- Signs of the Times Archive for Fri, 09 May 2008 -



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Best of the Web
Neocons and the truth: Bitter enemies to the end

Glenn Greenwald
Salon
2008-05-09 14:08:00

In a July, 2006 article in Rolling Stone -- entitled "Iran: The Next War" -- the superb journalist James Bamford detailed the shady activities of numerous neoconservatives inside and out of the U.S. Government to plan an attack on Iran. Bamford focused on the role played by Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute and National Review, who created and began implementing an attack scheme in coordination with the Pentagon's then number-three official, Doug Feith, and Feith's deputy, Larry Franklin (subsequently convicted of felonies for passing classified information to AIPAC).

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The Terror that begot Israel

Khalid Amayreh
The Palestinian Information Center
2008-05-08 21:34:00

Born to kill
©Unknown


"We committed Nazi acts." -- Aharon Zisling, Israel's first Agriculture Minister

"There is no doubt that many sexual atrocities were committed by the attacking Jews. Many young (Arab) girls were raped and later slaughtered. Old women were also molested." -- General Richard Catling, British Army Assistant Inspector after interrogating several female survivors (The Palestinian Catastrophe, Michael Palumbo, 1987)

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U.S. News
Ohio: Arson Fires Plague Cleveland Neighborhoods


Firehouse
2008-05-07 16:39:00

Police are looking for arsonists who are targeting a Cleveland neighborhood.

Fire investigators said the arsonists have been setting fires in the Hough neighborhood, around East 98th Street and Union, and residents say they are scared.

Vacant houses are the targets of a man-made firestorm spreading from neighborhood to neighborhood around Cleveland.

Karen Washington lives in the path of the arson storm. On Tuesday, someone set fire to a vacant house across the street, and it quickly spread to two adjacent houses that were also uninhabited.

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Bush Policy: Quick Border Fence Trumps the Environment

Liliana Segura
Alternet
2008-05-03 14:25:00

Current controversy aside, the border "fence" is one of those harebrained schemes that might be funny if it weren't so cynical and racist.

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Briefing: The Iraq money pit


The Week Daily
2008-05-09 13:55:00

The war in Iraq is costing the U.S. $12 billion a month, and no one can say when the spending will stop. What has all that money bought for the U.S. - and the Iraqis?

How much has the war cost so far?
About $600 billion since 2003, and the total is rising fast. Because of soaring fuel costs and the high price of repairing or replacing damaged equipment, the U.S. is spending about $12 billion a month this year, up from $4 billion a month in 2003. About $1.5 billion of the monthly total covers reconstruction, and perhaps an additional $4.5 billion flows to private contractors doing everything from serving food to guarding diplomats. The remainder covers fuel, ammunition, and equipment, as well as the cost of paying, feeding, housing, and providing medical care to more than 150,000 U.S. military personnel. The $600 billion figure does not include such costly consequences as higher oil prices, the interest on the billions borrowed to pay for the war (see below), and the burden of long-term care and benefits for Iraq war veterans.


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West Coast ports shut down as workers protest Iraq war

Ronald W. Powell
SignOnSanDiego.com
2008-05-02 10:35:00

port workers protest
©Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle
Port workers took to the streets yesterday after blocking several entrances to the Port of Oakland.


Dole Fresh Fruit Co.'s San Diego operation reported a loss of $316,000 because of a work stoppage yesterday by West Coast dockworkers protesting the Iraq war.

Dole's report of losses, mostly in bananas, was the only one disclosed by local companies in the daylong protest, which involved thousands of workers at 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle.

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Texas teens say they converted skull into bong


Associated Press
2008-05-09 09:54:00

Three teenagers were arrested after two of them told police they dug up a secluded grave north of Houston, removed the skull from the coffin and converted it into a marijuana bong.

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McCain blames bridge collapse on earmarks -- then backs off

Maeve Reston
Los Angeles Times
2008-05-02 09:14:00

He had told reporters that a Minnesota span fell 'because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.' But that may not be the case.

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Senate panel bans private contractors in CIA interrogations

Pamela Hess
Associated Press
2008-05-01 08:52:00

Washington - The Senate Intelligence Committee moved on Thursday to ban the CIA from using private contractors to interrogate detainees.

The restriction is part of a bill that authorizes intelligence spending for 2009, which the panel approved on a 10-5 vote, sending it to the full Senate for further action.

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More smoke and mirrors: Pelosi says more stimulus needed, Bush "in denial"

Kevin Drawbaugh
Reuters
2008-05-06 01:20:00

Washington - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called for a second economic stimulus package and said President George W. Bush is "in denial" about the U.S. economy, drawing a sharp White House response.

Tax rebate checks are in the mail to millions of Americans under a $152 billion economic stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year and signed into law by Bush.

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It's About the White House


The New York Times
2008-05-07 01:12:00

Like many Americans, we have been intrigued and often exasperated by the long-running Democratic primary and the ever smaller-bore spats between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So we are thankful to Senator John McCain for reminding us Tuesday what this year's presidential race really is about.

On a day when Mr. Obama won a decisive victory in North Carolina and Mrs. Clinton eked out a win in Indiana, Mr. McCain spoke about his judicial philosophy. He is determined to move a far too conservative and far too activist Supreme Court and federal judiciary even further and more actively to the right.

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Fresno man gets max sentence for killing girlfriend


KSEE 24 News
2008-05-06 01:33:00

Matthew Sanchez
©KSEE 24 News


A Fresno man who killed his girlfriend received the maximum sentence Monday morning.

Matthew Sanchez was ordered to spend the next 50 years to life in prison for killing 21-year-old Megan Israelsky in December 2006.

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More Than 43,000 Unfit Troops Deployed

Gregg Zoroya
USA Today
2008-05-08 00:41:00

Washington - More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.

This reliance on troops found medically "non-deployable" is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million servicemembers to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups say.


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7 more cops pulled from Philly streets over taped beating


Associated Press
2008-05-09 00:18:00

Philadelphia - Seven more police officers were taken off street duty Thursday as investigators look into the videotaped police beating of three shooting suspects during a traffic stop.


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'Best Santa ever' arrested in New Jersey on child sex charges


Associated Press
2008-05-08 22:10:00

Newark, N.J. - A rare international alert seeking a man shown in dozens of raw child porn images quickly led to the arrest of a small-time actor, who painted faces at children's parties and performed as "the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen."

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US warns China of 'technological isolation'


Space Daily
2008-05-08 23:48:00

The United States warned China Thursday that it risked "technological isolation" for developing unique technical standards of its own that also are shutting out foreign competition.

Despite widely accepted international standards, China developed standards mandated by government regulations amid a lack of transparency and due process, said Under Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla.

"These requirements certainly provide Chinese domestic companies an unfair advantage, but they also carry great risks for China," he told a conference in Washington on standards and innovation in China.

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Judge orders CIA to turn over "torture" memo: American Civil Liberties Union

Michelle Nichols
News Daily
2008-05-08 23:23:00

NEW YORK - A U.S. judge ordered the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday to submit to the court a 2002 memo said to specify harsh interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists held abroad.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the memo was written by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and sent to the CIA in August 2002. The ACLU described the memo as "one of the most important torture documents still being withheld by the Bush administration."

In a copy of the order posted on the ACLU's Web site, Judge Alvin Hellerstein told the government to produce the memo so he can determine whether it should be made public as part of a lawsuit the ACLU and other organizations filed in June 2004 requesting records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad.

Hellerstein has scheduled a review of the document for Monday.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
Russia: Medvedev Needn't Be Putin's Puppet

Vidya Ram
Forbes
2008-05-08 16:51:00

"A tandem" was the way that Dmitry Medvedev, the new president of Russia, described his relationship with Vladimir Putin, the old one.

The pair will be leading the world's seventh-largest economy for the next four years.

As Duma deputies voted Putin in as prime minister, Russia's new and youngest president pledged that his former mentor would retain a "key role" in the governance "Our cooperation will only continue to strengthen," he told deputies of the lower house on Thursday.

Medvedev's comments haven't done much to put a stop to speculation that he will just end up a Putin puppet, a stopgap president to fill in the four years before Putin can return to power in 2012.

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Insolvency epidemic


Mirror UK
2008-05-05 14:40:00

Britain is facing an "insolvency epidemic" with nearly 300 people going broke every day.


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Swiss seek the good oil in Azerbaijan


Swiss Info
2008-05-09 13:40:00

President Pascal Couchepin will begin a three-day visit to oil-rich Azerbaijan on Saturday, as Switzerland seeks to diversify its energy sources.

It comes shortly after cabinet colleague Micheline Calmy-Rey stirred up a hornet's nest by witnessing a gas deal with Iran.

Couchepin's visit promises to be less controversial: talks with the Azerbaijanis will focus on business and energy ties, as well as the bilateral relationship between the two countries and regional issues.

The former Soviet republic is of great interest to foreign investors because of its important gas and oil reserves.


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French flock to answer a call to work . . . by taking the day off

Adam Sage
The Times Online
2008-05-09 09:03:00

Schools will shut, business activity will slow and aperitifs will flow in sun-soaked gardens today while the French confirm their status as the world holiday champions with an unofficial day off.

Ignoring the call from President Sarkozy to work harder, millions of employees will down tools to travel to the seaside and the countryside on what is, in theory, an ordinary working day.

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Macedonia, US sign declaration on strategic partnership

Spasena Baramova
SofiaEcho.com
2008-05-09 08:04:00

On May 7 2008, Macedonia and the US inked a declaration on strategic partnership, world news agencies reported.

The agreement expressed the two countries' intention to develop their cooperation in the fields of security, economy and culture, as well as to extend their military ties.

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Man dies on UK bound plane from Cyprus

Nathan Morley
Famagusta Gazette
2008-05-08 08:01:00

A flight ended in tragedy last night when a passenger suffered what is believed to have been a heart attack just after take - off.


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London Olympics terror threat used to vastly increase surveillance powers

Marcus Morgan
World Socialist Web Site
2008-05-03 12:00:00

The threat of terrorism at the 2012 London Olympics is being hyped up in order to justify a vast increase in the surveillance powers of the British state.

According to a memo leaked to the Daily Telegraph, Home Office officials are planning to expand the police DNA database to identify suspects and use greater powers to track individuals through advanced closed circuit television (CCTV) technology and the Oyster card used by millions of people on London's bus and rail network.


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US diplomats expelled from Belarus

Yuras Karmanau
The Associated Press
2008-05-03 14:00:00

MINSK, Belarus - Eleven U.S. diplomats left Belarus on Saturday after being declared persona non grata amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Washington and the ex-Soviet nation, an embassy official said.
Belarus Expulsion
©AP Photo/Sergei Grits
Men stand at the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, April 30, 2008. The United States abruptly backed down on a decision to order the closure of the Belarusian embassy in Washington and consulate in New York just minutes before American diplomats were to inform Belarus of the move on Thursday, U.S. officials said.



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France fears plague of mosquitoes in Med resorts

Alasdair Sandford
The Guardian
2008-05-03 22:50:00

Camarque Mosquitoes
©Alamy/PCL
Areas such as the Camargue face a mosquito plague because of new inferior insecticide, says France.

Authorities in southern France fear a possible mosquito invasion in tourist resorts this summer and blame EU regulations which prevent them from using the most efficient insecticide.


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Labour Party slumped to its lowest rating since opinion polls began

Andrew Porter
Telegraph.co.uk
2008-05-09 19:46:00

The poll, which put the Tories 26 points ahead, added to the pressure on Gordon Brown a week after Labour suffered a devastating set of local election results and saw Boris Johnson become Mayor of London.

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Flashback: I was a slave in Puglia

Fabrizio Gatti
L'espresso
2006-09-04 14:51:00

Tomato Slaves Puglia 01
©Unknown
The correspondent of L'espresso
picking tomatoes in the field

Exploited. Underpaid. Lodged in filthy shacks. Beaten to death if they complain. Diary of a week in hell amidst the foreign laborers in the province of Foggia

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Around the World
Iranian President Ahmadinejad revives smoking in cafes

Mohammad Memarian
Mideast Youth
2008-05-04 14:00:00

Last winter, Iran's Health Ministry in cooperation with Police Forces tried to stop all traditional cafés from serving Qalyan (water pipe) to the customers. It should be noted that two general type of Qalyan have been available in such places: Traditional Qalyan which contains pure tobacco and dates back to several centuries ago, and relatively newer Fruit Qalyan which contains fruit-flavored tobacco. Officials of Health Ministry were determined to at least stop Fruit Qalyan, claiming that its tobacco is of a lower quality and the chemicals used for flavoring the tobacco are highly hazardous. By the way, this act was somehow associated with a broader plan aiming at banning public smoking.


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UN to resume food aid flights to Burma, predicts heavy rains next week


Associated Press
2008-05-09 13:01:00

he United Nations says it will resume food aid flights to Myanmar on Saturday.

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Russia's dangerous decline


The Boston Globe
2008-05-04 11:48:00

The United Nations Population Fund projected last week that Russia's population will drop from 142 million today to 100 million in the next 40 to 50 years. The agency's report praised recent government efforts to increase birth rates and extend lives. But not enough is being done to counter stark demographic forces: an impending decrease in the number of women of child-bearing age, poor healthcare, rampant vehicular and industrial accidents, widespread alcoholism, and social conditions that discourage family formation.


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U.N. Suspends Aid Supplies to Myanmar

Seth Mydans
The New York Times
2008-05-09 08:53:00

The United Nations suspended relief supplies to Myanmar on Friday after the military government seized the food and equipment it had already sent into the country.

Earlier, in a statement, Myanmar's military junta said it was willing to receive disaster relief from the outside world but would not welcome outside relief workers. Nearly one week after a devastating cyclone, supplies into the country were still being delayed and aid experts were being turned back as they arrived at the airport.

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Ecuador analyzes Colombia-Ecuador diplomatic crisis

Song Shutao
China View
2008-05-03 12:00:00

QUITO -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, together with members of the country's Security Council, on Friday analyzed the recent Colombia-Ecuador diplomatic crisis, which was triggered by a unilateral cross-border attack by Colombian troops.


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German Lawmakers Raise Their Pay, Ignore ECB's Calls

Brian Parkin and Andreas Cremer
Bloomberg
2008-05-06 23:03:00

Germany's lawmakers raised their pay for a second time in six months, snubbing the European Central Bank's calls for wage moderation as they awarded themselves increases that outstrip inflation and the pay gains of millions of workers.

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Acting Mexican police chief killed by gunman

Eduardo Castillo
Associated Press
2008-05-08 19:50:00

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's acting federal police chief was shot dead Thursday outside his home - a brazen attack that comes as drug traffickers increasingly lash back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime.

Edgar Millan Gomez was shot 10 times after he opened the door to his Mexico City apartment complex, where at least one gunman was waiting for him before dawn, the Public Safety Department said. Two bodyguards were also wounded. Millan died hours later in a hospital.

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War on Drugs called off: Marines ignore opium crops to not upset Afghan locals

Jason Straziuso
Associated Press
2008-05-06 18:27:00

The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.

Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.



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New Zealand: Nats try to save ancient trees


Stuff.co.nz
2008-05-08 18:08:00

Plans to cut down ancient trees surrounding Blue Lake in Rotorua are being criticised by the National Party.

Conservation Minister Nick Smith says the 90-year-old douglas firs should be protected, even though the cutting rights are held by a private company.

"These magnificent trees offer far more to New Zealand and Rotorua for their scenic and recreational value than as timber and pulp," he said.

"There is widespread concern in the Rotorua community about the impacts of this logging on tourism and recreation."

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Big Brother
Florida, US: At least 245 cases of tase deaths in Pinellas County

June Maxam
North County Gazette
2008-05-09 16:29:00

Between June 2001 and June 2007, there were at least 245 cases of deaths of subjects soon after having been shocked using Tasers. Of these cases, in seven cases, medical examiners said tasers were a cause or a contributing factor or could not be ruled out as a cause of death.

In 16 cases, coroners and other officials stated that a taser was a secondary or contributory factor of death.

In dozens of cases, coroners cited excited delirium as cause of death. Excited delirium has been questioned as a medical diagnosis.

Several deaths occurred as a result of injuries sustained in struggles. In a few of these cases, head injury due to falling after being shocked contributed to later death.

In 2005, a medical examiner ruled for the first time that a taser was the primary factor in a death.

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Philadelphia, US: Police brutality caught on video


BBC
2008-05-07 08:48:00

US police are investigating a video showing a group of officers in Philadelphia apparently pulling three suspects out of a car and beating them.

The incident was filmed by a TV helicopter overhead. The officers were responding to reports of a shooting nearby, police said.










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Taser use threshold slipping, probe hears

Terri Theodore
The Star
2008-05-09 01:11:00

VANCOUVER - Police across North America have earned the moniker "psychiatrists in blue" for their constant intervention with the mentally ill.

It's for that reason that the Canadian Mental Health Association implored the head of a B.C. public inquiry into the use of Tasers by law enforcement Wednesday to convince police to talk more and use the Tasers less.

Yet an official with the provincial solicitor general's ministry told the inquiry there has actually been "slippage" in the threshold for the use of the shock weapons.

Kevin Begg, assistant deputy minister for the B.C. Solicitor General's Ministry, said police officers seem to be moving too quickly to use force rather than trying to calm the situation.

The Taser was never meant to be used as a compliance weapon, he said, and the government had been contemplating changes even before a man died at Vancouver's airport last year.

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Videotape shows troopers struggling with Tasered man

Jim Adams
Star Tribune
2008-05-08 10:20:00

The Minnesota State Patrol defended its use of a Taser on a Fridley man. The stun gun was used after he punched a trooper and tried to drive from a crash scene in rush hour.

A State Patrol videotape released Thursday shows troopers struggling to subdue a motorist who died after being shot with a Taser following a car crash in January. See video HERE.
Mark Backlund
©Unknown
Troopers arrest Mark Backlund.

Officers responded after Mark Backlund, 29, crashed into a central median barrier on Interstate 694 in New Brighton. The Fridley man died about 40 minutes after the crash due to mixed drug use and heart problems, the autopsy report said.

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Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored?

JR Raphael
Geeks Are Sexy
2008-05-05 00:25:00

It connects you to the world, but your cell phone could also be giving anyone from your boss to your wife a window into your every move. The same technology that lets you stay in touch on-the-go can now let others tap into your private world - without you ever even suspecting something is awry.

The new generation

Long gone are the days of simple wiretapping, when the worst your phone could do was let someone listen in to your conversations. The new generation of cell phone spying tools provides a lot more power.

Eavesdropping is easy. All it takes is a two-minute software install and someone can record your calls and monitor your text messages. They can even set up systems to be automatically alerted when you dial a certain number, then instantly patched into your conversation. Anyone who can perform a basic internet search can find the tools and figure out how to do it in no time.

But the scarier stuff is what your phone can do when you aren't even using it. Let's start with your location.

To read more click the title link above

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The Surveillance Society Does Not Work

Mick Meaney
Rinf.com
2008-05-06 20:43:00

Costing in excess of billions of pounds each year, every single area of the British surveillance society has been proven ill effective when dealing with crime, fraud and terrorism - the very reasons government officials implement such measures.

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Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage

Radley Balko
Reason: Hit & Run
2008-05-08 20:23:00

About a month ago I got a call from a reporter for the Arkansas Times inquiring about my research into paramilitary drug raids. He'd been reporting on a raid in North Little Rock involving a 40-year-old man named Tracy Ingle. When he told me the story over the phone, I was floored, even given all the abuses and mistakes I've reported and read about over the last few years. What makes the case especially egregious is not that the police may have gotten the wrong home, that they shot a man, or that they were covering it up or going silent. We've seen all that before. What's mind-blowing about this one is that they've continued abusing the poor guy, even after it should have been clear for some time now that they made a mistake.

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The Last Roundup

Christopher Ketcham
Radar Magazine
2008-05-02 12:00:00

In the spring of 2007, a retired senior official in the U.S. Justice Department sat before Congress and told a story so odd and ominous, it could have sprung from the pages of a pulp political thriller. It was about a principled bureaucrat struggling to protect his country from a highly classified program with sinister implications. Rife with high drama, it included a car chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., and a tense meeting at the White House, where the president's henchmen made the bureaucrat so nervous that he demanded a neutral witness be present.


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Federal agents now arresting illegal immigrants trying to leave the U.S.

Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times
2008-05-07 18:37:00

border bust
©Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times
A van driver unloads luggage belonging to several passengers being detained by federal agents at the checkpoint just north of the border. The operations occur at random, unannounced times.


San Diego - U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out.

At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation.

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U.S. immigration raids are about to get ugly

David Hendricks
My Sanantonio
2008-05-06 18:03:00

Letters listing millions of Social Security "no-match" workers are ready to mail to employers.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency personnel are trained and ready. Buses and vans are standing by for raids. Detention facilities have expanded.

All that is lacking is clearance from the courts.

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Axis of Evil
Haiti: occupation and resistance

Peter Hallward
Socialist Worker
2008-05-09 17:09:00

Peter Hallward spoke to Socialist Worker's Anindya Bhattacharyya about oppression, food riots and the growing struggle against neoliberalism.

The Caribbean country of Haiti has long been a centre of resistance to imperialism and slavery. It was the first black slave colony to rise up and overthrow its overlords, with a revolt led by Toussaint L'Ouverture beginning in 1791. The country declared itself an independent republic in 1804.

More recently Haiti has been in the news because of a series of food riots that rocked the country last month. These were triggered by rises of more than 50 percent in the price of imported food staples over the past year.

But there was another political dimension to these protests. Haiti's former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in a US-backed coup in 2004, and the country has been occupied by thousands of United Nations (UN) "peace-keeping" troops ever since.

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Propaganda Alert! The March to War

Leonard S. Spector and Avner Cohen
LA Times
2008-05-04 15:00:00

After overestimating the Iraq threat, U.S. intelligence agencies are now dangerously underestimating Syria and Iran.

Last month's unclassified congressional briefing on Syria's clandestine nuclear reactor, which was destroyed by Israel on Sept. 6, 2007, was yet another reminder of the challenges confronting the U.S. intelligence community. Still smarting from its gross overestimation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the community bent over backward to avoid overstating its case against Syria -- and in doing so, it stumbled badly.


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Flashback: Syria: More questions about alleged nuclear site


Los Angeles Times
2008-04-29 13:40:00

Professor William Beeman at the University of Minnesota passed along a note today from "a colleague with a U.S. security clearance" about the mysterious Syrian site targeted in a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

The note raises more questions about the evidence shown last week by U.S. intelligence officials to lawmakers in the House and Senate.

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The Syrian Affair - Damascus in the Crosshairs

Conn Hallinan
Counterpunch
2008-05-09 10:36:00

A "very odd affair" is how the Financial Times (FT) characterized the Bush Administration's release of intelligence charging that the Syrian building bombed by the Israelis last Sept. 6 was a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor just weeks from being operational.

Indeed it was "odd," and sorting through the motives behind the whole business is a little like trying to scope out the politics of Byzantium

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Obama vows to ensure security of Israel

Deborah Charles
Reuters
2008-05-08 09:25:00

Washington - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said on Thursday the U.S. friendship with Israel was "unbreakable" and vowed to ensure the security of the Jewish state if elected president.


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Inside Guantanamo Bay


Al Jazeera News
2008-05-01 08:10:00

The US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, on a 78-square-kilometre scrap of arid soil, is the oldest US military base outside the US.

Guantanamo I
©GALLO/GETTY
More than 800 people have been held in the Guantanamo facility


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Prisoners drugged during U.S. interrogations?

Jesse Muhammad
FinalCall.com News
2008-05-06 01:42:00

Drug - cuffs
©Unknown


"The forced medication of detainees without their consent, either for interrogation or as a chemical restraint, is an affront to the very foundations of medical ethics," said Leonard Rubenstein, president of Physicians for Human Rights. "Detainees have a right to consent to modes of treatment, just as others do, and the Department of Defense has indeed recognized this right."

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The awfully nice guys allowing US torture at Guantanamo Bay

Rod Liddle
Times Online
2008-05-04 23:21:00

Philippe Sands, a British QC, has exposed the 'decent' lawyers who made the brutal interrogation of Guantanamo detainees possible

The interrogation room in Guantanamo Bay, Christmas Eve 2002. Detainee 063 - an Al-Qaeda suspect called Mohamed al-Kahtani, who may or may not be that sought-after 20th 9/11 hijacker - is crying in his chair. It is his 33rd day of continuous interrogation - a month with almost no sleep - and the interrogators have started up with the white noise again and are pouring water over his head.


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John Hagee: deviant theology, dangerous foreign policy

John Taylor
Online Journal
2008-05-08 23:32:00

Pastor John Hagee gleefully anticipates the death of hundreds of millions of people in a series of wars preparing the world for the second coming of Christ: "The end of the world is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad."

Worse, Hagee wants to jump start what he sees as the inevitable battle between Israel and the US and an alliance of the Islamic states and Russia: "The United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West." Hagee's bizarre interpretation of the Bible sees war with Iran as a "biblically prophesized End Time confrontation . . . which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming."

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Abuse Claims Mount Against Pentagon, Contractors

William Fisher
Inter Press Service
2008-05-07 22:11:00

Tortured man
©Unknown


As human rights groups demanded the release of a report on a long-running investigation of the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the unlawful interrogations of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, new torture claims were leveled at two U.S. military contractors by a former Abu Ghraib "ghost" detainee who was wrongly imprisoned and later released without charge.

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Terrorist preaches violence...at a Miami party in his honor


Left I on the News Blog
2008-05-07 21:58:00

Many things put the lie to the claim that the United States is fighting a "war on terror," but few do so as effectively as its treatment of one of the world's most notorious terrorists, Luis Posada Carriles, a man responsible for the mid-air bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and the death of its 73 passengers and crew, along with a long string of other terrorist actions, including some as recently as the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro during a visit to Panama in 2000, an action in which Posada was personally involved (and convicted).

And now Posada walks free in Miami, with the U.S. government still refusing to comply with, or even formally acknowledge, an extradition order by Venezuela filed three years ago (Flight 455 originated in Venezuela, and it is in Venezuela where Posada is wanted on 73 counts of murder).

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US Terror Report: Selective Data and Wrong Lessons

Ramzy Baroud
Aljazeera.net
2008-05-07 21:33:00

The various data provided in the US State Department's annual terrorism report for 2007 point toward some interesting, if not puzzling conclusions. The much publicized document, made available on April 30 through the State Department's website, makes no secret of the fact that Al-Qaeda is back, strong as ever. It also suggests that violence worldwide is nowhere near subsiding, despite President Bush's repeated assurances regarding the success of his "war on terror".

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How To Detect Bias In News Media


FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
2008-05-08 20:37:00

Media have tremendous power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political discourse. It is essential that news media, along with other institutions, are challenged to be fair and accurate. The first step in challenging biased news coverage is documenting bias. Here are some questions to ask yourself about newspaper, TV and radio news.

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Overheard in Tokyo

Lew Rockwell
The LRC Blog
2008-05-06 17:40:00

Writes an American in Japan: "I've been an ex pat for 16 years, so it's rare for me to hear native English being spoken by real people anymore. Sometimes I watch Hollywood movies or US television, but those don't count, since people in movies and television (including TV news) are not real.

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Middle East Madness
Condolizzard says Syria, Iran behind Lebanon violence

Matthew Lee
Associated Press
2008-05-09 16:11:00

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration accused Iran and Syria on Friday of fueling ongoing violence in Lebanon by inciting members of the radical Shiite Hezbollah movement to take up arms against the country's western-backed government.

As Hezbollah militants seized control of large parts of Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced the show-of-force, which she said was being supported by Iranian and Syrian elements, and reaffirmed the firm support of the United States for Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's shaky coalition.

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Jimmy Carter: A human rights crime

Jimmy Carter
The Guardian
2008-05-09 13:58:00

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.


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The Iraqi Dogs of War: An ex-SAS veteran reveals the antics of 'security experts' helping to lose the war on terror

Bob Sheppard
Daily Mail
2008-05-02 23:59:00

As soon as I saw her, I knew there'd be hell to pay.

The scene before me was utter bedlam: hundreds of people in the street looting, while the sound of AK47 gunfire cracked from burning government buildings.

Everywhere, there were defaced portraits of Saddam - some with the eyes scratched out, others painted over or burnt.


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Mahmoud Abbas - losing his authority and disillusioned?


Jerusalem Post
2008-05-01 10:54:00

Unconfirmed reports in Ramallah this week suggested that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was seriously considering submitting his resignation.

According to the reports, Abbas has reached the conclusion that there is no chance that any kind of an agreement can be reached with Israel before the end of the year. Abbas's belief was enhanced during his last visit to Washington, where he met with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

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Contractors Gone Wild

Bruce Falconer
Mother Jones
2008-05-02 10:20:00

Theft, hookers, melting down Iraqi gold to make cowboy spurs - all in a day's work for private military contractors in Iraq?

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Iran accuses US, Israel of provoking Lebanon violence


Agence France Presse
2008-05-09 10:00:00

Iran on Friday accused the United States and Israel of fueling the deadly sectarian fighting in Lebanon between its Shiite militant Hezbollah ally and the Western-backed ruling majority.

"Adventurous efforts and interventions by the United States and the Zionist regime are the main cause of the continuous chaotic situation in Lebanon," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

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How under-the-gun Iran plays it cool

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
2008-05-03 09:22:00

More than two years ago, Seymour Hersh disclosed in the New Yorker how President George W Bush was considering strategic nuclear strikes against Iran. Ever since, a campaign to demonize that country has proceeded in a relentless, Terminator-like way, applying the same techniques and semantic contortions that were so familiar in the period before the Bush administration launched its invasion of Iraq.

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"Torture is terrorism", ex-Guantanamo man tells US


Reuters
2008-05-02 09:04:00

Khartoum - Al Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj returned home to Sudan on Friday after more than six years in the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison, urging Washington to respect human rights and branding torture as terrorism.

Haj said he and the other Guantanamo detainees had been subjected to all kinds of torture, but the worst had been when his jailers insulted Islam or desecrated the Koran in front of prisoners.


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Al Jazeera Cameraman Sami al-Haj Freed From Guantánamo


Periodico
2008-05-03 08:41:00

Khartoum.- Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj has been released from the U.S.-run military prison at Guantánamo. Arrested in Pakistan in December 2001, al-Haj had spent nearly six-and-a-half years at Guantánamo without charge or trial. He had been on a more than a year-long hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.

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Al-Hajj says US wanted him to spy


Al Jazeera News
2008-05-05 08:53:00

A celebration has been held in Sudan after the release of Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, from Guantanamo Bay, with hundreds of well-wishers in attendance.

Al-Hajj
©AFP
Al-Hajj, with his son, left, and Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera's director general, at the festival


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National day of mourning to commemorate Palestinian Nakba


Ma'an News Agency
2008-05-08 08:48:00

A national day of mourning will be held across the Palestinian territories on Thursday to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.

Palestinian and black flags will be raised on roof tops of buildings, a partial public strike will be conducted between 12-1 am on Thursday in addition to demonstrations in cities across the West Bank.

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Hezbollah says Lebanon's US puppet government declares war

Nadim Ladki
Reuters
2008-05-09 07:28:00

The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday the U.S.-supported Beirut government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

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Hezbollah seizes large parts of Beirut

Tom Perry
Reuters
2008-05-09 04:32:00

Hezbollah gunmen took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday in a third day of fighting between the pro-Iranian group and fighters loyal to the U.S.-backed governing coalition.

Security sources said at least 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded. The thud of exploding grenades and crackle of automatic gunfire echoed across the city in the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war.

Gunmen loyal to Hezbollah forced the pro-government Future News television off the air, said a senior official at the Beirut station. Future News is owned by Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni politician and leader of the governing coalition.

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Palestinians: IAF strikes in Gaza kill 1 militant, wound 13 others

News Agencies
Haaretz.com
2008-05-07 15:16:00

Israel Defense Forces tanks and bulldozers rumbled into the southern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, and Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets. One militant was killed and at least 14 Palestinians, including one civilian, were wounded in the fighting, according to witnesses and medical officials.

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Iran recalls ambassador to Iraq


United Press International
2008-05-08 22:26:00

Iran recalled its ambassador to Iraq in protest of Baghdad's support for a move by the United Arab Emirates to take ownership of three Persian Gulf islands.

The Emirates News Agency, WAM, said April 28 that the Iraqi government expressed "unconditional support" for the Emirates' sovereignty over the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands, which lie at a key access point to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran claimed control over the islands following the departure of British forces in 1971. UAE officials say Iran is an illegal occupier of the islands.

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Grand Theft Economics
Bush requests 770 million USD in food aid


Xinhua
2008-05-02 14:17:00

Washington -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday requested 770 million U.S. dollars from Congress to help ease the current food crisis that fuels hunger and violence across the world.

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Europe threatens carbon tax on Third World

Archita Bhatta
Down to Earth
2008-05-09 13:14:00

the European Union (eu) is mulling a "controversial" greenhouse gas reduction plan, through which it will impose a carbon tax on goods imported from countries with no emission curbs under the Kyoto regime. The tariff, seen as a threat to international trade, is part of eu's "carbon equalization system". India has opposed the move to impose such a tax. Ujal Singh Bhatia, India's ambassador to the World Trade Organization (wto), has warned the eu of retaliation and litigation from its trade partners if the eu goes ahead with any trade restrictive measures.


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Mideast reels as hunger outgrows oil earnings

Javier Blas
Financial Times
2008-05-09 13:08:00

For years, food policy in the Middle East and North Africa was very simple: hydrocarbon exports paid for carbohydrate imports.

Rising agricultural commodities prices and a large population increase mean that the traditional policy is now untenable even if crude oil trades at about $120 a barrel, forcing countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, to reconsider how it feeds its population.

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Citigroup to shed nearly $500B in assets

Malden Read
Associated Press
2008-05-09 13:05:00

Citigroup Inc. said Friday it aims to shed about $500 billion in assets and grow revenue by 9 percent over the next few years, as it tries to rebound from massive losses tied to deterioration in the mortgage and credit markets.

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Burma cyclone raises rice prices


BBC
2008-05-09 13:03:00

Rice prices have risen for a sixth consecutive day as global supplies continue to be stretched by cyclone damage to crops in Burma.

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Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.

Binoy Kampmark
Counterpunch
2008-05-09 11:09:00



"I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food. No this is not a drill."

--Brett Arends


There is a time for food, and a time for ethical appraisals. This was the case even before Bertolt Brecht gave life to that expression in Die Driegroschen Oper. The time for a reasoned, coherent understanding for the growing food crisis is not just overdue, but seemingly past. Robert Zoellick of the World Bank, an organization often dedicated to flouting, rather than achieving its claimed goal of poverty reduction, stated the problem in Davos in January this year. 'Hunger and malnutrition are the forgotten Millennium Development Goal.'

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The Market Matrix and Modern Slavery

Loretta Napoleoni
CounterCurrents.org
2008-05-01 10:27:00

Slavery is in our refrigerators. From fruit to beef, from sugar to coffee, slave labor brings food to our tables. "Miguel," a Mexican slave freed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a US human-rights organization, may have harvested the apples we eat at breakfast. Miguel picked fruit under guard in the United States. He had traveled to el norte to earn the money to pay for treatment for his six-year-old son who has cancer; instead, his employer enslaved him.

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Bush's Food Remark Irks India

Nilofar Suhrawardy
Arab News
2008-05-05 02:44:00

New Delhi - Indian politicians from all parties have joined in criticizing US President George W. Bush's remarks that blamed India for the global food crisis. Although the ruling Congress party has joined the chorus, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has questioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's silence on Bush's remarks. The BJP plans to raise the issue in Parliament today.

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U.S. House Approves Democratic Anti-Foreclosure Bill

Alison Vekshin
Bloomberg
2008-05-08 22:39:00

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation to let the government insure up to $300 billion in mortgages to help homeowners avert foreclosure, after the White House said the measure would force taxpayers to bear excessive risk.

The House voted 266-154 for the housing package offered by Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank. The plan would have the Federal Housing Administration insure refinanced mortgages after loan holders agree to cut principal to make payments affordable.

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Europeans and British Leave Rates Unchanged

Carter Dougherty
The New York Times
2008-05-08 22:32:00

The European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 percent on Thursday, saying that the region's economy remained resilient despite nearly nine months of financial turmoil.

Also Thursday, the Bank of England kept its benchmark rate at 5 percent, pausing to study the effects of three interest rate cuts it has made since Dec. 6. Both decisions were expected.

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Soaring Prices and Food Scarcity Reaches Panama

Omar Upegui R.
Lingua Franca
2008-05-03 19:28:00

The latest story that has been covered by all the major media players is the soaring food prices and the scarcity of food around the globe.

The United Nations Food Program has described soaring food prices as a "silent tsunami" that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people from every continent into poverty. Protests, strikes and riots have erupted in developing countries around the world after dramatic rises in the prices of wheat, rice, corn, oils and other essential foods that have made it difficult for poor people to make ends meet.


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Were the doomsayers right after all?

Shashi Tharoor
The Times of India
2008-05-04 02:21:00

The future, of course, is never what it used to be. There was a time when predictions of global food shortages were rife in conventional wisdom. Writers like Paul Ehrlich and the "Limits to Growth" school of the 1960s and 1970s kept saying that the world's population was growing past the point at which the earth could sustain it. The burgeoning new environmentalist movement added their own concerns about the dramatic threats to our fragile ecosystems brought about by heedless development. And the new breed of futurologists spawned by the Cold War - whose ideas were given new currency by the accelerating pace of technological change in the era of man's first walk on the moon - kept issuing dire warnings that our planet was imminently going to run out of food as the global population grew and the land available for agriculture inevitably proved inadequate.


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Chinese firms bargain hunting in U.S.

Don Lee
Los Angeles Times
2008-05-05 18:21:00

Liu Keli couldn't tell you much about South Carolina, not even where it is in the United States. It's as obscure to him as his home region, Shanxi province, is to most Americans.

But Liu is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when his finance staff penciled out the costs, he was stunned to learn how they compared with those in China.

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Bank of Canada won't bail out banks in crisis

Julian Beltrame
The Canadian Press
2008-05-02 18:10:00

The governor of the Bank of Canada says he will take a tough stand with financial institutions that wind up near bankruptcy because of poor decisions.

Mark Carney says the central bank won't bail out Canadian financial institutions like the U.S. government did when the Bear Stearns brokerage, one of the giants of Wall Street, ran afoul of the subprime mortgage mess.

"If you cannot make a judgment (on the value of an asset), you should not own the security," Carney told a Senate committee yesterday.

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The Living Planet
Federal Polar Bear Research Critically Flawed, Forecasting Expert Asserts


Science Daily
2008-05-09 17:37:00

Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a study being published later this year in Interfaces, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

polar bear on ice float
©iStockphoto/Jan Will
Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a new study.


On April 30, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

Professor J. Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School says, "To list a species that is currently in good health as an endangered species requires valid forecasts that its population would decline to levels that threaten its viability. In fact, the polar bear populations have been increasing rapidly in recent decades due to hunting restrictions. Assuming these restrictions remain, the most appropriate forecast is to assume that the upward trend would continue for a few years, then level off.

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Platypus at the peak of weird science

Leigh Dayton
The Australian
2008-05-08 17:21:00

Scientists have cracked the genetic code of the platypus and the results are as weird as the animal itself.

Not only does the little mammal look like it was cobbled together from bits of birds, mammals and reptiles, but so does its genome -- its genetic blueprint.

Jenny Graves, a geneticist with the Australian National University and director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics, said: "We expected the platypus genome to be a weird amalgam of features and indeed it is. For instance, it has egg yolk proteins (large molecules) like a bird, though not as many as a bird, but all the milk proteins of a cow."

Image
©Rod Scott


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Koalas Under Threat From Climate Change


Science Daily
2008-05-09 16:29:00

New research shows increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are a threat to the Australian national icon, the koala.

Professor Ian Hume, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and his students from the University of Sydney have been researching the effects of CO2 increases and temperature rises on eucalypts.

Koalas
©iStockphoto/Sawayasu Tsuji
Koalas are fussy about the species of eucalypts that they eat as different species contain different ratios of nutrients to anti-nutrients.


Professor Hume's group have shown in the laboratory that increases in CO2 affect the level of nutrients and 'anti-nutrients' (things that are either toxic or interfere with the digestion of nutrients) in eucalypt leaves. Anti-nutrients in eucalypts are built from carbon and an increase in carbon dioxide levels will favour the production of anti-nutrients over nutrients.



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Cat Urine Makes Mice Macho


Live Science
2008-05-09 16:23:00

Tom and Jerry may never get along, but cats could help mice get lucky in love.

Cat odor is known scare mice away, but it also seems to act like an aphrodisiac for the rodents, a new study shows.

The smell makes male mice more macho, helping lure in females, researchers said.

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When Bears Steal Human Food, Mom's Not To Blame


Science Daily
2008-05-09 16:19:00

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) found that the black bears that become habituated to human food and garbage may not be learning these behaviors exclusively from their mothers, as widely assumed. Bears that steal human food sources are just as likely to form these habits on their own or pick them up from unrelated, "bad influence" bears.

black bears
©Jon Beckmann/Wildlife Conservation Society
According to a study by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, black bears that become habituated on human food and garbage do not necessarily learn these behaviors from their mother as previously assumed.


The study, which examines the role of genetic relatedness in black bear behavior that leads to conflict with humans, appears in the latest edition of the Journal of Mammalogy.

"Understanding how bears acquire behavior is important in conservation biology and devising strategies to minimize potential human-wildlife conflicts," says Dr. Jon Beckmann, a co-author of the study. "According to our findings, bears that feed on human food and garbage are not always learning these habits from their mothers."

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Ivory Coast seeks $1 mln for three-headed coconut tree

Loucoumane Coulibaly
News Daily
2008-05-09 15:23:00

ABIDJAN - Researchers in Ivory Coast are asking $1 million for a three-headed hybrid coconut tree they believe could substantially boost the tropical nut's yield.

Scientists at Ivory Coast's National Agronomic Research Centre (NARC) discovered the tree after mixing different strains of coconut palm in an effort to build disease resistance.

"We still don't have a buyer, but we are hopeful because we remain in talks with certain partners to buy this hybrid," said Jean Louis Konan, head of NARC's coconut research program.

Researchers decided last year to sell the hybrid to support the research centre, whose 800 hectares (1,980 acres) of coconut trees contain 99 varieties from across the world.

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Utah bee population hit by deadly disease, crops could be affected

Dawn House
The Salt Lake Tribune
2008-05-05 11:52:00

The mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder, which has led to the loss of millions of bees and in a worst-case scenario could be a threat to the food chain that humans depend on for life, has made its way to Utah.

Gary Dutson is being confronted by the malady firsthand. He has had to sell off 500 acres of farmland that's been in his family for two generations - largely because he's lost so many of his honeybees.

Dutson, who lives outside Delta in eastern Utah, had built up his bee operation to 4,000 hives by last fall when colonies began dying off for no apparent reason. Within months, he lost half his bees in an inexplicable disaster not seen since his father began beekeeping more than 70 years ago.

Until recently, Utah beekeepers seemed to be dodging the mysterious ailment, which has been killing off honeybees in other parts of the nation for the past two years. In 2007 alone, beekeepers lost 30 percent of the 2.5 million managed colonies to diseases, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.



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High School freshman unearths asteroid, cometary evidence for mammoth extinction

Peter Johnson
Great Falls Tribune
2008-05-01 14:16:00

After working countless hours digging soil samples and analyzing them with sophisticated microscopes, Great Falls High School freshman Katelyn Gibbs has come up with evidence that a comet or meteorite crashed to Earth in Montana 13,000 years ago and had major impact on animals living here at the time.

"Bing! She nailed it!" said David Baker of Monarch, a veteran earth science research scientist who mentored Gibbs on the project. "Katelyn found definitive proof - nanodiamonds and iron micrometeorites - for the extraterrestrial impact event that killed the mammoths in Montana.


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Tornado knocks vehicles around in N. Carolina, kills 1

Chris Talbott and Jack Jones
Associated Press
2008-05-09 09:34:00

Authorities began combing through the wreckage Friday caused by a reported tornado that killed one person and injured three others in central North Carolina.

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Chile gives volcano holdouts ultimatum to flee

Antonio de la Jara and Jorge Otaola
News Daily
2008-05-08 23:29:00

PUERTO MONTT/FUTALEUFU - Chile on Thursday ordered holdout residents to flee from an erupting volcano in the remote region of Patagonia and vowed to force them out if they refuse to obey.

The military evacuated a small contingent of troops and journalists from near Chaiten volcano in southern Chile before dawn on Thursday after it spat out fiery material.

Chaiten volcano
©REUTERS/Jorge Cortizo
Jose Marciano, wearing a face mask to protect himself from volcanic ash, walks in Futaleufu, near the Chaiten volcano, located some 1,450 km (900 miles) south of Santiago, May 8, 2008.


But some civilians refused to leave two villages near the volcano that began erupting last week for the first time in thousands of years. It has spewed ash that has reached the Atlantic seaboard and the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.

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Global Warming or Global Cooling?


Lest Darkness Fall
2008-05-03 19:44:00

The title link is to a great article showing how different sources of historical temperature data tell conflicting stories. Data from NASA implies that global temperatures are increasing while information from the UK Meteorological Office, University of Alabama and Remote Sensing Systems clearly show that temperatures have been falling for quite some time. To further confuse matters, the often cited NASA data did not support global warming until the raw data was massaged to no longer match the original measurements. Older temperatures were interpolated and adjusted downwards, and recent temperatures were presented as higher than the actual raw values that were initially recorded.


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Climate change and the recent dengue fever outbreak


Tonga Review
2008-05-06 19:41:00

Earlier in April of this year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the health of hundreds of millions of people might be put at risk by the effects of climate change.

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New Jason Satellite Indicates 23-Year Global Cooling

Dennis Avery
Canada Free Press
2008-05-01 19:34:00

Now it's not just the sunspots that predict a 23-year global cooling. The new Jason oceanographic satellite shows that 2007 was a "cool" La Nina year - but Jason also says something more important is at work: The much larger and more persistent Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has turned into its cool phase, telling us to expect moderately lower global temperatures until 2030 or so.


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Chilean volcano captured blasting ash


ESA
2008-05-08 18:04:00

Chile's Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke (centre left of image) into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina's Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat image acquired on 5 May 2008.

The 1000 m-high volcano had been dormant for thousands of years before erupting on 2 May, causing the evacuation of thousands. Chaiten Volcano is located in southern Chile 10 km northeast of the town of Chaiten on the Gulf of Corcovado.

Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument processed this image at a resolution of 1200 m.

Satellite data can be used to detect the slight signs of change that may foretell an eruption. Once an eruption begins, optical and radar instruments can capture the lava flows, mudslides, ground fissures and earthquakes.

Image
©ESA
Chile's Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina's Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) image, acquired on 5 May 2008.


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Health & Wellness
Depression Diversity: Brain Studies Reveal Big Differences Among Individuals


Science Daily
2008-05-08 17:48:00

Depressed people may have far fewer of the receptors for some of the brain's "feel good" stress-response chemicals than non-depressed people, new University of Michigan Depression Center research shows. Scans show untreated depressed people have fewer serotonin and opioid receptors, and that variation is linked to symptoms and treatment response.

And even among depressed people, the numbers of these receptors can vary greatly. What's more, the number of receptors a depressed person has appears to be linked with the severity of their symptoms - and the chances that they'll feel better after taking a medication.

These preliminary findings, presented Tuesday at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., amplify a growing understanding of depression as a condition that affects different people in different ways, and is solidly rooted in genetic and molecular factors that are unique to each individual.

The lead U-M researcher, Jon-Kar Zubieta, M.D., Ph.D., says these new results bolster what other researchers have been finding in recent years.

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Child Abuse May 'Mark' Genes In Brains Of Suicide Victims


Science Daily
2008-05-07 17:40:00

A team of McGill University scientists has discovered important differences between the brains of suicide victims and so-called normal brains. Although the genetic sequence was identical in the suicide and non-suicide brains, there were differences in their epigenetic marking - a chemical coating influenced by environmental factors.

All of the 13 suicide victims in the study had experienced abuse as children.

"It's possible the changes in epigenetic markers were caused by the exposure to childhood abuse, although in humans it's difficult to establish causality between early childhood and epigenetic markers, in the way we have established this in animal subjects," said Moshe Szyf, a professor in McGill's Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. "The big remaining questions are whether scientists could detect similar changes in blood DNA - which could lead to diagnostic tests - and whether we could design interventions to erase these differences in epigenetic markings".

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Steno 'Superbug' Genome Shows Extreme Drug Resistance


Washington Post
2008-05-09 16:58:00

British research into Steno, one the most recent "superbugs" to claim lives, reveals that the bacterium has an incredible ability to resist antibiotics and other drugs, according to soon-to-be-published findings.

Steno, short for Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, thrives in moist environments, such as around taps and shower heads, and can be transmitted to people. It is responsible for roughly 1,000 cases of Steno blood poisoning in the U.K. annually. About 30 percent of these infections prove fatal.

"This is the latest in an ever-increasing list of antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs. The degree of resistance it shows is very worrying," study senior author Dr. Matthew Avison, of the University of Bristol, said in a prepared statement. "Strains are now emerging that are resistant to all available antibiotics, and no new drugs capable of combating these pan-resistant strains are currently in development."

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Mystery flu-like illness: One dead and 280 quarantined on Canadian train

Frank Pingue and David Ljunggren
Reuters
2008-05-09 15:51:00

TORONTO/OTTAWA - One person died and about 280 were placed in quarantine aboard a cross-Canada train on Friday after a mystery illness caused violent flu-like symptoms.

Police spokesman Marc Depatie told CTV television that seven passengers who boarded the VIA Rail train in the Rocky Mountain resort of Jasper, Alberta, had fallen ill, and one, a 60-year-old woman, had died. Another passenger had been airlifted to hospital.

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Diet High In Saturated Fat Contributes To Prostate Cancer Treatment Failure, Study Suggests


Science Daily
2008-05-09 15:17:00

In the online version of the International Journal of Cancer, Dr. Sara Strom and associates evaluate the association between saturated fat intake and biochemical failure among men who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP).

A cohort of 390 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy at MD Anderson Cancer Center had a semi-quantitative validated Block food frequency questionnaire modified to their regional diets and completed for the year prior to the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Body mass index (BMI) was also calculated. Clinical and pathological data were abstracted from medical records. Categorical and continual variables were analyzed.

Men who consumed high saturated fat diets (HSF) were younger and had higher BMIs at diagnosis than men with who consumed low saturated fat diets (LSF). There were no statistically significant differences in clinico-pathologic characteristics, family history of prostate cancer, education, history of diabetes or physical activity between the 2 groups. Men on HSF diets also consumed more total calories that men on LSF diets. Saturated fats were most commonly consumed as beef steaks, cheese and cheese spreads, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, eggs, ice cream and salad dressings.

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Fainting cases from vaccines double with new shots


The Dallas Morning News/Bloomberg News
2008-05-01 14:30:00

The number of people who fainted after getting vaccines doubled after U.S. health officials recommended three new shots for adolescents in 2005 and 2006.

The number of people ages 5 and older who fainted after getting a vaccination increased to 463 in January 2005 through July 2007, from 203 during a similar period ending in 2004, according to a report today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Drug giant profits from human suffering

Betsey Piette
Workers World
2008-05-03 09:16:00

Just two days after the Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. reported that first quarter 2008 earnings had soared on a special $2.2 billion pretax gain from a limited partnership with AstraZeneca, federal inspectors reported finding 49 "areas of concern" involving contamination of Merck's products, including children's vaccines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which spent 30 days at the company's plants between November 2007 and January 2008, issued a 21-page report suggesting the problems "could be a symptom of Merck's cost cutting in the face of rapid growth of its vaccine business."


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Flashback: Climate Change set to fan the HIV fire


The Age
2008-04-29 10:45:00

Climate change is the latest threat to the world's growing HIV epidemic, say Australian experts who warn of the "grim" outlook in the fight against the infectious disease.

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Scotland hit by scarlet fever epidemic

Natalie Walker
DailyRecord.co.uk
2008-05-02 09:37:00

Cases of scarlet fever in Scotland have soared to the highest level in a decade.

So far this year, 383 people have been diagnosed with the illness - three times more than the same period in 2007.

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Flashback: Nicotine and Autism: Another study demonstrates nicotine's neurological benefits

Joan Arehart-Treichel
Psychiatric News / American Psychiatric Association
2001-07-20 08:17:00

Nicotine Receptors May Play Role In Development of Autism

Cholinergic nicotinic receptors, which have become a hot area for brain researchers, are linked to yet another psychiatric-neurological disorder - autism.

Deep inside the human brain, cholinergic nicotinic receptors are busy plying their trade, and one might view them as triple agents. They release the nerve transmitter acetylcholine from certain nerve ends, they receive it at others, and they can be stimulated by nicotine - yes, from cigarette smoking!

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New discovery shows hormone spurs people to eat

Helen Branswell
London Free Press
2008-05-07 22:44:00

A hormone produced in the gut spurs people to eat more by making food seem more appealing, new research reveals, proving the wisdom behind the oft-repeated advice that people should never go food shopping when they are hungry.

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Bird flu spreads to South Korean capital


Agence France-Presse
2008-05-06 22:36:00

Bird flu has spread to South Korea's capital Seoul despite a massive nationwide cull that saw the slaughter of six million ducks and chickens in recent weeks, officials said Tuesday.

Image
©Unknown
A South Korean quarantine official decontaminates a small aviary in Seoul



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Brain-training To Improve Memory Boosts Fluid Intelligence


Sciencedaily.com
2008-05-06 20:31:00

Brain Training
©Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo
New findings show that multiple efforts designed to improve memory skills similarly improve fluid intelligence.


Brain-training efforts designed to improve working memory can also boost scores in general problem-solving ability and improve fluid intelligence, according to new University of Michigan research.

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Music as medicine for your brain

Tony Lofaro
Canada.com
2008-05-06 20:05:00

What happens to your brain when the music of Def Leppard, Frank Sinatra or even Michael Bolton blasts through a speaker and fills your head?

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Fake Sugar Can't Fake Out the Brain

Lee Dye
ABC News
2008-05-06 20:00:00

So you want to indulge in that sugar-coated doughnut because it tastes so sweet? You probably would want it just as much if it didn't taste sweet at all.

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Science & Technology
Study confirms ancient Chile settlement is 14,000 years old


Agence France-Presse
2008-05-09 17:18:00

Scientists have confirmed that the famed Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile is about 14,000 years old, making it the earliest known human settlement in the Americas, the journal Science reported Thursday.

The age of Monte Verde has been the subject of controversy over the years, since estimates appeared to conflict with other archaeological evidence related to the settlement of North America.

The new findings support not only the age of the Monte Verde site, but also the coastal migration theory currently ascribed to by most scholars, which hypothesizes that people first entered the New World through the Bering land bridge more than 16,000 years ago.

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Merging Antennae Galaxies Move Closer


Science Daily
2008-05-09 15:10:00

New research on the Antennae Galaxies using the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows that this benchmark pair of interacting galaxies is in fact much closer than previously thought - 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years.

The Antennae Galaxies are among the closest known merging galaxies. The two galaxies, also known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, began interacting a few hundred million years ago, creating one of the most impressive sights in the night sky. They are considered by scientists as the archetypal merging galaxy system and are used as a standard against which to validate theories about galaxy evolution.

Antennae Galaxies
©NASA, ESA & Ivo Saviane (European Southern Observatory)/Robert Gendler
The Antennae Galaxies are among the closest known merging galaxies. The two galaxies, also known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, started to interact a few hundred million years ago, creating one of the most impressive sights in the night sky. The ground-based image (left) is taken by Robert Gendler and shows the two merging galaxies and their impressive long tidal tails. The Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys image (right) shows a portion of the southern tidal tail.


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'Missing link' memristor created: Rewrite the textbooks?

R. Colin Johnson
EE Times
2008-04-30 13:00:00

Portland, Oregon -- The long-sought after memristor -- the "missing link" in electronic circuit theory -- has been invented by Hewlett Packard Senior Fellow R. Stanley Williams at HP Labs (Palo Alto, Calif.) Memristors -- the fourth passive component type after resistors, capacitors and inductors -- were postulated in a seminal 1971 paper in the IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory by professor Leon Chua at the University of California (Berkeley), but their first realization was just announced today by HP. According to Williams and Chua, now virtually every electronics textbook will have to be revised to include the memristor and the new paradigm it represents for electronic circuit theory.

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When Genes Go Retro


The New York Times
2008-05-06 00:10:00

DNA
©Alfred Pasieka
DNA


Pssst! I'm going on a tour of the genome - want to come?

I'm going to walk among the coiled spirals of DNA, and ponder the different histories of the different segments. For one of the most remarkable discoveries of recent decades is that genomes are not static, fixed entities that evolve as one; instead, they are highly dynamic. From one generation to the next, stretches of DNA may appear or disappear, or move from one location to another. From time to time, entire new genes appear and become established, thus expanding the organisms' genetic repertoire.

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Saturn Does The Wave In Upper Atmosphere


Saturn Daily
2008-05-08 23:43:00

Two decades of scrutinizing Saturn are finally paying off, as scientists have discovered a wave pattern, or oscillation, in Saturn's atmosphere only visible from Earth every 15 years.

The discovery of the wave pattern is the result of a 22-year campaign observing Saturn from Earth (the longest study of temperature outside Earth ever recorded), and the Cassini spacecraft's observations of temperature changes in the giant planet's atmosphere over time.

Saturn
©Unknown
"You could only make this discovery by observing Saturn over a long period of time," said Orton, lead author of the ground-based study. "It's like putting together 22 years worth of puzzle pieces, collected by a hugely rewarding collaboration of students and scientists from around the world on various telescopes."


The Cassini infrared results, which appear in the same issue of Nature as the data from the 22-year ground-based observing campaign, indicate that Saturn's wave pattern is similar to a pattern found in Earth's upper atmosphere. The earthly oscillation takes about two years. A similar pattern on Jupiter takes more than four Earth years. The new Saturn findings add a common link to the three planets.

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SETI scientists get a new tool in search for extraterrestrial life

Julie Sevrens Lyons
Mercury News
2008-05-08 22:49:00

In a meadow of one of Northern California's pristine national forests, 2,000-pound radio telescopes are popping up like mushrooms.

Made of aluminum and resembling something out of the movie "Contact," they point to the heavens and wait in silent attention. Scientists hope they will one day detect radio waves sent from a faraway planet.

obsvSETI
©Gary Reyes / Mercury News
Forty-two radio dishes of the Allen Telescope Array at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Hat Creek, Calif. point to the skies collecting scientific data in the search for signs of intelligent life in the universe on April 29, 2008. Each dish is about 20-feet in diameter.




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X-ray observatory discovers part of missing matter in the universe

Gregory Mone
European Space Agency
2008-05-06 19:33:00

ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has been used by a team of international astronomers to uncover part of the missing matter in the universe.

10 years ago, scientists predicted that about half of the 'ordinary' or normal matter made of atoms exists in the form of low-density gas, filling vast spaces between galaxies.

All the matter in the universe is distributed in a web-like structure. At dense nodes of the cosmic web are clusters of galaxies, the largest objects in the universe. Astronomers suspected that the low-density gas permeates the filaments of the web.

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Canada to launch asteroid-hunting satellite


Thetechherald.com
2008-05-08 19:24:00

CSA Logo
©CSA
The CSA is to launch a suitcase-sized satellite to detect Near Earth Objects.


A team led by the Canadian Space Agency is set to launch a microsatellite designed to detect near-Earth asteroids from space.

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