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NATO Says Its Forces Repel Attack on Kabul Base

Image
© AP/Mustafa Najafizada
Afghans carrying a man, who got wounded following an attack on UN's office during a demonstration to condemn the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book
Kabul, Afghanistan - Three insurgents attacked a NATO base on the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital Saturday but were killed by coalition forces before they could enter the compound, NATO and Afghan police said.

The attack came just hours after Afghans angry over the burning of a Quran at a U.S. church stormed a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan, killing seven foreigners.

NATO told The Associated Press in an email that three of its soldiers were wounded in Saturday's attack against Camp Phoenix, but that their injuries were not serious. The coalition said at least one attacker was possibly wearing a suicide vest. It added that the attack had ended.

Kabul provincial Police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said there were reports of three attackers involved and that two of them died when their vests detonated. He said a third was shot.

The base's gate had scorch marks on it, and an AP reporter at the scene saw some of the remains of at least one body belonging to a man who had blown himself up dangling from the gate.

Police officer Mohammad Shakir told the AP outside the base that two suicide bombers were involved in the attack and were apparently wearing burqas, the all-encompassing turquoise-colored coverings worn by many women in Afghanistan. The body of a third insurgent was just inside the gate, he said. He was shot and killed, Shakir said.

Heart - Black

US: Florida pastor is focus of Muslim outrage - again

Terry Jones
© Reuters
Dove World Outreach Center church pastor Jones announces the burning of the korans will continue as planned during a news conference in Gainesville

Miami - An American Christian preacher who caused an international uproar last year by threatening to burn the Koran has put himself back in the spotlight after incinerating Islam's holy book -- again with deadly consequences.

Thousands of protesters in northern Afghanistan, enraged over news that the Florida pastor Terry Jones had overseen a torching of the Koran, stormed a United Nations compound on Friday, killing at least seven U.N. staff.

Nuke

Going Underground? Sales of Spaces in U.S. Doomsday Bunker Soar 1000% After Japan Quake Reawakens Nuclear Fallout Fears

Doomsday Bunker_1
© www.splashnews.com
Cower in luxury: Vivos's doomsday shelters are to be kitted out with all the modern conveniences American consumers would expect.

Reservations for a doomsday bunker in the U.S. have rocketed since Japan's catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

The 137,000sq ft bunker - designed to house 950 people for a year and withstand a 50 megaton blast - is currently being built under the grasslands of Nebraska.

Vivos, the California-based company behind it, is taking $5,000 (£3,100) deposits, which will have to be topped up to $25,000 (£15,600) to secure a place.

Doomsday Bunker_2
© www.splashnews.com
Social space: The company is building one bunker under the grasslands of Nebraska with the capacity to house 950 for a year.

2 + 2 = 4

Dr. Michael Robichaux Speaks About Growing Health Concerns In The Wake Of BP Oil Disaster

Last week at the Baton Rouge Press Club Dr. Michael Robicheaux spoke in-depth about the large number of sick people that he has been treating since the BP oil disaster occurred. The sick include workers who worked on the response to the disaster as well as divers, fishermen and coastal residents.

Since the BP disaster began we have been receiving an unsettling number of calls from people dealing with unusual health problems. Dr. Robicheaux is an old friend and ally and we feel extremely grateful that he has enthusiastically stepped forward to help these sick Gulf Coast citizens who have had difficulties finding help elsewhere.

We encourage you to watch the video of Dr. Robicheaux's speech about what seems to be a growing health crisis in our Gulf Coast communities.

Light Saber

UK: It took me 30 years to prove I was raped: How DNA breakthrough caught attacker... but forced victim to relive night that scarred her for ever

Dawn Watson dna rape
© Acquire Images
Justice: Dawn Watson has been able to rebuild her confidence after her rapist was finally caught - some 30 years after the attack
Dawn Watson was a promising teenage drama student when she was dragged from the street and raped by a stranger on wasteland in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

The unimaginable terror of the assault was to mark the start of an escalating nightmare.

For almost 30 years, Dawn was forced to live with the knowledge that her attacker had not been caught. She also had to endure the scepticism of police, who were not convinced her story was true.

So, when two officers arrived out of the blue at her door almost three decades later to tell her they knew the identity of her rapist, her surprise and relief very nearly overwhelmed her.

Dawn, who was by then a happily married middle-aged woman, recalls: 'The police said they wanted to talk to me about something that had happened when I was 16. I knew immediately what it was. I said: "Have you got him?"

'They replied: "Not yet. But we know who he is, and with your help we will." I felt as if I had won £10 million on the lottery. Better.

'I burst into tears. For nearly 30 years I'd buried this deep, excruciating pain, and letting out all the grief, the anger and the fear was like an exorcism. The police believed me at last. They had identified the rapist.

Bizarro Earth

Knut the polar bear drowned after suffering brain disorder

Image
© Unknown
Plans to exhibit Knut's remains have sparked controversy.
Investigators have determined that Knut the polar bear died of drowning after suffering a brain disorder. Fans are set to protest on Saturday against plans to display his remains in a climate change exhibit.

Two weeks after the death of Knut the polar bear, investigators have determined the cause of the four-year-old's untimely demise.

According to the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Knut suffered from a brain inflammation and muscle spasms that caused him to fall from his perch and drown in the enclosure's pool.

Claudia Szentik, pathologist with the IZW, said that the inflammation in Knut's brain was so massive that "he would have died sooner or later."

Although Knut showed no signs of stress, IZW President Heribert Hofer explained that wild animals can bear a large amount of pain without outwardly showing it.

Bug

Why an Epidemic of Dead Bats Could Make Your Groceries More Expensive

bat

It's bad enough that the U.S. honeybee population has dropped precipitously in the past few years, threatening the existence of all pollinated crops (that's one-third of American agriculture). Now an epidemic may be hitting the country's bats--and it has the potential to further threaten agriculture.

Bats are the unsung heroes of organic farming, consuming massive amounts of pests on a daily basis. The little brown bat, Montana's most common bat species, gobbles up 1,200 insects per hour and in one 2006 study, bats in South-Central Texas were shown to have an annual pest control value of over $740,000 (29% of the value of the area's cotton crop). For organic farms, this is key, since pest control is hard enough with chemicals. But even non-organic farms don't want to spend an extra three-quarters of a million killing more bugs, a cost that would no doubt be passed on to consumers. And it's not just bug-chomping: like honeybees, some bats even pollinate crops, including papayas, mangos, and figs. Reuters estimates that bats' total value to agriculture is $22.9 billion annually.

The U.S. bat population is threatened, however, by something called white-nose syndrome (pictured abobe), a deadly fungal infection that the bats pick up while hibernating. According to Reuters, more than one million bats have died since the syndrome was discovered in 2006. But the problem isn't as simple as that. The fungus that spread white-nose syndrome is also rampant in Europe, but bats aren't dropping dead there.

War Whore

Kucinich: US making Libya worse

It's been more than ten days since NATO entered Libya yet there is still no clear understanding on who the rebels are, what the endgame is or what will happen next. Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich argued the war itself is not only unconstitutional, but is making Libya worse off. "What we're doing here is enlarging a humanitarian crisis with more people becoming refugees, with more civilians put at risk of injury or death due to the bombing," he said.


Cult

Killed for believing in communism

It's been 60 years since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in the United States . They were accused of stealing information about the atomic bomb for the Soviets during the Cold War and convicted in a time largely ruled by anti-communist sentiment.The controversial case continues to be debated, especially in light of recent events involving Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks. Brian Becker from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and Less Government's Seton Motley debate.


Newspaper

Dishonest journalists fuel war propaganda

"It's impossible to be an independent journalist in a conflict zone," Keith Harmon Snow, a veteran war correspondent said speaking on Libya. He explained many journalists in conflict zones are not honest about the war, because to tell truth they have to consider who they are working with. It is hard to tell a story that looks bad for coalition forces when you are living with and protected by coalition forces, he said.