- Signs of the Times Archive for Thu, 13 Sep 2007 -



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Popular Mechanics Flying Circus-The Pentagon


You Tube
2007-09-12 22:24:00



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Fidel Castro: The Empire and Falsehood

Fidel Castro
Escambray
2007-09-12 20:04:00

An analysis of the impact of planes similar to those against the towers, following accidental plane crashes in densely-populated cities, concludes that no plane crashed against the Pentagon and that only a projectile could have created the geometrically round hole that the alleged plane created. No passenger that perished there has turned up, either. No one in the world questioned the news about the attack on the Pentagon building. We were deceived, as were the rest of the planet's inhabitants.



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U.S. News
Report: Lab Not Tracking All Plutonium

Jennifer Talhelm
AP
2007-09-13 17:02:00

A stockpile of plutonium and other nuclear weapons materials stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory hasn't been fully accounted for in 13 years or more, a government audit has found.

The northern New Mexico lab's workers have done regular, partial inventories of the material, which the government considers to be at high risk of theft, the audit by the Energy Department's inspector general, Gregory Friedman, found.

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'Mine is bigger than yours!': U.S. develops 14-ton super bomb, bigger than Russian vacuum bomb


RIA Novosti
2007-09-13 15:23:00

The U.S. has a 14-ton super bomb more destructive than the vacuum bomb just tested by Russia, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The statement was made by retired Lt. General McInerney, chairman of the Iran Policy Committee, and former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

McInerney said the U.S. has "a new massive ordnance penetrator that's 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates ... Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can't penetrate."

He also said the new Russian bomb was not a "penetrator."


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Alleged killer pleads not guilty in rape attempt

Mike Underwood
Boston Herald
2007-09-13 13:52:00

Suspected serial killer Adam Leroy Lane pleaded not guilty yesterday in the horrifying attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl in Chelmsford.

Handcuffed and shackled in an orange prison jumpsuit, the 43-year-old only spoke to say "not guilty" to 10 charges including home invasion, assault with intent to murder and attempted rape of a child on July 30.

©Associated Press
Adam Leroy Lane appears for arraignment with his lawyer, Daniel Callahan, in Lowell yesterday.


Lane was ordered held without bail after the brief arraignment in Lowell Superior Court yesterday.


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Sixth Anniversary of 911 Brings Out Conspiracy Theory Nuts

John Gibson
Fox News
2007-09-13 13:19:00

The sixth commemoration of the day that shall live in infamy - I'm speaking of 9/11 here - has brought out a strange crowd from a strange world.

I'm talking about the 9/11 truthers, some of whom surrounded Geraldo's show on Saturday night outside the FOX studios in New York chanting: "9/11 was an inside job, 9/11 was an inside job."

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Sect Leader's Rape-by-Proxy Trial Begins


Associated Press
2007-09-13 13:37:00

St. George, Utah - Warren Jeffs might not have laid a hand on the 14-year-old girl he's accused of coercing into marrying her cousin, but he's still responsible for her rape, prosecutors maintained ahead of opening statements Thursday in the polygamist sect leader's trial.

©AP
Warren Jeffs during his trial.




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University Fences In a Berkeley Protest, and a New One Arises

Jesse McKinley
The New York Times
2007-09-13 10:57:00

BERKELEY, Calif. - In many ways and for many months, the protest outside Memorial Stadium at the University of California has been business, and Berkeley, as usual.

On one side are the protesting tree lovers who have been living Tarzan-like since December in a stand of coastal oaks and other trees. On the other is the university, which wants to cut down the trees to build a $125 million athletic center, part of a larger plan to upgrade its aging, seismically challenged football stadium.

The two sides disagreed. They bickered. Lawyers were called. Then came The Fence.


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UK & Euro-Asian News
Turbine at Finnish nuclear plant is shut down by 'electrical disturbance'


Deutsche Presse-Agentur
2007-09-13 17:06:00

One of two turbines at a Finnish nuclear plant was shut down Thursday after an electrical disturbance but there was no danger, a spokesman for the operator said.

The turbines were protected against disturbances and 'it was shut down automatically over what appeared to be an electrical disturbance,' Peter Tuominen of the operator Fortum said.

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Russia: Boy set on fire by drunken youths


RIA Novosti
2007-09-13 15:20:00

A 10-year-old boy in Krasnodar, southern Russia, had a lucky escape when a group of teenagers tried to set him on fire, a local emergencies spokesman said Thursday.

The boy almost turned into a human fireball after drunken youths aged 18-20 doused his clothes with petrol, threw a match at him and left him to die, the spokesman said.


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Lithuania suspects prominent Israeli Holocaust researcher of war crimes during WWII


Interfax
2007-09-13 08:05:00

Lithuania has requested that the Israeli authorities facilitate the questioning of prominent historian and Holocaust researcher Yitzhak Arad regarding his partisan past during World War II and his supposed subsequent service for the Soviet NKVD security police.

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France considers return to NATO command


AFP
2007-09-13 03:47:00

France has raised the possibility of rejoining NATO's military command after a 40-year absence, signalling what could be one of the biggest foreign policy changes in decades.

Defence Minister Herve Morin gave a keynote speech that confirmed President Nicolas Sarkozy's ambition to strengthen France's role in the Atlantic Alliance.



Comment: Things have changed in France since the election of Sarkozy.



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While the world is burning: BBC slammed over dressed down, jeans-wearing journalists

Paul Revoir
Daily Mail
2007-09-12 21:52:00

The days of BBC newsreaders wearing dinner suits to present the TV news belong to Lord Reith's long-gone golden reign.

But while few would demand the legendary director general's standards of formality, the dress sense of those delivering the news appears to have reached a new low.

After controversy about women newsreaders' rising hemlines, male reporters have been criticised for an increasing tendency to appear on camera in jeans.

©Unknown
Dressing down: Richard Watson reporting for Newsnight.


Critics claim the BBC should show more respect for its audiences and make its reporters dress appropriately to appear in the nation's living rooms.

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New UK foot-and-mouth case confirmed


BBC
2007-09-12 21:10:00

©PA


A new case of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed in Surrey, the government has said.

Chief vet Dr Debby Reynolds confirmed the outbreak near Milton Park Farm, near Egham. A 10km control zone has been set up around the site.

Cattle and pigs on an adjacent farm are also being slaughtered "on suspicion" of infection, Defra said later.

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Around the World
Reports Says Organized Crime Top Problem

JUSTIN BERGMAN
AP
2007-09-13 13:05:00

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Organized crime may have brought in more than $2 trillion in revenue last year, about twice all the military budgets in the world combined, a report issued Monday said.

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Disney Violates Chinese Workers' Human Rights


AFP
2007-09-12 20:52:00

Workers at a Chinese factory making Disney toys are overworked, underpaid, exposed to dangerous toxins and forced to live in filthy conditions, a labour rights group said in a report Wednesday.

The study, released on the second anniversary of the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, said factory workers complained they were forced to work 28 days a month and up to 15 hours a day.

Staff at Haowei Toys in southern China also are not allowed to take time off during peak seasons, according to the report released by the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM).

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Big Brother
Big Brother Watches Over Downtown Miami

David Sutta
cbs4.com
2007-09-13 16:25:00

The American Airlines Arena, Bayside, Bayfront Park, and a whole corridor of Downtown Miami hot spots will soon be on candid camera, recorded 24-7 by the Miami Police.

"I think it's something that is going to take us to the next evolution of policing," said Deputy Miami Police Chief Frank Fernandez.

©CBS
The system will be able to provide surveillance video of Downtown Miami Streets such as this one.


Fernandez and his staff have been working on the project for a year and a half, modeling off of Scotland Yard. The first phase is on Biscayne Boulevard, which is only days away from going up. He explained why he believes the cameras are a good idea.

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New Surveillance Law Didn't Help Terror Arrests

Jeff Bliss
Bloomberg
2007-09-13 16:07:00

The top U.S. spy official said an updated eavesdropping law didn't contribute to the capture of terrorist suspects in Germany, retracting statements he made earlier this week to a Senate committee.

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Scientists Use the "Dark Web" to Track Dissenters

NSF
NSF
2007-09-10 12:31:00

Terrorists and extremists have set up shop on the Internet, using it to recruit new members, spread propaganda and plan attacks across the world. The size and scope of these dark corners of the Web are vast and disturbing. But in a non-descript building in Tucson, a team of computational scientists are using the cutting-edge technology and novel new approaches to track their moves online, providing an invaluable tool in the global war on terror.






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Axis of Evil
Propaganda Alert!: US General Says Rocket Fired at US Base in Iraq Originated in Iran

Jim Randle
VOA
2007-09-13 17:04:00

A U.S. general has accused Tehran of sending rockets to Shi'ite groups fighting Iraq's government and U.S. forces in Iraq.

The U.S. military spokesman, Major General Kevin Bergner, said U.S. experts have gathered considerable evidence a rocket that hit the American military headquarters in Iraq Tuesday came from Iranian sources.



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Al-Jazeera man close to death at Guantanamo Bay

Robert Verkaik
The Independent
2007-09-13 03:11:00

An al-Jazeera journalist captured in Afghanistan six years ago and sent to Guantanamo Bay is close to becoming the fifth detainee at the US naval base to take his own life, according to a medical report written by a team of British and American psychiatrists



Comment: Spot the devil in the detail above? That's right, the author has forgotten that free foreign journalists are not "captured", the word instantly implying guilt, a wanted man, an enemy. It should have read: "An al-Jazeera journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan six years ago"





Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national, is 250 days into a hunger strike which he began in protest over his detention without charge or trial in January 2002. But British and American doctors, who have been given exclusive access to his interview notes, say there is very strong evidence that he has given up his fight for life, experiencing what doctors recognise as "passive suicide", a condition suffered by female victims of Darfur.



Comment: Remember only the most dangerous terrorist are in Guantanamo. We at SOTT have credible information from a top secret anonymous source that this person was allegedly armed with a notebook and maybe even a pencil, when caught. A real threat to world stability.




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Propaganda Alert! Al-Qaida has revived, spread and is capable of a spectacular strike

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian
2007-09-13 03:11:00

Al-Qaida has revived, extended its influence, and has the capacity to carry out a spectacular strike similar to the September 11 attacks on America, one of the world's leading security thinktanks warned yesterday.

There is increasing evidence "that 'core' al-Qaida is proving adaptable and resilient, and has retained an ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks in the western world despite the attrition it has suffered", said the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "The threat from Islamist terrorism remains as high as ever, and looks set to get worse," it added.


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Lieberman pushes for war with Iran - again


Press TV
2007-09-12 09:16:00

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, among the US Senate's fiercest hawks, has once again asked for the expansion of US invasion into Iran.

"Is it time to give you authority, in pursuit of your mission in Iraq, to pursue those Iranian Quds Force operations in Iranian territory, in order to protect American troops in Iraq," Lieberman asked at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Middle East Madness
Report: Turkish intelligence assisted IDF in attack on Syria

Roee Nahmias
YnetNews
2007-09-13 10:45:00

Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on the Syrian targets allegedly attacked by the Air Force last week without the Turkish government's authorization, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda reported Thursday.

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President Petraeus? Iraqi official recalls the day US general revealed ambition

Patrick Cockburn
The Independent
2007-09-13 03:11:00

The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.

Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq's Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05.


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US troops who criticised Iraq war strategy killed in Baghdad

Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian
2007-09-13 03:11:00

Two US soldiers who helped write a critique from the front saying America had "failed on every promise" in the war have been killed in Iraq, it was reported yesterday.

Staff Sergeant Yance Gray, 26, and Sergeant Omar Mora, 28, were among a group of seven soldiers serving in Iraq who wrote a piece excoriating America's conduct of the war. The piece was published in the New York Times last month.



Comment: Maybe the Army is sending a subtle message to their troops. Nah, they wouldn't do that, would they?



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Israel murders 17 Palestinian children in past two months


Ma'an
2007-09-12 12:18:00

©MaanImages - Wissam Nassar
The bodies of two Palestinian boys, Yahya Ramadan Abu Ghazala, 12, and his cousin, Mahmoud Mussa Abu Ghazala, 10, are seen in the morgue of the Kamal Radwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, August 29, 2007. Israeli fire killed the two Palestinian boys and wounded two of their cousins, nine-year-old Sarah Suleiman Abu Ghazala, who was critically wounded, and a fourth child who suffered less serious injuries, as they played.


Human rights association, Addameer, on Tuesday issued a report revealing the frequent Israeli attacks on children in the Palestinian territories.

Addameer highlighted that the policy of targeting children contravenes basic human rights.

The organisation issued a statement accusing the Israeli forces of imposing collective punishment on the Palestinian people, including children, on the pretext of 'security'.

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The Loan Gunmen
Big UK mortgage lender asks for Bank of England bail out


BBC
2007-09-13 21:03:00

The Bank of England has agreed to give emergency financial support to the Northern Rock, one of the UK's largest mortgage lenders, the BBC has learned.

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Dollar Hits New All-Time Low Against Euro Amid Speculation Fed Will Cut Interest Rates

Jackie Farwell
Associated Press
2007-09-12 20:35:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- The dollar plunged to its lowest point ever against the euro Wednesday amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates and on a warning from the U.S. treasury secretary that turbulence in financial markets may linger.

The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3914 in New York trading -- topping its previous record of $1.3852 reached July 24. It later fell back to $1.3908, still up from $1.3832 in New York late Tuesday.



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The Living Planet
'Nearly 275,000' affected by floods in little-known Ghana disaster


IRIN
2007-09-13 17:46:00

Government figures indicate that in northern Ghana flooding has affected more people than in all other West African countries combined, yet the disaster has received little international attention compared to floods elsewhere in the region.

©Unknown


The government's National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) says floods have affected close to 275,000 people in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions of the country. Parts of the Western Region have also seen flooding. Most of the affected people are displaced, although some are still living in what is left of their homes.

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Algal bloom proves persistent in New Zealand

John Maslin
Wanganui Chronicle
2007-09-13 17:29:00

The algal bloom that tarnished Virginia Lake earlier this year refuses to go away.

Scientists expected the blue-green algae would die out in the chill winter, but not so.

Barry Gilliland, Horizons Regional Council's water quality leader, said latest sampling from the lake had shown a rapid increase in the algal cell count in the lake.

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Nine cows die after drinking from Delmoe Lake in Montana, algae suspected...


Associated Press
2007-09-13 17:26:00

Nine cows died after drinking from Delmoe Lake, a popular recreational lake east of Butte.

A witness reported watching two of the cows drink water from the lake, then walk just a few feet before falling over dead. This has prompted a warning for people to stay out of Delmoe Lake.

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Dry summer, disease proving deadly for deer in Illinois

Rod Kloeckner
Belleville News-Democrat
2007-09-13 17:14:00

The first reports filtered in late last month, about the time deer hunters began trimming shooting lanes and servicing tree stands for the upcoming season.

Hunters and farmers in Southern Illinois began finding dead deer on their property. Others observed sickly looking whitetails with bloodshot eyes, drooling excessively and walking around emaciated in a shocklike state.

Tom Micetich knew exactly what the culprit was: Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, or EHD, an often-fatal disease that hits deer herds hard during excessively dry summers with limited rainfall, like the one the region is just completing.

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Virus may have killed over 1,000 deer in Pennsylvania


The Morning Call
2007-09-12 17:11:00

An insect-borne virus may have killed more than 1,000 deer in southwestern Pennsylvania this year, and officials said it appears to have struck earlier and wider than previously.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission said Tuesday that epizootic hemorrhagic disease has been confirmed in a third Pennsylvania county, Beaver, and tests are being performed to see if it has reached Allegheny, Cambria or Westmoreland counties.

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Thousands of wild salmon in Scotland are infected with 'bleeding' parasite

Frank Urquhart
The Scotsman
2007-09-12 16:20:00

Thousands of wild Atlantic salmon returning to Scotland's rivers have been infected by a mysterious parasite which has left them with bleeding wounds.

The Fisheries Research Service (FRS) in Scotland has revealed that evidence of the infection has been found in salmon in more than 50 rivers across the country.

The unprecedented infection is also widespread in England, Wales and Ireland.

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Health & Wellness
Psychologists say: No play can make Jack or Jill a sick little boy or girl

Larissa Liepins
CanWest News Service
2007-09-12 21:23:00

All is not well in the playgrounds of the world, says an international group of child therapists, including several prominent Canadians.

©Vancouver Sun
A UNICEF report found that British children are among the most unhappy in the developed world. Outdoor, unstructured and loosely supervised play is missing in children's lives, the report added.



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Science & Technology
Microsoft fiddles with your Windows without permission

Nick Farrell
The Inquirer
2007-09-13 12:25:00

SOFTWARE GIANT, Microsoft has been caught updating punters' Windows machines without asking them.

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Bizarre Parasitic Star Found

Ker Than
Space.com
2007-09-12 22:27:00

A dead, spinning star has been found feeding on its stellar companion, whittling it down to an object smaller than some planets.

©Sonoma State


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Our Haunted Planet

No new articles.


Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Italy urged to go on pasta strike


BBC
2007-09-13 15:15:00

Consumers' associations in Italy have asked people to refrain from buying or eating pasta for the day, in protest against recent price increases.

The groups are requesting the government intervene to reduce pasta prices.

An increase in the price of wheat in recent months has forced pasta manufacturers to pass on the cost.


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Surfer Rescues Dog Swept Off Mich. Pier


Associated Press
2007-09-12 22:00:00

©AP Photo/Don Dobbin
Surfer Joe Riopelle, left, pulls in Matt Smolenski and a rescued dog Tuesday afternoon.


GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - A surfer rode a wave on his stomach to rescue a struggling dog that had been swept off a pier and into Lake Michigan by a wave.

Matt Smolenski, 25, said he grabbed the pooch's collar just as the exhausted, black-and-brown mixed breed stopped dog-paddling on Tuesday.


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