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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Coke plant ordered shut in south IndiaIn a major setback for the Coca-Cola company, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board has ordered the company's bottling plant in south India to "stop production of all kinds of products with immediate effect."
The Coca-Cola company, in direct contravention of Indian laws, had resumed "trial" operations at its Plachimada bottling facility in southern India on August 8, 2005. The bottling plant, one of Coca-Cola's largest, has been shut down since March 2004 because of community o... (more)
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Powerful explosion rocks Beirut shopping mallA powerful blast hit a shopping center in the Zalka neighborhood in north Beirut late Monday, causing extensive damage and wounding at least three people, Lebanese security and Red Cross sources said.
Security sources said that the small device was placed in the car park of the Promenade Hotel in the Zalka, a mixed residential and commercial area, Reuters news agency said.
Zalka residents said that clouds of black smoke were billowing into the sky near a hotel.
... (more)
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No Proof Found of Iran Arms ProgramTraces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.
"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.
Scientists from the... (more)
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Tube CCTV: Was there a cover-up?Scotland Yard has been plunged into a damaging new 'cover-up' row over missing CCTV footage from the station where Jean Charles de Menezes was shot.
London Underground sources insisted that at least three of the four cameras trained on the Stockwell Tube platform were in full working order.
This appears to contradict police assertions that 'technical problems' meant no footage exists of the innocent Brazilian's final moments before he was killed by marksmen after be... (more)
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Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds Scott Horton: [P]erhaps your case is tied in with the AIPAC spy scandal?
"Sibel Edmonds: Absolutely. And I cannot go into any details. … But even the AIPAC spy scandal, as far as I'm reading today, is just touching the surface of it. It's going only to a certain degree. It doesn't go high enough, in what it involves and how far it goes, and that's as far, and the best – as far as I can explain."
Listen to Scott's interview with Sibel Edmonds: Stream... (more)
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When Tyranny is LawThe US introduced Patriot Acts and violated all international laws after 9/11 to fight “terrorism.” After 7/7, the British government went one step further to the extreme to fight “extremism.” It proposed many laws, contravening the established legal principles, human rights and all norms of moral decency.
The stress on the need for more and more laws gives us the impression as if it was the lack of laws that lead to “terrorism” in the first pla... (more)
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G.I. Death Toll in Afghanistan Worst Since '01This year is already the deadliest for American soldiers in Afghanistan since the war of 2001, and the violence is likely to intensify before the nation's legislative elections on Sept. 18.
Four soldiers were killed Sunday, meaning that 13 have been killed in August alone. Sixty-five Americans have been killed this year.
The latest four were killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in the south. Three others were wounded in that bombing, the American military s... (more)
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No Proof Found of Iran Arms ProgramTraces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.
"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.
Scientists from the United S... (more)
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Bush Tells Veterans That Iraq Policy Will Make U.S. SaferPresident Bush defended his policy in Iraq today, a crucial moment for that emerging country, telling a gathering of veterans in Utah that the struggle to build a new nation amounts to "the first war of the 21st century."
The president left his ranch in Crawford, Tex., to fly to Salt Lake City, where he told an audience from the Veterans of Foreign Wars that the sacrifices of Americans in Iraq would be remembered just as the heroism shown in World War II and Korea was commemorated... (more)
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Al Martin: Pat Robertson Remark Roils the MarketsDid Pat Robertson make money by publicly calling for the murder of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela?
Political-economic analyst Al Martin says, "Pat's comments created a so-called 'flight to quality' bid in both the September long bonds and the Sep. dollar cntracts."
Martin, whose website Insider Intelligence.com specializes in market trading advisories, says that "Robertson sufficiently roiled the markets by creating a political rift. This was a problem which in... (more)
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Venezuela Rejects US Religious Leader´s Call to Assassinate ChavezVenezuela´s Vice President José Vicente Rangel accused Tuesday US religious broadcaster and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson of making terrorist statements by suggesting that American agents assassinate President Hugo Chavez.
The high ranking official stressed that how Washington responds to Robertson´s remarks would put its anti-terrorism policy to the test.
"It´s huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at... (more)
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New Jersey bans smoking in private college dormsIt was all the evidence that state legislators needed to drive home the point.
Just two weeks after a state ban on smoking in college residence halls was introduced, a Drew University student smoking a cigarette sparked a dormitory fire in February.
No one was injured, but Drew rang up thousands of dollars in repairs and 150 students were temporarily displaced. The blaze also prompted school officials to reconsider the institution's policy permitting students to smo... (more)
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FBI Agents' 'Wedding' Is a Bust for GuestsAfter their wedding guests had streamed into Atlantic City, N.J., for the festivities Sunday aboard the yacht Royal Charm, the happy couple surprised them all — by having them arrested as part of an alleged international Asia-based organized crime syndicate.
Unbeknown to the attendees, many of whom came from China for the occasion, the supposed bride and groom were FBI agents. The government said Monday that the pair had spent four years investigating a sophisticated rackete... (more)
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Scientists make first step towards growing human lungs for transplantScientists have successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into lung cells, taking a first step towards building human lungs for transplantation.
According to research to be published in the journal Tissue Engineering, the team from Imperial College London, took human embryonic stem cells and 'directed' them to convert into the type of cells needed for gas exchange in the lung, known as mature small airway epithelium.
Dame Professor Julia Polak, from Imperial... (more)
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Errors of Commission: The hijacking of the probe into the 9-11 hijackersWhether or not U.S. military intelligence was prevented by Pentagon superiors from alerting the FBI to the presence of Mohammed Atta in 1998, there is little doubt the U.S. was well aware of the infamous hijacker by then. The Republican right wing is raising the Atta issue at a time when Bush is sinking in the polls, people are fed up with Iraq, and there are continuing questions about the administration's handling of 9-11 and the war on terror. One way to take some of the heat off is to shift t... (more)
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Young Conservatives Facing Heat for Billboard CampaignPennsylvania Republicans are threatening the Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania (YCOP) for sponsoring a public information campaign exposing a hefty pay raise passed for lawmakers, judges and top executive-branch officials.
On July 7 at 2 a.m., state legislators voted to give themselves a pay increase of more than 30% without debate. YCOP is demanding repeal.
Lawmakers offended by the group, made up of Pat Toomey supporters—whose efforts nearly ousted U.S. Se... (more)
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Pig disease hits 11th HK victim A 62-year-old woman has been stricken with the deadly swine-born streptococcus suis bacteria - just 24 hours after the SAR authorities announced the territory's 10th victim - it was confirmed Tuesday.
And, in an indication of growing concern on the mainland, Shenzhen was put on high alert following the death of one of four infected persons in Guangdong province Monday, suggesting that dangerous meat may be traded across the country. All four had handled infected meat, according t... (more)
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65 out of 490 girls at area high school pregnantThere are 490 female students at Timken High School, and 65 are pregnant, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository.
The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.
School officials are not sure they what has caused so many pregnancies, but in response to them, the school is launching a three-prong educational program to address pregnancy, prevention and parenting.
... (more)
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