- Signs of the Times Archive for Fri, 05 Oct 2007 -



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U.S. News
Meat Company Going Out of Business After Recall

Ken Belson and Kareem Fahim
The New York Times
2007-10-05 17:44:00

Topps Meat Company, one of the country's largest manufacturers of frozen hamburgers, said today it was going out of business after it recalled more than 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products last month.

The company, based in Elizabeth, New Jersey, said a few of its 87 employees will remain at the plant to help the United States Department of Agriculture investigate how the E. coli bacteria tainted frozen hamburger patties made there. Anthony D'Urso, the chief operating officer at Topps, said the company was unable to withstand the financial burden of the recall.

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Craig's decision to stay a headache for GOP


CNN
2007-10-05 17:31:00

Some fellow Republicans are peeved that Sen. Larry Craig has decided to complete his term despite his earlier announcement about resigning, but the Idaho lawmaker still has his backers.

©GETTY IMAGES
Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has backed off an earlier statement that he would resign from the Senate.



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Made-in-China Boy Scout badges recalled for lead levels


Agent France-Presse
2007-10-05 15:47:00

More than a million Made-in-China Boy Scout badges are being recalled for having unacceptably high lead levels, a US scouting spokesman said Friday.

"During a routine test of products, Boy Scouts of America found that one component of a totem, a cub scout recognition item, contains unacceptable amounts of lead" said Gregg Shields, a spokesman for the Dallas, Texas-based group.

There was no incident reported linked to the recognition badges worn on the uniforms of boys aged 7-8.

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iPod Sets Man's Pants On Fire


WSBTV.com
2007-10-05 15:30:00

The new iPod Nano is hot. But one Douglasville man said his old Nano got even hotter -- hot enough to burst into flames.

"So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest," said Danny Williams.

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Hysteria! Mobile phone left aboard detained Alaska Airlines plane ruled harmless

Christina Siderius
Seattle Times
2007-10-05 02:20:00

Police determined that an unclaimed object that prompted the brief isolation of an Alaska Airlines plane carrying 104 passengers and five crew members today at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was harmless, an airport spokeswoman said.


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Hypocrisy! "Judas Goat" Obama Stops Wearing Flag Pin

Mike Glover
Associated Press
2007-10-04 01:30:00

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for "true patriotism" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Asked about it Wednesday in an interview with KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Illinois senator said he stopped wearing the pin shortly after the attacks and instead hoped to show his patriotism by explaining his ideas to citizens.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
Police State: Two Disabled Men Seized for Looking at Officers

Julie Magee
Daily Echo Online
2007-09-27 09:00:00

A LUNCHTIME pint at their local pub took a more sinister turn on Wednesday when two disabled men found themselves at the centre of a police search operation.

©Daily Echo Online
Surrounded: Michael Burbidge and Robert Hamlen found themselves at the centre of a police search while having a drink at the West Cliff Tavern


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Spanish police detain 22 senior Batasuna members - the ETA political wing


AFP
2007-10-04 20:04:00

Spanish police on Thursday detained 22 senior members of Batasuna, the banned political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, as they met in the Basque town of Segura, a judicial source told AFP.

Madrid's top anti-terrorist judge Baltasar Garzon, who ordered their arrest, suspects the meeting was aimed at transferring power to a new leaders in the party which has been weakened by a series of recent detentions, the source said.

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Arrests after da Vinci work found


BBC News
2007-10-04 18:56:00

A police raid in Glasgow has recovered a Leonardo da Vinci painting stolen more than four years ago.

©Unknown
The masterpiece has been at the centre of a worldwide search


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Around the World
U.N. envoy warns Myanmar

Claudia Parsons
Reuters
2007-10-05 16:24:00

A U.N. envoy warned Myanmar on Friday of international consequences from its brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters, and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party dismissed the junta's offer of talks as a surrender demand.

©REUTERS/Chip East
Kyaw Tint Swe, Myanmar's ambassador to the United Nations speaks during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council about the situation in Myanmar, at U.N. headquarters, in New York, October 5, 2007.




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3 year old boy found in Amazon; Lost 11 Days

Michael Astor
Associated Press
2007-10-05 15:24:00

A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the dense Amazon rain forest was found after 11 days, dehydrated and scratched but apparently unharmed, police said Friday.

Neilson Oliveira Lima disappeared from his home in the rural community Pupuai on Sept 16, said Amazonas state police officer Ailson Carvalho.

"He went in the forest following his father and he got lost. He was found by his cousin, who was out hunting," Carvalho said in a telephone interview from Caraurai, the nearest town. "Nobody knows what he ate or how he survived."

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North Korean disarmament prospects dim despite landmark deal


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-04 02:30:00

While the United States has hailed the latest deal to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes as a big step forward, analysts warned Thursday that total disarmament remained a very dim prospect.

Doubts remain over whether the secretive regime in Pyongyang is genuinely prepared to give up its atomic ambitions, or whether it is cunningly stringing the world along in return for energy aid and other incentives, they said.

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Korea deal tests Kim Jong-il's commitment says media

Jack Kim
Reuters
2007-10-05 01:03:00

South Korean media questioned on Friday whether the two Koreas' summit pledge to seek a formal end to their 1950-53 war could be realized given Pyongyang's record of broken promises.

The ambition was spelled out by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a joint statement signed in Pyongyang on Thursday at the end of a three-day summit.

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Pinochet family arrested in Chile


BBC News
2007-10-04 20:19:00

The widow and five children of Chile's former military ruler, Gen Augusto Pinochet, have been arrested on charges of embezzlement.

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Big Brother
Contractors Plan to Scan D.C. Motorists

Jason Mick
DailyTech
2007-10-04 05:22:00

Washington road contractors have some innovative and perhaps intrusive traffic control strategies.

Civil contractor Transurban doesn't want Washington D.C. drivers cheating its toll system -- so it is going to scan them.

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Enough is enough! Bra check upsets court visitor

Taryn Hecker
SpokesmanReview.com
2007-10-04 01:39:00

A Bonners Ferry woman says she was humiliated when security guards at the federal courthouse in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, told her she'd have to remove her underwire bra to get inside.

Lori Plato said she was going into the courthouse for a court hearing Sept. 20 when the metal detector went off as she passed through security.

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Madness! 24 illegal song downloads cost US woman 220,000 dollars


AFP
2007-10-04 23:29:00

The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman shared copyrighted music online and levied $222,000 in damages against her.

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Axis of Evil
Damage Control! Rice orders more oversight of contractors in Iraq


CNN
2007-10-05 16:45:00

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered the implementation of three steps to bolster the accountability of private security firms in Iraq, including the Blackwater USA.

Special agents from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security will begin accompanying Blackwater protective details, and the bureau will increase its "capability to review material after a reported incident," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"We currently monitor radio transmissions; we will begin recording them. We will also mount video cameras in security vehicles and begin archiving electronic tracking of movement data," McCormack said Friday.

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Blackwater faulted by U.S. military


Reuters
2007-10-05 16:00:00

U.S. military reports from the scene of a shooting incident in Baghdad involving security contractor Blackwater indicates its guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

At least 11 Iraqis were killed in the September 16 incident, which has outraged Iraqis who see the firm as a private army which acts with impunity.

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Surprise, suprise! CIA detention program remains active says a U.S. official

Randall Mikkelsen
Reuters
2007-10-05 00:35:00

A secret CIA overseas detention program revealed by President George W. Bush last year remains active and has held at least one al Qaeda militant since then, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

©Reuters
CIA Director Michael Hayden speaks with Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) before testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee on the situation in Iraq, during hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington November 15, 2006.




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FBI takes lead in Blackwater investigation

Sue Pleming and Andy Sullivan
Reuters
2007-10-04 23:33:00

The FBI has taken control from the State Department of an investigation into the September 16 shooting incident involving security contractor Blackwater in which 11 Iraqis were killed, the department said on Thursday.

The shift occurred for a variety of reasons, including to prepare for the possibility the case could be referred later on to the U.S. Justice Department or Iraqi authorities for further action, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

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Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State

Norman Solomon
AlterNet
2007-10-01 18:46:00

This article is excerpted from Norman Solomon's new book "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State."

The new book Made Love, Got War documents five decades of rising American militarism and the media's all-to-frequent failure to challenge it.

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Middle East Madness
Propaganda Alert! US forces kill 25 in Iraq air strikes


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-05 09:35:00

A double US air strike near the Iraqi city of Baquba on Friday killed around 25 suspected Iranian-linked insurgents, the military said, but Iraqi officials said women and children were among the dead.

A US military statement said the operations targeted an Iranian-linked commander believed to be smuggling weapons across the border from Iran, accused by the Americans of fuelling the sectarian conflict in Iraq.



Comment: Never lose an opportunity to fuel the fire for war with Iran with some unsubstantiated propaganda. As usual the US denies killing any civilians as for them everyone is a potential insurgent. Shoot first and ask questions later.



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Impunity rules! Investigator asks for lesser charge in Haditha masacre case


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-05 00:39:00

An investigative officer has asked that murder charges be dropped against a marine sergeant in the alleged 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, the sergeant's lawyer said Thursday.

Sergeant Frank Wuterich, accused of unpremeditated murder in the death of 17 Iraqis in the November 19, 2005 incident west of Baghdad, attended a preliminary hearing early September in Camp Pendleton, California.

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1.4 billion dollars in possible US arms sales to Mideast announced


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-05 01:04:00

The Pentagon notified Congress Thursday of possible sales of missiles, armored vehicles and cargo aircraft upgrades worth nearly 1.4 billion dollars to four Mideast states.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this year promoted a much larger package of arms sales to the region earlier this year as a means to counter Iran.



Comment: Increased insecurity in the Middle East has of course nothing to do with arms sales. Remember, it is Iran that is the destabilising influence. That there is no evidence for it just makes it more true, according to neocon logic.



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Opening of Vatican sized US Embassy in Iraq delayed

Anne Gearan and Matthew Lee
Associated Press
2007-10-05 00:51:00

The opening of a mammoth, $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which had been planned for last month, has now been delayed well into next year, U.S. officials said Thursday. The Vatican-sized compound, which will be the world's largest diplomatic mission, has been beset by construction and logistical problems.

"They are substantially behind at this point," and it would be surprising if any offices or living quarters could be occupied before the end of the year, one official told The Associated Press.



Comment: If you think that the US ever had any intention of leaving Iraq, think again!



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Flashback: Slave Labor at US Embassy in Baghdad?


Inter Press Service
2006-10-27 12:00:00

Several months before a U.S. construction foreman named John Owen quit in disgust over what he said was blatant abuse of foreign laborers hired to build the sprawling new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Rory Mayberry witnessed similar events when he flew to Kuwait from his home in Myrtle Creek, Ore.

The gravelly-voiced, easygoing U.S. Army veteran had previously worked in Iraq for Halliburton and the private security company Danubia. Missing the action and the big paychecks U.S. contractors draw there, Mayberry snagged a $10,000-month job with MSDS consulting company.

MSDS is a two-person, minority-owned consulting company that assists U.S. State Department managers in Washington with procurement programming. Never before had the firm offered medical services or worked in Iraq, but First Kuwaiti - Owen's employer - hired MSDS on the recommendation of Jim Golden, the State Department contract official overseeing the embassy project. Within days, an agreement worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical care was signed.

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Iraq PM says 'unfit' Blackwater must go


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-05 00:39:00

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday that Blackwater should leave the country because of the mountain of evidence against the under-fire US security firm.

His comments came amid growing anger among Iraqis that "above-the-law" security contractors are continuing to operate in Iraq while Blackwater is being probed over a deadly shooting 17 days ago.

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The Loan Gunmen
Microsoft lets "Halo"-maker Bungie go


Machinist
2007-10-05 17:51:00

A few-day-old rumor has been confirmed: Bungie Studios, the Microsoft subsidiary that produces the mega-selling "Halo" video game series, is going independent. Microsoft announced today that it would allow the company to go on its own but will retain an equity share in the firm; the press release seems to suggest that all "intellectual property" related to the "Halo" series will remain exclusive to Microsoft's game consoles. Other games, however, could go all over the place.

The motive for the move remains a bit murky. "Halo 3" just racked up $300 million in its first week of sales -- one of the best openings for any entertainment property of any kind. So why would MS let Bungie go?

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Horse Hockey! Bush: Jobs report shows "vibrant" economy


Reuters
2007-10-05 15:09:00

President George W. Bush said on Friday the latest employment report showed a "vibrant and strong" economy.

Bush was speaking to reporters after the government reported that U.S. employers added 110,000 new jobs in September, showing a more resilient labor market than previously thought.

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Dollar's double blow from Vietnam and Qatar

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph.co.uk
2007-10-04 04:59:00

Vietnam is planning to cut its purchases of US Treasuries and other dollar bonds, raising fears that Asian central banks with control over two thirds of the world's foreign reserves may soon join the flight from US assets.

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"Capitalism and Freedom" Unmasked

Stephen Lendman
SJ Lendman Blog
2007-10-04 04:06:00

An era ended November 16, 2006 when economist Milton Friedman died. A torrent of eulogies followed. The Wall Street Journal mourned his loss with the same tribute he credulously used when Ronald Reagan died saying "few people in human history have contributed more to the achievement of human freedom." Economist and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called him a hero and "The Great Liberator" in a New York Times op-ed; the UK Financial Times called him "the last of the great economists;" Terence Corcoran, editor of Canada's National Post, mourned the "free markets" loss of "their last lion;" and Business Week magazine noted the "Death of a Giant" and praised his doctrine that "the best thing government can do is supply the economy with the money it needs and stand aside."

Rarely had so much praise been given anyone so undeserving in light of the human wreckage his legacy left strewn everywhere. He believed government's sole function is "to protect our freedom both from (outside) enemies....and from our fellow-citizens." It's to "preserve law and order (as well as) enforce private contracts, (safeguard private property and) foster competitive markets." Everything else in public hands is socialism that for free-wheeling market fundamentalists like Friedman is blasphemy. He said markets work best unfettered of rules, regulations, onerous taxes, trade barriers, "entrenched interests" and human interference, and the best government is practically none at all as anything it can do private business does better. Democracy and a government of, by and for the people? Forget it.

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Miami Valley becomes year's 3rd failed bank


Reuters
2007-10-05 02:44:00

Miami Valley Bank, with $86.7 million in assets, became the third failed insured bank this year when Ohio's industry regulators closed it down on Thursday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said.

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Ethanol investment faces bumpy ride

David Brough
Reuters
2007-10-05 00:03:00

Investment opportunities in green fuel ethanol are clouded by falling prices, rising costs and excess capacity, but prospects will improve on expectations for high oil prices, consultant Jonathan Kingsman said on Thursday.

Lausanne-based Kingsman said the media had turned against biofuel investments because of a growing perception that increasing use of staple foodstuffs as feedstock for green fuel was contributing towards higher food prices.



Comment: Good grief, they aren't trying to convince us that this is not the case, are they?



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The Living Planet
Ozone Hole Shrunk by a Third

ESA
European Space Agency
2007-10-03 14:55:00

The ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk 30 percent as compared to last year's record size. According to measurements made by ESA's Envisat satellite, this year's ozone loss peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes.



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Philippine Volcano Eruption: 16 Villages Hit By Volcanic Ash

Mike Cohen
Pacific News Center
2007-10-04 09:35:00

7:58 p.m. A pair of mild eruptions hit Mt. Bulusan, a volcano in Sorsagon Province, which is part of the Bicol Region on Luzon Island. Relief and disaster teams report that an estimated 10,000 people are affected by clouds of ash. Some residents were reported to have suffered breathing problems, from the effects of thick, sulfur-laden ash and were hospitalized.


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Update! Yemen volcano erupts again


Gulfnews
2007-10-04 10:58:00

A volcano which erupted on the Yemeni island of Jebel Al Tair began spewing lava again on Wednesday evening. The news was confirmed by Hussein Abdul-Rahman, head of control center at the Naval Operation Room.

According to the Yemeni state news agency, Saba, the lava started to come out again from the western part of the island at 6pm UAE time.

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Devastating Earthquake May Threaten Middle East's Near Future, Geologist Predicts


Science Daily
2007-10-05 10:12:00

The best seismologists in the world don't know when the next big earthquake will hit. But a Tel Aviv University geologist suggests that earthquake patterns recorded in historical documents of Middle Eastern countries indicate that the region's next significant quake is long overdue.

©American Colony Hotel, American Colony Collection
Damage in Jerusalem's Old City following a July 11, 1927, earthquake. One of the first earthquakes on the Dead Sea Fault to be recorded by modern seismographic techniques, it reached 6.2 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was in the northern part of the Dead Sea.




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Forest fires rage in some areas of Indonesia


Xinhua
2007-10-05 09:52:00

JAKARTA - At least 1,736 separate fire hotspots have been detected in Kalimantan island and South Sumatra province of Indonesia over the past week, officials said.

In Kalimantan, where 1,370 hotspots have been found, haze from the forest fires has begun to disrupt flights at Syamsuddin Noor Airport in Banjar Baru city in South Kalimantan, the Jakarta Post daily Friday quoted head of the South Kalimantan Environmental Impact Management Agency Rahmadi Kurdi as saying.

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Indonesian villagers brace for potential volcanic eruption


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-04 02:24:00

Indonesian residents living near a rumbling volcano in East Java have begun evacuation drills, officials said Thursday as they warned activity was increasing at the site.

Volcanologists lifted an alert for Mount Kelut to the third of a four-level warning system last Sunday. Hiking the warning to the four level means scientists fear an eruption is imminent.

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Health & Wellness
My psychopathic sweetheart: he may seem the ideal mate, but the romantic predator's narcissism eventually surfaces

Sarah Hampson
Globe and Mail
2007-10-04 17:07:00

The courtship is always a whirlwind. He is handsome, charming, confident. His love letters are filled with longing. The flattery flows. You are smart. You are beautiful. You are his ideal love.

Master of the grand gesture, he whisks you off on romantic weekends. Mid-Atlantic, he pulls out a little present for you, just as the stewardess fills your glasses with wine.

You have no idea that he is a psychopath: deeply narcissistic, devoid of real feeling, a romantic predator. Why would you? He is your dream man.

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Got calcium? UWM researcher finds that food labels confuse consumers


EurekAlert
2007-10-05 09:23:00

Consumers often don't get nutritional information they need.

Current food labeling leads to under-consumption of calcium, according to this study. Those who were taught how to translate the information consumed more. Researchers believe the same is true for other beneficial nutrients.

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Workplace woe: Are abusive bosses or inferior employees to blame?


EurekAlert
2007-10-05 09:23:00

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Considerable attention, both in blogs and in popular media, has been given to abusive bosses over the past few years. (See the Web sites HateBoss.com and WorkRant.com, for example.) Less discussed are employees' responses to such behavior. How do employees react to abusive supervisors" Do they simply take what is dished out, or do they actively seek to change the situation"


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Pipe Dreams - Contaminants and Chlorine in Drinking Water

Robert D. Morris
The New York Times
2007-10-03 06:14:00

In a time when we endlessly scrutinize the ingredients of our food and insist on pesticide-free peaches, why are we still mixing carcinogens into our children's lemonade? From herbicides to arsenic, the Environmental Protection Agency has set standards for 80 different chemicals, specifying how much of each should be allowed in our drinking water. Yet no regulations exist for thousands of other contaminants that make their way into our drinking water.

These unregulated contaminants include industrial byproducts, agricultural chemicals, drugs and even most of the toxic compounds that are formed when we add chlorine for disinfection. The combined effect of these contaminants has never been evaluated.

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Right on Schedule: Bird flu virus mutating into human-unfriendly form

Maggie Fox
Reuters
2007-10-05 00:25:00

The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday.

The changes are worrying, said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Science & Technology
ESA deals with dangerous natural space debris


European Commission
2007-10-04 16:42:00

An object from space, possibly a meteorite, recently plummeted to earth and landed in a remote region of South America, creating a crater 30m wide and 6m deep. People living in the Andes mountainous of Peru claimed to have witnessed a fireball falling from the sky. The event has highlighted the need to find out more about natural space debris and their trajectories. The European Space Agency (ESA) has always expressed an interest in such events and has carried out a number of studies into what action should be taken.

©n/a
We need to know more about natural space debris and their trajectories.


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Mirror mirror in the sky, save us from asteroids flashing by

Fiona Macleod
Scotsman.com News
2007-10-05 16:35:00

A network of mirrors harnessing the destructive power of the sun might save the world from disaster, space experts believe.

If an asteroid should be discovered on a catastrophic collision course with our planet, researchers at Glasgow University say mirrors are the best way to save us from annihilation.

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Hydrothermal Vents: Hot Spots Of Microbial Diversity


Science Daily/Marine Biological Laboratory
2007-10-05 09:55:00

Thousands of new kinds of marine microbes have been discovered at two deep-sea hydrothermal vents off the Oregon coast by scientists at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) and University of Washington's Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean.

Their findings, published in the journal Science, are the result of the most comprehensive, comparative study to date of deep-sea microbial communities that are responsible for cycling carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur to help keep Earth habitable.

©NOAA Vents Program, NeMO Seafloor Observatory
Image of diffuse flow hydrothermal vent Marker 52 taken in 2006 by the Remotely Operated Vehicle ROPOS during the NeMO 2006 expedition to Axial Seamount.




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Thousands of new marine microbes discovered

Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
2007-10-04 17:00:00

Scientists have uncovered thousands of marine microbes -- including never-before-seen bacteria -- thriving deep in the sea near cracks in the Earth's crust where warm fluids and cold sea water mix, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Using new DNA sequencing techniques, the researchers have identified as many as 37,000 different kinds of bacteria huddled near two hydrothermal vents on an underwater volcano off the Oregon coast.

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No Faking It, Crocodile Tears Are Real


Science Daily
2007-10-05 10:00:00

When someone feigns sadness they "cry crocodile tears," a phrase that comes from an old myth that the animals cry while eating.

Now, a University of Florida researcher has concluded that crocodiles really do bawl while banqueting - but for physiological reasons rather than rascally reptilian remorse.

©Kent Vliet/University of Florida
An alligator weeps while eating at the Florida's St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in spring 2006. University of Florida zoologist Kent Vliet shot the photo while observing alligators and caimans at the park in an attempt to determine the truth of the myth that crocodiles cry while eating. Five of the seven animals, close relatives of the crocodile, teared up during meals. Like the one pictured here, some of their tears even bubbled and frothed.




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Russia to help NASA explore Moon, Mars


Agence France-Presse
2007-10-04 02:04:00

Russia is to provide the US space agency NASA with instruments for scanning both the Moon and Mars under agreements signed here Wednesday.

©n/a




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Our Haunted Planet
And then there were 12,332


Lee Enterprises
2007-09-30 16:39:00

When Sputnik began orbiting Earth in 1957, it was a lone satellite. Today, there are thousands of satellites and other remnants of space missions -- so much that the term "space junk" has been coined.

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Geesh! Bill Clinton brings Reservoir Dogs to London with his entourage of over 20 bodyguards

COLIN FERNANDEZ
Daily Mail
2007-10-04 01:18:00

©Daily Mail
Bill Clinton's stroll through London on Thursday had more in common with Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs than a low-key shopping outing



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Confused moose thinks he's a cow


Associated Press
2007-10-05 00:39:00

CANNONBALL, N.D. - When Beverly and Ernie Fischer gathered up their cattle this fall in Morton County, they rounded up a little more than they expected. We were moving some cattle, and we got a moose," Ernie Fischer said. "He thinks he is a cow," said his wife.

©(AP Photo/Bismarck Tribune, Will Kincaid)
A young bull moose looks over his new enclosure on the Cannonball Ranch in southern Morton County, N.D., Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007. Ranch Manager Ernie Fisher noticed a broken fence earlier in the day and later on discovered the bull moose in the cow pens with the cattle. Fischer said it was difficult to get the young bull moose away from the cattle, and workers put it in a separate corral until it could be released.




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