New Article: Jupiter, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and the Return of the Mongols - Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Picture of the Day

Al Risha
©2004 Pierre-Paul Feyte

In many areas of life, science is seen as the final arbiter of truth. We don't mean in areas of scientific research where it is a obviously a tautology. We are referring to other areas, either outside the purveyance of scientific research or within it, but where science is used as a club of authority without the research necessary to back it up. Many of these areas will evoke reactions where the rationalist, or the layman with a smattering of scientific understanding, is actually pre-judging the object up for discussion. Areas that are favourites for this a priori form of attack are UFOs, telepathy, astrology, and other subjects that fall under the larger rubric of the paranormal.

The ravings of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal are an example of of using science as a club. Under the guise of "doubt," not at all a bad thing in itself, these skeptical inquirers impose a materialist explanation of the world via the jackboots of their own arrogance, ignorance, and refusal to be truly open to anything they do not already know or understand.

The following dialogue, taken from Paul Feyerabend's book Three Dialogues on Knowledge, shows how this process works:

B: ... but you certainly acted as if you knew a lot when we began our little conversation. And the same is true of all scientists who make pronouncements about matters they have no idea about.

A: I doubt that there are many such scientists.

B: I am sorry to disillusion you. Just have a look at this paper. It is the October/November number (1975) of the American journal The Humanist (strange title for what turns out to be a superchauvinistic rag). There is a series of articles criticizing astrology. The articles are badly written and full of mistakes. One of the authors says: 'Astrology was dealt a serious blow since it is a geocentric system'. This was your first argument. Incompetent, as we have seen. Another author writes that astrology originated from magic. But modern science also 'originated from magic' if one wants to talk in such a general fashion. Well, you might say, there are always scientists who overstep the boundaries of their competence and make fools of themselves. But now look at the end of the general statement that precedes the more detailed arguments. There are 186 signatures of scientists. 186 signatures! Quite obviously the learned gentlemen were not so much interested in convincing by argument as in pushing people around. For if you have one good argument - what is the use of that many signatures? What we have here is therefore nothing less than a scientific encyclical: the popes have have spoken, the matter is decided. Now look at the names! There are not just a few scientists from the backwoods - the foremost stars of the scientific establishment point their fingers at astrologers and curse them. John Eccles, the 'Popperian Knight', a Nobel Prize winner; Konrad Lorenz, the ethologist (and a man I greatly admire), a Nobel Prize winner; Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, another Nobel-Bigshot - and so on and so forth. You have Samuelson, the economist, Pauling with two Nobel Prizes and his controversial (though quite reasonable) claim of the efficiency of large doses of vitamin C against colds and even cancer - everybody who is anybody in science lends his name to support a document that is a sink of ignorance and illiteracy. A few months after the document had appeared an interviewer from the BBC wanted to arrange a discussion between some of the Nobel Prize winners and defenders of astrology but all of the Nobel Prize winners declined - some with the remark that they had no idea about the details of astrology: the learned gentlemen did not know what they were talking about. Now such illiterates decide what is and what is not to be taught at our schools; such illiterates proclaim with supercilious contempt that old traditions which they have not studied and which they do not understand must be eradicated no matter how important they are to those who want to live in accordance with them; such illiterates interfere with our lives, at birth, when mothers are shipped off to hospitals so that their babies may at once become acquainted with the splendour of the faceless technological society they are going to inhabit; in early youth when talents are carefully determined and curricula carefully set up to get a maximum of the scientific religion into the adolescents' brain and so on till a 'mortuary science' finally takes care of the tired, worn-out and pollution damaged body ...

A: Mortuary science?

B: Yes, a legitimate subject at many universities. Such illiterates also determine where and how we are going to use nuclear power, how our children are going to live, what is good medicine and what not, they waste millions of tax money on ridiculous projects and get up in arms when a better control of these moneys is suggested, these illiterates ...

A: Heaven help me - stop! How absurd can you get! You may be right about astrology - although I haven't yet conceded the matter ... [p. 68, Second Dialogue]

Here we see that the authority of individuals in areas such as ethnology, DNA, and economics, areas of expertise that are far from the issue they are pronouncing upon, astrology, is used to end any discussion on a subject for which these "experts" have no real knowledge and understanding and on which they have never done any research. Is this an expression of "scientific objectivity" or "rational criticism"?

What would the reaction be of these "men of science" if an astrologist starting making grand statements about their own areas? Wouldn't they be questioning the astrologist's credentials? Why is it forbidden to question the credentials of "scientists"?

Yet this is the mindset of the managers of our modern technological society. If it can't be read by a machine or seen on the bottom line of the spreadsheet, it doesn't exist. It seems appropriate in such a society to find people like Bush, who believes that Jesus is going to raise him to heaven on a cloud, or Tony Blair who was "rebirthed" at an Aztec pyramid, should be the puppets leading the sheep to slaughter.

Science has become a belief system and and ideology rather than a critical approach to understanding our reality. If science were reduced to those elements that make it the creative domain that it all too infrequently can be, we might discover that the "savages" we brand as backwards are fully capable of scientific activities, that is, they are able to look at their environments critically and formulate theories to explain events. These theories are then revised as necessary. Experiments can be conducted and results predicted.

One aspect that distinguishes this form of science from "Science" in its hardened, materialist, and ideological manifestation is the latter's high dependence upon technology to enhance our abilities to perceive events or "things" which fall outside of our senses, which raises an interesting point about our choice to externalise our perceptions through our technologies as opposed to attempting to extend our senses from the inside, that is, by changing our BEing. The Medicine Man or the Shaman was able to use his or her own internal abilities to communicate with the invisible. Today we manifest the invisible via readings off of meters, dials, computer screens, and the like. We think that to be "objective," data must be outside of ourselves. This reduces our data sets to that which can only be interpreted mechanically in some way. Data that do not fit are excluded from the start. Thus an organization such as the CSICOP can claim "scientific rigour" when, in fact, they promote ignorance masquerading as Science.

We have recently reported on the Bush administration's anti-scientific character. Once more we see a false polarity presented to us: Bush's Christian beliefs and corporate science on the one hand, ignoring or falsifying data and results that do not agree with their desired aims, and a materialist and anti-human science that also ignores human needs on the other. Scientists who attempt to break out of the straight-jacket of phony scientific rigour are herded back into the fold through various means from the rejection of their work to scientific journals until the offending materials are deleted to ad hominum personal attacks both in private and in public. It is not unheard of for scientific adversaries to come to fisticuffs at academic conferences when disagreements become heated. It appears that might makes right is also at times the final arbiter of scientific truth.

Bush camp exposed as 'serial liars'

Wednesday 17 March 2004, 8:45 Makka Time, 5:45 GMT

US President George Bush and his four top advisers made a combined total of 237 misleading public statements on the threat posed by Iraq.

The claim was made in a congressional report released on Tuesday.

Compiled by Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee, the report examined assertions made by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

[...] Most of the statements were misleading because they expressed certainty where none existed or failed to acknowledge the doubts of intelligence officials, according to the report.

Ten statements were just completely false.

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Bush appeals to Europeans not to pull out of Iraq

March 17, 2004

White House (AP) - President Bush is appealing to U-S allies not to pull troops out of Iraq, as Spain's new leader wants to do.

Speaking to reporters as he met with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (YAHN' PAY'-tehr BAHL'-keh-nehn-deh), the president said nations need to be "strong and resolute" in battling terrorism.

Asked about Dutch calls for a withdrawal, he said the Dutch should "think about the Iraqi citizens, who don't want people to withdraw - because they want to be free." [...]

Comment: Why would the Iraqi people want the US to remain in Iraq as an occupying power? Bush's statement is completely devoid of logic. He is declaring that the people want to be occupied by a foreign power so that they can be free. Furthermore, his statement implies that Iraqis are not capable of governing themselves. If America really wanted to bring true freedom to Iraq, US officials would have handed power over to Iraqi citizens and let them decide for themselves what form of government to institute. Instead, the puppet CPA must approve all decisions regarding the future path of the country. Bush's motives have nothing to do with bringing freedom or democracy to Iraq, unless "freedom and democracy" really means a US-controlled dictatorship.

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Bush scolds Spaniards, says terrorism 'will never shake' U.S.

Last Updated Wed, 17 Mar 2004 5:46:34

WASHINGTON - Faced with possible cracks in his coalition, U.S. President George W. Bush is calling on Washington's allies to stand firm, to be "strong and resolute," in the face of global terrorism.

[...] In his first public words concerning Sunday's election, Bush scolded the people of Spain for voting Aznar out, saying, "Terrorists want the world to cower."

What happened in Spain, he said, will never happen in the United States. "They'll never shake the will of the United States. We understand the stakes and we will work with our friends to bring justice to the terrorists."

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Comment: Operation Terror is in full swing all over the globe. In the wake of what has been called Europe's Sept 11th, "Old Europe", so disparaged by the US for its predominantly anti-war stance, reassesses the threat of "terrorism" on its own doorstep as we speak. We are being systematically prepared for what London's mayor Ken Livingstone calls the "inevitable".

As entropic forces continue to mould, manouevre and blow our world towards a black hole of no hope, our individual choices, or perhaps lack of choices, become more clear. As said many times over on these Signs pages, it is not a question of seeking to change this world, but seeking to actively change one's programing as a result of living in this world. To act in favour of one's chosen destination. In the mechanical face of limitation, to dare to consider that there are no limits. As we wrote in the Signs on March 2nd:

Of course, it isn't easy.

It is as if an atom within an iron bar, far over on the negative side, decided to move along the iron bar to the other pole. All the atoms making up the bar are blocking him, as is the force pulling him back. The negative force pulling him is composed of the manifestations of the entropic principle within him. He must begin by working on these. As the points of attraction within him are reduced, he will begin to move towards the other pole. At this moment, he begins colliding with the atoms between him and his goal, his family and friends, who don't understand why he is suddenly moving in a different direction. They may not wish to let him through. He must fight for his passage.

As he works upon himself, removing the internal force, he must work against the exterior forces. He must learn to think and see for himself, must refuse to accept the group mind that holds him in place. When the group shouts loudest that everything is fine, he must be able to maintain his own point of view. When everyone around him is holding him down to stay where he is, he must find the force to break free. The seed of the force to do this is within; it is the potential of the positive pole within which can be made manifest by working against our mechanical character. Each choice to refuse to react is an action and therefore a choice.[...]

[...]The lies and manipulations of the Bush Reich are more and more brazen. Unfortunately, this process is happening throughout the world as well. We are moving into a new dark age. For it to be a polarisation, there must also be those who are moving towards the opposite pole. To change our analogy once more, imagine a piece of string being pulled from both ends. If it is ever going to break apart, propelling the two broken pieces in the direction of the attractive force, there must be equal forces on the two ends. If we are ever going to work our way out of the prison we are in, the positive pole must be made manifest; it cannot remain only a potential. If the string never breaks, it will be pulled as a whole into the coming dark age.

We talk of knowledge and the light it brings to our world. Knowledge only fuels action if one chooses to act. We share the knowledge we gather as an act of service to humanity and service to ourselves. What one does with this knowledge is of course up to the individual. If one views the world as a whole, as opposed to just the small space we inhabit in our respectively small geographical zones, we will realise that what Ken Livingstone calls the "inevitable" threat of terrorism is not a new thing. Perhaps the scale of the horror may feel new to people in countries that have contributed to inflicting immeasurable horror upon others. Naturally the majority of citizens in those countries will claim they did not know because they have been programmed to not care.

As in all entropic bodies, there is an oppressive hierarchical order and the way this heirarchy has manifested in recent history has been to split the world into illusory "developed" and "underdeveloped" zones. It is no longer politically correct to talk of "civilised" and "uncivilised", but that is the underpinning thought in this programme. Remember, the battle as such is being fought THROUGH us. In a recent QFS discussion on the Madrid bombing one member wrote that the 3/11, 9/11 and 911 days numerical correlations "gives one the feeling of being toyed with". Indeed we are being toyed with, and as discussed this week on the Signs pages, race, class and national boundaries are just that - boundaries to stop us seeing what is behind the fence erected around our minds. Indeed to stop us seeing what is happening in our very own back yard.

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Spanish Film Maker Almodovar Claims Aznar Was Planning Saturday Night Coup d'etat

Translated from El mundo

MADRID, 16 (ANSA) - Spanish Film maker Pedro Almodóvar claimed today that there existed reliable rumors that last Saturday night, on the eve of the Spanish general elections Aznar's Popular Party "was on the verge of carrying out a Coup d'etat."

Apparently Almodovar was referring to an email circulating on the internet, claiming that the POpular Party was planning a coup d'etat on Saturday noght last.

"If the well founded rumors are made public, we (the Spanish people) must confront the terrifying reality of what the Popular Party was planning at midnight on Saturday. It is to be hoped that this does come under public scrutiny so that we understand how close we were to a Popular party coup d'etat" stated Almodovar.

The Cinema director made the claims, without elaborating, at the presentation in Madrid of his new film "Bad Education"

According to Almodóvar, the socialist victory in Sunday's Spanish elections was to be welcomed, "Spain had regained the status of a free country. We have returned to democracy, but we have paid a very high price for the Iraq war". he said.

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Spain accused of easing up on terror watch

Signs emerge of serious intelligence and security failures before bombings

Giles Tremlett in Madrid, Owen Bowcott in Casablanca, Ian Black in Brussels and Sophie Arie in Milan
Wednesday March 17, 2004
The Guardian

Spain cut the number of police units responsible for watching radical Islamists in the months before last week's Madrid bombings, reducing numbers by up to a half in some cities and sending them back to ordinary police work, it was claimed yesterday.

A report in the newspaper El Mundo emerged amid numerous signs of serious police and intelligence failures in the run-up to the attacks that killed 201 commuters.

They include allegations that:

· Spanish police possessed phone taps linking a prime suspect in the bombings, the Moroccan Jamal Zougam, with Mohamed Fizazi, a jailed leader of the May bombings in Casablanca, Morocco;

· Arguments between Morocco and Spain over the island of Perejil, fishing rights and immigration had seriously hampered coordination on shared terrorism threats;

· Paperwork that should have allowed police to trace the sale in Spain of the explosives used in the attacks has reportedly gone missing; and

· Spanish police knew that Mr Zougam was closely connected to Salaheddine Benyaiche, another north African Islamist also imprisoned in Morocco for the Casablanca attacks. [...]

But one Italian terrorism expert yesterday warned that coordination between European countries was far from efficient, with important information sometimes failing to make it from one European police force to another.

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Madrid bomb suspect linked to UK extremists

Richard Norton-Taylor and Rosie Cowan
Wednesday March 17, 2004
The Guardian

The Metropolitan police and security services were last night investigating links between a prime suspect in the Madrid bombings and Islamist extremists in London.

A senior police source told the Guardian there were definite links between terrorists in the two cities. Intelligence officers also believe that Jamal Zougam, arrested by Spanish police in connection with the bombings, has contacts with a number of individuals of north African origin who are at large in the UK.

"It is known there are well-established links to Spain and north Africa," said a well-placed source, referring to individuals in Britain.

But security sources are reluctant to go into detail, and they dismiss what they say are exaggerated suggestions that the Spanish inquiry is being "exported" to Britain.

But intelligence sources say it would be surprising, given the nature of the loose international networks of al-Qaida supporters, if there were not some links between those suspected of being behind the Madrid bombings and individuals in Britain.

Some of those may be of Algerian background, former members of the Armed Islamic Group responsible for attacks on the Paris underground nine years ago.

The question now, sources said, was to discover just how relevant the links were to last week's Madrid terrorist attacks on commuter trains.

It is known that Mr Zougam met a French Islamist convert, David Courtailler, at a Madrid mosque in 1998. Mr Courtailler is due to stand trial in Paris today in connection with a terrorist group which recruited fighters for Afghanistan in the mid-90s.

Mr Courtailler and his brother Jerome moved to London, where they are believed to have shared a flat in Brixton with Zacarias Moussaoui. Mr Moussaoui is in custody in the US, suspected of having planned to be one of the September 11 hijackers.

He is reported to have said he was given cash and a fake passport at the Finsbury Park mosque under the radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, and sent to a training camp in Afghanistan.

The Metropolitan police has sent a three-strong team to Madrid to help the Spanish investigation and see if it throws up any clues relevant to Britain or the fight against terrorism in general. Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan police commissioner, refused to comment on any possible links between the Madrid bombers and the UK, saying it was early days and the Met team was there in a non-investigative capacity.

Sir John said that, if necessary, his officers would question detainees in Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London and elsewhere if the Spanish inquiry pointed in that direction. "We will go where the evidence takes us," he said.

What is concerning intelligence officials is the apparent failure to keep tabs on Mr Zougam, who was arrested and then released three years ago in Spain. Potentially more worrying, the sources say, was the ability of the Madrid bombers to carry out terrorist attacks without any hint of what they were planning.

This, sources said yesterday, suggested the bombers had worked out counter-intelligence methods to foil western electronic surveillance.

Security sources have spoken about the lack of "chatter" that preceded the Madrid attack. Previous attacks by al-Qaida or offshoot terror groups have provided western intelligence with a marked increase in background communication between suspects.

Comment: While we can hypothesise about the likely perpetrators of the Madrid bomb, one thing is clear; the attack had the effect of bolstering the idea in the minds of European citizens that the "war in terror" is justified and "Arab terrorists" are real and pose a threat to all of us.

But is this the truth?

In any conflict, logically we would expect the goals of two warring parties to be opposed to each other. In the current worldwide "war on terror" the clearly stated goal of the Bush administration and the NeoCons in the Pentagon is to protect "freedom and democracy" and western (American) Christian values, while at the same time spreading "freedom and democracy" throughout the world. The goal of the "Arab terrorists" is not so clearly defined, yet we gather, as much from the Bush administration as from the "terrorists", that they "hate westerners because of their freedom and democracy" and seek to promote fundamentalist Islamic belief. So far so good, both agendas, at least on paper, stand in stark opposition to each other. We, again logically, assume then that the actions of one side in this conflict should in no way contribute to, or serve to advance, the goals of the other party, in fact the opposite should be true.

This is where it gets a little confusing however.

The actions of the Bush administration in attempting to achieve its stated goal to protect "freedom and democracy" and spread these ideals to other countries have, in reality, achieved exactly the opposite. In the US, the "war on terror" has resulted in the systematic dissolution of the civil freedoms and democratic rights of the average American. Around the world, the results of the "war on terror" has lead to US intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, leading not to the bestowal of freedom and democracy on those countries, but rather to conflict, death and destruction.

What gives?

The confusion intensifies when we consider the results of the attempts by "Arab terrorists" to achieve their goals. The actions of "Arab terrorists" has resulted in the further demonisation of the average Arab and the Muslim faith in the minds of citizens of Western countries. Are we to assume that Bin Laden and Co were, and continue to be, unaware that, by attacking and killing innocent Americans and Europeans, they merely make enemies and provide Bush and Blair with justification to further persecute Arab people? We see the exact same dynamic in Israel, where the repeated "suicide bombings", allegedly carried out by Palestinian Arabs, have merely given Sharon a reason to kill and maim Palestinian civilians, a task which he goes about with apparent relish.

Clearly something is not right here, and we remain in a state of confusion until we read the words of Taylor Caldwell in "The Devil’s Advocate" (1952):

“You see, when a nation threatens another nation the people of the latter forget their factionalism, their local antagonisms, their political differences, their suspicions of each other, their religious hostilities, and band together as one unit. Leaders know that, and that is why so many of them whip up wars during periods of national crisis, or when the people become discontented and angry. The leaders stigmatize the enemy with every vice they can think of, every evil and human depravity. They stimulate their people’s natural fear of all other men by channeling it into a defined fear of just certain men, or nations. Attacking another nation, then, acts as a sort of catharsis, temporarily, on men’s fear of their immediate neighbors. This is the explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all massacres, and all attempts at genocide.”

Henry Kissinger, speaking at the Bilderburgers meeting in Evian, France in 1992 also made it abundantly clear:

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government." -- Henry Kissinger speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 Bilderburgers meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting

Or perhaps Hermann Hesse summed it up best when he said:

"The greatest threat to our world and its peace comes from those who want war, who prepare for it, and who, by holding out vague promises of future peace or by instilling fear of foreign aggression, try to make us accomplices to their plans."

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U.S. Charged With War Crimes: The Evidence File

Court case against General Franks in Brussels

WARNING:  The video and pictures in this report contain images and descriptions,  depicting the reality and horror of the U.S. - UK invasion of Iraq 

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Unknown Muslim group 'Servants of Allah' threatens France

Tue Mar 16, 6:15 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - An unknown Muslim group threatened to attack France and its interests abroad, linking the threat to the government's controversial ban of headscarves and other religious insignia in state schools, officials said.

The threat by a group calling itself "Servants of Allah, the Powerful and Wise One" came in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and sent to two of the country's newspapers, Le Parisien and Le Monde.

Raffarin said France gets plenty of threats, but that this one seemed more structured than the others, which is why the government was taking it seriously.

But he said the letter, which told Muslims to avoid crowded areas and referred to Charles Martel, who defeated the Arabs at Poitiers in the year 732.

The letter threatened to strike "blindly and violently" unless France withdrew the headscarves law. [...]

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told AFP that experts were "in the process of analyzing" the threats -- which came five days after Thursday's devastating train bombings in Madrid that left 201 people dead.

Both Le Parisien and Le Monde said the letter was signed "Mosvar Barayev commando".

The signature was similar to Movsar Barayev, the leader of a Chechen commando that took hundreds of people hostage in a Moscow theater in October 2002. Barayev was killed when Russian troops stormed the venue. [...]

The group calling itself "Servants of Allah, the Powerful and Wise One" was until now unknown to French intelligence services, which were on Tuesday in the process of researching the organization. [...]

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Australia Says It Stands by the U.S.

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Graffiti attack on Aussie warship

Anti-war protesters have admitted painting the 157-metre vessel - one of two RAN replenishment ships - with a slogan ["John Howard, US bootlicker"] in fluorescent green criticising the Australian prime minister.

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Survey: Discontent with U.S. Growing Overseas

March 17, 2004

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Muslim nations are angry at the United States and a growing percentage of Europeans want a diplomatic and military divorce from Washington, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday. [...]

"Doubts about the motives behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism abound, and a growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States," the survey summary said.

"There is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States," it added. [...]

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Returnee from Iraq kills self in Colo.

Questions raised about tests, help for GI stress

By Erin Emery and Eileen Kelley
The Denver Post

MONUMENT - Just three weeks home from Iraq, a decorated Fort Carson Green Beret shot himself to death Sunday, moments after his wife frantically called 911 for help.

The death of 36-year-old William Howell, a Special Forces soldier, has sent shock waves through the military community and forced many around the Colorado Springs-area Army post to ask if Howell was given the help he may have needed to beat combat stress upon returning from the war last month.

Howell, a chief warrant officer, had been in Iraq for roughly 10 months, officials said Tuesday. Under military policy, returning troops are to be screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat-related disorders before arriving stateside. The policy was enacted after four military wives were killed in 2002 by their husbands at Fort Bragg, N.C. Those special-forces soldiers had recently returned from Afghanistan. [...]

Georg-Andreas Pogany, an interrogator for the 10th Special Forces Group, was charged with cowardice after suffering a panic attack after seeing a dead body in Iraq and asking for help. The cowardice charge was dropped, but Pogany's case at Fort Carson is unresolved.

Howell's suicide is especially troubling because he served in the same unit as Pogany, said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group for veterans of both conflicts in Silver Spring, Md.

"If the command climate is 'We're going to charge you with cowardice if you come forward asking for help,' I don't know that many people will come forward," Robinson said. [...]

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Iraq Detainee Racket?

Are the thousands of detainees still held by the US in Iraq merely in prison because they can't come up with their $300 fee?

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South Korea fears terror attack

By Jack Kim and Martin Nesirky
Tue March 16, 2004 10:13 PM ET

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's acting president has ordered boosted security measures, saying the country is a major potential terrorism target because it planned to send more troops to Iraq soon.

There has been no known public threat to South Korea, where there are 37,000 U.S. troops based to deter North Korea, but acting President Goh Kun told security officials that all countries involved in Iraq needed to be wary. [...]

South Korea is sending more than 3,000 troops -- half of them combat-ready force-protection troops -- to Iraq next month to join some 600 medics and engineers already there. [...]

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N Korea says US engineered Roh impeachment

Seoul - The United States instigated the impeachment of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to bring to power a pro-US government, North Korea said on Wednesday in its first detailed commentary on the political row.

The communist North's official KCNA news agency said the opposition-led parliamentary vote to impeach the left-leaning Roh last Friday was "unprecedented political gangsterism" resembling a military coup and had embarrassed all Koreans.

"The US is chiefly to blame for the incident," KCNA said.

"The US egged the South Korean political quacks, obsessed by the greed for power, on to stage such an incident in a bid to install an ultra-right pro-US regime there," it said.

The commentary echoed and built on remarks on Sunday by a spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the North Korean body that oversees ties with the South. That spokesperson said Washington had plotted the impeachment but he did not elaborate.[...]

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Arafat Says Israel Wants to Destroy Gaza

March 17, 2004

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat accused Israel Wednesday of trying to destroy Gaza by pursuing a fresh offensive in the territory before a proposed evacuation of Jewish settlers.

"Before leaving Gaza they want to destroy Gaza. This is a big crime," Arafat told reporters at his half-demolished West Bank headquarters in Ramallah where Israeli forces have largely confined him since late 2001. [...]

Israeli officials said the offensive aimed to smash Gaza militant factions to prevent them claiming victory if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon goes ahead with a planned evacuation of Jewish settlements from the crowded, poverty-stricken territory. [...]

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Israel to Step Up Assassination Attacks

Israel’s security cabinet today approved an army plan to intensify targeted killings of Palestinian militants, including leaders, and send more troops into the Gaza Strip for ground operations. [...]

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Israel launches new Gaza strikes

Four Palestinians have been killed and several others injured in fresh Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Three civilians and a gunman died in two separate missile attacks on the southern Rafah refugee camp early on Wednesday, Palestinian witnesses said.

Israeli military sources said missiles were fired at militants planting bombs on a road used by Israeli vehicles.

Israel stepped up its attacks following suicide bombings in the port of Ashdod on Sunday which killed 10 Israelis.

Sunday's attack was the first deadly attack on a strategic installation in at least three years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[...]

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Not in My Name

Not In My Name is a Jewish peace group that was formed in November 2000 to work for a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. [...] We call ourselves "Not In My Name" because we feel that the State of Israel often claims to act in the name and interests of world Jewry, but that these actions do not reflect our Jewish values and beliefs.

"We have been punished for speaking out, for wanting not only to have no share in the evil ourselves, but to get rid of the evil.  They said in the verdict that we are undermining the legitimacy of what the government and the army are doing.  That's absolutely true, and that's what we intend to continue doing. " —Haggai Matar, after being sentenced to a second year in military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli military. (January 5, 2004).

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Pimps tell of a million brothel visits a year

By Ruth Sinai
Haaretz

"Lots of religious men from Jerusalem enter our place. They look really embarrassed. Some ask me to close the establishment for an hour - and 20 of them turn up in a group."

Thus a pimp gave evidence yesterday to a special parliamentary committee on sex trafficking. The session was devoted to pimps. [...]

In Israel, some estimate that there are one million visits a month to massage parlors. That figure, which will be presented today to the parliamentary committee which is headed by MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), is based on the following calculations: police estimate that 3,000 women have been brought to Israel as sex workers. They work 30 days a month and have at least ten clients a day. [...]

Comment: In other words, the slave trade is alive and well in the 21st Century.

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African Nation Marks Anniversary of Coup

BANGUI, Central African Republic - One year ago, Gen. Francois Bozize led an army of insurgents who captured the capital of this remote, diamond-rich country in a hail of gunfire and artillery. On Monday, Bozize celebrated his first anniversary in power, with a ceremonial march by rebels-turned-soldiers in Bangui.

Most here, however, say there is little cause for jubilation in a country severely pressed to pay its own civil servants and soldiers. The government already owes them more than two years of back pay.

"March 15, 2004, should be a day of national mourning," said former President Ange-Felix Patasse, who was toppled in last year's coup, in a message on his Web site from exile in Togo.

Central African Republic, a deeply impoverished nation of 3.7 million in the heart of Africa, rarely makes the news. When Bozize's rebels seized Bangui, the world was focused on the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide brought the international spotlight here when he sought refuge in Bangui on March 1 after being ousted. Aristide left the country Monday, flying to Jamaica for temporary asylum.

"People don't know about us," lamented Michel Chili, 43, sitting outside his car upholstery workshop in Bangui's poor Sango neighborhood. "We have problems in Central Africa. Nobody wants to help us."

Though rich in gold, diamonds and uranium, Central African Republic has been plagued by successive dictatorships and military revolts since gaining independence from France in 1960.[...]

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Central African Workers Go Unpaid

BANGUI, Central African Republic - Jacques Wagandji hasn't had a pay raise in 19 years. In the last year, he hasn't been paid at all.

Despite all that, Wagandji keeps showing up for work at Central African Republic's state-run Bangui General Hospital — hoping one day he will.

"I often go to bed with an empty stomach, just a glass of water," said the father of three, who works as a nurse and survives selling vegetables he grows at home. "I'm used to it. But for my children, it's just unbearable."

Unpaid salaries are a way of life for many in this impoverished nation of 3.5 million, where the government has always found sending out paychecks to thousands of civil servants and soldiers a hard burden to bear.

Comment: When people are really desperate, their cognitive faculties can sometimes get faulty, as you will see below with this desperate man longing for a past that seemed better than today.

Times are so hard that even the days of Central African Republic's late dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa don't seem too bad to some. Bokassa, a notorious Cold War despot, was accused of cannibalism and executing schoolchildren during his 1966-79 rule.

"Bokassa loved his country, he built the nation. Today, the country lacks leadership and I sincerely think that there is no way out," said Ndama, who shares his tiny, three-bedroom home with his mother, sister, child and nephews.

Sitting in the shade of a tree outside his house, Ndama said he dreams of returning to France, from which Central African Republic broke away in 1960 to gain independence.[...]

Comment: In the bigger picture, it has been clear for centuries that Africa is marked for destruction and plunder. In the above story a teacher living with hunger in Central Africa dreams of a new life in the colonial motherland France. In the meantime in a France growing more wary of "terrorism", borders will be closely monitored and immigration policies will most likely mean this teacher's dream will morph seamlessly into the ongoing nightmare of life under the Bush Reich. It is more and more clear that the Hitler Reich was just a dress rehearsal. The rules of the "game" are getter clearer than ever if one wants to keep their eyes open. This from an article by John Kaminski in the Signs of Feb 29th.

[...]The United States has now assumed the role of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia at their worst and all rolled into one. It has troops poised and threatening in 127 other countries. By the diabolical mechanisms of the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, it has already plundered most other countries financially, stealing their utilities and impoverishing their inhabitants. And those nations who resist this financial con game, like Yugoslavia, are simply invaded and coerced into servitude. Those nations who play the game, like Russia and Argentina, are reduced to abject poverty with a few pro-Western billionaires owning everything.

And woe to those nations who won't play the game, like Iraq. They are obliterated and turned into permanent war zones. Their people are murdered in their sleep by hopped-up American soldiers who are told by their cynical leaders that they are spreading democracy, when really what they are spreading are endless opportunities for plunder by politically connected corporations.

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Firms 'unpunished' over Congo war

A British-based development group has accused industrialised countries of failing to punish companies alleged to have profited from the DR Congo war.

The group says governments from the world's 30 richest countries failed to investigate what companies based in their countries did in the Congo.

Four years ago a UN panel named companies and individuals that had allegedly been enriched by the war.

The governments concerned say the UN has failed to substantiate the claims.

The war in the DR Congo that broke out in 1998 claimed over three million lives. and included slaughter and atrocities on an almost unimaginable scale.

A UN Security Council appointed a panel to reported on how Congo's gold, diamonds and other minerals paid for and fuelled the conflict.

But after reporting, the panel was wound up, leaving a host of unanswered questions.[...]

Comment: As Kaminski's article above stated, the "politically connected corporations" run the world's economy, thus no investigation into who funded the brutal war in the DR Congo will actually happen. Even if it "happens", it will be a token gesture with no chance of finding the truth because the psychopath is at the same time the accused, the judge and the jury.

Indeed the whole smogasborg of colonial links, corporate interest and sheer unadulterated greed is exemplified by the recent alleged coup attempt against Equatorial Guinea that Zimbabwean authorities seem to have aborted. As we watch Mugabe contemplating what punishment is worthy for these "Imperialist" puppets, it is a good opportunity to study the convoluted thread of deceit and corruption that our modern world Capitalism thrives on. Let us not forget the alleged coup was planned against the tiny former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea - sub Saharan Africa's third richest oil producing nation - sound familiar? If you are curious to know what the real Heart of Darkness is, pick up this thread and see where it leads you.

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SA suspects caught up in 'coup chaos'

In footage, the purported "confession" by alleged Equatorial Guinea coup plotter Nick du Toit was broadcast on SABC television on Tuesday as fleeing foreigners told how the alleged plot had sparked an orgy of arrests, rapes, beatings and shootings.

Du Toit, who owns a security firm in the tiny oil-rich state jointly with the president's brother, was flanked by drawn-looking suspected mercenaries.

The tape was obtained from Equatorial Guinea authorities.

The men, apparently South Africans, looked dishevelled and tired.

They sat on a bench in a long line as Du Toit said the plan had been to topple President Obiang Nguema, who is widely condemned for human rights abuses.

It was not clear whether he made his statement under duress. He seemed in control and spoke clearly.

Witnesses escaping the country have given accounts of brutal treatment in Equatorial Guinea's prisons, where 15 men, many of them South Africans, are being held over the coup plot claims.

Dozens of foreign businessmen and entrepreneurs are believed to be trapped in the country, where "mass hysteria" about the alleged coup has been unleashed.

The government, which has been labelled one of the world's worst dictatorships, claims the arrested men were the advance party for the 70 alleged mercenaries arrested at Harare airport.[...]

"I thank God I didn't die in the cell where I was locked up for several days," said Caroline Manoh, one of hundreds of people arriving at Limbe, Cameroon.

"Police were raping the girls and beating up the men." Several of those rounded up had died behind bars, she alleged.

A Ghanaian Air Force jet has retrieved 120 ex-patriots from the capital, Malabo. Another 300 were to be evacuated by ship in coming days, authorities said.

Security forces "shot some people dead, a lot of them, and I was terrified," construction worker Georges Yaw said in Accra.

Du Toit, 48, and Nguema's brother, Armengol, are shareholders in Triple Options, a joint venture company established to provide "security services" to the president.

The government now says Triple Options is implicated in the plot to topple him. This perhaps underlines that the greatest threat to Obiang comes from his own family.[...]

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Zim coup suspects charged with conspiracy

Harare -Zimbabwe has charged 70 suspected mercenaries with conspiring to murder the president of Equatorial Guinea in an alleged plot to topple the government of the oil-rich African state, their lawyer said on Wednesday.

"They were charged on Tuesday with attempting to murder the president of Equatorial Guinea and his bodyguards. There is also some indication that they could be charged under the Public Order and Security Act (Posa)," lawyer Jonathan Samkange said.[...]

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Las Vegas Police Nab Ohio Sniper Suspect

By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer
March 17, 2004

LAS VEGAS - The man suspected in two dozen sniper shootings that have terrorized motorists along Ohio highways was arrested at a Las Vegas motel early Wednesday.

Charles A. McCoy Jr., 28, was taken into custody two days after he was named as a suspect in the shootings that pierced cars and homes and left one woman dead in the Columbus area, said Las Vegas police Lt. Christopher Van Cleef.

"We got him in custody without incident," Van Cleef said. [...]

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Ashcroft Terrorizes New York Doctors

By Sharon Lerner
Village Voice

Attorney General John Ashcroft has entered into a bitter battle with doctors who perform abortions in New York. In an unprecedented foray into an area usually protected by medical privacy laws, the federal government's top lawyer—who also happens to be a fervent opponent of abortion—is demanding women's confidential medical records from doctors at two local hospital centers. So far, hospitals and doctors have not turned over the documents. [...]

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Ky. Politician to Hold Post From Jail

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - A politician who was convicted of buying votes was sentenced Tuesday to more than two years in federal prison, but he will continue to hold his post from his cell.

Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome has been in jail since he was convicted in October, when a federal judge said he was a danger to the community based on alleged witness tampering during his trial. [...]

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Monster Island

NY Press

Located just two miles off the tip of Long Island and six miles from the Connecticut coastline, Plum Island is home to a Bio-Safety Level 4 (BSL-4) research facility. [...]

n 1954, the research took a more aggressive turn, with scientists looking to cook up ways to inflict damage on Soviet livestock. The Cuban government alleges that in the 1960s and 70s, bioweapons developed at Plum were deployed against Cuban agriculture, targeting pork, tobacco and sugar cane. Back in 1999, Floyd P. Horn, administrator of the Agriculture Research Service, persuaded President Clinton to include Plum Island in his expanded bioterrorism program based on the possibility of a biological attack on the nation’s agricultural base. Last year the administration of the island’s research facilities was transferred from USDA to the Department of Homeland Security. [...]

Coincidences, it seems, abound at Plum....

There’s been a lot of blather and hoo-hah in the news around here lately that New Yorkers are unprepared for another major disaster along the lines of the Sept. 11 attacks. Very few businesses have established any kind of emergency preparedness drills or protocols, and the average citizen seems to be living in some hideously banal postmodern fog of confusion and denial. [...]

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Homegrown Area 51

We peek inside Plum Island; we get a bit scared.

[...] The proof is in Lab 257 ’s first chapter, in which Carroll argues quite convincingly that outbreaks of both Lyme disease and West Nile virus originated at the lab after the experimental viruses were accidentally released into the environment.

Even more disturbing is his account of what happened out there when Hurricane Bob hit in 1991...

Comment: Again and again we keep turning up stories that show that US citizens are in far more danger from the US government than any terrorist group could dream up.

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Hikers Find 50-Pound Bag Of Missing Explosive

Amount Of Explosive Still Missing Could Blow Up Three-Story Building

March 16, 2004

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Hikers in the area of Seven Falls over the weekend stumbled onto a stolen bag of ammonium nitrate-based explosive, the same type used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

The 50-pound bag was one of eight stolen last summer from a concrete company in northwest Colorado Springs. There was no sign of the other bags. [...]

ANFO is also the main explosive used in the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. [...]

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Standoff closes Interstate 80--Man wielding camera causes 2-hour delay

By Ian Thompson

VALLEJO -- A Carson City man that witnesses said had a rifle forced the California Highway Patrol to shut down Interstate 80 at American Canyon Road for almost two hours on Tuesday morning.

About 40 CHP, Solano County Sheriff's Department and Vallejo police officers were called in to deal with an erratically acting Rickey Badgley, 51, whose "rifle with a scope" turned out to be a camera with a high-powered len [...]

"I decided this was a nice day to take off, escape work and relax," she said while stopped in the late morning heat just east of Red Top Road. "Well, so much for relaxation." [...]

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Wisconsin, New York Unplug Matrix

By Ryan Singel
Wired News
10:44 AM Mar. 15, 2004 PT

Wisconsin and New York became the latest states to drop out of a controversial interstate law enforcement data-sharing program shortly after joining it.

Wisconsin pulled out of the Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange program, otherwise known as Matrix, on Thursday, just two days after Wired News reported that the state had signed on in early February.

With access to the Matrix database, law enforcement investigators can look up vast amounts of personal information culled from government and commercial databases. The information includes driver's license pictures, addresses, professional licenses, names of neighbors and relatives, and even domain-name registration filings and hunting licenses.

Participating states agree to regularly feed their automobile and driver's license databases into a centralized computer, which is housed in Florida and run by a private data firm, Seisint. [...]

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Defense Department Hires IBM for Radio Tags

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France may go for gold to fund research

PARIS, March 15 (AFP) - Taking its cue from Germany, the French government is looking at the pots of gold sitting in central bank vaults as a possible means to finance research, despite likely stiff political and legal opposition.

The need to invest in research in order to remain competitive internationally has pushed governments first in Germany and now in France to consider selling central bank reserves to generate funds for projects.

The Bank of France has 3,000 tonnes of the precious metal in the form of ingots and worth more than EUR 30 billion (USD 37 billion). [...]

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Memories Are Harder To Forget Than Currently Thought

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Volcano ignites political feud

15/03/2004 08:10

Auckland - A natural calamity that is expected to see tons of mud, ash and water sweep down the slopes of a volcano in New Zealand is sparking a political row as allegations fly that the government was coddling minority interests.

In 1953 a lahar - Indonesian for a volcano-related mudslide - swept down from Mount Ruapehus crater lake, taking out a main line railway bridge just before an overnight express passed by. The train plunged into the torrent, killing 151 people.

Ruapehu now has a bigger lahar building up in the fragile crater lake, and critics claim the government is not going to act for fear of offending the indigenous Maori people who believe the mountain is sacred. [...]

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White Island Volcano (New Zealand)

Tuesday 16th March, 2004

Last week the temperature of the crater lake at White Island Volcano was 53deg C, and the lake has risen to 15.4 m below the crater rim. This is the largest lake to have formed within this crater and has recently drowned the active vents. The current lake volume is large enough that it will influence the next phase of eruptive activity from the volcano, and result in a new hazard to people visiting the island. This would occur along with the already existing hazards caused by rock and ash fall during explosive eruptions. Should there be no significant eruptive activity within the next 18-24 month period and the lake continues to fill, it may reach overflow level. 

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Moderate earthquake shakes northwestern China, no injuries reported

March 17, 2004

BEIJING (AP) - A moderate earthquake rattled northwestern China on Wednesday but no injuries or damage were reported, state television said. The magnitude-5.2 temblor struck Delingha, a city in Qinghai province, at 5:23 a.m. (2123 GMT Tuesday), China Central Television reported.

A magnitude-5.0 temblor hit Delingha last month and a magnitude-6.6 quake hit last April, damaging about 1,000 houses. In both cases, no one was killed or injured.

The city, which is close to the provincial capital of Xining, is in one of China's most sparsely populated regions.

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POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE SOUTH OF CRETE

Chania, 17 March 2004 (12:59 UTC+2)

A 6.3 Richter earthquake that was felt in Athens was recorded shortly after 7 this morning. According to initial information, the quakes epicenter was located at a great focal depth south of Chania, Crete, approximately 330 km south of Athens. There is no more information on the earthquake, but no damages or injuries have been reported so far. The earthquake was felt quite intensely and many Cretans took to the streets. Schools on the island are continuing classes normally.

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Earthquake rattles Bolivia

LA PAZ, Bolivia, March 17 (UPI) -- A strong earthquake rattled Bolivia Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center reported.

The quake registered 6.1 on the Richter scale, shaking the landlocked, South American nation primarily in the south.

There were no reports of causalities or damages.

The Chilean-Bolivian region of the continent is a hotbed of seismic activity, with small tremors occurring on a regular basis.

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Cambodia confirms five more bird flu outbreaks

Five more bird flu outbreaks have been confirmed in Cambodia.

The Department of Animal Health says the confirmation follows test results from samples taken on February 21.

It says all of the newly-confirmed outbreaks have been brought under control and since February 21 there have been no new cases reported.

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'Dairy food as deadly as tobacco'

People should avoid milk and cheese as much as tobacco, a scientist has said.

Professor Jane Plant says there is strong evidence that dairy products promote breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.

Speaking at a lecture on diet and cancer, she said: "My advice is don't have any dairy products in any form whatsoever. Just cut them out completely."

Professor Plant's best selling book on links between dairy products and breast cancer, Your Life In Your Hands, was published last year. Her new book, Prostate Cancer - Understand, Prevent and Overcome - comes out in May.

Professor Plant made the dairy connection after being given two months to live with advanced breast cancer which had spread to her lymph glands. She wondered why it was that in rural China, where hardly any dairy products are consumed, rates of breast cancer were so low.

After giving up all dairy foods herself she noticed a remarkable change. Within five weeks the huge tumour in her neck began to itch, then soften, and finally shrivel away.

More than 10 years later at the age of 60 she is clear of the disease - although she has had breast cancer five times.[...]

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Distant Sedna Raises Possibility of Another Earth-Sized Planet in Our Solar System

By Robert Roy Britt
space.com

Our corner of the galaxy got a little stranger this week with the discovery of Sedna , the most distant object ever spotted in the solar system. Now astronomers are puzzling over how it got there.

The most intriguing idea is that there might be another world as big as Earth, a gravitational bully lurking in some unexplored corner of the solar system. [...]

"Perhaps there's more than one planet out there," Marsden said. "Who knows? But let's suppose it is something of an Earth mass, maybe even a few Earth masses. A close approach could throw this object [Sedna] from something more circular into something more eccentric." [...]

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CAR ALARM MAYHEM REMAINS A MYSTERY (UK)

Confusion was sparked among shoppers at a city retail park when dozens of car alarms all went off at the same time.

The 100-space car park at the Kingsway Retail Park became a scene of confusion and noise on Saturday afternoon as shoppers struggled to get into their cars.

People had difficulty in using the automatic locking system on their key fobs, with many not working at all.

The reason why the alarms were activated at the same time remains a mystery.

Some suggest the problem may have been caused by signals from nearby mobile phone masts - others believe it was caused by radio waves or aircraft flying overhead.

John Davies (57), a court usher from Mickleover, visited the new Marks & Spencer Simply Food store at Kingsway at about 4pm on Saturday.

He said: "When I came out, there was a heck of a din. There were people standing by the side of their cars scratching their heads wondering what had made them go off and how to stop them, I suppose.

"I didn't think much of it until I walked to my car. I pressed the key fob for the central locking and nothing happened. I had to open the door with the key and my alarm went off.

"Others started going off as well. As I drove off, I could still hear alarms going off all over the place.

"I have heard of it before when a mobile telephone mast had been put up and it was affecting all the car alarms."

The problem was confined to the main car park and cars in neighbouring Sainsbury's were not affected.

Mark Kynman, store manager at Halfords, said the store was inundated with people on Saturday who were desperately trying to find out what was happening to their cars.

He said: "One of my staff members said it felt as if the whole retail park had descended on him.

"I have heard that if an aeroplane goes over and hits a certain frequency at a certain speed, it temporarily disables things, such as car alarms."

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Airport said it was unlikely that an aeroplane would trigger that sort of commotion.

Darren Stonebridge, the store manager at Powerhouse, said a lot of customers were talking about the problem on Saturday.

He said: "It's very strange."

Kevin Shaw, a sales assistant at Car Electronics Ltd, in Ashbourne Road, Derby, said it could have been caused by anything from radio signals to a mini earthquake.

Comment: The above is the third time something similar has been reported in the media. The first one was in Colorado Springs while NATO excercises where going nearby, and the other one was in Las Vegas, not too far from Area 51. They have all resulted in panic and emotional theories. An understandable if not an optimal reaction, since something is just not right.

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On this day in 1669

It is in the records of the French Academy that [...] in the town of Chatillon-sur-Seine, fell a reddish substance that was "thick, viscous, and putrid." [Source: The Book of the Damned, Charles Fort. Note: PDF version of The Damned available here]

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Spielberg & Cruise Teaming on War of the Worlds!

[...] "War" became permanently etched in American culture when Orson Welles' Mercury Theater performed the story on radio in 1938 and ignited a nationwide panic when listeners didn't realize it was fiction. H.G. Wells wrote the book in 1898. [...]

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Aztec UFO fest opens Friday

By Debra Mayeux
The Daily Times

AZTEC — Fifty-six years ago on a small, dirt road north of Aztec, something unexplainable happened.

A saucer-shaped ship, 100-feet in diameter, was said to have crash-landed leaving small charred bodies inside. There were eyewitnesses — military, locals and police officers. There are Air Force documents one man is working to declassify.

Scott Ramsey of Charlotte, N.C., has spent the past 14 years of his life researching the purported Aztec UFO crash of 1948. He has traveled to 28 states, visited numerous military bases and talked to alleged eyewitnesses of the event.

“We want to be extremely careful to make sure people are reliable witnesses,” Ramsey said of his research. “We really try not to open our mouth until a lot of research has been done.”

Ramsey will present his findings at the 7th annual Aztec UFO Symposium Friday through Sunday at Koogler Middle School. His talk, which he says is “no smoking gun,” will be presented at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The alleged Aztec crash occurred only months after the more famous 1947 Roswell crash of another alleged UFO. It was two years before the March 17, 1950, Farmington UFO Armada, which celebrates its 54th anniversary today. [...]

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'Strange spirit has put us all through hell'

By Prinella Pillay

A family of five from Shallcross have approached the Post with an impassioned plea to be freed from a disturbing spirit.

The family claim to have been plagued by a tokoloshe for the past 20 years, are desperately looking for someone genuine to help them. [...]

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And Finally...

Veritable proof that there is water on Mars...

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