum that is near this reservoir.
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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Unbelievable! Vatican warns of the corrupting influence of mobile phones and the internet on our souls
Simon Caldwell
Mail Online
2008-11-25 17:27:00
Mobiles are bad for your soul, the Vatican warned yesterday.
Phones and computers are making the world so noisy and hectic that people cannot cultivate their spiritual dimension.
And without a spiritual life 'you will lose your soul', said Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman.
The Jesuit priest, who is the director of the Vatican press office, made his remarks on the weekly Vatican TV programme Octavia Dies.
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Pictured: The American toddler who got a set of car keys lodged in his brain ... and recovered unscathed
dailymail.co.uk
2008-11-28 06:20:00
This brave little toddler has made an astonishing recovery after the horror of having a car key lodged in his brain.
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