http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2009 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:53:21 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172669-Israel-May-Face-Charges-for-War-Crimes Israel has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted in an international court, says Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza. "The repeated bombing of clearly marked civilian buildings, where civilians were sheltering, crosses several red lines in regard to international law," Sourani told IPS. Palestinian Authority (PA) delegate to Britain Professor Manuel Hassassian has said the PA will launch legal proceedings against Israeli leaders it says are responsible for war crimes in Gaza, according to a Palestinian news report. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172669-Israel-May-Face-Charges-for-War-Crimes Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:53:04 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172668-London-Times-Punish-savers-and-make-them-spend-money Near-zero interest rates and even a tax on bank deposits are necessary to force those with cash to use it productively The battlelines are drawn. On one side we have the Labour Government and the Liberal Democrats, the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve Board and the vast majority of Keynesian economists in every country - plus Barack Obama. On the other side, the Tory Opposition, the German Socialists, the European Central Bank, the Church of England and the vast majority of Marxist economists in every country - plus the British public. The question, of course, is what to do about the recession. Specifically whether the way out is "to spend, spend, spend or to save, save, save" - as David Cameron has so clearly put it. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172668-London-Times-Punish-savers-and-make-them-spend-money Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:45:32 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172667-Scotland-A-woman-s-head-found-in-a-bag-has-been-identified Police have identified the woman whose head was discovered in a shopping bag in Newhaven as 44-year-old Heather Stacey from Edinburgh. DNA tests confirmed her identity and police said she is believed to have died within the last two years. Tests are continuing to establish the exact circumstances of her death. The head and other remains were found on a footpath at Hawthornvale by a dog walker on Hogmanay. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172667-Scotland-A-woman-s-head-found-in-a-bag-has-been-identified Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:34:41 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172666-War-Crimes-du-Jour-Palestinian-child-s-body-crushed-by-Israeli-tanks-damaged-at-the-cellular-level- A UN convoy attacked, the Red Cross blocked and harassed, international journalists blocked in the apparent vain attempt to hide all the murders, dead men, women and children in the roads, all at the hands of the IDF. The list goes on and on. I hope this is all being carefully recorded to present to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172666-War-Crimes-du-Jour-Palestinian-child-s-body-crushed-by-Israeli-tanks-damaged-at-the-cellular-level- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:30:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172665-Dust-Mites-Major-Allergens-For-Asthma-Patients The American Asthma Foundation announced a research breakthrough that explains why tiny, household pests called dust mites are a major source of airborne allergens for patients with allergic asthma. Dean Smith, Executive Director of the American Asthma Foundation, explains that "although dust mites are known to trigger asthma attacks, until now we did not know why the allergic response to the mites was so strong." The mystery was solved as a result of research funded by the American Asthma Foundation's Strategic Program for Asthma Research (SPAR). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172665-Dust-Mites-Major-Allergens-For-Asthma-Patients Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:26:12 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172664-Australia-Perth-researchers-unravel-genetic-secrets-of-rare-disease A University of Western Australia scientist has begun to unravel the genetic secrets of Kawasaki disease, a mysterious and potentially deadly childhood condition. The rare disease was thrown into the spotlight this week by the sudden death of John Travolta's 16-year-old son Jett, who suffered a bout of the illness as a young child. Researchers led by UWA scientist David Burgner have discovered five genes that make children more susceptible to the disease, which damages blood vessels and could raise the risk of heart attacks in later life. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172664-Australia-Perth-researchers-unravel-genetic-secrets-of-rare-disease Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:25:52 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172663-The-Hunt-is-on-for-Water-Conservation-Scofflaws The green thumbs who keep lawns lush and flora flourishing in the city have found a new foe among the aphids, white flies and other yard pests - the water police. Just as some scofflaws keep an eye out for black-and-white patrol cars, gardeners have learned to spot the white Toyota Priuses driven by Los Angeles water cops out to fight waste as California struggles with an extended drought. "They get to scattering when they see us," said Department of Water and Power officer Alonzo Ballengar. "I don't know what they call me, but I'm sure they have names." A total of 15 officers now prowl neighborhoods and respond to thousands of tips in their search for those who use sprinklers between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., clean driveways with water instead of a broom or otherwise waste the precious commodity. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172663-The-Hunt-is-on-for-Water-Conservation-Scofflaws Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:25:34 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172662-First-flight-of-algae-fuelled-jet A US airline has completed the first test flight of a plane partly powered by biofuel derived from algae. The 90-minute flight by a Continental Boeing 737-800 went better than expected, a spokesperson said. One of its engines was powered by a 50-50 blend of biofuel and normal aircraft fuel. Wednesday's test is the latest in a series of demonstration flights by the aviation industry, which hopes to be using biofuels within five years. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172662-First-flight-of-algae-fuelled-jet Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:24:46 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172660-UN-Halts-Aid-to-Gaza-After-Staff-Attacked A United Nations aid agency is halting all aid deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip because of Israeli attacks on UN staff and installations, its director said Thursday. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) will suspend aid shipments until the safety of its staff can be guaranteed, according to director John Ging. "These firings on our convoy are coming from the Israeli military themselves, with whom we have co-ordinated our movement, and that is what is absolutely unacceptable," Ging said in an interview with CBC News. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172660-UN-Halts-Aid-to-Gaza-After-Staff-Attacked Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:08:45 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172659-Free-Gaza-Movement-We-are-coming-back- The Free Gaza Movement issued a press release on Thursday announcing that peace activists will be heading to Gaza via an emergency ship in an attempt to deliver humanitarian supplies to the residents of the Gaza Strip. The movement added that the time and date of the trip will be announced soon, and that the boat will sail from Cyprus to the regional waters in Gaza without approaching Israeli controlled regional waters (although this will not stop the Israeli Navy from potentially attacking and intercepting them). The movement said that the ongoing Israeli offensive and the killing of hundreds of civilians, including women and children, and the thousands of wounded residents, prove that Israel is ongoing with targeting civilians, while the international community remains unable to oblige Israel to respect the international human rights treaties and the Fourth Geneva Conventions. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172659-Free-Gaza-Movement-We-are-coming-back- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:57:04 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172658-Worldwide-Protests-Escalate-in-Response-to-Israel-s-Ground-War-on-Gaza On Saturday January 3rd, Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of destroying the elected government in Gaza, Hamas, and the suspected goal of helping two senior Israeli politicians in upcoming elections (see [1] | [2] | [3]). The ground assault came after eight days of air strikes, which were launched in response to small scale rockets that killed four Israelis. At writing, at least 660 Palestinians have been killed and 3000 injured, an estimated 50 percent of which are civilians. Reports: IMEMC.org | Cyprus Indymedia | Indybay Resistance and solidarity continues to grow in Israel and the West Bank ([1] | [2]), despite serious repression. Three demonstrators in the West Bank have been killed and hundreds in Israel have been jailed for protesting the killing spree. In Gaza, seven medics killed by Israeli forces, five since the ground invasion began. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172658-Worldwide-Protests-Escalate-in-Response-to-Israel-s-Ground-War-on-Gaza Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:51:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172657-When-the-Truth-is-Anti-Semitic Thinking about what to say and not having much success is where I am today. Most of the time, I am preaching to the converted here as the commentary shows. Seldom do I ever get any negative responses and we are starting to average over a hundred comments per entry. That's a mystery to me. Out of old habit, I often will post these essays at this site where I seldom get any positive comments. The people there are mostly professionals. There are doctors and lawyers and business owners. They are all Americans except for a scattering of Canadians. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172657-When-the-Truth-is-Anti-Semitic Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:23:31 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172656-Brown-Dwarfs-Don-t-Hang-Out-With-Stars Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on a study of 233 nearby multiple-star systems by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble found only two brown dwarfs as companions to normal stars. This means the so-called "brown dwarf desert" (the absence of brown dwarfs around solar-type stars) extends to the smallest stars in the universe. Sergio Dieterich of Georgia State University in Atlanta and team leader of the study is reporting the results January 6 at the 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Long Beach, Calif. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172656-Brown-Dwarfs-Don-t-Hang-Out-With-Stars Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:10:17 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172654-US-Great-Depression-Jobs-Parallel-May-Not-be-Far-Flung When economists tell us the current U.S. slump could never turn into another Great Depression, they all point to one thing: one of four Americans was out of work in the 1930s. But since the definition of joblessness has changed over the years, this expert assessment might be too rosy. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172654-US-Great-Depression-Jobs-Parallel-May-Not-be-Far-Flung Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:06:29 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172653-US-Jobs-recovery-months-away Any U.S. job market recovery is at least several months away, staffing industry executives say, citing comments from customers, weak consumer spending and evidence in the December jobs report that employers are cutting hours and overtime. The economy shed 524,000 jobs outside the farm sector last month, fewer than expected, and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent, the highest since January 1993. Job losses in October and November were bigger than initially estimated. "When we look at where companies are, in the conversations they're having, we anticipate continued job losses for at least a couple quarters," said Jeff Joerres, chief executive of Manpower Inc, one of the world's largest staffing and outplacement firms. The North American chief of rival Adecco SA said a decline in overtime and total hours worked suggests more job losses ahead, since employers typically cut hours before they eliminate jobs. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172653-US-Jobs-recovery-months-away Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:04:12 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172652-EU-says-deal-struck-with-Russia-over-gas-supply European leaders announced a breakthrough deal with Moscow last night that could see Siberian gas flowing to the households and heating systems of Europe. But hundreds of thousands of families across the Balkans and central Europe faced a freezing weekend without heating amid uncertainty over whether the deal settling the dispute between Russia and Ukraine would stick. With large stretches of eastern and southern Europe blanketed in snow in some of the coldest weather in a decade, an air of panic gripped parts of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia, all almost entirely dependent on Russian gas for central heating. The gas has been cut off since Wednesday. Dozens of companies and factories were closed across the region, while some schools, clinics and hospitals also had to shut or improvise heating systems. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172652-EU-says-deal-struck-with-Russia-over-gas-supply Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:58:23 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172651-Mystery-Roar-from-Faraway-Space-Detected Space is typically thought of as a very quiet place. But one team of astronomers has found a strange cosmic noise that booms six times louder than expected. The roar is from the distant cosmos. Nobody knows what causes it. Of course, sound waves can't travel in a vacuum (which is what most of space is), or at least they can't very efficiently. But radio waves can. Radio waves are not sound waves, but they are still electromagnetic waves, situated on the low-frequency end of the light spectrum. Many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, emit radio waves. Even our home galaxy, the Milky Way, emits a static hiss (first detected in 1931 by physicist Karl Jansky). Other galaxies also send out a background radio hiss. But the newly detected signal, described here today at the 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, is far louder than astronomers expected. There is "something new and interesting going on in the universe," said Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172651-Mystery-Roar-from-Faraway-Space-Detected Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:58:23 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172650-Neanderthals-Might-Have-Made-Good-Blood-Donors At least two of the extinct, ancient humans had type O blood, making them the "universal donor", according to a new genetic analysis of remains of 45,000 year old individuals. "If you needed a blood transfusion, you could get it from these Neanderthals," says Carles Lalueza-Fox, a geneticist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, who led the study. That's not to say all Neanderthals were type O - others may have also boasted genes for the A and B blood types, which encode enzymes that sprinkle red blood cells with two different sugar molecules, Lalueza-Fox says. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172650-Neanderthals-Might-Have-Made-Good-Blood-Donors Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:55:07 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172649-Canada-Motorist-may-have-seen-meteor-New-Year-s-Eve Driving between Bathurst and Miramichi on New Year's Eve, one motorist and his passenger saw a different kind of fireworks in the sky. Mike Gallant was on his way from Bathurst to Moncton when, at exactly 4:45 p.m., he saw a luminous teal-blue streak that lit up the darkening sky. "It looked like a meteor to me," he said. "It was clear as day to myself and my passenger." He described the streak as being darker on the bottom and lighter in colour towards the top, although the entire object was extremely bright. "It completely brightened the sky," he said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172649-Canada-Motorist-may-have-seen-meteor-New-Year-s-Eve Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:47:00 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172648-The-brutal-face-of-Israel-s-total-war-on-Gaza While Israel has sought to conceal the atrocities that it is carrying out against Gaza's civilian population, reports of aid workers and testimony of survivors have provided a searing picture of the carnage unleashed by its military assault. The Israeli government has barred the international media from entering the besieged Gaza Strip for good reason. It wants as much as possible to limit the images of the dead and maimed civilian men, women and children from reaching the outside world and to prevent the Palestinians trapped inside the blockaded territory from telling their stories. Nonetheless, accounts of war crimes carried out by the Israeli military continue to come out of Gaza. One source is the testimony gathered by Israeli human rights groups, which have sought to telephone Gaza residents, with increasing difficulty as the bombardment has disrupted telecommunications throughout the territory. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172648-The-brutal-face-of-Israel-s-total-war-on-Gaza Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:42:49 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172647-Children-found-under-the-rubble-1000s-of-families-torn-apart The United Nations said Friday that the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip reached 799 after the bodies of 50 children were found buried under the rubble. Witnesses report that during last weekend the Israeli military bombed a house in Gaza where soldiers had rounded up 110 Palestinians, killing 30 people. At least 50 bodies were found, along with children, under the rubble. Witnesses in Gaza and Israeli military sources said today that Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and projectile launches from the armed Palestinian resistance continued early Friday despite the UN Security Council finally passing a resolution calling for an immediate halt. The Israeli Cabinet is meeting to decide whether to abide the resolution or to move on to "Phase Three" of the operation against the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian spokesperson said the resolution "fell short of the aspirations of the Palestinian people." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172647-Children-found-under-the-rubble-1000s-of-families-torn-apart Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:42:33 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172646-UN-Israel-Admits-Claims-About-Attacked-School-Baseless International Outrage Can Safely Resume as Israel Backs off Allegations UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness reported this evening that the Israeli army is privately briefing diplomats on the fact that its previous claims about their attack on a UN-run girls' school in the Gaza Strip, which caused over 100 civilian casualties, were baseless. The attack occurred yesterday, when Israeli mortars deliberately fired three shells at the school, which was filled with hundreds of displaced civilians at the time, killing at least 46 and wounding 55 others. As international outrage began to well over the enormous civilian toll of the attack, Israel declared the killings "according to procedures" and claimed Hamas had fired rockets from the school's courtyard, making the attack on hundreds of innocent civilians self-defense. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172646-UN-Israel-Admits-Claims-About-Attacked-School-Baseless Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:42:29 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172645-Dartmouth-Researchers-Find-New-Protein-Function A group of Dartmouth researchers has found a new function for one of the proteins involved with chromosome segregation during cell division. Their finding adds to the growing knowledge about the fundamental workings of cells, and contributes to understanding how cell function can go wrong, as it does with cancerous cells. The researchers studied a protein called NOD, distantly related to the motor proteins that power diverse cellular activities, including intracellular transport, signaling, and cell division. They used X-ray crystallography to determine its structure, and then they used enzyme kinetics to find out how it performed. While this protein is found in fruit flies, the results are helpful in determining how related proteins work in humans. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172645-Dartmouth-Researchers-Find-New-Protein-Function Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:38:02 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172644-Blast-kills-7-in-northeastern-Sri-Lanka Seven people have been killed in a mine explosion in northeastern Sri Lanka on Friday, local police said. Four civilians and three military personnel were on a commuter bus when the blast occurred in the district of Trincomalee. Another six people were reported as injured. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172644-Blast-kills-7-in-northeastern-Sri-Lanka Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:35:54 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172643-Russian-Gazprom-wants-Ukraine-to-pay-470-per-1-000-cu-m-of-Russian-gas Ukraine should pay a market price for Russian gas, and in the first quarter of 2009 the price for Eastern Europe is about $470 per 1,000 cu m, the Russian energy giant Gazprom said Friday. "If the price for gas Gazprom supplies to Eastern European states neighboring Ukraine is around $470 per 1,000 cu m in the first quarter of 2009, then Ukraine should also pay the market price for gas," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told journalists. Kupriyanov said Gazprom's position is the same as the position of the Russian president and government. "Russia and Ukraine should switch over to market relations in the gas sphere," he said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172643-Russian-Gazprom-wants-Ukraine-to-pay-470-per-1-000-cu-m-of-Russian-gas Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:33:50 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172642-Too-Much-Of-A-Good-Thing-Excessive-DNA-Repair-Can-Lead-To-Retinal-Degeneration A naturally occurring DNA repair system that normally protects cells from damage can cause retinal degeneration and blindness when overstimulated, according to a new study by MIT researchers. The research team found that relatively low-level exposure to an environmental toxic agent provoked very active DNA repair that led to surprisingly high rates of retinal degeneration in mice -- much higher than in mice lacking the same DNA repair pathway. The work raises the possibility of developing treatments for retinal degeneration by blocking a particular DNA repair pathway. "Under some circumstances, too much DNA repair is not a good thing and could actually be a bad thing," said Leona Samson, co-director of MIT's Center for Environmental Health Sciences, professor of biology and biological engineering, and senior author of a paper on the work appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172642-Too-Much-Of-A-Good-Thing-Excessive-DNA-Repair-Can-Lead-To-Retinal-Degeneration Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:26:21 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172641-They-Left-the-Corporate-Cocoon-to-Blossom Big company. Big salary. Big sendoff. That's the formula millions of American workers used for years to map their career trajectory. Conventional wisdom advised workers to land a job with a big company and retire with generous benefits. But there's a new breed of worker who is making that formula seem as quaint as a VHS tape. They are the ultimate risk-takers -- they leave large, successful companies to pursue their own dreams even though the economy is reeling. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172641-They-Left-the-Corporate-Cocoon-to-Blossom Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:24:19 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172640-Israel-strike-kills-up-to-60-members-of-one-family Some of the Samouni family died from shrapnel wounds and others from being crushed by falling masonry. But the one death that sticks in Nael al Samouni's mind is that of the relative he claims was shot by an Israeli sniper. "We ran from the shelling and there were people everywhere, members of my family, but one fell down injured,'' Nael, 36, said. "I heard the shot as I ran but there was nothing I could do.'' With Israel barring foreign journalists from reaching Gaza, it is impossible to verify the account of what happened to the Samouni family emerging from eyewitness testimony provided by survivors. But different survivors all gave near identical accounts of how the Israeli army arrived at dawn on Sunday in the area of Zeitoun where the Samouni family have lived for generations. In what the United Nations fears could be the bloodiest single attack of the Israeli assault, as many as 60 members of the extended Samouni family were killed near their homes in the Gazan town of Zeitoun while nine more died in hospital. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172640-Israel-strike-kills-up-to-60-members-of-one-family Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:19:56 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172639-Got-Pathology-Man-allegedly-caused-flats-with-nails-in-driveways Police in upstate New York say a man has been sprinkling roofing nails on the driveways of people he didn't like to cause flat tires for two years. Stony Point police Lt. Peter Quinn said Michael Delisio was arrested Tuesday after an officer staking out one victim's home saw nails being thrown from Delisio's car. Quinn says the 60-year-old man from West Haverstraw has been charged with harassment, criminal tampering and mischief. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172639-Got-Pathology-Man-allegedly-caused-flats-with-nails-in-driveways Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:19:01 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172638-Brain-Circuit-Abnormalities-May-Underlie-Bulimia-Nervosa-In-Women Women with bulimia nervosa appear to respond more impulsively during psychological testing than those without eating disorders, and brain scans show differences in areas responsible for regulating behavior, according to a new report. Bulimia nervosa often begins in the adolescent or young adult years, according to background information in the article. "Primarily affecting girls and women, it is characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting or another compensatory behavior to avoid weight gain," the authors write. "These episodes of binge eating are associated with a severe sense of loss of control." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172638-Brain-Circuit-Abnormalities-May-Underlie-Bulimia-Nervosa-In-Women Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:11:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172637-Birth-of-first-British-baby-to-be-genetically-screened-for-breast-cancer The first baby in Britain to be screened for a deadly breast cancer gene while still an embryo has been born safely in London. Her parents, who wish to remain anonymous, opted for screening because three generations of women in the father's family had suffered the disease. Had the baby been born with the BRCA1 gene she would have had an 80 per cent chance of developing breast cancer as a direct result and a 60 per cent chance of ovarian cancer. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172637-Birth-of-first-British-baby-to-be-genetically-screened-for-breast-cancer Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:08:25 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172636-Scotland-Three-Injured-In-Hotel-Gas-Blast An investigation has been launched after a suspected gas explosion at a hotel in Scotland in which three people were seriously hurt. Emergency services were called to the Drumtochty Arms Hotel in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire at about 5.30pm. One person had to be rescued from a roof skylight following the "significant" blast. Police said a man in his 20s, another in his 50s and a woman were taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. It is thought they may have been drinking at the hotel bar. Their conditions are not believed to be life-threatening. Grampian Police said the building had partially collapsed in the explosion, which appeared to be linked to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172636-Scotland-Three-Injured-In-Hotel-Gas-Blast Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:02:33 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172635-New-York-Times-Warnings-Not-Enough-for-Gaza-Families The Samouni family knew they were in danger. They had been calling the Red Cross for two days, they said, begging to be taken out of Zeitoun, a poor area in eastern Gaza City that is considered a stronghold of Hamas. No rescuers came. Instead, Israeli soldiers entered their building late Sunday night and told them to evacuate to another building. They did. But at 6 a.m. on Monday, when a missile fired by an Israeli warplane struck the relatives' house in which they had taken shelter, there was nowhere to run. Eleven members of the extended Samouni family were killed and 26 wounded, according to witnesses and hospital officials, with five children age 4 and under among the dead. Hundreds of members of the clan flooded in to Shifa Hospital, all from Zeitoun, many in shock. Masouda al-Samouni, 20, lost her mother-in-law, her husband and her 10-month-old son. She said she had been preparing food for the baby when the missile struck. "He died hungry," she said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172635-New-York-Times-Warnings-Not-Enough-for-Gaza-Families Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:02:26 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172634-Canada-expels-US-woman-deserter Canada has ordered the deportation of the first woman US soldier to have sought asylum in the country to avoid being deployed to Iraq. Kimberly Rivera, a mother of three, had requested permission to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds but her appeal was rejected. She could face up to five years in prison when she returns to the US. Some 200 deserters from the US military are believed to have fled to Canada, some living incognito. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172634-Canada-expels-US-woman-deserter Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:56:39 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172633-Police-State-101-U-S-to-collect-DNA-samples-of-arrested-immigrants-and-people-accused-of-committing-crimes The Justice Department defends the new policy as an important crime-fighting tool. Activists see it as a violation of privacy. Beginning today, the U.S. government will collect DNA samples from people arrested and detained for suspected immigration violations, despite concerns that the move violates their privacy rights. The new Justice Department policy also will expand DNA collection to people arrested on suspicion of committing federal crimes. Previously, the government only obtained DNA from people convicted of certain crimes. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172633-Police-State-101-U-S-to-collect-DNA-samples-of-arrested-immigrants-and-people-accused-of-committing-crimes Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:52:30 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172632-Perfect-Storm-Hits-Once-Bullish-India A year ago a seemingly unstoppable global juggernaut, the once-confident India is now reeling from a perfect storm of a corporate IT scandal, the Mumbai attacks and economic slowdown. Suddenly the talk is not of easy returns, unending high growth, or "India arrives." The chatter is increasingly of risk. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172632-Perfect-Storm-Hits-Once-Bullish-India Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:49:52 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172631-Update-Death-toll-in-Costa-Rica-quake-rises-to-14-victims The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked Costa Rica has risen to 14 with at least 22 people still missing, the Red Cross said Friday. The magnitude-6.1 quake shook the Central American nation Thursday afternoon, collapsing homes, setting off landslides that blocked major highways and trapping hundreds of people including foreign tourists in damaged mountain towns. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172631-Update-Death-toll-in-Costa-Rica-quake-rises-to-14-victims Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:45:37 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172630-Fire-in-slum-in-Pakistan-s-Karachi-kills-39 Fire swept through a slum in the Pakistani city of Karachi early on Friday killing 39 people, including 20 children, officials and witnesses said. The fire broke out at about 1 a.m. (2000 GMT) and quickly engulfed about 40 huts erected on a vacant piece of land surrounded by buildings in a congested city neighborhood. "We were fast asleep when the fire broke. It spread quickly through the entire area," said resident Maqsood Ahmed, who lost three members of him family in the blaze. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172630-Fire-in-slum-in-Pakistan-s-Karachi-kills-39 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:41:03 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172629-Zionists-running-out-of-proxies If a ceasefire in Gaza leading to a settlement is not soon concluded, Israel's next confrontation could be directly with Iran Rocket fire from Lebanon into northern Israel on Thursday was a reminder of how easily the Gaza fighting, if unchecked, could escalate into a wider Middle East confrontation. But conservative analysts and commentators on both sides of the divide believe that broader confrontation is already under way. The real battle, they argue, is not between Israel and the Palestinians but between Iran, its allies and the western powers. Gaza is merely the latest point of physical contact between the two. The heart of this struggle, they say, is nothing less than control - political, ideological and economic - of the Arab Middle East. "Hamas, like Hizbullah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: Iran," said academics Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael Oren in the Los Angeles Times. "The Middle East conflict is no longer just about creating a Palestinian state but about preventing the region's takeover by radical Islam." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172629-Zionists-running-out-of-proxies Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:40:32 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172628-Saudi-tanker-freed-off-Somalia- A Saudi supertanker that was captured by Somali pirates in November carrying two million barrels of oil has been released, reports quoting pirates say. A regional maritime group also said pirates had left the Sirius Star, Reuters news agency reported. A negotiator for the pirates told the BBC a $3m (£1.95m) ransom was paid. A small plane was seen apparently dropping the ransom by parachute onto the tanker. The ship's owner has refused to comment. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172628-Saudi-tanker-freed-off-Somalia- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:37:11 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172627-Husband-Demands-1-5M-from-Wife-for-Kidney A Long Island doctor whose wife dumped him for her physical therapist after he gave her his kidney is suing the mother of three for the $1.5 million that he claims the organ is worth. "I saved her life and then to be betrayed like this is unfathomable. It's incomprehensible," said Dr. Richard Batista, 49. He said his wife, Dawnell Batista, started running around behind his back with a physical therapist she met in 2003 while recovering from a knee injury she suffered during karate lessons. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172627-Husband-Demands-1-5M-from-Wife-for-Kidney Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:12:16 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172626-Immoral-advances-Is-science-out-of-control- What would our forebears have made of test-tube babies, microwave ovens, organ transplants, CCTV and iPhones? Could they have believed that one day people might jet to another continent for a weekend break, meet their future spouse on the internet, have their genome sequenced and live to a private soundtrack from an MP3 player? Science and technology have changed our world dramatically, and, for the most part, we take them in our stride. Nevertheless, there are certain innovations that many people find unpalatable. Leaving aside special-interest attitudes such as the fundamentalist Christian denial of evolution, many controversies over scientific advances are based on ethical concerns. In the past, the main areas of contention have included nuclear weapons, eugenics and experiments on animals, but in recent years the list of "immoral" research areas has grown exponentially. In particular, reproductive biology and medicine have become ripe for moral outrage: think cloning, designer babies, stem-cell research, human-animal hybrids, and so on. Other troublesome areas include nanotechnology, synthetic biology, genomics and genetically modified organisms or so-called "Frankenfoods". To many scientists, moral objections to their work are not valid: science, by definition, is morally neutral, so any moral judgement on it simply reflects scientific illiteracy. That, however, is an abdication of responsibility. Some moral reactions are irrational, but if scientists are serious about tackling them - and the bad decisions, harm, suffering and barriers to progress that flow from them - they need to understand a little more and condemn a little less. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172626-Immoral-advances-Is-science-out-of-control- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:03:19 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172625-Man-Accused-Of-Building-Meth-Lab-In-Funeral-Home A funeral home might be a place for eternal rest, but police say an Arkansas man saw an opportunity to build a methamphetamine lab undisturbed by the living. There was just one problem: the funeral home was across the street from the sheriff's office. Officers said Robert Lee Lewis, 43, left the light on in the basement of the Higginbotham Funeral Home in Walnut Ridge on Dec. 3. Officers noticed the light on after hours and walked into the funeral home through an open door. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172625-Man-Accused-Of-Building-Meth-Lab-In-Funeral-Home Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:42:18 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172624-Magnitude-4-5-Earthquake-Greater-Los-Angeles-Area-California Friday, January 09, 2009 at 03:49:46 UTC Thursday, January 08, 2009 at 07:49:46 PM at epicenter Location 34.107°N, 117.304°W Depth 14.1 km (8.8 miles) Region Greater Los Angeles Area California Distances 3 km (2 miles) SSW (202°) from San Bernardino, CA 5 km (3 miles) NNE (19°) from Colton, CA 7 km (4 miles) E (94°) from Rialto, CA 87 km (54 miles) E (86°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172624-Magnitude-4-5-Earthquake-Greater-Los-Angeles-Area-California Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:34:30 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172623-Boy-6-Misses-Bus-Steals-Family-Sedan 6-Year-Old Learned To Drive From 'Grand Theft Auto' Wicomico Church, VA - The parents of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who tried to drive to school in his family's sedan after missing the bus are facing charges of child endangerment. State police said the boy suffered a bump on his head after crashing the family's 2005 Ford Taurus Monday morning. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172623-Boy-6-Misses-Bus-Steals-Family-Sedan Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:31:40 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172622-Obama-to-star-in-Spider-Man-comic Warning: This story contains plot spoilers US President-elect Barack Obama is to appear on the cover of a special edition of a Spider-Man comic. A six-page story, with the superhero saving the day when an imposter tries to take Mr Obama's place as president, will hit shelves next Wednesday. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172622-Obama-to-star-in-Spider-Man-comic Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:30:43 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172621-Criticism-of-Israel-s-war-crimes-mounts 'We are very violent', says Israeli commander Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave's civilian population. The petitions - over attacks on medical personnel and the shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza - follow statements by senior Israeli commanders that they have been using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during their advance on built-up areas. "We are very violent," one told Israeli media. There is also growing evidence that Israeli forces have been firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas in a move that risks violating international law by inflicting burns on civilians. The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, called the events in Gaza a "new Nakba", referring to the catastrophe that dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948. The Palestinian Authority revealed that it was planning to seek the prosecution of Israel's leaders for war crimes in the international courts. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172621-Criticism-of-Israel-s-war-crimes-mounts Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:19:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172620-Israel-shelled-Palestinians-after-evacuating-them-UN-says Killing of 30 people in house full of evacuees 'one of gravest incidents' since Gaza operations began At least 30 people were killed in the Zeitoun district of Gaza after Israeli troops repeatedly shelled a house to which more than 100 Palestinians had been evacuated by the Israeli military, the UN said today. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a report it was "one of the gravest incidents since the beginning of operations" against Hamas militants in Gaza by the Israeli military on 27 December. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172620-Israel-shelled-Palestinians-after-evacuating-them-UN-says Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:17:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172619-Jupiter-like-Planets-Could-Form-Around-Twin-Suns Life on a planet ruled by two suns might be a little complicated. Two sunrises, two sunsets. Twice the radiation field. In a paper published in the December 2008 issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics, astronomer Joel Kastner and his team suggest that planets may easily form around certain types of twin (or "binary") star systems. A disk of molecules discovered orbiting a pair of twin young suns in the constellation Sagittarius strongly suggests that many such binary systems also host planets. "We think the molecular gas orbiting these two stars almost literally represents 'smoking gun' evidence of recent or possibly ongoing 'giant' (Jupiter-like) planet formation around the binary star system," says Kastner, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172619-Jupiter-like-Planets-Could-Form-Around-Twin-Suns Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:55:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172618-Enduring-Priorities-in-an-Age-of-Change-War-and-Profits-Over-People If you want a glimpse of the fundamental moral obscenity that underlies our bold new era of hope and change, look no further than Barack Obama's promise this week to "overhaul" Social Security and Medicare. This effort to cut back on support for the sick, the old, the weak, the unfortunate and the abandoned will be a "central part" of the new administration's economic program, a linchpin of its struggle to curb federal spending, Obama declared. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172618-Enduring-Priorities-in-an-Age-of-Change-War-and-Profits-Over-People Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:44:25 +0000