- Signs of the Times Archive for Tue, 24 Apr 2007 -



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U.S. News
Looking at Shooters and Killers and Finding Men

Ann Woolner
Bloomberg
2007-04-24 15:09:00

Bloomberg news columnist Ann Woolner examines why the preponderance of violent crimes in the US are committed by men.

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Texas Elementary School Evacuated After Student Brings Grenade

Laurie Fox
The Dallas Morning News
2007-04-24 12:31:00

Elementary school evacuated when a student brings a grenade to school.

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San Francisco City College Student Taken into Custody After Threatening Class

Marisa Lagos
San Francisco Chronicle
2007-04-24 14:06:00

A US college student was taken into custody after allegedly yelling he was going to kill everyone in his physics class.

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Officials Vow Security Probe at Palo Verde

Matthew Benson
The Arizona Republic
2007-04-22 00:00:00

An ex-employee of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, in Arizona, allegedly downloaded training software to his laptop while he was in Iran.

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CU student arrested and charged for expressing opinion about motives of VT killer

Vanessa Miller
Daily Camera
2007-04-24 13:20:00

A University of Colorado student was formally charged Wednesday - and warned by a judge not to "press the limits of certain envelopes" - one day after being arrested on suspicion of threatening his classmates by saying he's angry enough to kill.

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US News & World Report Poll: Worst Presidents in American History


US News & World Report
2007-04-24 13:09:00

Current Poll results for worst president in American history from US News & World Report.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
Business as usual! UK tries to sabotage BAE bribes inquiry

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Guardian
2007-04-24 09:55:00



The UK is covertly trying to oust the head of the world's main anti-bribery watchdog to prevent criticism of ministers and Britain's biggest arms company, BAE, the Guardian has learned.

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Man cuts off his own penis in busy restaurant


UK Guardian
2007-04-24 08:19:00

A man burst into a busy central London restaurant and chopped off his own penis with a knife in front of horrified diners, police and reports said today.

The man - identified by the Sun as a 35-year-old Polish national - ran into Zizzi, in the Strand, at 9pm on Sunday.

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Around the World
Somali govt, insurgents battle for seventh day: The new Great Game in the Horn of Africa

Sahal Abdulle
Reuters
2007-04-24 10:32:00

MOGADISHU - Shelling and artillery fire shook northern Mogadishu on Tuesday, the seventh day of fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist gunmen that has killed hundreds of people.


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74 dead in attack on Ethiopian oil field: The new Great Game in the Horn of Africa

Anita Powell
Associated Press
2007-04-24 10:21:00

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Gunmen raided a Chinese-run oil field near the Somali border on Tuesday, killing 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers, an official of the Chinese company said. An Ethiopian rebel group claimed responsibility.


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Sri Lankan rebels launch air strike on military locations


AFP
2007-04-24 08:38:00

Tamil Tiger rebels flying light aircraft have bombed Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula, killing at least six soldiers and wounding 13, officials and the rebels said Tuesday.


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Russia, India start anti-terror naval exercise in Pacific


RIA Novsoti
2007-04-24 06:15:00

Russia and India have launched a three-day joint naval counterterrorism exercise in the Sea of Japan, the press service of Russia's Pacific Fleet said Tuesday.


INDRA-2007 is a biennial Russian-Indian exercise aimed at practicing cooperative engagement in the fight against terrorism. It is the third such exercise since 2003.


Russia is represented by two large anti-submarine ships, a missile boat, a diesel submarine, a group of mine-sweepers, a tanker, two tug boats, two Ka-27 Helix helicopters, and an Il-38 May maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.


The Indian naval group comprises three missile destroyers, a missile corvette and a tanker.


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Nigerian Election Fraud: How it was done before Diebold and Karl Rove

Donaman Atezan
BBC
2007-04-23 19:18:00

A member of the BBC News website's Nigerian voter panel, student Donaman Atezan, 25, in Gboko in central Nigeria tells how thugs forced him to vote for the ruling People's Democratic Party's presidential candidate.



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Big Brother
Nightmare! Adverstising can be beamed directly into ears

Jenn Abelson
The Boston Globe
2007-04-24 15:24:00

Advertisers have a new way to get into your head.

Marketers around the world are using innovative audio technology that sends sound in a narrow beam, just like light, making it possible to direct messages right into consumers' ears while they shop or sit in waiting rooms.



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Axis of Evil
Propaganda Alert! Al-Qaeda 'planning big British attack'

Dipesh Gadher
The Sunday Times
2007-04-22 16:05:00

AL-QAEDA leaders in Iraq are planning the first "large-scale" terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.

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Is Mainstream Corporate Media subverting the AIPAC Spy Trial?

Grant F. Smith
IRmep
2007-04-21 13:31:00

The Associated Press reported a major victory for defendants in the AIPAC espionage trial on April 17th, 2007. "Prosecutors suffered a setback yesterday in their case against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of violating the 1917 Espionage Act when a federal judge rejected the government's proposal for conducting much of the trial in secret." The presiding judge, T. S. Ellis III underscored the gravity of the situation. "If the prosecution decline[s] to submit any substitutions [for classified evidence] that you would ever make public, then maybe ... I have to decide whether to dismiss the indictment, if that's the case."

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Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Naomi Wolf
The Guardian
2007-04-24 13:14:00

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all


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Ahmadinejad offers direct talks with US and will probably be rejected again


JPost
2007-04-24 12:42:00

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday proposed holding talks with US President George W. Bush - a surprise suggestion from the hard-line leader whose country is at odds with Washington over its disputed nuclear program and involvement in Iraq, Iran's state-run Arabic satellite TV channel reported.

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Muslims Believe U.S. Goal to Weaken Islam: Poll

Michelle Nichols
Reuters
2007-04-24 10:11:00

An in-depth poll of four major Muslim countries has found that in all of them large majorities believe that undermining Islam is a key goal of US foreign policy.

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Bush won't accept Iraq war timetable

ANNE FLAHERTY
Associated Press
2007-04-24 11:55:00

WASHINGTON - President Bush's stance on a Democratic agreement to set a timetable on the Iraq war has not changed: he will not accept it.

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Middle East Madness
Israel's population reaches 7,150,000

SHELLY PAZ and HAVIV RETTIG
JPost
2007-04-23 12:03:00

Israel's population increased by 121,000, or 1.8 percent, since last year's Independence Day, reaching a total of 7,150,000.

The Central Bureau of Statistics released the data ahead of Independence Day, which starts Monday evening.

The population growth was mainly a product of a high birthrate. Some 148,000 babies were born in 2006, and 18,400 new immigrants arrived.

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Palestinian minister calls for action on "apartheid wall"


BBC Monitoring Middle East
2007-04-24 10:26:00

Text of report by Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadidah website on 21 April

[Exclusive report from Ramallah: "Information Minister Calls for Referring International Court of Justice Ruling to UN, Stresses that Our People Will Continue Its Struggle until It Achieves Freedom and State"]


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Hamas: Truce with Israel at end

Ibrahim Barzak
Associated Press
2007-04-24 10:14:00

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells toward Israel on its independence day Tuesday, and said they considered it the end of a five-month truce with Israel.


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Iraqi students saddened by Virginia Tech

Bushra Juhi
Associated Press
2007-04-23 22:17:00

BAGHDAD - Students in Baghdad, where universities have been hard hit by violence, said Monday they were saddened by last week's massacre at Virginia Tech and hung up a banner to express their solidarity with "our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge."


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Car Bomb Kills 9 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq


Associated Press
2007-04-23 21:51:00

BAGHDAD - Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 were wounded Monday in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base northeast of Baghdad, the military said.


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The Loan Gunmen
US Consumer Confidence Falls; Home Sales Sag

John Parry
Reuters
2007-04-24 12:21:00

Sales of existing homes in the U.S. dropped 8.4 percent in March, their biggest tumble in more than 18 years, the National Association of Realtors said.

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Gasoline at $4 manipulated to a Pump Near You, catapulting the propaganda

Joe Carroll
Bloomberg
2007-04-23 18:52:00

Whether it's $50 to fill up your Prius or $130 for the Ford Expedition, $4-a-gallon gasoline is coming to a pump near you.

Fuel prices are rising at a pace not seen since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out a third of the U.S. oil refining industry in 2005. Gasoline consumption is climbing twice as fast as last year and will accelerate when summer travel begins late next month.

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GM's Lutz says mortgage 'meltdown' hits auto sales

Michael Lindenberger
Reuters
2007-04-23 19:04:00

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - The crisis in the U.S. mortgage market has hurt U.S. auto sales this month, General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said on Monday.


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The Living Planet
Life is Hanging by a Thread

Jane Goodall
Miami Herald
2007-04-23 14:53:00

Recently the International Panel on Climate Change issued a report predicting an alarming array of impacts of climate change around the globe, including drought, floods, lower crop yields, threatened food security, wildfire and ocean acidification. It seems that no living thing in this web of life we are a part of will be unaffected by climate change.
Comment: For more information on climate change, read this SOTT Focus piece


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Devastating Australian Water Crisis Finally Hits Home; Food prices set to soar, trees & crops to perish

Mary Kenny
The Advertiser (Australia)
2007-04-20 12:06:00

AUSTRALIA is praying for rain as it faces the stark truth that the drought crisis is just six weeks from becoming an unprecedented disaster.


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Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons

Alexei Barrionuevo
New York Times
2007-04-24 09:10:00

What is happening to the bees?

More than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost - tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.
©New York Times





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605 seals die in Kazakh Caspian, weather or oil possible cause


RIA Novosti
2007-04-24 06:13:00

The death toll of seals washed ashore on the oil-rich Caspian in Kazakhstan since March 31 has risen to 605, the Central Asian state's emergencies ministry said Tuesday.


"The overall number of dead seals as of Monday night reached 605, including 489 baby seals," the ministry said. "The coast is continuing to be monitored."


The dead seals have been found along the seashore between two major oil fields in western Kazakhstan. But officials in Kazakhstan cite weather conditions as a possible reason.


"Until February 20, most of the northeastern Caspian did not freeze..., and on February 21-22 the northern Caspian had a covering of thin ice, ...which melted by March 20, ... and it could have had a negative effect on the baby seals," the Ministry of Environmental Protection said earlier.


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Health & Wellness
Is the Wi-Fi revolution a health time bomb?

Paul Bignall, Will Dowling and Jude Townend
Belfast Telegraph
2007-04-24 11:22:00

So far only a few, faint warnings have been raised, mainly by people who are so sensitised to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobiles, their masts and Wi-Fi that they become ill in its presence. The World Health Organisation
estimates that up to three out of every hundred people are " electrosensitive" to some extent. But scientists and doctors - and some European governments - are adding their voices to the alarm as it becomes clear that the almost universal use of mobile phones may be storing up medical catastrophe for the future.

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Sounds too good to be true! Daily pill to beat genetic diseases

Mark Henderson
The Times
2007-04-23 22:21:00

A pill that can correct a wide range of faulty genes which cause crippling illnesses should be available within three years, promising a revolution in the treatment of thousands of conditions.


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Flashback: Parents of autistic children 'feel guilty' over MMR

DAMIEN HENDERSON
The Herald
2007-03-30 08:57:00

Parents of autistic children have reported feelings of anxiety and guilt over whether they should give their children the MMR vaccine, a new study has found.

They have told researchers they felt they had "let their children down" by deciding to give their children the triple vaccine to ward against measles, mumps and rubella, despite assurances from scientists and doctors that it is safe.

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Flashback: Early fears about MMR in secret papers

Mark Watts
The Telegraph
2007-04-02 11:48:00

The Urabe MMR vaccine has been linked to cases of encephalitis

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Population Control! Millions in Iraq to get MMR jab


BBC
2007-04-23 18:38:00

A major immunisation campaign is to take place in Iraq in a bid to prevent an outbreak of measles.


The World Health Organization and Unicef are overseeing the work of 8,000 volunteers who aim to give up to 3.9 million children the MMR vaccine.


The children, aged one to five, have missed out on their routine jabs because of the instability in Iraq.


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Science & Technology
NASA Mission to Explore Noctilucent Clouds

Kenneth Chang
NY Times
2007-04-24 14:35:00

Two hundred seventy thousand feet above the ground, higher than 99.9 percent of the earth's air, clouds still float around - thin, iridescent wisps of electric blue.

NASA is launching a small satellite to take a closer look at these clouds at the edge of outer space and to try to understand why, in recent years, they are appearing more often over more parts of the world. They are also becoming brighter.

©Ed Lu/NASA
Noctilucent clouds are more easily seen from space as this photograph from the International Space Station shows. Since 1980, satellite observations show the number of noctilucent clouds increasing about 28 percent per decade. The ice crystals in the clouds also appear to be getting bigger, with the brightness of the clouds rising about 7 percent per decade.


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Junk DNA Now Looks Like Powerful Regulator

Staff Writers
Terra Daily
2007-04-24 14:16:00

Large swaths of garbled human DNA once dismissed as junk appear to contain some valuable sections, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The scientists propose that this redeemed DNA plays a role in controlling when genes turn on and off.

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H2CAR could fuel entire U.S. transportation sector sustainably for thousands of years

Lisa Zyga
Physorg.com
2007-04-24 12:31:00

In a recent study, scientists have demonstrated that a hybrid system of hydrogen and carbon can produce a sufficient amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuels to power the entire U.S. transportation sector. Using biomass to produce the carbon, and solar energy to produce hydrogen, the process requires only a fraction of the land area needed by other proposed methods.

©Physorg.com
A possible configuration of the proposed H2CAR process. Image credit: Rakesh Agrawal, et al.



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North Sea yields secrets of early man's happy hunting ground

Ian Sample
Guardian
2007-04-24 08:54:00

A lost landscape where early humans roamed more than 12,000 years ago has been uncovered beneath the North Sea. A map of the underwater world reveals criss-crossing rivers, giant lakes and gentle hills around which hunter-gatherers made their homes and found their meals toward the end of the last ice age.


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NASA releases 3D images of sun

Alex Dominguez
Associated Press
2007-04-24 06:32:00

NASA released the first three-dimensional images of the sun Monday, saying the photos taken from twin spacecraft may lead to better predictions of solar eruptions that can affect communications and power lines on Earth.


"The first reaction was 'Great, the instruments work,' but beyond that the first reaction was 'Wow!'" scientist Simon Plunkett said as he explained the images to a room full of journalists and scientists wearing 3D glasses.


The images from the STEREO spacecraft (for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) are available on the Internet and at museums and science centers nationwide.


The twin spacecraft, launched in October, are orbiting the Sun, one slightly ahead of the Earth and one behind. The separation, just like the distance between our two eyes, provides the depth perception that allows the 3D images to be obtained.


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'Kryptonite' discovered in mine


BBC
2007-04-24 06:27:00

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.


A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.


According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman's powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals.


The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.


"I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," he told BBC News.


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Our Haunted Planet

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Captain America Arrested With Burrito In Pants


wftv.com
2007-04-24 10:42:00

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- A Brevard County doctor dressed up in a Captain America outfit was arrested with a burrito in his tights. What he allegedly did at the police station got him into more trouble.

Doctor Raymond Adamcik, 54, would probably rather forget about the weekend when he was arrested on charges of battery, disorderly conduct, drug possession and trying to destroy evidence. It's not what you would expect from a doctor or Captain America.

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Chinese pirates beat Spider-Man to the punch


Reuters
2007-04-24 02:04:00

BEIJING - China's infamous movie pirates have done it again -- "Spider-Man 3" is already being sold on Beijing's streets almost two weeks ahead of its U.S. premier.

Costing just over $1 apiece, the pirated DVDs appear to be of the actual movie, complete with a picture of the hero in a new, black spider suit which he wears for some of the film.


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She stole my lap dance money!


AP
2007-04-22 22:12:00

CLYMAN, Wis. Oops! A man uses his cell phone to call 911 after paying the wrong woman for a lap dance.

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