- Signs of the Times Archive for Fri, 03 Aug 2007 -



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SOTT Focus

No new articles.


Best of the Web
How to Create an Angry American


Billy Vegas Show
2007-08-03 12:16:00



Montage of statements made by members of the Bush administration, and further video footage contradicting their assertions.


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U.S. News
Three Pulled from Sublike Vessel in NYC River


ABC News
2007-08-03 15:54:00

Authorities are questioning three men after pulling them from a submersible vessel in the East River in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to reports from ABC affiliate WABC.

The men were captured near the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in downtown Brooklyn, near the massive cruise ship the Queen Mary 2, just after 11 a.m.

©ABC


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D.C. Pays $1 million to Demonstrators


AP
2007-08-03 15:17:00

The District of Columbia has agreed to pay $1 million to about 120 protesters who were improperly rounded up by police during demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The settlement Wednesday is the largest payout to date by the city for police actions during the Sept. 27, 2002, protests.

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TSA checks IndyGo bus passengers


IndyStar.com
2007-08-02 13:18:00

Screeners from the Transportation Security Administration checked passengers at two Downtown city bus stops this morning, looking for weapons and suspicious behavior.

David Kane, federal security director for TSA in Indianapolis, called it a "VIPR" operation.

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New Al Cheney-da Web Ad Threatens 'Big Surprise'

Rhonda Schwartz
ABC News
2007-08-01 09:18:00

A new al Qaeda propaganda ad, headlined "Wait for the Big Surprise" and featuring a digitally altered photograph of President George Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf standing in front of a burning White House, was posted on the Internet today.

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More than 70,000 bridges rated deficient

H. JOSEF HEBERT and SHARON THEIMER
AP
2007-08-03 03:54:00

More than 70,000 bridges across the country are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion.

Comment: Take a generation???

Somehow it is possible to literally spend trillions of dollars on military hardware and to destroy nations around the globe, but providing adequate infrastructure, education and health services for all is impossible.

The difference is that war is obscenely profitable to the elite while there is no money for them in creating benefit for all to enjoy.



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Katrina floods not covered by insurance: court


Reuters
2007-08-03 03:42:00

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday that three major insurers are not responsible for flood damages in New Orleans -- even if "negligence" caused flooding that inundated the city during 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Comment: The elite makes the rules in a pathocratic system.


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UK & Euro-Asian News
Suspect in failed June terrorist attack in Glasgow dies of burns


RIA Novosti
2007-08-03 09:10:00

A man who crashed a fuel-laden jeep into the front doors of Scotland's Glasgow airport in an apparent botched terrorist attack on June 30 died in hospital, local police said Friday.

Kafeel Ahmed, 27, a Bangalore-born Indian national, had been in a coma since being admitted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary after suffering critical burns to 90% of his body in the incident, in which no bystanders were injured.


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Crime rate falls for first time in eight years in Moscow - prosecutor's office


Interfax
2007-08-03 08:33:00

The total number of crimes committed in Moscow has fallen for the first time in the past eight years, Moscow prosecutor's office says.



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Recent homicides in Sicily point to Mafia turf war

Lorenzo Tondo and Eric Reruly
Tuesday's Globe and Mail
2007-07-31 08:46:00

The hit was classic mob. There were shots to the face and to the abdomen. The killers used a Lupara, a sawn-off shotgun that is the traditional weapon of choice for Mafia executions. The target was Giuseppe Lo Baido, 36. He was gunned down on July 13, near his house outside Palermo, Sicily.

The Italian police are not treating the Lo Baido case as just another mess to be scraped off the street in the heartland of the Cosa Nostra, the name for the Mafia's Sicilian branch. His was one of four recent killings. All of the victims were thought to be members of the Corleone family.

Some of Italy's Mafia prosecutors think the killings could be the start of a new internecine war. "The homicides of recent weeks may be a sign of a potential war between the families," said Maurizio De Lucia, the Palermo state prosecutor.


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Litvinenko case could be called Berezovsky case - former FSB chief


Interfax
2007-08-03 08:21:00

It would be more precise to describe the cases of Alexander Litvinenko and Andrei Lugovoi as the case of Boris Berezovsky, former Federal Security Service Director and Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Veterans Affairs Nikolai Kovalyov told Interfax.

"We have encountered the Litvinenko case, or rather the Lugovoi case, although it would be more correct to call it the Berezovsky case," he said.

"It is absolutely clear that Alexander Litvinenko was working for Boris Berezovsky and simultaneously playing his own game. This is the most probable reason for his murder. It is also quite possible that it was an accident, not premeditated killing," Kovalyov said.

"Lugovoi told a press conference in May that British secret services had recruited Berezovsky. It is not up to us to judge this statement. Yet Russian law enforcers have many other questions for Berezovsky," he said.


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Around the World
Psychopathic bosses get promoted, not punished

Rachel Breitman
Reuters
2007-08-03 16:27:00

How do people get ahead in the workplace? One way seems to be by making their subordinates miserable, according to a study released on Friday.



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India to set up world's first alternative nuclear fuel reactor


RIA Novosti
2007-08-03 09:06:00

India plans to start construction of the world's first advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) using thorium as a fuel, which is less radioactive than uranium, enabling the country to ensure energy security, Asian Age reported Friday.

"We have the design and the technology to install a 300MW thorium-based reactor. It is going through the process of regulatory clearance. We will start work on it in the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) period... and we hope to complete the work within seven years," the paper quoted Dr. Baldev Raj, director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, as saying.

He said that India is the only country in the world with adequate reserves of thorium to make building this type of reactor financially viable.


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Fifty dead, 148 missing after Sierra Leone boat capsizes


AFP
2007-08-03 08:53:00

At least 50 people are dead and 148 others are missing after a coastal ferry capsized overnight in rough seas off northern Sierra Leone, a port official said Friday.

"According to the report we received, 50 people perished, two were rescued while 148 others remain unaccounted for," the official, who asked not to be named for protocol reasons, told AFP.

©Unknown


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What's going on? Turkey says - no link between arrested hackers and al-Qaeda. Israeli hacker is free to go


RIA Novosti
2007-08-03 08:40:00

Two hackers from Ukraine and Israel, suspected by U.S. authorities of selling information about the United States to al-Qaeda, do not have any known links to the terrorist organization, Turkish police said Thursday.

A local police spokesman told journalists that the Ukrainian national, Maxim Yastremsky, was an internationally notorious hacker being sought by a number of countries for his activities and would remain in custody pending his possible extradition to the U.S. within 60 days.

He added that the Israeli hacker, Maxim Turchak, has been released for lack of evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.


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Oops, they did it again! 20 Afghan civilians said hurt in US air strike


AFP
2007-08-03 07:36:00

At least 20 civilians were wounded and many others feared killed in an air strike by US-led forces on a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan, local police said.

The US-led coalition forces said they had conducted a "precision air strike" against two notorious Taliban commanders who were meeting in a remote area of the Baghran district of Helmand province.

But provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal, citing wounded in a hospital, said a large number of people had gathered to watch the Taliban's public execution of two criminals when they were bombed.

"One of the wounded told me that people had gathered to watch the public hanging of two men when the aerial bombing took place," Andiwal said.


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Relationship Problems: Pakistan expresses concern at US, India civilian nuclear deal


Herald Tribune/AP
2007-08-03 03:35:00

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan should have been included in talks that resulted in the United States agreeing to provide India with civilian nuclear fuel, to prevent an atomic arms race between the two rivals, Pakistan's political and military leaders said Thursday.

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Big Brother
New secret search powers

Tom Allard
The Sydney Morning Herald
2007-08-01 08:22:00

POLICE and security agencies will be given unprecedented "sneak and peek" powers to search the homes and computers of suspects without their knowledge under legislation to go before Federal Parliament next week.

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Axis of Evil
The Enter Lifetime Of An Iraqi Is Only Worth 15 Years of an American Lifetime

THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press
2007-08-03 16:39:00

A jury sentenced a Marine sergeant Friday to 15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a fruitless search for an insurgent.



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War whore Rice lies: Israel ready to discuss fundamental issues with Fatah

Eric Silver in Jerusalem
The Independent
2007-08-03 03:54:00

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are expected to start to sketch the contours of a Palestinian state next week. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, ended a 24-hour shuttle between Jerusalem and Ramallah yesterday, convinced that the two sides were ready to discuss fundamental issues in advance of President Bush's Middle East peace conference, now tentatively planned to take place in Washington in November.

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Propaganda! US, Britain propose boosting UN role in Iraq


AFP
2007-08-03 03:08:00

The United States and Britain Thursday presented a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to enhance and expanded the role of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).

Comment: Yes, the pathocrats like to do the rape, pillage and plunder part and then want the rest of the world to go and pay for cleaning up the mess they have left behind.


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Middle East Madness
Flashback: IDF soldiers suspected of hijacking taxi, wounding Palestinian bystander

Hanan Greenberg
Ynet
2007-07-27 13:04:00

Five soldiers and a first lieutenant involved in critically wounding a Palestinian civilian are suspected of unlawful confinement and abduction, aggravated assault, unlawful use of weapons, operating outside their authority to the point of endangering state security, lying during questioning and obstructing justice.

The shooting incident, which occurred Thursday in Kfar Dahariya south of Mount Hebron in the West Bank, at first appeared to be a common security incident.


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IDF courts justify moral decay. Military courts must be reminded that their job is not to preserve army's good name

B. Michael
Ynet
2007-08-03 09:39:00

Six soldiers decided to act like the commando units on TV and in the news and went out on a daring "raid" in the enemy's rear. Now they are suspected of kidnapping, shooting an innocent man and committing other various military and civilian offenses.Their case is now in the hands of a military court.

Anyone with some knowledge of the reality in the West Bank knows that the acts attributed to the soldiers are nothing new. Abusive behavior toward bystanders and uncalled for shooting incidents - as the soldiers' testimonies indicate - are commonplace in the area.


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US marine guilty of Iraq murder


BBC
2007-08-03 22:44:00

A US court martial has convicted a marine squad leader of murder over the killing of an Iraqi grandfather.

Sgt Lawrence G Hutchins III was also convicted of conspiracy to murder Hashim Ibrahim Awad in April 2006.

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Deliberate underreporting in Iraq as death tolls often disputed

Sam Dagher
The Christian Science Monitor
2007-08-03 04:17:00

BAGHDAD - Throngs of Iraqis were busily shopping for the weekend when a truck bomb and barrage of rockets ripped apart the market in central Karrada.

Iraqiya television and most Western media outlets reported that 25 were killed and 100 wounded in the July 26 attack, of which virtually no images were shown.

But less than a week later, the names of 92 dead and 127 wounded were posted on a list taped to a shuttered storefront. It was compiled by municipal and civil defense crews that led the rescue efforts.

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Propaganda Alert! Bush freezes assets of those tied to Lebanon violence

Matt Spetalnick
Reuters
2007-08-03 03:54:00

President George W. Bush ordered on Thursday a freeze on the U.S. assets of anyone Washington deems to be undermining Lebanon's pro-Western government.

The Bush administration did not identify those targeted by the decree, but it comes just a month after he imposed a U.S. travel ban on Syrian officials and Lebanese politicians whom the United States accuses of fomenting instability in Lebanon.

Comment: Just as well Bush put the caveat in that it is only the ones that Washington deem to be undermining Lebanon. Otherwise Wall street would go into a tail spin as most of the assets of the elite would be frozen causing a global meltdown.


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Study shows fallout! Iraq veterans suffer stress and alcoholism

Polly Curtis
The Guardian
2007-08-03 03:34:00

Thousands of frontline veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing escalating mental health problems, alcoholism and family breakdown, an extensive examination of the British military has found.

Prolonged periods in conflict are linked to higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological distress and problems at home, researchers report in the British Medical Journal online.

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The Loan Gunmen
Stocks plunge again amid renewed credit fears

TIM PARADIS
AP
2007-08-03 16:29:00

Wall Street plunged anew Friday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 280 points after comments from a Bear Stearns executive reinvigorated the market's fears of a widening credit crunch.

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One way out of a mortgage -- 'short sales'

Ellen Yan
newsday.com
2007-07-29 15:20:00

A growing number of homeowners who can't pay their mortgages are ditching their homes in a way that damages their credit and forces almost all involved to take a loss.

It's called a "short sale" - a house sale in which lenders, creditors and often real estate agents agree to take hits on what they're owed, with homeowners asked to prove they are destitute and that the property's market value is less than the mortgage. Some lenders figure they are better off getting some money now rather than risk ending with less under the more expensive and time-consuming foreclosure process.

A seemingly lost tactic for almost 20 years, such deals have made a comeback, amid the turmoil in the housing market.

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Accredited May Face Bankruptcy, Merger in Doubt

Bradley Keoun
Bloomberg
2007-08-02 14:40:00

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., the subprime mortgage company being acquired by Lone Star Funds, cast doubt on the sale and said bankruptcy is possible. The shares lost more than a third of their value.

''Several of our competitors have recently stopped originating loans or sought protection under bankruptcy laws,'' Accredited said in a regulatory filing today. ''We may suffer a similar fate.''

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U.S. Housing Is one of History's 'Biggest Bubbles,' Rogers Says

Chen Shiyin and Pimm Fox
Bloomberg
2007-08-03 14:35:00

The U.S. subprime-market rout that wiped out $2.1 trillion from global share values last week has ''got a long way to go,'' Jim Rogers said.

Concern that defaults among subprime mortgages may be spilling over to other credit markets and hurting earnings and takeovers last week sent the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index to its worst weekly drop in five years. Further losses may be in store even as shares rebounded this week, said Rogers, chairman of New York-based Beeland Interests Inc.

''This was one of the biggest bubbles we've ever had in credit,'' Rogers, who predicted the start of the global commodities rally in 1999, said in an interview from Hong Kong. ''I have been and am still short the investment bankers in America. I'm also short homebuilders.''

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American Home Mortgage to close Friday: report


Reuters
2007-08-02 13:12:00

Mortgage lender American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. is closing its doors on Friday, and has told employees they will be laid off, according to the Long Island newspaper Newsday, citing an e-mail to employees from Chief Executive Michael Strauss.

The news shows how problems in the U.S. mortgage market are broadening, as credit quality issues begin to affect lenders that focused on borrowers with decent credit, as opposed to "subprime" borrowers thought to be greater risks.

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American Home Mortgage Can't Fund Loans, May Liquidate Assets

Rick Green
Bloomberg
2007-07-31 15:02:00

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., the lender whose shares stopped trading yesterday after it disclosed a cash shortage, said it's unable to fund new loans and may have to liquidate assets.

The company has been cut off from credit and didn't have money yesterday to make $300 million of mortgages it had already agreed to provide, the Melville, New York-based company said today in a statement. American Home said it anticipates $450 million to $500 million of loans probably won't get funded today.

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The Living Planet
KwaZulu-Natal vanishing coastline

Tony Carnie
The Mercury
2007-08-02 16:12:00

Denuded of their protective armour of sand, several beaches in KwaZulu-Natal are being swallowed up by the sea in the aftermath of the monster sea storms, that hit the coast more than four months ago.

Over the past few months, the Indian Ocean has been eating away slowly, but relentlessly, at several beaches - to such an extent that the high-tide mark has advanced up to 100m inland in some places.

©Magellan Geographix


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In Surprise, Major Earthquake Fault Reverses Direction, Accelerates

Robert Roy Britt,
LiveScience
2007-08-03 15:28:00

A vast chunk of Earth sliding under Mexico has surprisingly reversed direction, puzzling geologists and leaving them wondering whether the ground might be poised to pummel Mexico City with a devastating earthquake.

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Earthquake rattles Utah-Colorado border


AP
2007-08-03 15:26:00

PARADOX, Colo. - No damages or injuries were reported after a minor earthquake rattled the small town of Paradox, near the Colorado-Utah border.

The U.S. Geological Survey said seismographs measured a magnitude 2.8 earthquake at 7:46 a.m. Wednesday.

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Vets set to put down seven-legged lamb in New Zealand


MSNBC
2007-08-02 15:04:00

A lamb with seven legs was born in New Zealand but so badly deformed that it was to be destroyed, a local newspaper reported.

The lamb was born with an extra set of front legs and three back legs, the Ashburton Guardian newspaper, at Ashburton on the South Island, reported.

©Susan Sandys/AP
The seven-legged lamb rests on its farm at Methven near Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand on Tuesday.


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Eighteen hurt as typhoon Usagi pounds Japan


AFP
2007-08-03 14:43:00

A typhoon was churning off the Japanese coast Friday after injuring 18 people and forcing thousands of people to flee their homes, officials said.

Typhoon Usagi cut across the island of Kyushu and the tip of the main island of Honshu overnight and moved into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) early Friday while slowly weakening, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

©AFP
People walk against strong wind at Fukuoka city in Japan's southern island of Kyushu.


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Strong wave sweeps away 33 in east China

Winny Wang
shanghaidaily.com
2007-08-03 14:28:00

Rescuers have recovered three bodies swept away by a freak tide yesterday in Qiantang River, Zhejiang Province, Xinhua news agency said today.

Eight others were still missing, the report said.

©AP Photo/EyePress
Residents crowd near the levee of the Qiantang River to watch rescue workers search for people who were swept away by a wave in Hangzhou, eastern China's Zhejiang province, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007.


The bodies of two women and one man were found. Relatives began identifying the bodies at 9:50am today, the report said.

The tide hit a group of tourists and locals about 4pm yesterday at a T-shaped levee in the mouth of the Qiantang River. At least 33 people were washed away and 22 have been rescued.

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Health & Wellness
Does This Child Have Appendicitis? Watch Out for Key Signs


John Hopkin's children center
2007-08-03 09:31:00

A 5-year-old with abdominal pain, nausea and fever may have appendicitis or any of a number of other problems. But how does the child's doctor decide whether to schedule an emergency appendectomy to surgically remove a presumably inflamed appendix - a procedure that carries its own risks like any surgery - or wait and observe what could be a ticking time bomb that could rupture and kill the patient in a matter of hours? It's a classic physician's dilemma, but a new study led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center may ease the pediatrician's problem-solving and parents' anxiety.

Reporting on their review of the frequency of the most common symptoms of actual appendicitis in children, the researchers concluded that beyond fever, the most telltale signs are "rebound" tenderness or pain that occurs after pressure is removed abruptly from the lower right part of the abdomen; abdominal pain that starts around the belly button and migrates down and to the right; and an elevated white blood cell count (10,000 or more per microliter), which is a marker of infection in the body.


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Schizophrenia improved by mental and physical exercise


Research Australia / EurekAlert
2007-08-03 09:28:00

Scientists at Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute have shown that mental and physical exercise can improve behavioural deficits in schizophrenia and repair damaged chemical transmitter pathways in the brain.

Dr Anthony Hannan, along with Dr Caitlin McOmish, Emma Burrows and colleagues, characterised a genetically altered mouse and discovered that it had schizophrenia-like behaviours, including learning and memory problems, the inability to process complex information, and abnormal responses to particular sensory stimuli.

The scientists found the mouse's condition significantly improved by simply giving them enhanced mental and physical exercise - putting running wheels in their cages, plus interesting items to smell, see and touch.


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Overstretched armed forces leading to mental health problems


EurekAlert / BMJ-British Medical Journal
2007-08-03 09:13:00

Prolonged periods of deployment among Britain's armed forces is associated with mental health problems, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

Deployment is an essential ingredient of military life. However, research shows that an increase in the pace of military operations "operational tempo" may have an effect on health and place strain on families.

The UK armed forces have recommended deployment levels called the harmony guidelines, reflecting the need to balance rest and recuperation with deployment. In times of simultaneous major operations, such as those in Iraq and Afganistan, this tool is helpful for monitoring overstretch as a measure of over-commitment.


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Urals pneumonia outbreak continues, 175 people now hospitalized


RIA Novosti
2007-08-03 09:08:00

A total of 175 people are now hospitalized in a Urals region following a pneumonia outbreak believed to have been caused by contamination in the hot water supply, local authorities said.

The infection spread in the Sverdlovsk Region after annual maintenance to hot water pipes supplying homes. Four people are confirmed to have died of pneumonia. A local Health Ministry spokesman said one of the patients is in intensive care.

Of the patients, 150 have been diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease, a severe form of pneumonia, and in 66 of these cases the diagnosis has been confirmed by laboratory tests.

The spokesman said 31 people had already been discharged from hospital and that most patients were recovering following therapy.


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Psychopath's Heaven: Bad bosses get promoted, not punished


Reuters
2007-08-03 08:12:00

How do people get ahead in the workplace? One way seems to be by making their subordinates miserable, according to a study released on Friday.

In the study to be presented at a conference on management this weekend, almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways.

"The fact that 64.2 percent of the respondents indicated that either nothing at all or something positive happened to the bad leader is rather remarkable -- remarkably disturbing," wrote the study's authors, Anthony Don Erickson, Ben Shaw and Zha Agabe of Bond University in Australia.


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In the patriarchy! Angry men get ahead; angry women penalized: study

Claudia Parsons
Reuters
2007-08-03 03:49:00

A man who gets angry at work may well be admired for it but a woman who shows anger in the workplace is liable to be seen as "out of control" and incompetent, according to a new study presented on Friday.

What's more, the finding may have implications for Hillary Clinton as she attempts to become the first female U.S. president, according to its author Victoria Brescoll, a post-doctoral scholar at Yale University.

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Science & Technology
Stone Age site surfaces in UK after 8000 years


University of Southampton
2007-07-31 15:51:00

Excavations of an underwater Stone Age archaeological settlement dating back 8000 years are taking place at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton this week (30 July - 3 August 2007).

Maritime archaeologists from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (HWTMA) have been working at the site just off the Isle of Wight coast. Divers working at depths of 11 metres have raised sections of the seabed, which have been brought to the NOCS laboratories for excavation.

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In Surprise, Major Earthquake Fault Slips Backward

Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience
2007-08-02 14:58:00

A vast chunk of Earth sliding under Mexico has surprisingly reversed direction, puzzling geologists and leaving them wondering whether the ground might be poised to pummel Mexico City with a devastating earthquake.

©CU-Boulder
A reversal of tectonic plate motion near Acapulco and Guerrero, Mexico, in the second half of 2006 (colored arrows) as measured by GPS satellites. Mexico City is about 175 miles from Guerrero.


The offshore tectonic plate had been sliding toward Mexico City at a rate of 1 inch per year, as recorded by Global Positioning System measuring stations near Acapulco and Guerrero, which is about 175 miles southwest of Mexico City.

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Newfound planet has Earth-like orbit

Ker Than
Space.com
2007-08-03 14:52:00

The new planet, spotted using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas, circles its bloated parent star every 360 days and is located about 300 light-years away, in the constellation Perseus.

The red giant star is twice as massive and about 10 times larger than the sun. Its planet is about the size of Jupiter or larger and was discovered using the so-called wobble technique, in which astronomers look for slight wiggles in a star's motion created by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets.


©NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI)
The different masses of stars. The lightest-weight stars are red dwarfs. The heaviest-weight stars are blue-white super giants. The red giant star at the bottom of the illustration is much larger than the other stars in the illustration.


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Homeopathy: The memory of water is a reality


Elsevier / EurekAlert
2007-08-03 09:34:00

A special issue of the journal Homeopathy, journal of the Faculty of Homeopathy and published by Elsevier, on the "Memory of Water" brings together scientists from around the world for the first time to publish new data, reviews and discuss recent scientific work exploring the idea that water can display memory effects. The concept of memory of water is important to homeopathy because it offers a potential explanation of the mechanism of action of very high dilutions often used in homeopathy.

Guest editor Professor Martin Chaplin of the Department of Applied Science at London South Bank University, remarks: "There is strong evidence concerning many ways in which the mechanism of this 'memory' may come about. There are also mechanisms by which such solutions may possess effects on biological systems which substantially differ from plain water."


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Hackers unlimited: Car satellite navigation systems can be steered the wrong way

Glenn Chapman
AFP
2007-08-03 08:59:00

Satellite navigation systems in cars can be hijacked remotely with relative ease, allowing hackers to feed drivers bogus directions, two experts told a major security conference here.

Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco from the website Inverse Path demonstrated Thursday how antennas and a patchwork of commonly available electronics can be employed to replace the legitimate traffic information radioed to the systems with false instructions.

The hacker tool works on in-car Radio Data System "SatNav" devices standard in Europe, which are becoming increasingly common in North America and are due to debut this year in Australia, Barisani told security professionals meeting in Las Vegas for the Black Hat digital self-defense conference.


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Cleaning-up red blood cells


Scientist Live
2007-08-03 03:16:00

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a unique molecular pathway that detects and selectively eliminates defective messenger RNAs from red blood cells.

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Our Haunted Planet
UFOs spotted over Ontario

Colin McKim
Barrie Examiner
2007-08-03 12:41:00

Scott Fraser has seen a few strange things in the night sky.

But he never had a camera with him.

That is until Sunday night at sunset, when four white oblong shapes burst like rockets over the western horizon, rose vertically some distance before whizzing south at high speed.

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It's out there - 'strange ball of fire' UFO sightings grow


The Cornishman
2007-08-03 10:40:00

Penwith's ufo mystery deepened this week as further sightings of "fiery" objects in the night skies emerged - including one close encounter captured on film.


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Mysterious object is a return visitor to Liverpool

Ed Casson
Maghull and Aintree Star
2007-08-03 10:37:00

ON the sunny afternoon of Wednesday July 25, Lee Jones of Anfield looked up from the back garden of his home and saw something which terrified and mesmerised him.

An enormous saucer-shaped craft emerged slowly from the cumulus clouds and hung in the sky.

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Contact has begun; UFOs over Trout Lake, Washington

Russ Miller
Goldendale Sentinel
2007-08-03 07:22:00

It's an exciting time at James Gilliland's ranch outside of Trout Lake - not because there's nearly daily sightings of flying saucers, that's been happening for years - but because a documentary about the sightings has just been released.

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UFO sighted in south Bucks

Ann-Marie Canavan
Bucks Free Press
2007-08-03 07:09:00

MYSTERIOUS lights in the night sky have left residents in High Wycombe and Chesham wondering if there just might be life beyond the stars.

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
First treatment centre for nail biters


Ananova
2007-08-03 08:15:00

The world's first treatment centre for nail biters is to open in the Netherlands next month.

Director of the new centre in Venlo, Alain-Raymond van Abbe of the Institute for Pathological Onychophagy (IPO) says he and his team have invented an aid to make nail-biting impossible.

"This is the first place ever to tackle this very serious problem," he explained. "We are expecting clients from all over the world."


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Dog Pees On Computer Server Rack And Shuts Down Business


Lancaster Times
2007-08-03 08:02:00

After working at her new job for only 2 weeks receptionist Lori Stint managed to shut down the daily operations of Action Tools in Lancaster S.C.

After taking her small lap dog to the vet on her day off Stint stopped by Action Tools to pick up her first paycheck. She sat her dog down to talk to another employee in the back office. While the dog was unattended it walked over to the company's small floor computer rack server and did its business all over the set up.


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