- Signs of the Times Archive for Wed, 06 Jun 2007 -




Sections on today's Signs Page:


SOTT Focus

No new articles.


Best of the Web
Exposing Israel's Blantant Spying and Involvement in 9-11


SOTT
2007-06-06 15:29:00

There exists much evidence, conveniently overlooked by certain 9-11 investigators to strongly suggest that agents of Israel were deeply involved in the events surrounding the 9-11 attacks. For example, there is the fact of the Israeli spy ring, as exposed, surprisingly, by Fox News' Carl Cameron. In the four part series aired on Fox News in December 2001 Cameron reports many interesting facts.

See for yourselves right now in these four videos - long since removed from the Fox News site but preserved at various sites around the Internet:







Comment on this SOTT Focus


Fox News' Bigotry Exposed Again


Alternet.org
2007-06-05 15:25:00

No one on the planet would have expected Fox News' coverage of Democratic congressman William Jefferson's indictment on corruption charges to be anything less than gleeful but it also turned out to be more than a little insidious.

The video [below], produced by The Talking Points Memo, shows how while the on air personalities drone on about Jefferson's indictment, footage of House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is played.

Now, probably Fox News would plead that was an honest techinical mistake on their part if they were ever challenged about it. But I think it is fair to assume the network wanted to not-so-subtly make Conyers and Jefferson seem linked and maybe for less than discerning viewers--appear to be the same person. For all the attention Fox News receives for being partisan politically, I don't think remotely enough attention has been paid to their consistent and shameless racist content.





Comment on this SOTT Focus


JFK terror plot suspect worked for the CIA

Joseph Cannon
Cannonfire
2007-06-06 06:49:00

The following may be the most important story I have ever written.

It's an incomplete story -- indeed, we have, at present, only about 50 pieces of a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle. Perhaps some of you can help find missing parts of the picture.

In a previous post, I argued that the "terrorist ring" led by Russell DeFreitas -- the man who had targeted JFK airport, where he once worked -- was actually a drug smuggling ring. Now we have a Newsday piece on the bomb plot which functions as a sort of palimpsest: The surface text shows hints of a more important tale which lies beneath.

Comment on this SOTT Focus



U.S. News
Israel to US: Limit Saudi missile deal

Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon
Jerusalem Post
2007-06-06 11:43:00

A high-level Israeli delegation will meet with officials in Washington this week and demand that restrictions be clamped on the proposed US sale of state-of-the-art weaponry to Saudi Arabia, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The talks are expected to center on the US decision to sell Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-guided "smart bombs" to Saudi Arabia. The sale has caused consternation in Jerusalem over concern it could tip the balance of power in the region.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


'Vanished': The Ron Paul blog comments that CNN yanked


What Really Happened
2007-06-06 10:59:00

After Tuesday's New Hampshire GOP debate, CNN put up a comments page about the debate at http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/03/who-won-the-debate/#comments.

The comments were overwhelmingly for Ron Paul.

So, CNN simply removed the comments and replaced them with a page of comments about the previous night's Democratic debate.

It was clear Ron Paul had won and the comments page at CNN reflected that. So, in typical "We will decide for you who should be President", CNN yanked the page and re-directed the link over to the comments from Monday's Democratic debates. CNN did this late in the evening in the apparent hope that nobody would notice or care. WRONG! CNN has been busted yet again trying to shape the political process to its own agenda.

Here is a copy of the comments as they were before CNN removed before removed them.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Water use: Biofuel plants' thirst creates water worries

Perry Beeman
DesMoinesRegister.com
2007-06-03 15:30:00

State regulators fear some parts of Iowa won't have enough water to handle the booming biofuels industry.

Plant operators say they have reduced the amount of water needed to produce ethanol, but the facilities still need abundant local water supplies. A single plant producing 100 million gallons of ethanol a year - a capacity quickly becoming the norm - uses as much water as a town of approximately 10,000 people, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Don't look at Police dogs or Bush directly in the eye! Absurd Animal cruelty case dismissed

Peter Hirschfeld
Times Argus
2007-06-06 13:45:00

A woman facing jail time for "staring" at a police dog had charges against her dropped Monday after an Orange County prosecutor viewed videotape of the alleged crime.

Jayna Hutchinson, now of Lebanon, N.H., was scheduled for a jury trial this week on a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals.

A Vermont State Police sergeant said Hutchinson was intoxicated and stared at his police dog in a "taunting/harassing manner" last July while officers were in the process of investigating a reported melee outside a West Fairlee establishment.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Poll: Abortion Morally Wrong, Assisted Suicide, Embryonic Research Okay

Steven Ertelt
LifeNews
2007-06-06 10:35:00

A new poll conducted by the Gallup organization finds that Americans are split on a number of contentious pro-life issues. The survey found that Americans consider abortion morally wrong but are more comfortable with embryonic stem cell research or assisted suicide.


Of the pro-life issues in the survey, Americans were most likely to find abortion morally wrong, as 51 percent agreed with that view while just 40 percent said it was morally fine.


The percentage opposing abortion has increased seven percent since last year's poll and those supporting abortion have dropped three percent. Since 2002, the decline on the pro-abortion side has been two percent while the increase on the pro-life side has been six percent.


Liberals (67 percent) are more likely than moderates (39%) or conservatives (24%) to find abortion morally acceptable.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Pentagon plans three missile interceptor tests this summer


RIA Novosti
2007-06-06 10:33:00

The United States is planning to conduct three test launches of ballistic missile interceptors by the end of September as part of its missile defense program, a spokesman for Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said.


MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said in an interview with RIA Novosti Tuesday that the agency planned to test a sea-based missile interceptor in late-June or mid-July, a THAAD (short- to mid-range) missile interceptor in July, and a ground-based long-range interceptor in late August-September.


A recent test of a long-range interceptor was aborted May 25 when a target rocket launched from Alaska fell into the Pacific Ocean before an interceptor missile could be launched from California.


"The target did not reach sufficient altitude to be deemed a threat, and so the Ballistic Missile Defense System did not engage it, as designed," Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said in a statement following the test failure.


Comment on this SOTT Focus



UK & Euro-Asian News
China has cornered the global market for vitamins

Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers
2007-05-31 16:16:00

If you pop a vitamin C tablet in your mouth, it's a good bet it came from China. Indeed, many of the world's vitamins are now made in China.

In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S. market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the world market in the production of antibiotics, analgesics, enzymes and primary amino acids. According to an industry group, China makes 70 percent of the world's penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol), as well as the bulk of vitamins A, B12, C and E.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


New law every 3 hours from Blair

Gerri Peev
The Scotsman
2007-06-04 15:53:00

One law every three hours has been created during Tony Blair's decade in power - most of it without the full scrutiny of parliament, research published today will reveal.

Over the past ten years, close to 30,000 new laws have been created - an average of 2,685 a year or more than seven a day.

But the Labour government has also increasingly used statutory instruments, rather than acts of parliament, to impose the new flood of legislation.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Putin donates month's salary to Jewish museum


Reuters
2007-06-06 12:39:00

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on Tuesday to contribute one month's salary to the construction of a Jewish museum of tolerance.

Russia's chief rabbi, Berl Lazar, told Putin it was time to implement long-delayed plans by the Jewish community to set up the museum.

"That's a good idea and, as the first step, I will contribute one monthly salary to the museum's construction fund," Putin told the rabbi during a meeting in the Kremlin leader's Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.



Comment on this SOTT Focus


FSB says documents confirm Stalin's son was held by Nazis


RIA Novosti
2007-06-06 10:29:00

Russia's security service said Wednesday there is sufficient evidence to prove that Yakov Dzhugashvili, the son of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, was held captive by the Germans in the Second World War.


The head of the Federal Security Service's registration and archives department, Vasily Khristophorov, said: "According to our archive documents, Yakov Dzhugashvili was actually in captivity, which is confirmed by numerous testimonies."


Comment on this SOTT Focus


"Deranged" man tries to jump on popemobile

Philip Pullella
Reuters
2007-06-06 10:20:00

A 27-year-old German man described by the Vatican as "clearly deranged" leaped over a barricade on Wednesday and tried to jump on to Pope Benedict's open-topped jeep.


The man took the German Pope's bodyguards by surprise in St Peter's Square, coming within a metre of the pontiff in an episode that brought back memories of the assassination attempt against his predecessor Pope John Paul in 1981.


Television pictures showed the man, wearing a baseball cap, jump out of the crowd and over a wooden barricade as the Pope passed by to start his weekly audience for some 40,000 people.


Hurtling from the Pope's right, he tried to jump on the back of the moving "popemobile" but managed only to touch it before being wrestled to the ground by Vatican security guards.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Baby girl held hostage at KFC outlet in China


Reuters
2007-06-06 10:16:00

A three-year-old girl is being held hostage by a middle-aged man at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Shanghai, official Chinese media reported on Wednesday.


Police have been negotiating to free the toddler since the unidentified man in his 40s took her hostage at about 3:10 p.m. (0710 GMT), the official Shanghai news portal www.eastday.com reorted.


Shanghai television footage showed a large crowd in front of the outlet, which was cordoned off by police.


A Reuters witness estimated that at least 300 to 400 people, including armed policemen in uniform, had gathered around the restaurant, blocking nearby traffic.


Comment on this SOTT Focus



Around the World
Afghan woman radio head shot dead


BBC
2007-06-06 14:04:00

A female owner of a radio station in Afghanistan has been shot dead.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Castro Looks Healthier in TV Interview

Will Weissert
AP
2007-06-05 14:05:00

A healthier looking Fidel Castro appeared on Cuban television Tuesday, speaking slowly and focusing on past memories rather than his recovery and future in his first lengthy appearance since he fell ill and gave up power last summer.

The 80-year-old Castro's now grayer beard and hair were well-trimmed and he looked rested and alert - no longer the picture of a man on the verge of death. But he did not speak of international issues and did not mention any plans to return to governing Cuba.

"I tell my compatriots, I'm now doing what I should be doing," Castro said, during an interview with Randy Alonso, host of the government's nightly "Round Table" program. "There are no secrets."

But his condition and exact ailment have remained state secrets since July 31, when Castro announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was stepping aside in favor of a provisional government headed by his 76-year-old brother Raul, the defense minister.

©AP
Taken from the Cuban television program "Mesa Redonda" or "Round Table" which aired Tuesday June 5, 2007


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Canada called easy target for Chinese Spies

Colin Freeze
Globe and Mail
2007-06-06 14:00:00

A Chinese defector who once estimated that 1,000 Chinese agents are operating in Australia says that Canada likely has a comparable amount within its borders.

Chen Yonglin is an outspoken former diplomat who successfully sought political asylum in Australia. In an interview in Toronto yesterday, he said that China is likely using the kinds of tactics to quash expatriate dissent in Canada that he was asked to use while posted in Australia. He is to hold a news conference today in Ottawa.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Flashback: Scandal colors Bush visit to U.S. ally Colombia

Patrick Markey
Reuters
2007-03-05 13:31:00

A scandal tying allies of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to paramilitary gangs has U.S. Democrats questioning aid and trade deals days before President George W. Bush meets with his closest Latin American ally.

Washington has pumped $4 billion into "Plan Colombia" since 2000 to help fight the country's cocaine-fueled insurgency, but Democrats are monitoring the "para-political" scandal as they review a White House request for $3.9 billion in new aid.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Flashback: Colombia's Uribe: US ally in "war on terror" named as drug trafficker

Bill Van Auken
WSWS
2004-08-05 13:26:00

The release of a 13-year-old previously classified military intelligence document linking Colombia's right-wing president Alvaro Uribe to drug traffickers has intensified the crisis of Washington's most slavish supporter in Latin America.

A virtual "who's who" of the Colombian cocaine trade, the report was issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 1991. It was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archives, a non-governmental research group based at George Washington University.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Colombia, Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution

Oliver Balch and Rory Carroll
The Guardian
2007-06-05 13:03:00

Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.
Surging demand for "green" fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to activists and farmers. Thousands of families are believed to have fled a campaign of killing and intimidation, swelling Colombia's population of 3 million displaced people and adding to one of the world's worst refugee crises after Darfur and Congo.

Comment on this SOTT Focus



Big Brother

No new articles.


Axis of Evil
The 1967 War and the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza


Cactus48
2007-06-06 16:53:00

Did the Egyptians actually start the 1967 war, as Israel originally claimed?

"The former Commander of the Air Force, General Ezer Weitzman, regarded as a hawk, stated that there was 'no threat of destruction' but that the attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria was nevertheless justified so that Israel could 'exist according the scale, spirit, and quality she now embodies.'...Menahem Begin had the following remarks to make: 'In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.' "Noam Chomsky, "The Fateful Triangle."

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Gore calls Bush greenhouse summit plan 'smoke and mirrors'


AP
2007-06-01 16:10:00

U.S. President George W. Bush's call for a summit to look at ways to reduce greenhouse gases is "purely and simply smoke and mirrors," former vice president Al Gore said Friday.

At a signing for his new book "The Assault on Reason," Gore said it was a delay tactic for Bush to suggest Thursday that the U.S. and other nations need to develop a long-term strategy for cutting greenhouse gases.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Dick Cheney Rules


The New York Times
2007-06-03 16:05:00

Americans are accustomed to Vice President Dick Cheney's waiting out a terrorist threat in a "secure undisclosed location." Now it seems that Mr. Cheney wears the cloak of invisibility in secure disclosed locations.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney's office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion - right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president's residence.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Romney bemoans tarnished U.S. image

GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press
2007-06-06 08:32:00

BEDFORD, N.H. - Republican Mitt Romney on Wednesday jabbed at President Bush, saying the image of the United States has suffered globally based on the perception that it invaded Iraq unilaterally.

Addressing civic and business leaders, the former Massachusetts governor chided Bush as his fellow Republican traveled overseas for an economic summit and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been critical of U.S. efforts to install a missile defense shield in Europe.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


U.S. on a disastrous course supporting Israel

Marda Dunsky
Chicago Tribune
2007-06-03 15:40:00

For Palestinians, the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War represents 40 years of freedom denied. For Israelis, it is a reminder that security and regional acceptance remain elusive after nearly six decades of statehood.

Israelis and Palestinians have not had exclusive agency in the making of their conflict, however. U.S. Mideast policy has played a significant role.

The overriding American interest has been to preserve and enhance U.S. influence in the strategically vital, oil-rich Middle East. During the Cold War, countering Soviet encroachment in the region was paramount. Israel, with its developed economy and democratic processes, has been the United States' natural ally and proxy in achieving these objectives.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


White House Revises Post-Disaster Protocol

Charlie Savage
The Boston Globe
2007-06-02 15:20:00

The Bush administration is writing a new plan to maintain governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic terrorist attack or overwhelming natural disaster, moving such doomsday planning for the first time from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to officials inside the White House.The policy requires all government agencies to have clear lines of succession if top officials are killed and be prepared to operate from a new headquarters within 12 hours of a catastrophe. They must be prepared "to lead and sustain the nation during a crisis" - a charge ranging from "providing leadership visible to the nation and the world" to "bringing to justice perpetrators of crimes or attacks."

Comment on this SOTT Focus



Middle East Madness
Turkey denies Web site claim of N.Iraq invasion


Reuters
2007-06-06 14:10:00

Turkey's Foreign Ministry and military General Staff on Wednesday denied a Web site report that 50,000 Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Sources: Thousands of Turkish troops enter Iraq


AP
2007-06-06 12:19:00

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials said.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Israeli Storm Troopers raid Palestinian camp, kidnap and kill


Reuters
2007-06-06 11:25:00

Israel killed two Palestinian men on Wednesday, one during a raid in the occupied West Bank, and another in an air strike in the northern
Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and security sources said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed both incidents.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


More Psyops: U.S. Decides Not to Attack Iran


ME Newsline
2007-06-06 11:08:00

The Bush administration has decided not to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.

Administration sources said President George Bush has decided that barring a "catastrophic development," the United States would not attack Iran. The sources said the administration has been relaying the decision to U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Iraq: Refugee crisis 'staggering', says U.N.


AKI
2007-06-06 10:42:00

More than 4 million people have fled their homes, seeking refuge either inside the country or beyond its borders as conditions in Iraq continue to deteriorate, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday, urging countries to do more to ease their plight. "The situation in Iraq continues to worsen, with more than 2 million Iraqis now believed to be displaced inside Iraq and another 2.2 million sheltering in neighbouring States," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis said at UNHCR headquarters Geneva.


"UNHCR is rapidly expanding its operations and presence in the region, but the magnitude of the crisis is staggering," she said. The main causes of the exodus are insecurity, but a lack of food, access to shelter and medical aid are also issues, especially for the internally displaced who can have difficulty registering in another governorate, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Genderen Stort told Adnkronos International (AKI).


Calls for increased international support for governments in the region have so far brought few results, and access to social services for Iraqis remains limited, according to UNHCR, which notes that most of the burden is currently being carried by Jordan and Syria.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Flashback: Imprisoning a Whole Nation

John Pilger
AntiWar.com
2007-05-24 09:49:00

Israel is being allowed to destroy the very notion of a state of Palestine and is imprisoning an entire nation. That is clear from the latest attacks on Gaza, whose suffering has become a metaphor for the tragedy imposed on the peoples of the Middle East and beyond. These attacks, reported on Britain's Channel 4 News, were "targeting key militants of Hamas" and the "Hamas infrastructure." The BBC described a "clash" between the same militants and Israeli F-16 aircraft.

Comment on this SOTT Focus



The Loan Gunmen
ECB Raises Rates to Six-Year High to Stem Inflation

Gabi Thesing
Bloomberg
2007-06-06 12:47:00

The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate to a six-year high of 4 percent today and signaled another increase is likely to keep economic growth from fueling inflation in the 13 nations sharing the euro.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Syria to End Dollar Peg, 2nd Arab Country in 2 Weeks

Zainab Fattah and Matthew Brown
Bloomberg
2007-06-04 12:45:00

Syria became the second Middle Eastern nation in two weeks to say it will dump its currency's peg to the dollar to curb rising import costs and inflation.

The country will link the Syrian pound to a broader range of currencies starting in the middle of July, central bank Governor Adib Mayaleh said.

''The decision is final,'' he said in a phone interview from Abu Dhabi. ''This will help stabilize the Syrian pound and bring down inflation.''

Comment on this SOTT Focus


UAE may be next to end dollar peg, forwards indicate


Bloomberg
2007-06-06 12:42:00

The UAE may be the next Middle Eastern country to stop pegging its exchange rate to the US dollar, according to trading in currency forwards.

The second-largest Arab economy may follow Syria and Kuwait, which both said in the past two weeks that they would dump the dollar peg to curb rising import costs and inflation.

Middle East currencies have been dragged lower by declines in the dollar, pushing up the cost of imports from Europe and Asia.

Comment on this SOTT Focus



The Living Planet
Three B.C. communities issue states of emergency as flood waters rise to near record levels

Kelly Sinoski
Vancouver Sun
2007-06-05 12:52:00

Three B.C. communities Squamish Mount Currie and Prince George issued states of emergency today as flood waters continue to rise to near record levels.

More than 50 homes were evacuated in Terrace, Smithers and Mount Currie, and thousands more throughout the province placed on alert, as rivers overspilled their banks and threatened homes and livestock.

The biggest flood threat is in Smithers and the Kitimat-Stikine Regional District, where up to 400 homes are at risk, while the Lower Mainland is expected to see the effects of flooding by Friday.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


North Dakota Gov. Declares Flood Emergency For Red River Valley


KXNet.com
2007-06-04 12:50:00

Gov. John Hoeven today issued a disaster declaration for impacts resulting from heavy rainfall that is causing river and small stream flooding, and damage to roads, bridges, farmland, homes and businesses in the Red River Valley Basin. Hoeven also contacted Col. Michael Phenning of the Army Corps of Engineers to request assistance in constructing earthen dikes in Fargo in anticipation of a possible flood crest in the region over the next few days.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Dessert fissures can ruin homes in SW U.S.

Nick Calderone
12News
2007-06-05 12:28:00

They can start as a small little ripple in the desert crust. A little bit of rain can trigger an earth fissure to tear open a crack large enough to swallow a car.

Fissures are a southwestern phenomenon aggravated by our need for water. Underground water tables hold up the earth above. As we pump out the water the earth has nothing to support it and collapses on top of itself creating a fissure. The on -going drought and constant demand for water has lowered the water table below compounding the fissure problem.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Strong undersea earthquake hits eastern Indonesia


Reuters
2007-06-06 12:24:00

A strong undersea earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit eastern Indonesia, although there were no reports of casualties or damage, an official at the country's meteorological agency said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said in a bulletin sent by email that the quake struck the Moluccas islands in the Banda Sea at 1128 GMT and put the magnitude at 5.8.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Hurricanes Still Frustrate Forecasters

Andrea Thompson
Live Science
2007-06-06 11:02:00

Hurricane forecasters are getting better at pinpointing the paths of these swirling storms, but predicting how intense they will be is still problematic, according to a statement released today by the American Meteorological Society.


The errors in track forecasts (which tell where a hurricane is most likely to head next and are the foundation of the warning process) have roughly half the errors that they did just 15 years ago.


Forecasts for tracks generally appear in what is called a cone: the middle portion on the cone is where the storm is most likely to hit, but it can veer anywhere inside the total cone's area. Over the past decade, forecasters have honed their predictions so that the length of coastline under warning from that cone has decreased from 454 miles to 317 miles, meaning there's less chance of a false warning.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Scientists discover new species in Suriname forest

Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News
2007-06-06 10:54:00

Researchers have discovered 24 new species in Suriname while a fish species thought to be extinct has been rediscovered, a conservation organisation reported here Monday at the presentation of the result of an expedition from 2005 and 2006.


At a presentation at the Hotel Krasnapolsky in Paramaribo, representatives of US-based Conservation International (CI) told government officials, reporters and others that among the 24 new species there is a purple fluorescent frog (Atelopus species).


CI also issued a statement reporting on the extraordinary discovery of so many species outside the insect realm. Scientists warned however that the new found creatures are threatened by illegal small-scale gold mining, hunting and other forestry activities.


Comment on this SOTT Focus



Health & Wellness
Specialists say drug-resistant TB to occur more

John Donnelly
The Boston Globe
2007-06-05 16:22:00

But TB specialists said yesterday that the real importance of the case is that it is a warning: People everywhere should brace themselves for many more cases of the drug-resistant airborne germ in the months and years ahead.

"This is the tiniest tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Paul Farmer , a Harvard professor who has treated drug-resistant TB in Haiti, Peru, and Siberia. "We need to take excellent care of our own but also acknowledge that we're lucky as a nation: We have little TB, drug resistant or otherwise. We need to think about this much more globally."


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Is Ritalin a divorce drug for children?


Xinhuanet
2007-06-05 16:13:00

A Canadian researcher on Monday called for an investigation into why children from broken marriages are twice as likely to be prescribed attention-deficit drugs as children whose parents remain together.

University pf Alberta professor Lisa Strohschein reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal more than 6 percent of 633 children from divorced families were prescribed Ritalin, compared with 3.3 percent of children whose parents stayed together.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


The Hard Rain of Depleted Uranium is Already Falling

Don Williams
OpEdNews.com
2007-06-01 15:47:00

If ever a man's been 10,000 miles in the mouth of graveyard, Dr. Doug Rokke has, for when you really look into Depleted Uranium, as he has, time and space open wide to reveal tombstones of future generations.

To hear Rokke (Rocky) tell it, he's lost friends, colleagues and portions of his own corpus to Depleted Uranium (DU to those in the field). He's been shot at, run off the road, and had his good name smeared in the press.

As an Army expert on DU deployment during and following the first Gulf War, he stopped cooperating with Army DU policy when he realized not all its victims were designated enemies, and that his own government was in denial about this reality. Rokke says most American casualties in the First Gulf War were the result of friendly fire involving DU weapons.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Breakthrough Liver Cancer Treatment Found


HealtDay News
2007-06-04 15:15:00

Researchers have announced the first drug to make major inroads against liver cancer, one of the more voracious forms of the disease.

Nexavar, made by Bayer, gave patients with advanced liver cancer 44 percent more time to live, compared to patients who did not receive the drug, according to results presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in Chicago.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


45-minute operation to restore sight to millions

Fiona Macrae
Daily Mail
2007-06-06 14:00:00

A revolutionary technique being developed by British scientists could cure blindness in millions of people around the world.

The first 45-minute operations could take place within five years and could be as commonplace as cataract surgery in a decade.

©Macular Disease Society/PA Wire


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Hearing Voices In Your Head - International Website Launched Today


Medical News Today
2007-06-05 13:38:00

Today sees the launch of a new international website for hearing voices providing a gateway for all things to do with people who hear voices (aka auditory hallucinations). The launch takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, where representatives of the eighteen nations involved in working on the issue of hearing voices are holding their annual meeting.

Comment on this SOTT Focus



Science & Technology
Discovery of oldest human decorations -- thought to be 82,000 years old


Physorg
2007-06-06 11:14:00

Archaeologists have discovered shell beads believed to be 82,000 years old - making them the oldest dated human decorations.


These finds of handmade beads, in a limestone cave in Morocco, suggest that humans were fashioning purely symbolic objects in Africa 40,000 years before they did it in Europe. A paper on the discovery is published in this month's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


The discovery of beads at the Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, in Eastern Morocco was made by an international team of archaeologists from the UK, Morocco, France and Germany, led by Oxford University's Institute of Archaeology.


Twelve Nassarius shells were perforated in their centres, and showed signs of being suspended or hung. They also appeared to have been covered in red ochre, like other less well-dated African beads. These symbolic, decorative objects are considered early signs of modern human behaviour and mark shifts in human development. Similar beads have been found at sites from Algeria, Israel, and South Africa, which probably date back to about the same time or slightly after the finds from Taforalt.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


The mathematical way to ride a bike

Roger Highfield
Telegraph
2007-06-06 11:07:00

While not quite as easy a feat as riding a bicycle, mathematicians have for the first time established conclusive equations that describe what gives a pushed bike its stability.


Since the bicycle's invention some time in the 1860s, mathematicians have tried to sum up bike riding with equations based on Newton's laws of motion.


One of the first attempts dates back to pioneering work in 1897 by French mathematician Emmanuel Carvallo. In 1899, the Cambridge undergraduate Francis Whipple had a go, using equations that had more general applicability (though were slightly wrong).


Today, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, a conclusive mathematical account of bike riding is described in a dense 28-page paper by Professor Andy Ruina of Cornell University, Jim Papadopoulos of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Jaap Meijaard of Nottingham University, and Prof Arend Schwab of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.


It was once thought that the stability is because the wheels act like gyroscopes to keep the bike upright.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space


Live Science
2007-06-06 11:05:00

Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say.


Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D.


The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.


"It is the biggest site discovered so far," said project leader Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Based on the coins and pottery we found, it appears to be a massive regional center that traded with Greece, Turkey and Libya."


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Deep Hole Found on Mars

Leonard David
Space.com
2007-06-06 10:58:00

A very dark spot on Mars could be an entrance to a deep hole or cavern, according to scientists studying imagery taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.


The geological oddity measures some 330 feet (100 meters) across and is located on an otherwise bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes on the red planet.


The hole might be the sort of place that could support life or serve as a habitat for future astronauts, researchers speculated.


Must be deep



The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument to draw a bead on the apparent deep hole-a feature that may cause more scientists to ponder about potential subsurface biology on Mars.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Mystery of 5,000 year old Glacier Mummy solved


EurekAlert
2007-06-06 10:52:00

An Italian-Swiss research team, including Dr. Frank Rühli of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich in Switzerland proved the cause of death of the Iceman ("Ötzi," 3300 BC) by modern X-ray-based technology. A lesion of a close-to-the-shoulder artery has been found thanks to a CT scan or multislice computed tomography, finally clarifying the world-famous glacier mummy's cause of death. This scientific work appeared online in the Journal of Archaeological Science, published by Elsevier and will be covered in the German and US issues of National Geographic magazine in July.


The Iceman is a uniquely well-preserved late Neolithic glacier mummy, found in 1991 in South Tyrol at 3,210 meters above sea level. He has undergone various scientific examinations, as human bodies are the best source for the study of life conditions in the past as well as the evolution of today's diseases.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


UFO shaped Stones Found In China Formed About 300 million Years Ago

Feng Yiran
The Epoch Times
2007-06-06 05:18:00

On May 27, 2007, several dozen "UFO" shaped gangues were found in Shangrao County, Jiangxi Province. Experts indicate that the UFO gangues were formed about 300 million years ago.

©N/A
On May 27, 2007, several dozen "UFO" shaped gangues were found in Shangrao County, Jiangxi Province. Experts indicate that the UFO gangues were formed about 300 million years ago. (The Epoch Times)


Comment on this SOTT Focus



Our Haunted Planet
UFO lights up Darwin night sky

KASEY BRUNT
Northern Territory News
2007-06-06 09:38:00

A TERRITORIAN could not believe his eyes when he saw a strange object beaming in the night sky.

John Ganter, 49, said he saw a bright green ball with two flaming tails flash across the sky.

''It looked like a comet, but with two tails,'' he said.

''It was quite a sight.

Comment on this SOTT Focus



Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Extra police patrols for full moons


Ananova
2007-06-06 10:50:00

Police in Brighton are to put on extra patrols on nights when there is a full moon to combat an increase in violence.


It follows research by the Sussex force which concluded there was a rise in violent incidents when the moon was full - and also on paydays.


Insp Andy Parr told the BBC he compared crime statistics for Brighton and Hove with lunar graphs to discover the trend.


A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: "Research carried out by us has shown a correlation between violent incidents and full moons."


More officers will be out on Brighton's streets during full moons over the summer months, she added.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Aliens tuning in to vintage broadcasts?


Ananova
2007-06-06 10:49:00

Aliens are alive and well - and could be tuning into vintage human radio broadcasts, according to scientists.


Experts involved in the study of alien worlds told the Government they were convinced that life exists elsewhere in the universe.


They gathered at the Department of Trade and Industry in London to meet the Science Minister, Malcolm Wicks, reports the Daily Telegraph.


They told him that there have been remarkable advances in looking for stars with planets and said they are beginning to find Earth-like planets that might have water.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Oy Vey! Israeli diplomats denied non-kosher dining on duty


Reuters
2007-06-06 07:23:00

Israeli diplomats fed up with a protocol requiring they entertain guests at less-than-fancy kosher eateries abroad have asked for the rules to be relaxed, only to be overruled by a religious Jewish cabinet minister.


Trade Minister Eli Yishai, a member of the Orthodox Shas party, persuaded the Foreign Ministry not to accept the appeal by dozens of Israeli envoys to be allowed to hold official functions in non-kosher restaurants, Maariv newspaper said.


"Keeping kosher preserved the people of Israel," the daily quoted Yishai as saying.


According to Maariv, the ambassadors had complained that in many foreign postings, most kosher restaurants are fast-food establishments far below the standards of diplomatic dining.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Mohammed likely to top British boys' names list by year-end


AFP
2007-06-06 01:17:00

Mohammed will likely become the most popular name for baby boys in Britain by the end of the year, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing government data.


Comment on this SOTT Focus





Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: sott(at)signs-of-the-times.org


Click here to return to the Signs of the Times Archive

Click here for today's Signs Page