Afghan heroin hang-glider downedBorder guards in Tajikistan say they shot down a hang-glider carrying 20kg of heroin smuggled from Afghanistan.
Border officials said the Afghan traffickers had been using the glider for three years and previous attempts to shoot it down had failed.
Other reports said the "glider" was a parachute powered by a small engine.
Tajik officials said a manhunt was under way for the "pilot", who had managed to escape despite being injured on hitting the groun... (more)
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The Safety Net She Believed In Was Pulled Away When She FellUntil a few years ago, Debra Potter made sure that her family could cruise the Caribbean, watch the NFL on big-screen TV and keep her elderly mother and in-laws at home in comfort.
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She did so by earning $250,000 a year selling more insurance than almost anybody else in the state of Virginia, virtually all of it disability and health policies that she thought put a safety net under middle-class and affluent families such as her own.
Potter so bel... (more)
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Nude toddlers creating waves at Rye beach Police should fight crime, lifeguards should rescue swimmers and beach busybodies should let parents decide whether it is appropriate for their toddlers to swim naked.
Recently, Rye selectmen, police and lifeguards were urged by a local resident to force parents to keep their toddlers clothed when they splash in the surf.
The astonishing thing is that it appears the selectmen and police took the request seriously.
“If called to an incident, we w... (more)
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Police and Tube firm at odds over CCTV footage of innocent Brazilian's shootingPolice officers and station managers were at odds last night over the existence of crucial CCTV-footage of the shooting of a Brazilian man wrongly suspected of being a suicide bomber.
None of the cameras at the scene of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July were working, a police document revealed.
Cameras on the platform and the train were not operational, officers told the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The ... (more)
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Bush: Less Popular Than Nixon During WatergateVia Atrios, an American Research Group poll released today shows that George Bush has dropped to staggering new lows:
George W. Bush’s overall job approval ratings have dropped from a month ago even as Americans who approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president are turning more optimistic about their personal financial situations according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as... (more)
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Menezes death 'cover-up' doubtedBrazilian officials have said they do not believe there was a Scotland Yard cover-up over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.
But ambassador Manoel Gomes Pereira said he had been "perplexed" by leaks from the inquiry that contradicted early police and eyewitness reports.
He "completely" trusted the Independent Police Complaints Commission, he added.
The IPCC has said it will end its probe this year. Mr Menezes died after being mistaken for a susp... (more)
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Recruiters For MSN Or Data Miners?I had a chilling experience the other day. A man from Kenexa called me, ostensibly to recruit me for a job in New York as a Search Marketing Analyst for Microsoft's new MSN search engine.
The first time he called he said he was looking for someone to do work for Fortune 400 clients. I told him I was really busy and that I usually deal with smaller clients. He didn't think that would be a problem … he was very insistent to talk to me. I suggested I'd call him back, so we lef... (more)
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'Ethical' stem cells may avoid egg dilemmaEmbryonic stem cells matched to individual patients can now be made without having to destroy human eggs. The breakthrough could herald new, more ethically acceptable sources for ESCs.
But, for now at least, there is a significant catch. The egg-free ESCs are abnormal, containing an extra set of chromosomes, and so cannot be used for treating patients.
Nonetheless, Kevin Eggan and his colleagues who pioneered the breakthrough at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass... (more)
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Security cameras capturing students every moveNorth Side students weren’t alone as they hit the hallways for their first day of school, security cameras watched the students every move.
John Jay High School is the first school in Bexar County to have anything that hi-tech. Security cameras will soon be in every North Side high School.
They are in hallways, the cafeteria, even in the courtyard. Cameras scattered across the John Jay campus focus on the main areas, not the classrooms.
"This ki... (more)
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Trinitas to Test RFID ImplantsElizabeth, N.J.-based Trinitas Hospital will become the third hospital to scan patients implanted with radio frequency identification chips. The 531-bed hospital plans to test the VeriChip system, from Delray Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital in its two emergency departments.
The technology can read the vendor's RFID chips that have been implanted underneath a patient's skin, between the elbow and shoulder. Each VeriChip contains a 16-digit identification number assigned by Applie... (more)
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New Legislation Threatens Privacy for Canadians Once Again!The Globe and Mail report by Bill Curry on Aug.19,2005 states, “The federal government will introduce legislation this fall that would give police and national security agencies new powers to eavesdrop on cellphone calls and monitor the Internet activities of Canadians, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said yesterday.” The first question should be why? Is there no longer a presumption of innocence in this county? Have we all become possible criminals as we go about our daily lives?
... (more)
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Driver beware: Big Brother may be watchingThe Marco Island Police Department wants to install cameras that would record traffic coming onto and going off the island. A video camera would record traffic on the bridges and a digital camera would take pictures of every license plate. Each plate would be run against law enforcement databases to check for warrants, stolen vehicles and sexual offenders.
Whether you're coming or going, Big Brother may soon be watching you on Marco Island.
"Video cameras have been ... (more)
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Tony Blair's First Trophy: "Shoot to Kill"Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27 year old Brazilian electrician, was apprehended by Scotland Yard's special Firearms Unit on July 22 in the London subway, and shot 7 times in the head at point-blank range. He becomes the first victim of Britain's new "shoot-to-kill" policy and the first trophy in Blair's war on civil liberties.
When Tony Blair boasted two weeks ago that "the rules had changed", he probably never imagined that his edict would produce such immediate and horrific result... (more)
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Americans Surrendering Liberties: Shades Of German HistoryIt appears that a strengthened U.S.A. Patriot Act will soon sail through Congress with little opposition or consternation on the part of the American people. The new Patriot Act is even more stringent than the original. In addition, many of the more egregious elements of the Patriot Act which were originally scheduled to sunset are made permanent in the latest version. And the vast majority of the American people do not seem to mind.
For one thing, Americans seem to have accepted ... (more)
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Michel Chossudovsky and the Dogs of ReprisalAs I walked through the living room, on my way outside to play with the incoming coax cables (on occasion I have to do this to get my broadband working), I passed my wife camped out before the television, watching a “debate” between FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley and a loud, obnoxious, an interruptive Mark Williams who claimed, as I drifted past, that Saddam Hussein had “chemical weapons” (even Williams should know this was an obvious lie) and Rowley is a “traitor... (more)
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Why aren't 350 bombs exploding simultaneously big news?On Wednesday August 17, 350 bombs exploded simultaneously across Bangladesh. The U.S. corporate media did a sound bite and the story disappeared. Even most of the international media have given the story short shrift.
I am baffled as one would think that this would be top line news. Setting off 350 explosions in 50 cities across a country at the same time would seem to require a relatively large network of bombers and a... (more)
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PROJECT "ABLE DANGER"Recently, there has been revealing news about the U.S. Army's Project "Able Danger," which was established in September 1999 by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, then head of the Special Operations Command. Schoomaker had previously advised Texas Governor Ann Richards and the FBI regarding what military equipment could be used in the attack upon the Branch Davidians at Waco (a mock-up of the Davidians' compound was at Fort Hood, Texas, where Schoomaker was an assistant to Gen. Wesley Clark, a Rhodes Sch... (more)
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Foot-and-Mouth Case Confirmed in Russia’s Far East, Region QuarantinedThe Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) has confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease has been found among a large group of cattle in the Lermontovsky farm in the Khabarovsk territory, Rosselkhoznadzor said in a release, the Interax news agency reported.
Addressing a news briefing in Moscow on Monday, Yevgeny Nepoklonov, a senior veterinary official, said foot-and-mouth disease had been discovered in cows in the region of Khabarovsk near the Chinese... (more)
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More Abortions Than Births in Russia — Health OfficialRussians, whose lives are shorter and poorer than they were under communism, have more abortions than births to avoid the costs of raising children, Bloomberg.com reported Tuesday quoting the country’s highest-ranking obstetrician.
About 1.6 million women had an abortion last year, a fifth of them under the age of 18, and about 1.5 million gave birth, said Vladimir Kulakov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. “Many more” abortions weren&rsq... (more)
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Commercials by CellphonePassengers waiting to board a Virgin Atlantic Airways flight at London Heathrow airport may get an unexpected invitation on their cellphone these days.
Under a new advertising program, transmitters are beaming out text messages to the phones of people walking by to ask them if they would like to watch a video-clip ad on their phone's screen. The commercial, aimed at passengers in Virgin's first-class lounge, touts a new SUV, the Range Rover Sport.
Two London compani... (more)
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Vets see protests as attack on policyIf there's growing sentiment against the war in Iraq, many area veterans of the fight aren't taking it personally.
Vets see the opposition as a protest against policy, not them or their service.
During the Vietnam War, many returning U.S. troops felt taunted, humiliated and treated with little or no respect. In contrast, today's veterans say they don't encounter animosity from people who don't agree with the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
"I have run... (more)
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ID theft spyware scam uncoveredThousands of computer users have been caught out by a huge ID theft ring.
Security firm Sunbelt Software said it stumbled across a US-based server storing megabytes of data stolen from compromised computers while researching spyware infections.
The server held passwords for online accounts from 50 banks, Ebay and Paypal logins, hundreds of credit card numbers and reams of personal data.
The FBI has reportedly now started investigating the ring of ID t... (more)
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Pentagon can't verify Able Danger claimThe Pentagon has so far been unable to validate a claim that a secret military intelligence unit identified four September 11 hijackers as al Qaeda members a year before the 2001 attacks, a spokesman said Monday.
But Larry Di Rita said the Pentagon is still looking into the matter. He said the investigation has found general references to terrorist cells, but he would not elaborate.
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a member of the secret intelligence unit called Able Dange... (more)
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Second Officer Says 9/11 Leader Was Named Before AttacksAn active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.
The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement on Monday that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by nam... (more)
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Is Blair off to join $30BN world elite?TONY Blair is expected to join one of the most exclusive groups of businessmen in the world after he leaves Downing Street.
The PM is being lined up for a highly lucrative position with the Carlyle Group - an American-based investment giant with strong links to the White House and the defence industry.
The firm has been nicknamed "The Ex-Presidents Club" because it has had a host of former world leaders on its books including George Bush Senior, his former secretary... (more)
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To What Is Cindy a Threat?In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.
~ Pastor Mar... (more)
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