Thinking about my youth and the family dynamic to which I was witness on a daily basis, it occurs to me that my mother was by far the most productive and skilled of my parents. While my father was required to spend just 8 hours a day performing the more or less mechanical tasks that his job entailed, my mother was left with the much more arduous and demanding job of rearing four children and creating a home. Looking back, it was a dynamic that I observed, to one extent or another, in most households that I was privy to over the years.

Despite this, imbedded in the structure of our modern society the idea that the male is superior to the female still persists. The term, "the weaker sex" is often used without defining just which weakness is being referred to. From an early age both sexes learn the preordained roles that are mirrored to them by their parents. Boys are taught to accentuate their alleged proclivity for aggressiveness and strength, women are encouraged to be passive and accommodating - usually to the "strength" and dominance of males.

Admittedly, men are generally physically stronger than women, but it seems rather unjust that a relatively inconsequential difference in physical strength would lead to a general consensus that "men are superior to women". In our modern mechanised world, much of the physical work previously performed by humans is now done by machines. However, the relative lack of physical demands that are placed on humans has been replaced by an array of new social pressures. Such pressures pervade all aspects of personal, social and working life, and require a very different type of strength in order to endure them with one's sanity intact.

As I grew older I became more aware of the many times that my father would come home from work in a bad mood and ever so subtly dump on my mother. The fact that my mother had spent the previous 12 hours dealing with the often exorbitant emotional demands of four children was apparently lost on him, yet somehow, my mother managed to keep fulfilling the needs of all and keep the family together. The strength that she exhibited, day in day out, for 30 years epitomised "long suffering strength" and by any standards was the definition of true strength.

For over two millennia, woman and the qualities she embodies have been maligned and made synonymous with weakness. Indeed, as we discuss elsewhere on this site and in the published writings of Laura Knight-Jadczyk, it seems that at a specific point in our history, some two thousand years ago, a concerted effort was made to defame the honoring of what was then known as the "divine feminine" - the worship of the goddess - and replace it with its mirror image.

The reversal of this old order was conducted at both the level of "religious" belief with the imposition of the major monotheistic religions, and at a social level where an equalitarian and tribal structure to society was slowly replaced with a hierarchical construct. Of course, the process of subversion took many years, and up until fairly recently isolated pockets in remote rural communities still maintained a world view that was more "pagan" than Christian. Just a couple of hundred years ago in rural Ireland for example, men were by no means considered the head of the household. It was generally accepted, simply because the facts were plain for all to see, that not only did women possess a capacity for physical labor that was often equal to that of men, but were also able to endure life's less tangible hardships in a way that would, and often did, make mincemeat of most men.

The real subversion however was in the twisting and distorting of the correct roles and relationship between men and women. And before anyone starts thinking of "the hieros gamos" as "revealed" by Dan Brown in his puerile trash novel "The Davinci Code", we are NOT talking about voyeuristic or tantric sex here.

As an integral part of their femininity, women possess a creative capacity to nurture, to empathise and to intuit that is not fundamental to the makeup of men. Men have a natural tendency to protect and to provide for. It is in the seamless conjoining of these two sets of intrinsic natures that the true potential of each human being can be realised.

What we witness in the world today however, is that women have been downgraded to the position of secondary citizen, their feminine qualities distorted to the point that they are seen as mere sex objects. In this vacuum, where men lack the natural outlet for their protecting and providing instincts, they are encouraged to serve only themselves. The result is a male-dominated world that stands today on the brink of destruction.

A good example is provided by the fact that, among the leaders of our modern society we have men who, while engaging in the "masculine" pursuit of waging war, are also enjoying the attentions of the winner of the "Miss Virginia Daddy Bear" competition, and women who seem to lack even a semblance the empathy and understanding that was once a hallmark of femininity.

In homage to my mother and all women who, by dint of their true creativity and long suffering strength, continue to stand up to the monotheistic dominator god and in doing so keep alive the chances of a new and very different future for us all.

In a world where material success is valued more than things of the soul, and where only the preoccupation with the soul will get you out alive, we are led in thousands of ways to focus on the body: the hysteria about exercise, giving up smoking, fashion, ads with those young and supple bodies living the good life, and, of course, an intense focus on sex. The preoccupation with sex in all of its forms and manifestations is the ultimate in self-calming.

But as with any impulse used for control, and it should be clear that the focus on sex in our society is a strong form of social control, one can approach it from two directions: deifying sex and demonising it. On the one hand, we are to express our sexual character freely and revel in its expressions all around us, from ads to sex shops to TV shows and movies and swingers' clubs. Freedom is equated with sexual liberty, screwing who you want, when you want, with no strictures. Such an expression of our sexual drive is a natural counterweight to the demonisation of sex taught by religions. Here we learn that sex is a necessary evil to propagate the species, but should be engaged in solely in wedlock Sometimes, the good high priests will permit couples to enjoy each other sexually as long as that isn't the primary focus.

So from the start we live in a society where sex is twisted and corrupted by being given a role for social control.

But as there is both a physical and a spiritual aspect to humanity, there is both a physical and spiritual aspect to sex. In its origins, the sexual drive is an expression of the creative force of the universe. The same force that can reduce us to rutting animals is also the source of the great acts of creation by those who are able to channel the energy in a different direction. And between two people who are committed to each other and to the path with developed magnetic centres, sex can provide a momentary link to the real 'I'.

However, the mechanical laws of this world would keep us in the state of animals, in the grip of our unbalanced moving, emotional and intellectual centres, and distracted from seeking out or sensing the 'B' influences. This is accomplished by either idolising or demonising sex, that is, by insuring that our attention is focused upon it in unhealthy ways.

In his work Gnosis, Boris Mouravieff writes:

The life of our times imposes a very great but one sided tension on the functions of man's psyche - especially on his attention in all its aspects, as well as on his intellectual capacities. This fact creates a reaction in man and leads to a need for relaxation in order to restore equilibrium.

If the development of the centres of his psyche had been balanced, this relaxation would have found its normal expression in his positive emotional life, which would then be adequate to his intellectual culture, and had that been the case, man's instinctive and motor life, in times of relaxation, would have been synchronized with the vibration of the emotional centre, enveloping that of the intellectual centre. This would give access to the path towards the sublimation of sex. Moments of relaxation conceived in this way would then lead to creative inspiration, which is analogous on the plane of the psyche to conception on the physical plane.
All the opportunities for man's esoteric evolution while working in the world lie in this. Nevertheless, several preliminary conditions must be fulfilled before he can reach this possibility, This is a possibility for man 4, who is approaching the second Threshold and ready to pass through the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven with his body and soul united to those of his polar being.

It is obvious that this is not the case for someone who has just crossed the first Threshold and struggles to climb the Staircase. But the neophyte must never lose sight of this possible result of his efforts, the first tangible result to which he must ardently aspire, It is by keeping the image of this divine state constantly present in mind, while at the same time constating his actual state in its naked truth, that he will be able to create within himself a
'difference of potential' capable of producing a high tension current of energy sufficiently strong to allow him to pursue his esoteric work with some chance of success.

The attitude presented by Mouravieff is far from the idolising/demonisation dichotomy presented by society. Rather, it recognises that seekers on the Staircase, that is, those who have crossed the Threshold and are committed to esoteric work as the defining goal of their lives, must make a realistic assessment of sex, walking the razor's edge between the image of the divine state towards which one strives "while at the same time constating his actual state in its naked truth". That means that we shouldn't pretend that we are other than we are and attempt to sublimate sex before we have arrived at the point where its sublimation happens naturally, as the next step.

But as seekers, it also means recognising the inherent dangers and responsibilities. Sex can be part of the path if it is a consequence of complicity on other levels, that is, between a couple both of whom are engaged in the work. In such a case, its purpose is not physical gratification.

The comments above were written after reading the following stories from today's Daily Mirror. In the case described below, as well as in the recent reports of homosexual prostitution in the White House with its apparent links to a network of pedophiles in the highest levels of government, we see sex in its vulgar, 'A' influence aspect, as a means of escape -- which amounts to a revelling in physicality -- and as a function of power where the elite partake of acts that are prohibited to others as an expression of the belief in their superiority to the great unwashed, their arrogance, and the depths to which they have fallen in their alliance with entropy.

Royal firearms officer caught romping among 300 VIPs on giant bed at £15m mansion

PRINCE Andrew's female bodyguard has been caught having sex on film at Britain's biggest VIP orgy.

Firearms cop Sarah Cox was snapped romping at the sex party alongside 300 other depraved swingers.

After tearing off her clothes, WPC Cox - who also guards PM Tony Blair at Chequers - and her cop boyfriend plunged into the orgy on a 20ft by 14 ft steel-reinforced bed.

Fever Club orgy bosses put Cox, 26, and PC Bernard Bourdillon, 36, in charge of security at the £150-a- couple party in a £15million London mansion.

But the police couple are regular swingers too - and as the night wore on THEY threw off their clothes and joined the throng of writhing bodies.

Thames Valley Police chiefs will be horrified by their antics and the couple - who boasted about borrowing police metal detectors to search guests - could face disciplinary action.

Only Britain's elite, including aristocrats, politicians, civil servants and lawyers, are allowed to join the secret society, which met for its first orgy of 2005 last Saturday night.

Rich brokers from City institutions Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutschebank and Commerzbank indulged in a free-for-all with scientists, lawyers, corporate directors, a TV presenter, fashion models and an Olympic athlete.

In an undercover operation, Sunday Mirror investigators posing as security men looked on as a mass of naked men and women romped on a pink satin-covered bed in the main candle-lit "playroom". Another 11 couples were having sex on marble-topped gilt tables, and on the floor two women were fondling each other while performing sex acts on FIVE men.

The night of debauchery began at 9pm. Guests arrived in a fleet of limousines and stepped on to a purple carpet across the pavement outside the 24-bedroom former ambassadorial residence opposite BBC Radio One's offices in London's Portland Place. One Italian heiress was dressed in a £4,000 Dolce & Gabbana gown.

They were greeted by the party's organisers - the men behind Fever Parties are property tycoon Jonathan Friedman, 41, and married right-wing anti-Europe politician David Russell Walters, 44.

The pair use professional events organiser Emma Sayles, 26, to front their organisation. Her father is a Cambridge-educated former Welsh Guards' officer.

For security reasons members were ticked off a photographic guest list to make sure that there were no impostors.

Then they were searched by off-duty Thames Valley firearms cops Cox and Bourdillon using handheld metal detectors.

Their job was to take mobile phones and cameras from guests. [...]

In the lobby the guests were greeted by a tanned semi-naked harpist wearing a white basque and lacy stockings who later joined the sex party during her break.

The immaculately-groomed guests were then led through to a cocktail reception where they chatted politely. Celebrity DJ Dan Lywood, former boyfriend of Zoe Ball, played dance music. Beautiful guests had flown in from New York, Paris, Italy, Germany and Holland especially for the party.

At about 10.30pm the first couple followed a trail of red rose petals up the sweeping stone staircase, through oak-panelled doors into the main playroom. The woman, a marketing executive with blonde bobbed hair, stripped off to reveal a G-string and began having sex with her partner, a city banker.

A second couple played with a sex toy while being watched by a group of women. After about half-an-hour there were 60 people having sex on the vast bed, reinforced with steel plates to bear the weight.

The room, decorated by film set designers for £7,000, was candlelit. Classical music played in the background. Around the bed three couples were having sex against radiators and two women fondled each other while performing sex acts on several men.

One fashion model having sex with a lawyer groaned in ecstasy. Another man fed her grapes from a cut-glass bowl, Belgian chocolates and Laurent Perrier champagne straight from the bottle while fondling her breasts.

The owner of the £15million mansion, toff Edward Davenport, was filmed kissing and fondling a woman on the bed.

Davenport, a property developer who is worth £133million, also has residences in Monte Carlo, Mayfair and the West Country.

He made a fortune organising debauched Gatecrasher Balls for public school teenagers in the 1980s but was later jailed for VAT fraud on tickets. [...]

[...] This was just one of the debauched scenes at the latest swingers' party organised by Fever - one of the biggest and most exclusive sex clubs in the world.

One party-goer who witnessed the scenes said: "These are some of the most wealthy and powerful people in Britain - the capital city's movers and shakers - and they were all writhing naked together on a bed as big as a suburban swimming pool."

The event in London's Portman Square last Saturday was Fever's biggest in the capital so far. More than 100 couples paid £150 in advance - or £200 on the door - to take part. One of the guests was Harlequins rugby star James Hayter who was hired as a bouncer, but liked what he saw so much he dived in too!

Many of the partygoers - who have to be under 40, well-heeled and good looking - have since emailed the Fever website with "thank you for having us" messages, hailing the party as "mind- blowing" and the "best ever". [...]

Last night messages from 25 partygoers were posted on the group's website.

A 24-year-old woman, who was at her first Fever party, says: "What an amazing evening. Sex, sex and, er, more sex. Ladies, if you are single or fancy sneaking away from your man, come to Fever.

"I spent most of the night with the most gorgeous couple who were fabulous in the bedroom." Another message from a 21-year-old woman says: "I had a great time and will definitely praise Fever in my London student article.

"Only joking. Sorry to have disappointed you by not being an undercover investigative journalist!"

A couple, aged 35 and 29, say: "It was absolutely mind-blowing. We met and partied with several other sexy couples - had an absolutely amazing time. The night was a perfect combination of all our best past adventures and encounters, both sexual and social, all wrapped into one great, glamorous, friendly and fun party."

Another couple, both 31, write: "It feels mildly amusing to be sitting down and politely writing a thank-you note after last night's party. Whatever would my mother say?

"The venue was superb, the atmosphere electric, with sparks of sexual tension searing between the guests almost from the first moments.

"It was impossible not to be raised to new sexual highs and not to just close your eyes and let the eager hands, mouths and bodies of everyone else there caress and stimulate you into sexual oblivion, over and over. Fabulous."

A third couple, aged 35 and 29, who were at their first Fever party, say: "We had an absolutely excellent time and were amazed at both the expert organisation and high level of talent among the partygoers."

Yet another pair, aged 31 and 30, say: "We would definitely like to attend future parties and we are still talking about that bed and how we had so much fun on it."

A 34-year-old and his 23-year-old partner say: "It was really wonderful to meet so many cool, beautiful, open-minded and respectful people."

But there is some criticism, too. Two Fever regulars, aged 33 and 27, moan: "We felt that the venue was a little cold in places. The toilets also lacked a little in cleanliness and decor. There was also quite a bit of broken glass around the bar and stair area which wasn't good for the bare-footed." [...]

UPPER CRUST ORGANISERS AND STAFF

EDWARD DAVENPORT, 38
Made first million in his teens organising the infamous Gatecrasher balls - now a property tycoon worth £133m. Spends six months a year in Monaco as a tax exile sharing £200-a-night hotel suite with two women. Shares £15million London pad with three more. He was seen kissing and fondling a girl on the orgy bed last Saturday night.

He bought the venue, a former ambassador's residence, from the Sierra Leone government in 2002 for the knockdown price of just £50,000.

DAVID RUSSELL WALTERS, 44
By day ex-Tory candidate and boss of anti-Europe Democracy Movement. By night, orgy master tending to guests. Looked on as four girls, one a Dutch rowing champ, pleasured each other.

JONATHAN FRIEDMAN, 42
Brains behind Fever's image. Spends hours "dressing" rooms with pink satin, chocolates, fruit, and jelly babies for energy. Seen canoodling on the bed with beautiful American blonde.

EMMA SAYLE, 26
Diplomat's daughter. Dad was colonel with the Welsh Guards and has an OBE. She is regarded as one of Britain's best and most upmarket party organisers - didn't join in the orgy.

JAMES HAYTER, 26
Professional rugby player. Hayter, who is over 6ft tall and weighs 220 lb, was Hired as a bouncer but became overwhelmed with lust. Stripped off and joined in the night's action.

WEALTHY, GOOD-LOOKING PUNTERS

CHARITY BOSS
International charity director had sex with female TV production company boss.

CRIME BOSS
Heir to a multi-million crime empire bonked French, Russian, Italian models and a designer.

WILD CHILD
Raunchy daughter of a legendary rock star had public sex with a top media lawyer.

FILM DIRECTOR
Movie bigwig and his catwalk model lover had sex with at least seven other couples.

________________

TOP TORY A FEVER FOUNDER
FEVER CLUB parties first became notorious when senior Conservative Party strategist Douglas Smith was exposed as a founding member in 2003.

The 42-year-old, who preached the Tories' morally-focused back-to-basics policy, was forced to cut his links with Fever and is now an adviser and speech writer to senior MPs.

The club started in January 1998 with a debauched launch party in a Central London penthouse.

The 2,500 worldwide members include captains of industry, celebrities and multi-millionaire tycoons.

Critics have accused the secretive organisation of being a sinister networking organisation.

Orgies for the rich and beautiful are hosted twice yearly in London and Manchester but there are parties over the summer in New York and Ibiza.

Fever receives over 400 applications for each party and the vetting process is extremely strict.

But the upper age limit of 40 was recently raised from 35 to take account of the advancing years of some of the organisers.

A homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and US and foreign businessmen with close social ties to Washington's political elite, documents obtained by The Washington Times reveal.

One of the ring's high-profile clients was so well-connected, in fact, that he could arrange a middle-of-the-night tour of the White House for his friends on Sunday, July 3, of last year. Among the six persons on the extraordinary 1 a.m. tour were two male prostitutes.

Federal authorities, including the Secret Service, are investigating criminal aspects of the ring and have told male prostitutes and their homosexual clients that a grand jury will deliberate over the evidence throughout the summer, The Times learned.

Reporters for this newspaper examined hundreds of credit-card vouchers, drawn on both corporate and personal cards and made payable to the escort service operated by the homosexual ring. Many of the vouchers were run through a so-called "sub-merchant" account of the Chambers Funeral Home by a son of the owner, without the company's knowledge.

Among the client names contained in the vouchers - and identified by prostitutes and escort operators - are government officials, locally based US military officers, businessmen, lawyers, bankers, congressional aides and other professionals.

Editors of The Times said the newspaper would print only the names of those found to be in sensitive government posts or positions of influence. "There is no intention of publishing names or facts about the operation merely for titillation," said Wesley Pruden, managing editor of The Times.

The office of US Attorney General Jay B. Stephens, former deputy White House counsel to President Reagan, is coordinating federal aspects of the inquiry but refused to discuss the investigation or grand jury actions.

Several former White House colleagues of Mr. Stephen are listed among clients of the homosexual prostitution ring, according to the credit card records, and those persons have confirmed that the charges were theirs.

Mr. Stephen's office, after first saying it would cooperate with The Times' inquiry, withdrew the offer late yesterday and also declined to say whether Mr. Stephens would recuse himself from the case because of possible conflict of interest.

At least one highly placed Bush administration official and a wealthy businessman who procured homosexual prostitutes from the escort services operated by the ring are cooperating with the investigation, several sources said. [...]

Over the weekend, while pursuing information that might lead to uncovering connections between the Bush White House and the 'non-reporter' Jeff Gannon, aka James Guckert, a blogger may have stumbled onto information that could begin to uncover a possible alliance between the Republican and Democratic leadership.

On Saturday, Feb. 12, a blogger, going by the screen-name "Do You Ever Wonder", posted the first of his discoveries as a thread on Democratic Underground.com.

The evidence shows that John Kerry had hired the Washington lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates to do work for his 2004 campaign. The firm's two founding partners are each political heavy-hitters, Jack Quinn for the Democratic Party and Ed Gillespie as 2004 Republican National Committee chairman.

From information gleaned from the firm's web site, it was learned that Marc Lampkin, a Quinn Gillespie lobbyist, was a Bush campaign manager, while another employee of the firm, Bruce Andrews, was political director for the Kerry/Edwards coordinating committee in Pennsylvania. Yet another employee, Manuel Ortiz, was involved in the overall leadership structure of the Democratic Party, including both policy and fundraising, raising money for Kerry.

A large, influential public relations firm such as this might normally have clients of all political persuasions, and were it not a presidential election year, it would raise nary an eyebrow. However, for the chair of the Republican National Committee (even though Gillespie officially took "unpaid leave" from his firm to work on Bush's 2004 campaign) to be just one degree removed from the Kerry campaign, casts a shadow of suspicion regarding possible collusion between the Democratic and Republican parties. At the very least, it represents an obvious conflict of interest.

For those of us who find the entire manner in which the Kerry campaign was conducted "odd", including Kerry's abrupt concession, this is simply more evidence to support the suspicion that Kerry threw the 2004 election.

March 3, 2005—The recent scandal involving gay male escort and right-wing faux journalist Jeff Gannon (a.k.a. James Dale Guckert and possibly a few other aliases) is not welcome news for the purported sadomasochistic hedonists in the White House administrations of both George W. and George H. W. Bush.

As with their fascist fellow travelers in Hitler's Germany, Franco's Spain, and "The Colonels'" Greece, many of the fascists associated with the Bush family have a predilection for sex with children and young recruits within the U.S. military. However, since the 1980s, the Bush cabal has been able to keep the GOP's dark secrets away from the disinfectant of sunshine and media attention.

Except for the outbreak of news stories concerning the Franklin Credit Union-Lawrence King-Craig Spence child prostitution scandal in 1989 that involved midnight tours of the White House for underage male sex slaves from Nebraska and reached high into the upper echelons of the elder Bush administration, little has been heard about the sex crimes of top Republicans. That is, until it was revealed that "Jeff Gannon" was intricately tied to GOP operatives ranging from George W. Bush political "Svengali" Karl Rove, to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and Texas GOP provocateur Bobby Eberle. In typical Bush scandal fashion, Eberle's "Talon News Service" has disappeared as fast as Jeff Gannon from the James Brady Briefing Room and Doug Wead's secret tapes of Bush from the public ear—tapes that, at the very least, indicated Bush's prior use of marijuana, cocaine, and LSD.

As this writer has previously reported, during the early 1980s, a number of naval officers were implicated in a child pornography ring that extended from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay area and to Chicago and Washington, DC. The story about that ring was covered up by then-Secretary of the Navy John Lehman who engaged in similar cover-ups of the Navy's "Tailhook" scandal involving the sexual assault by naval aviators of women, including at least one underage teen, and the gun turret explosion on the USS Iowa, originally and erroneously blamed by Navy investigators on a despondent gay sailor. The GOP appointed Lehman to the 9-11 Commission, which issued a final report that many victims' families and investigators determined was a whitewash.

The fact that Gannon/Guckert, a male escort who adopted a military theme for his clientele, was made privy to classified information involving CIA covert agent Valerie Plame and her husband's (former Ambassador Joseph Wilson) trip to Niger to investigate possible uranium shipments, has a precedent with prior GOP illegal sexcapades involving national security breaches. The Franklin pedophile cover-up was mirrored by the Navy pedophile affair that also breached national security during the height of the Cold War. The cover-up of the pedophile ring involving senior naval personnel ran right up the chain-of-command to the Pentagon offices of then-Secretary of the Navy Lehman, Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and the White House offices of Vice President George H. W. Bush, and Reagan Chief of Staff and close Bush confidant James Baker III.

As someone intimately involved in the investigation of the Navy case and as a victim of the cover-up, this reporter is publishing for the first time correspondence and documents on the Navy affair so that the current Bush sex scandal, "Gannongate," does not go the way of the Nebraska/Washington, DC, Navy, and Abu Ghraib/Guantanamo scandals. (One note of interest: the "X" in the Case Control Number 718XNA refers to the FBI's cross referencing file numbering system. The "X" means that the case is a "X" case–meaning that the case is of extreme sensitivity, the "NA" following the "X" refers to the Navy. There are, in fact, "X Files," but they have nothing to do with aliens but very much to do with high-level government officials engaged in off-the-wall activities, like pedophilia and prostitution).

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Agents with the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force arrested a Christian radio station personality as part of a child pornography investigation.

Bureau agents began investigating Chris Ruleman, 40, a midday host for WFFI, 94FM The Fish, earlier this week after receiving information that he possessed child pornography.

He remained in the Nashville jail pending an appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge on Friday. [...]

A Barnes reporter told Storch that "Karl greatly enjoyed the supervision of a certain hairy 350-lb. Leather Dominator who had won the Miss Virginia Daddy Bear title at the MAL festivities."

Storch wrote, "Karl used to hang out a JR’s, which is on 17th between P & S streets, before he became so well-known. This is a respectable gay bar for discreet people...," adding, "there is an expensive apartment...over near Dupont Circle that certain powerful senators take turns visiting with their pickups."

Bush made the remarks on the second anniversary of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

He cited political progress in Iraq, which held elections this year and had its transitional national assembly convene for the first time earlier this week.

He also paid tribute to US armed forces in Iraq, where more than 1,500 Americans have been killed and over 5,870 wounded.

"I know that nothing can end the pain of the families who have lost loved ones in this struggle, but they can know that their sacrifice has added to America's security and the freedom of the world," Bush said.

US troops in Iraq are speeding up to train Iraqi security forces, and when those forces are able to defend their country, US troops will return home, Bush added.

On the anniversary, 100,000 people marched in London to protest the war. Similar demonstrations were also staged across Europe.

NEW YORK (AP) - Anti-war activists marched in the streets of U.S. and European cities Saturday, stopping traffic and lying down alongside flag-draped cardboard coffins to mark the second anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

Some demonstrators were arrested in New York City as they demanded U.S. troops be brought home.

"This country was founded by acts of civil disobedience," said David McReynolds, 75, of New York, as he marched along 42nd Street.

"We have an obligation to make our resistance public and to say as clearly as we can that the war is illegal."

In San Francisco, hundreds of protesters rallied in Dolores Park in the city's Mission district, holding up posters with photographs of dead U.S. soldiers. The protesters then marched to San Francisco City Hall for another rally.

One protester dressed up like the hooded Iraqi prisoner in the infamous photo taken of detainee abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. The woman was surrounded by others wearing masks of President George W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, who were dancing to the song Shout by the Isley Brothers.

"This is a war of aggression," said Ed McManus, 54, a Marin County, Calif., resident who served in the U.S. navy during the Vietnam War.

"Bush has admitted by his actions and his deeds that he is a war criminal."

Organizers encouraged civility at rallies in the city, where protests just after the war began were among the most vocal and angry in the country, with thousands of arrests and frequent conflicts between police and demonstrators.

Police wearing helmets and armed with batons lined the streets Saturday but reported no disturbances.

An anti-war rally organized in part by veterans and military families drew about 3,000 people to a park near Fort Bragg, N.C. - home to more than 40,000 soldiers.

Demonstrators said they hoped it would build pressure to bring troops home.

"I can't remain silent on these issues, slap a yellow ribbon on my car and call it supporting our troops," said Kara Hollingsworth, wife of a soldier serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

"I support our troops by making sure they are not put in harm's way unless absolutely necessary."

In Chicago, hundreds of police, some in riot gear, escorted about 1,000 marchers down Dearborn Avenue to an afternoon rally at the Federal Plaza. Police were trying to avoid a repeat of two years ago when thousands of protesters caused a huge traffic jam during rush-hour and hundreds were arrested.

Only two arrests were reported Saturday.

Across Europe, tens of thousands of protesters packed streets and public parks to protest the war. In England, 45,000 people marched from London's Hyde Park past the U.S. Embassy to Trafalgar Square, while an estimated 15,000 people - some carrying signs reading "Murderer Bush, get out" - marched in Turkey.

Hundreds in New York listened to anti-war speeches at the United Nations, then marched along 42nd Street across Manhattan to Times Square, where police penned them in on a sidewalk.

A small contingent of protesters then knelt in front of a military recruiting station and lay down on Broadway next to the flag-draped coffins. Traffic was stopped for about five minutes before police moved in and arrested 27 protesters.

"It's such a small act in light of over 100,000 Iraqis dead and 1,500 American soldiers dead," Anna Brown, 40, of Jersey City, N.J., said before she was arrested.

More than 1,000 people also marched through Pittsburgh, including many who initially supported the war but have since changed their minds, said Tim Vining, a protest organizer.

"It's not what even people who supported this war in the beginning, it's not what they signed up for," he said.

"I think people realize the tide is turning" and to protest isn't seen as unpatriotic.

In the small town Cottage Grove, Ore., just south of Eugene, about 230 protesters walked two-by-two through the streets, some carrying bells, others holding a kilometre-long chain of flags bearing the names of U.S. troops and Iraqi children killed during the war.

"The best thing we can do is get out and get out as fast as we can," said Ron Betts, 58, a disabled Vietnam veteran.

About 300 demonstrators also gathered in front of the New Mexico National Guard Armory in Albuquerque, some holding signs saying, "Bush's lies kill" and "You can't be pro-life and pro-war." Pieces of paper were glued to the sidewalk, all bearing the names and faces of dead U.S. soldiers.

"That's a whole tsunami worth of people, vanished," said Maureen Small, an Albuquerque physician.

March 19, 2005 - The war in Iraq is two years old today and it is already behaving like a two-year-old, notably demonstrating a destructive power beyond the control of those who gave birth to it.

Regardless of unprecedented and largely successful efforts at "information management" by the U.S. government, the reality is that the devastating consequences of U.S. policy in Iraq are not diminishing but are in fact continuing unabated. In the face of armed resistance and political pressure to minimize U.S. casualties, our government is clinging to a classic "divide and conquer" policy that is tearing apart the fabric of a multi-sectarian society in which different religious and secular groups have coexisted and intermarried for hundreds of years. The danger that this policy poses to the future of Iraq is self-evident.

I have been reviewing a number of studies that count the ongoing human cost of the invasion and occupation to the people of Iraq. The most comprehensive is the report by the Center for International Emergency, Disaster and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that was published in The Lancet on November 20, 2004. It concludes, "Violent deaths were widespread . . . and were mainly attributed to coalition forces. Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children. Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths."

The body of the report makes it clear that the researchers made the most conservative assumptions in interpreting their results, completely excluding the city of Fallujah as an "outlier cluster" with much higher rates of violent death, and that total actual civilian deaths could quite possibly be more than 200,000. It should be noted that reports from the Iraqi Health Ministry support the study's finding that U.S. air strikes are the principal cause of death among civilians in Iraq since the invasion.

In order to produce an accurate estimate while minimizing the danger to their survey teams, the Johns Hopkins researchers used statistical methods to extrapolate from regional "clusters" to the general population. An Iraqi group called the People's Kifah took considerably greater risks in attempting a more complete survey of civilian deaths in September and October 2003. They mobilized hundreds of academics and volunteers, who "spoke and coordinated with grave-diggers across Iraq, obtained information from hospitals and spoke to thousands of witnesses who saw incidents in which Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. fire." Unfortunately they were forced to abandon the project when one of their researchers, Ramzi Musa Ahmad, was seized by Kurdish militiamen, apparently handed over to U.S. forces, and never seen again. However, after only a month or two's work, the People's Kifah had already gathered details of more than 37,000 actual civilian deaths.

Another public health study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 1, 2004, found that 28 percent of troops in "ground combat units" of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and 14 percent of similar units in the 3rd Infantry Division reported personally "being responsible for the death of a non-combatant" during their first tours of duty in Iraq. The study was designed to be representative of all "ground combat units,," defined as 40 percent of active duty troops in theater, and thus implies that at least 10,000 civilians were killed by U.S. ground fire alone during the invasion and the first few months of occupation. The widespread killing of civilians has led many U.S. soldiers to question the nature of the war and their role in it. Units ordered to deploy for second tours in Iraq are experiencing high rates of conscientious objector applications from soldiers and junior officers, and these are generally being granted.

The continued military occupation of Iraq is illegal under international law, immoral under any conceivable moral code, destructive to the interests of Americans and Iraqis alike, and corrosive to international peace and goodwill. International law requires the U.N. Security Council to implement a full restoration of Iraqi sovereignty, the withdrawal of occupation forces and appropriate aid and reparations. The people of the United States and the United Kingdom should insist that our governments cease military operations in Iraq immediately, so that legitimate representatives of the Iraqi people and the international community can start the difficult work of putting the broken pieces of Iraqi society back together again.

Let's stop the war now!

U.S. President George W. Bush often complains about the "media filter" that distorts the true picture of his administration's accomplishments in Iraq. And he's right. For regardless of where you stand on Bush's policies in the region, it's undeniable that the political and commercial biases of the American press have consistently misrepresented the reality of the situation.

Here's an excellent example. Earlier this month, the American media completely ignored an important announcement from an official of the Iraqi government concerning the oft-maligned U.S. operation to clear insurgents from the city of Fallujah last November. Although the press conference of Health Ministry investigator Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli was attended by representatives from The Washington Post, Knight-Ridder and more than 20 other international news outlets, nary a word of his team's thorough investigation into the truth about the battle made it through the filter's dense mesh. Once again, the American public was denied the full story of one of President Bush's remarkable triumphs.

Dr. ash-Shaykhli's findings provided confirmation of earlier reports by many other Iraqis -- reports that were also ignored by the arrogant filterers, who seem more interested in hearing from terrorists or anti-occupation extremists than ordinary Iraqis and those like Dr. ash-Shaykhli, who serve in the U.S.-backed interim government vetted and approved by President Bush. But while the media elite turn up their noses at such riffraff, the testimony of these common folk and diligent public servants gives ample evidence of Bush's innovative method of liberating innocent Iraqis from tyranny:

He burns them to death with chemical weapons.

Dr. ash-Shaykhli was sent by the pro-American Baghdad government to assess health conditions in Fallujah, a city of 300,000 that was razed to the ground by a U.S. assault on a few hundred insurgents, most of whom slipped away long before the attack. The ruin of the city was complete: Every single house was either destroyed (from 75 to 80 percent of the total) or heavily damaged. The city's entire infrastructure -- water, electricity, food, transport, medicine -- was obliterated. Indeed, the city's hospitals were among the first targets, in order to prevent medical workers from spreading "propaganda" about civilian casualties, U.S. officials said at the time.

Eyewitness accounts from the few survivors of the onslaught, which killed an estimated 1,200 noncombatants, have consistently reported the use of "burning chemicals" by American forces: horrible concoctions that roasted people alive with an unquenchable jellied fire, InterPress reported. They also tell of whole quadrants of the city in which nothing was left alive, not even dogs or goats -- quadrants that were sealed off by the victorious Americans for mysterious scouring operations after the battle. Others told of widespread use of cluster bombs in civilian areas -- a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions, but a standard practice throughout the war.

The few fragments of this information that made it through the ever-
vigilant filter were instantly dismissed as anti-American propaganda, although they often came from civilians who had opposed the heavy-handed insurgent presence in the town. Rejected as well were the innumerable horror stories of those who had seen their whole
families -- including women, children, the sick and the elderly -- slaughtered in the "liberal rules of engagement" established by Bush's top brass. Most of the city was declared "weapons-free": military jargon meaning that soldiers could shoot "whatever they see -- it's all considered hostile," The New York Times reported, in a story buried deep inside the paper.

Yet the ash-Shaykhli team -- again, appointed by the Bush-backed government -- confirmed the use of "mustard gas, nerve gas and other burning chemicals" by U.S. forces during the battle. Dr. ash-Shaykhli said that survivors -- still living in refugee camps, along with some 200,000 former Fallujah residents who fled before the assault -- are now showing the medical effects of attack by chemical agents and the use of depleted uranium shells. (American officials have admitted raining more than 250,000 pounds of toxin-tipped DU ammunition on Iraqis since the war began.)

The Pentagon has acknowledged using white phosphorus in Fallujah, but only for "illumination purposes." It denied using napalm in the attack -- but, in the course of that denial, it admitted that its earlier denials of using napalm elsewhere in Iraq were in fact false. And individual Marines filing "After Action Reports" on the Internet for military enthusiasts back home have detailed the routine use of white phosphorus shells, propane bombs and "jellied gasoline" (also known as napalm) during direct tactical assaults in Fallujah.

Dr. ash-Shaykhli's findings -- coming from a pro-American government, buttressed by reams of eyewitness testimony from ordinary Iraqi civilians -- appear to be substantial, credible and worthy of further investigation by the U.S. press. Certainly, the findings are more credible than the pre-war lies and fantasies about Saddam's phantom WMD, which the "media filter" lapped up from the Bush regime and amplified across the nation, rousing support for an unnecessary, illegal and immoral war. Yet these serious new atrocity charges have not even been mentioned, much less examined.

Behind the filter -- with its basic story template of "always moral U.S. policies occasionally marred by a few bad apples" -- a relentless degeneration of American society is taking place. Brutality and atrocity are becoming normalized, systemized and rewarded. The noble American ideal of transcendence -- overcoming the beast within, seeking to embrace an ever-broader, ever-deeper, ever-richer vision of universal communion and individual worth -- is dying at the hands of the resurgent barbarity championed and cultivated by the Bush regime. Old-fashioned citizens are being replaced by "Bush Americans": wilfully ignorant, bellicose zealots, cringingly servile toward the powerful, violently hostile to all "outsiders." Despite Bush's artful complaints, the media filter has served his degenerate purposes very well.

The security of America and other wealthy countries will for the first time be declared a key priority for the United Nations under reforms designed to restore confidence in the crisis-ridden international body.

The reforms, to be announced tomorrow by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, will be seen as a concession to Washington after repeated clashes with President George W Bush over US foreign policy, including the war in Iraq.

The UN Secretariat promises a "real re-launch … a fundamental manifesto" after criticism of its performance since the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

Mark Malloch Brown, the Briton newly appointed as the UN's chief of staff, said: "Reform really has to align the UN behind an agenda that includes a security system which can fully meet US concerns on terrorism."

He said that the drive to cut poverty and tackle social problems in developing nations would be couched in terms of the threat to the security of the West. [...]

Comment: Even the UN is bowing down to "worship the Beast". At this point, it is certainly safe to say that the UN is irrelevant in terms of shining the light of truth upon the actions of the US and its leaders.

Chidyan Siku, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN, gave the proposals a cool reception. "My feeling, and the feeling of colleagues from developing countries, is that the Secretariat is trying to please America by slanting towards the strategic agenda of the North. That will not find favour with us," he said.

An official at the French mission said: "They may be going too far in trying to please Washington. The UN is not only about the US."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said European weapons technology should not be used by China to expand its military as she again warned against the lifting of an EU arms embargo to the communist country.

At a joint news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, Rice said the European Union "should do nothing to contribute to a circumstance in which Chinese military modernization draws on European technology..."

The warning came as the European Union recently moved to lift its 16 year-old arms embargo on China as Beijing announced a boost in its military expenditure.

China's parliament Monday approved a 12.6 percent increase in military spending this year to 244.65 billion yuan (29.5 billion dollars).

"Our view is that it is not appropriate ...," Rice told a press conference here when asked about the lifting of the embargo.

"There are concerns about the rise of Chinese military spendings, and potentially Chinese military power and its increasing sophistication". [...]

"The United States will of course maintain and modernize its forces to make certain that the military balance can be maintained in the Asia-Pacific so that the region can continue along a peaceful path and that it can continue along the democratic path and that it can continue along the economic prosperity," she said. [...]

WASHINGTON - For the first time in a decade, communities across the country are bracing for a major round of military base closings, and they are mounting aggressive lobbying campaigns to stave off cuts and other changes that some independent experts say could dwarf the previous four rounds combined.

Pentagon officials say all 425 domestic bases are under scrutiny, as the military looks to squeeze efficiencies and billions of dollars in savings from a cold-war network that has nearly 25 percent more capacity than what the armed services say they need.

After more than two years of exhaustive study, Pentagon analysts are putting the finishing touches on a list of recommendations that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld will present to a nine-member independent commission for review. Scores of Pentagon analysts and auditors have been poring over data and dozens of options as part of an effort that is intended to mesh with Mr. Rumsfeld's broader goals to make the military more agile and responsive to security threats. [...]

One prominent military analyst, Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, said the military's excess industrial capacity made bases like the Army's Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois and the Watervliet Arsenal in New York, and the Marine Corps' logistics center in Albany, Ga., ripe for realignment. Such bases, while not widely known, employ large numbers of civilians.

Mr. Rumsfeld will submit his list of recommended base closings, consolidations and realignments to the commission by May 16. A final roster of cuts and other changes, prepared by the commission, is due Sept. 8. Previous base-closing commissions have endorsed 85 percent of the Pentagon's recommendations. President Bush and Congress must then accept or reject the list by Nov. 7. [...]

Adding to the uncertainty of this year's round are the open-ended military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon's plans to bring 70,000 troops and 100,000 dependents in Europe back to bases in the United States, and a sweeping review of the military's strategy, forces and missions as required by Congress every four years. [...]

One of the most pernicious and long-running consumer frauds in recent history has been the NESARA scam, evidently an outgrowth of the Omega fraud, which promised exorbitant returns while defrauding thousands of unsuspecting US citizens.

Shaini Goodwin, who uses "Dove of Oneness" as a pen name, has claimed that a "secret" law called NESARA (National Economic Security and Reformation Act) will supposedly bring about changes in the US financial system including the forgiving of mortgages, credit card debts, as well as abolishing the IRS.

Goodwin's mythology describes Illuminati factional fighting in which allegedly one group called the "White Knights" is fighting against the dominant group. This is also reminiscent of another mythology promoted by Rumor Mill News, in which Faction 1 of the Illuminati is supposedly engaged in a global power death struggle with Faction 2.

Goodwin's NESARA scam is based on the gullibility and naivete of US citizens who had been suckered into previous cons like the investment scam called Omega, operated by Clyde Hood of Mattoon, Illinois in the mid 1990s which yielded more than $20 million from thousands of people.

Combining conspiracy fact, conspiracy theory and New Age lingo, Hood's fraud originated in 1994 and then swept around the world with the fury of an internet wildfire.

The NESARA angle was then exploited by "Dove of Oneness" into a scam that by Hollywood standards has legs -- and then some.

As Andreas Schroeder of the University of British Columbia says, "The best con artists turn passive victims into active supporters."

"You're told to spend a tremendous amount of effort to get in on the fight and defend yourself," says Schroeder. "Join up with a bunch of other like- minded people to defend the enterprise. It keeps you busy, it keeps you involved, and because you're chorusing, the din you create overwhelms anything that might be coming in through the other ear."

In other words, just ignore the evidence. You haven't been conned. The gravy train is just around the corner.

This denial of reality and optimism against all other evidence is the foundation for scams which are as American as mom and apple pie.

What can you expect? In an age when the Bush Cabal rules the country, the USA really is "One Nation Under Fraud."

According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources - Christian and Muslim - former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was reportedly assassinated in a sophisticated explosion-by-wire bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
 
There are also strong indications that the Hariri assassination was carried out by the same rogue Syrian intelligence agents used in the 2002 car bombing assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Elie Hobeika, who was prepared to testify against Sharon in a Brussels human rights court. That case involved the Israeli Prime Minister's role in the 1982 massacre by Israeli troops of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Chatilla camps in Beirut.

The Hariri assassination used wire-bombing technology because Hariri's security personnel used electronic countermeasures to fend off a remote control bomb using wireless means. It has meanwhile been revealed that the Bush administration has used Syrian intelligence agents to torture Al-Qaeda suspects through the program known as “extraordinary rendition”.
 
Hariri, a pan-Arabist and Lebanese nationalist, was known to adamantly oppose the construction of a major US air base in the north of Lebanon. The United States wants Syrian troops completely out of Lebanon before construction of the base is initiated. Hariri's meetings with Hezbollah shortly before his death also angered Washington and Jerusalem, according to the Lebanese intelligence sources.
 
Washington and Jerusalem media experts spurn Hariri's assassination as being the work of Syrian intelligence on orders from President Bashar Assad. However, a number of Middle East political observers in Washington claim that Hariri's assassination was not in the interests of Assad, but that the Bush and Sharon administrations had everything to gain from it, including the popular Lebanese uprising against the Syrian occupation.
 
Lebanese intelligence sources report that even without a formal agreement with Lebanon, the contract for the northern Lebanese air base has been let by the Pentagon to Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, California. Other construction support will be provided by Bechtel Corporation.
 
Jacobs Engineering and Jacobs Sverdrup are currently contracted for work in Saudi Arabia for Aramco, Iraq for the US occupation authority, Bosnia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
 
The Lebanese air base is reportedly to be used as a transit and logistics hub for US forces in Iraq and as a rest and relaxation location for US troops in the region. In addition, the Lebanese base will be used to protect US oil pipelines in the region (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Mosul/Kirkuk-Ceyhan) as well as to destabilize the Assad government in Syria. The size of the planned air base reportedly is on the scale of the massive American Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.
 
A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders like Hariri and Hobeika are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert operations, including political assassinations.
 
"Abrams is the guy they [the Israelis] go to for a wink and a nod for such ops," reported one key source.
 
** Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based journalist and columnist and the co-author of “America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II”.

The Shaheen II missile has a range of 2000km and it successfully hit the target, said Major General Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for the Pakistan army.
 
He did not say where the test was conducted.
 
Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, witnessed the test and has congratulated the scientists and engineers for developing the missile, the military said in a statement.
 
"This missile which incorporates an advanced two-stage solid motor technology, can carry all types of conventional and nuclear warheads," the statement said.
 
South Asian nuclear rivals Pakistan and India routinely test-fire their missiles.
 
In December 2004, Pakistan launched the Shaheen I missile, which can hit targets up to 700km away

Train bombings have killed two people in southwestern Pakistan as thousands of government workers and their families evacuate a remote town in the region, a senior official said.

The bombs, planted in toilets on trains travelling the main railway line in Baluchistan province, went off within about three hours of each other on Friday. Eight other people were wounded.
 
A low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists has gathered steam in the impoverished province this year, along with demands for more royalties from the country's main natural gas fields, located on their territory.
 
Railway police said the first bomb killed a soldier on a train from the provincial capital, Quetta, to the eastern city of Lahore at a station about 35km southeast of Quetta. At least five people were injured, two critically.
 
The second bomb went off on a train heading in the opposite direction about 100km southeast of Quetta, killing one person and wounding three. [...]

A powerful bomb exploded at a gathering of minority Shiite Muslims in a remote town in southwestern Pakistan today, killing at least 24 people and wounding 16 others, police said.

Thousands of worshippers had congregated at the shrine of a Shiite saint near the town of Naseerabad, about 210 miles south of Quetta, when the bomb went off outside at about 10:20pm. (5.20pm Irish Time), said Mubarak Ali, a local police official.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and police said they were investigating.

“It was a powerful bomb. There was blood and body parts everywhere,” Mehrab Khan, said another police official.

“Right now people are angry. They are wailing and crying. Some of them have blocked roads in the town and we are trying to control the situation.”

Khan said the dead and injured, some in critical condition, were taken to a nearby hospital. He said he expected the death toll to rise. [...]

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Qatar's Interior Ministry said a car bomb caused an explosion that tore through a theatre in a northern suburb and killed one person Saturday night.

Twelve other people were injured in the blast and 10 of those had already been released from the hospital, the ministry statement said.

It gave no other details.

The British Foreign Office confirmed the fatality was a British national. It did not identify the victim.

The Foreign Office said it was "urgently" trying to determine the nationalities of the injured, some of whom were seriously hurt.

Earlier, Gen. Ahmed Al-Hariki of Qatar's Interior Ministry told Al-Jazeera television the blast occurred at a restaurant inside the theatre and was not close to an embassy or consulate.

"I saw people lying on the ground," witness Ahmed Goudah said from the scene.

"I think they were in shock because of the explosion. They were mostly foreigners."

Goudah said dozens of cars were smashed with shattered windows. Some were engulfed in flames. Firefighters and emergency vehicles converged on the area, which was sealed off by police.

He said ambulances were seen carrying the injured and transferring them to hospital.

U.S. army Capt. Eric Clark, who is based in Qatar, said he spoke with a woman who was performing in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night when a blast shook the hall at about 9:15 p.m. local time.

"She heard a massive explosion and there was mass chaos and people just exited the building," Clark said by telephone.

Clark had no word on casualties or what caused the blast.

The theatre is a popular venue for non-Qataris from western and Arab countries and is located in Farek Kelab, a northern suburb of the capital.

A British school is located in the vicinity of the theatre. The U.S. Embassy is in the same general area but several kilometres from the theatre.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Patricia Kabra said the blast was "not that far away from the embassy" but she was not sure of the exact location.

The U.S. military base is about 15 kilometres from the scene. [...]

STRASBOURG, France, March 18 (AFP) - Vandals scrawled dozens of swastikas and racial slurs on the walls of a mosque and two schools in eastern France, police said Friday.

Early Friday, police in the town of Soultz, located south of Strasbourg, discovered five swastikas and racial slurs written in black marker on the bulletin board of the local mosque.

Local Muslim leader Abdelhaq Nabaoui denounced the incident, saying: "These criminal schemes come on top of numerous acts in recent months that have directly targeted Alsacians who are practicing Muslims."

"This has to stop," Nabaoui added, calling on local authorities to find the guilty parties and bring them to justice.

In the
nearby town of Guebwiller, intruders used black marker to daub four dozen swastikas, as well as racial epithets, on the walls of a middle school in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

BEIJING (AP) - A gas explosion in a coal mine in northern China killed 17 miners on Saturday and left 52 trapped, the government said.

The blast occurred shortly after noon in the Xishui Colliery in Shuozhou, a city in Shanxi province, a major coal-mining region, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The blast caused a wall in a neighbouring mine to collapse, burying 21 miners, Xinhua said, citing local safety officials. It didn't say how many of the dead were in each of the two mines. [...]

International auto companies cannot wait for a share the cake, said Peter Kroll, vice president of Capgemini.

General Motors, Volkswagon, Toyota and Nissan are busy establishing their manufacturing bases in the vast and low-cost Chinese market. Kroll said China has attracted 60 to 80 percent ofthese companies' total investment in the international market.

"Whether or not they can gain a success in China will be decisive to the future development of the auto giants," Kroll said.

Many transnational companies have chosen to close down the car factories in their own countries and transfer them to China, meaning China will also become a huge source of car export. Kroll said.

A Renton-area teenager was charged with first-degree murder yesterday for what prosecutors claimed was a "brutal killing" in which he is accused of strangling his mother, then dumping her body face down in a recycling bin.

King County prosecutors charged Dale Ray Frank, a 16-year-old former Tahoma High School student, as an adult.

He's being held with bail set at $1 million. [...]

A musical prodigy who finished high school at the age of 10 has committed suicide at 14.

Brandenn Bremmer, who was studying piano improvisation at Colorado State University, was found dead at his home in Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head, sheriff’s officials said.

Brandenn began playing the piano at three and took his first high school class at six.

He was home-schooled through high school, completing his junior and senior years in seven months. At 11 he starting taking independent study classes at Colorado State.

TOKYO - A powerful earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale rocked the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, killing at least one person and injuring more than 400 others.

The quake, which occurred Sunday at 10:53 am (0153 GMT), also collapsed houses and roads, caused landslides and disrupted land and air traffic.

The Meteorological Agency immediately issued tsunami warnings but lifted them one hour later after detecting no significant rise in the tide.

"The fault was caused by the crust's horizontal shift. If the fault was vertical, it would have triggered tsunamis," said Toshikazu Hirai, a seismic expert at the government agency. [...]

A spokesman for the Fukuoka prefectural police headquarters said 510 houses had been destroyed or partially damaged and roads were cracked at 62 spots. There were also nine landslides. [...]

The meteorological agency detected more than 74 aftershocks within seven hours of the quake, whose was located in waters some 20 kilometers (13 miles) Fukuoka. Its focus was only nine kilometers (six miles) below surface. [...]

The tremor was also felt in the south of the Korean peninsula. [...]

It was the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since a magnitude-6.8 quake rattled the Niigata region, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Tokyo on October 23, leaving 40 people dead.

The Niigata disaster was the deadliest in quake-prone Japan since January 17, 1995, when 6,433 people died after a pre-dawn tremor in the western port city of Kobe.

KABUL - Torrential rains have killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of houses in several parts of Afghanistan in recent days, officials said on Sunday.

The worst hit areas were Deh Rawud district in the rugged central Uruzgan province and the western provinces of Farah and Herat, they said.

"The deaths of 115 have been confirmed... while thousands of homes have been destroyed,,"" Uruzgan's governor Jan Mohammad Khan said, adding that many more people were missing.

U.S. military Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters rescued around 250 people in the Deh Rawud District, some 70 kilometers northeast of the U.S. at Kandahar, after the Helmand river burst its banks.

In Farah 68 people died as a result of floods, its governor Assadullah Falah said. Officials reported 40 more deaths in Faryab and Ghor provinces.

"We have reports of total destruction of 7,800 houses in Farah," Falah said, adding that large numbers of livestock had been killed.

Some 2,500 houses had collapsed in Herat province. Most houses in Afghanistan are built from mud and are highly vulnerable to flooding.

Local officials also reported an outbreak of dysentry diarrhea in Herat's mountainous and inaccessible Pashtun Zarghoon area.

Afghanistan had its worst winter for over a decade after nearly six years of harsh drought.

Several hundred people lost their lives during the winter and the current rains coupled with melting snow have caused the latest calamity.

At least 41 people were killed when a flash flood washed a tractor-trailer carrying pilgrims into a fast-flowing river in Pakistan, police said today.

The Muslim pilgrims were on their way back from a shrine when the vehicle was hit by a torrent of water late on Friday.

It was crossing a riverbed near a dirt road in Dera Ghazi Khan, 125 miles northwest of Multan in Punjab province, said a military police spokesman.

He said rescuers recovered 41 bodies, while 28 other passengers survived by swimming ashore.

Another military police official and state Pakistan Television reported that 50 people had died. The reason for the discrepancy wasn’t clear.

Many regions of Pakistan have been hit by heavy rains and snow in recent months in what has been the country’s bitterest winter in years.

Authorities fear more flooding as spring comes and snow melts in the high mountains.

PENDLETON - Farmers and other water users are facing the worst drought in 28 years, according to Chet Sater of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Umatilla Field Office in Hermiston.

It's been the third-driest winter in 75 years, according to scientists at the Columbia Basic Agricultural Research Center on Tubbs Ranch Road, northeast of Pendleton. [...]

A recent study has suggested that the trends scientists and the general public are seeing with the nature and climatic conditions are only due to get worse in the coming times. Global warming and the rise in the levels of the ocean are real and would continue to happen irrespective of the steps we take now to prevent it. In simple words, it just might be too late to prevent any permanent damage from happening to our planet Earth.

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has released the report developed by their team of climate modelers, which says that the climate would continue to get warmer in the coming times irrespective of any measures taken by the governments around the world as early as 2000. The condition is overall so bad that even if no more greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere from now on, the global averaged surface air temperatures would rise by one degree Fahrenheit and global sea levels would rise another 4 inches from thermal expansion by 2100.

The research team has also warned that low-level areas surrounding the oceans are at extreme danger of getting swallowed by rising sea levels as the time passes by. As per their calculations, the worst-case scenario can be as bad as an average temperature rise of 6.3°F and sea level rise from thermal expansion of 12 inches by 2100. One of the lead authors Gerald Meehl said in a statement: “Even if we stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, the climate will continue to warm, and there will be proportionately even more sea level rise. The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future.”

Looks like it is definitely the time we think about the damage we are causing to the mother earth…

"Many people don't realize we are committed right now to a significant amount of global warming and sea level rise because of the greenhouse gases we have already put into the atmosphere," says study author Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. "The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future." Meehl and his NCAR colleagues ran two coupled climate models that link major components of our planet's climate and incorporate their interactions. The researchers then analyzed scenarios in which greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at low, moderate and high rates. The highest rates of accumulation led to model results that included a 3.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperatures and a 30 centimeter rise in global sea level.

But even without additional greenhouse gas contributions, they found, global temperature would continue to rise because of a characteristic known as thermal inertia. Water in the oceans heats and cools more slowly than air does because of its greater density, leading to a delayed response. In addition, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have long atmospheric lifetimes and can affect temperatures for years after first being introduced into the atmosphere. The authors conclude that "at any given point in time, even if concentrations are stabilized, there is a commitment to future climate changes that will be greater than those we have already observed."

MILWAUKEE - A snowstorm just before the start of spring had dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on parts of Wisconsin by Saturday, providing enough powder to reopen a ski hill that had shut for the season.

The bulk of the snow fell in the western part of the state, but accumulations varied significantly. The town of Alma Center received 23 inches of snow, while Goodrich about 65 miles to the north only got 2 inches.

Parts of Minnesota received up to 2 feet of snow on Friday, shutting down roads and causing more than 260 flights to be canceled out of the Twin Cities.

The snow caused the Mount LaCrosse Ski Area in Wisconsin to reopen for the weekend after it reported a record snowfall of 13.9 inches Friday. The resort had closed for the season on March 13. [...]

More than one million computers on the net have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses.

The huge number was revealed by security researchers who have spent months tracking more than 100 networks of remotely-controlled machines.

The largest network of so-called zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 hijacked home computers.

Data was gathered using machines that looked innocent but which logged everything hackers did to them.

Quick attack

The detailed look at zombie or 'bot nets of hijacked computers was done by the Honeynet Project - a group of security researchers that gather information using networks of computers that act as "honey pots" to attract hackers and gather information about how they work. [...]

Getting the machines hijacked was worryingly easy. The longest time a Honeynet machine survived without being found by an automatic attack tool was only a few minutes. The shortest compromise time was only a few seconds. [...]

Many well-known vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system were exploited by 'bot net controllers to find and take over target machines.

Especially coveted were home PCs sitting on broadband connections that are never turned off. [...]

Many are used as relays for spam, to route unwanted adverts to PC users or as launch platforms for viruses. [...]

During the monitoring period, the team saw 'bot nets used to launch 226 distributed denial-of-service attacks on 99 separate targets. These attacks bombard websites with data in an attempt to overwhelm the target. [...]

One DDoS attack was used by one firm to knock its competitors offline. [...]

Richard Dolan has never seen a UFO. But he believes they are real. Don't roll your eyes.

Dolan is a historian and researcher by trade. He has never had any interest in science fiction. If extraterrestrials have visited Earth, Dolan doesn't claim to know where they've come from or what they want.

He does believe, though, that the subject is worthy of inquiry.

Dolan, a Brooklyn native, earned a history degree from Alfred University, studied at Oxford University, and then studied American Cold War diplomacy at the University of Rochester in the 1990s. He earned a master's degree in history.

He left academia because he didn't want to spend his life "begging for adjunct instructorships." He now runs his own professional résumé writing service.

His passion, however, is researching and writing about UFOs. He has been a contributor to The History Channel, has written dozens of articles and, in 2000, published Volume One of UFOs and the National Security State: An Unclassified History. The book documents global UFO encounters from 1941 to 1973. Just in those years, he says, the book documents about 250 UFO encounters involving the military. He is working on a second volume that would present evidence through the 1990s.

"I have gone from the standard academic track to the fringe," he says, "and the fringe is the best place to be."

He has collected loads of official documents released to many researchers over the years through Freedom of Information Act requests.

At first, he says, American intelligence worried that the Soviet Union might have perfected the technology of extremely high- speed craft that can stop in midair and turn on a dime. That turned out not to have been the case, but the reports of sightings continued for decades.

As every television viewer knows, the government has long dismissed sightings as mistakes. Either witnesses have mistaken weather balloons or atmospheric conditions for unusual aircraft or they are hallucinating.

But when you have trained pilots telling similar stories, you have to listen, he says. "I would hesitate to use the words 'extraterrestrial spacecraft' in describing these things. This could well be so — but I really try to be less definitive. Call me picky, but I would simply describe them as military encounters with unconventional craft that vastly exceed our own capabilities."

You have to be skeptical of reports, but not closed-minded. So what's credible?

"I look at a few things. First, a detailed (Freedom of Information Act) report is something I consider credible," Dolan says. "A photograph that has gone through extensive analysis" is also credible.

In fact, he says, people need to be far more open to possibilities we cannot imagine. Might creatures capable of traveling vast distances have more sophisticated ways than low-flying metallic hovercraft to survey the Earth? A reasonable assumption, he says, but who knows?

In 1994, Dolan kind of stumbled into the field of UFO research, knowing quite well that most of the world finds the subject amusing, if not nuts. It doesn't bother him.

He has pursued his material methodically because, as he says in the introduction to his book, "this topic deserves a respectable history."

Dolan will speak on "UFOs, National Security and You" from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, March 28, at Brighton High School. Advance registration is required. Call (585) 242-5191.