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Scientists Worry over 'Bizarre' Trial for Failing to Predict Earthquake

Onna Quake
© Franco Volpato | ShutterstockA view of destruction caused by the terrible earthquake in the village of Onna in Aquila, Italy.

Six Italian scientists and one government official are set to go to trial today in Italy (Sept. 20) on charges of manslaughter for not warning the public aggressively enough of an impending earthquake that killed more than 300 people in 2009.

While such a trial is unlikely on U.S. soil, experts say, American geologists and seismologists are watching closely, surprised at a legal system that would attempt to criminalize something as uncertain as earthquake prediction.

"Our ability to predict earthquake hazards is, frankly, lousy," said Seth Stein, a professor of Earth sciences at Northwestern University in Illinois. "Criminalizing something would only make sense if we really knew how to do this and someone did it wrong."

Henry Pollack, a professor of geology at the University of Michigan, echoed Stein's concerns.

"The whole thing seems bizarre to me," Pollack told LiveScience.

Target

US: Activists to protest Ahmadinejad in New York

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© Agence France-PresseA mobile billboard by a group opposed to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seen on Second Avenue, a few blocks from United Nations headquarters in New York. Activists vowed on Monday to greet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with angry protests when he visits New York for this week's United Nations General Assembly
Activists vowed on Monday to greet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with angry protests when he visits New York for this week's United Nations General Assembly.

United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group, has demanded that managers of the upscale Warwick Hotel refuse to host Ahmadinejad and his delegation and have urged a boycott of the international hotel chain.

"Ahmadinejad is not welcome here. His visit to Manhattan is offensive given Iran's heinous track record and its alliance with Al-Qaeda," UANI executive director David Ibsen said in a statement on Monday.

The group also announced that it was launching a mobile billboard, to be driven by truck near the UN and the Warwick hotel for the next several days, that will contain an anti-Ahmadinejad message.

The mobile billboard, which is similar to a stationary billboard that UANI has placed near Times Square, shows Ahmadinejad and says: "As we remember 9/11 ten years later, Al-Qaeda's silent partner is coming to New York."

Sun

Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Resigns Over Global Warming Hoax

earth
© NASA

The global warming theory left him out in the cold.

Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that "global warming is occurring."

The official position of the American Physical Society (APS) supports the theory that man's actions have inexorably led to the warming of the planet, through increased emissions of carbon dioxide.

Giaever does not agree -- and put it bluntly and succinctly in the subject line of his email, reprinted at Climate Depot, a website devoted to debunking the theory of man-made climate change.

Info

Canada, Toronto: Tempers Flare Over Prayer in Schools

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© CBC NewsTwo sides squared off outside Toronto District School Board headquarters Saturday over religious prayer in classrooms.
A rally held to recognize the Toronto District School Board for allowing rights and freedoms turned into a shouting match Saturday between religious groups.

About 200 people squared off outside the Toronto District School Board's head office, concerned about Muslim prayer in the city's public schools.

Groups including the Jewish Defence League of Canada, the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and the Christian Heritage Group, are upset that a middle school in the city's north end has provided Muslim students cafeteria space for a weekly prayer service, saying the board showed favouritism to Islam.

Chris Andrewsen who organized what was supposed to be a day of appreciation for the TDSB, said they should be allowed to express their beliefs.

"If we are religious people then we should be allowed to express that. It's not an imposition on other people," Andrewsen said.

But some opponents say allowing students to pray on school property goes against the school board's policy that schools should be a place of study free from cultural or religious influence. While others say the right should be left open to all groups.

Stormtrooper

Canada, Toronto: Taser fired at man in Toronto balcony

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© CBC NewsPolice, fire and EMS workers surround a man who fell nine metres to the ground following an early-morning standoff on Monday in which a Taser was discharged. The man was rushed to hospital in critical condition.
A tense standoff involving Toronto police ended with a man apparently being shocked by a Taser before plummeting from a balcony to the concrete below.

The man was rushed to hospital in critical condition just after 5 a.m. Monday, after falling what appeared to be a distance of about nine metres.

The drama began around 1 a.m., when police from 12 Division were dispatched to arrest a suspect on the fourth floor of 1735 Weston Rd. near Lawrence Avenue. The man descended from the balcony to the third floor as he tried to evade officers.

The Emergency Task Force, which serves as the tactical unit of the Toronto police, were called in for assistance. A negotiation team spoke with the man for more than four hours trying to coax him down and persuade him to give himself up for arrest.

Over the course of several hours, he at times straddled the concrete balcony's ledge, stood on top of it or sat down and leaned against it as he smoked a cigarette. As police approached, he would move closer to the balcony's edge.

Vader

US: New TSA Security Program Causes Major Logan Jam 4 Hour Delays

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Boston-- New security procedures being tested at Logan International Airport caused significant backups at security checkpoints Thursday, according to airlines.

Backups lasted for about four hours after the Transportation Security Administration began testing a procedure that requires more human interaction between security agents and passengers.

The process takes about 30 seconds, but it caused many passengers to be delayed. TSA agents engaged in "chat downs" while checking their IDs and boarding passes.

Beer

Drunken navigator shares blame in Russian jet crash

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© Reuters/Timur Khanov/Komsomolskaya Pravda Emergency Ministry members work at the site of the Tupolev-134 plane crash outside the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk June 21, 2011.
The carelessness of a "lightly" drunken navigator contributed to a plane crash that killed 47 people in Russia in June, investigators said in a report released on Monday.

The Tu-134 jet plowed into treetops, overturned and slammed into the ground while trying to land in fog at the airport in the northern city of Petrozavodsk, the first in a string of Russian air accidents in recent months.

In its report, the Interstate Aviation Committee said the plane crashed because the crew had failed to abort the landing even though the pilot could not see lights and other markers on the ground as the jet descended.

That error followed others made by crew members including the 50-year-old navigator, who "conducted the flight in a state of light alcoholic intoxication", the report said.

He had a blood alcohol content of 0.081 percent, it said -- just over the legal limit for driving in Britain and many U.S. states, although Russia has a zero tolerance policy for drivers.

Newspaper

US: "Banks Got Bailed Out; We Got Sold Out" -- Day of Rage Protest Builds on Wall Street

US,day of rage
© Snip

As corporate media continues to ignore the building presence in Manhattan to protest against the corrupt banking system, activists have gathered to document this Tahrir-square style gathering. Below are videos that illustrate the growing unrest, as well as a link to the current livestream of the area. The nature of the protests also has laid bare the absolute police state that has become entrenched in America. In the first video we hear the reporter conclude by saying, "As of now it's still unclear if the police will allow protesters to stay here..." As if that is a normal response to peaceful assembly for a redress of grievances in a free society.

Madison Ruppert has detailed this oppression in his intro article to the Day of Rage entitled: No right to protest in America: Occupation of Wall Street thwarted thanks to ignorant police. Additionally, we have received comments about social networks and e-mail programs blocking discussions centered on the term "Occupy Wall Street." If you are encountering this type of censorship, please drop us a note in the comments section.

Heart - Black

Strauss-Kahn Concedes 'Error' in Sexual Encounter With Maid

Dominique Strauss-Kahn
© Francois GuillotDominique Strauss-Kahn during his TV interview Sunday.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Sunday that his sexual encounter with a New York City hotel chambermaid was "an error" and "a moral failure" he would regret his whole life, but not a criminal act.

In his first interview since his May 14 arrest on charges of attempted rape, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was uncomfortable, intermittently angry and sounded bitter, saying that he had wanted to run for the French presidency and had missed his "appointment with the French people" because of his own actions.

"I wanted to be a candidate. I thought I could be useful. All that is behind me," he said.

He accused the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, of lying about what happened between them, and accused a Paris novelist, Tristane Banon, of lying about what she said happened between them in 2003, which she has described as an attempted rape - a case still being investigated by the Paris prosecutor.

Arrow Down

First-Ever National Survey Shows as Many as 3,000 Cases of Forced Marriage in Immigrant Communities in the United States

Forced Marriage
© Unknown
Today, the Tahirih Justice Center (Tahirih) released the results of a groundbreaking national survey, which identified as many as 3,000 known and suspected cases of forced marriage in the United States, in 47 states, among immigrant communities from 56 different countries. The survey is the first of its kind conducted in the United States and was designed to understand the scope and nature of forced marriage in immigrant communities.

Key findings of Tahirih's survey include:

500 service providers, community advocates, educators, medical/mental health professionals, law enforcement officers, religious leaders, and others from 47 states reported as many as 3,000 known and suspected forced marriage cases that they have encountered in just the last 2 years.

Some families are willing to go to great lengths to ensure that the marriage takes place and may send a young woman back to the family's country of origin until she submits, cut her off from financial support, withhold food and medical care, or limit a young woman's contact with those outside the family. Respondents also reported kidnapping, death threats, and even murder attempts.