'Bright fruits can hit arthritis'Eating a diet rich in brightly coloured fruit and vegetables could help reduce the risk of developing inflammatory disorders, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Manchester found antioxidant compounds in orange and yellow fruits can help combat diseases such as arthritis.
The findings show drinking just one glass of freshly squeezed orange juice each day could have positive effects.
The juice boosts levels of vitamin C and the... (more)
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Guatemala troops tied to border drug warThe Homeland Security Department is warning South Texas law enforcement officers, mainly Border Patrol agents, about the possibility of rogue Guatemalan commandos who may be training drug cartel gunmen on a ranch south of McAllen in Mexico.
The July 28 intelligence alert is unsubstantiated, but officials said they now routinely circulate such reports if they can't rule them out.
It states about 30 men once part of the Guatemalan "Kaibiles" special forces unit are re... (more)
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Patriot II/Saving freedom by squelching itA friend is caught in a quandary. Long eager to hand to her children the best-loved books of her own childhood, she's come upon a volume she hesitates to share. The book? George Orwell's "1984" -- a resonant portrait of a police-state society supervised by a prudently repressive Big Brother. The book-lover's problem? "I'm afraid they won't get it," she says. "I imagine them reading it and asking, 'So what's the point?' "
If public sentiment is any measure, this mother is wise to w... (more)
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China-Russia war games under wayRussian and Chinese armed forces have begun their first joint exercises, involving some 10,000 personnel.
Marines will storm beaches, to be joined by paratroopers in a mock invasion of an imaginary country.
The eight-day operation got under way in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east, with consultations between military delegations from the two countries.
Analysts say the two sides are signalling they are prepared to counter US dominance in international... (more)
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City will add high-tech security gear to 'living room'Big Brother -- as in cameras and security equipment -- seems to be everywhere in these post-9/11 days. Now, Pioneer Courthouse Square is bracing for his arrival. Steve Janik, in his final meeting as president of the nonprofit square's board of trustees, announced a $50,000 state grant "for certain public spaces that may be vulnerable to terrorist attacks." Oregon Office of Homeland Security awarded the grant through the Urban Areas Security Initiatives Program. A board committee will study how t... (more)
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UK to test RFID-tagged license platesTracking of vehicles with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on licenses is about to be tested in Great Britain, and the U.S. government and businesses are watching closely as they consider the idea, Wired magazine reported last week. The high-tech license plates will contain microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away.
"We definitely have an interest in testing an RFID-tagged license plate," sa... (more)
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Cindy Unleashed: The Biggest Terrorist In The World Is George W. Bush"We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We’re waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush!"
So declared Cindy Sheehan earlier this year during a rally at San Francisco State University.
Sheehan, who is demanding a second meeting with Bush, stated: "We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity now."
Sheehan unleashed a fou... (more)
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Russian Regional Governor Proposes to Extend Putin’s Presidential TermRussian president Vladimir Putin does not need a third term but the term in office itself should be extended from four to seven years, governor of Novgorod region in the north of Russia has said.
In an interview to Izvestia newspaper, Mikhail Prusak said he believed that an amendment could be introduced that would allow the president to govern for two terms of seven years. The constitution should not be rewritten for the sake of a third term, he said. “We will fray the basic... (more)
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US bolsters Iraq prison securityThe US has announced it is sending 700 paratroops to Iraq to boost security at its prisons there.
An infantry battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division will be deployed over the next two months.
It is not clear if they will replace troops ending their tour of duty or increase total US troop numbers.
As the insurgency continues, there are now nearly 11,000 prisoners in major US-run detention centres - twice as many as last September.
US ... (more)
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Families of dead troops hope to see Blair in courtTony Blair could be forced to give evidence under oath after families of 17 soldiers killed in Iraq began a legal bid yesterday to secure an independent inquiry into the lawfulness of the 2003 conflict.
A lawyer representing the families lodged papers at the high court in London, seeking a judicial review of the government's decision this May not to order an investigation into the legality of the war in Iraq.
They hope the inquiry will be held within six months.
... (more)
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China sets up riot police unitsChina is setting up special police units in 36 cities to put down riots and counter what the authorities call the threat of terrorism.
Chinese state media said one of the first such forces, comprising 500 officers, had just been set up in Zhengzhou in central Henan province.
Correspondents say unrest has become more frequent in China, often due to land disputes or economic inequality.
There has also been increased coverage of such events in the Chines... (more)
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Police chief tried to intervene on fatal shooting inquirySir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, tried to halt an independent inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes just hours after the innocent Brazilian's death, it emerged last night.
Scotland Yard said Sir Ian wrote to the Home Office permanent secretary, John Gieve, to ensure the terrorist investigation took precedence over any Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation.
Later the same day, the Metropolitan Police agree... (more)
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Police using sensors to detect location of gunfireIN A unique experiment, the Police Department of East Orange, in New Jersey, is placing high-tech acoustic sensors on every utility pole and lamp-post so that it can "hear" any gunshot fired in the city.
The $300,000 sophisticated system would also give, within three to five seconds, the location where the gun was fired and is expected to become operational within a week. One of the reasons being given by the police is the wariness of people to report when they hear gun shot and p... (more)
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Met chief tried to stop shooting inquiryBritain's top police officer, the Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair, attempted to stop an independent external investigation into the shooting of a young Brazilian mistaken for a suicide bomber, it emerged yesterday.
Sir Ian wrote to John Gieve, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, on July 22, the morning Jean Charles de Menezes was shot at short range on the London tube. The commissioner argued for an internal inquiry into the killing on the grounds that the ongoing... (more)
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ID cards could be used for mass surveillance systemThe Government is creating a system of "mass public surveillance" capable of tracking every adult in Britain without their consent, MPs say. They warn that people who have never committed a crime can be "electronically monitored" without their knowledge.
Biometric facial scans, which will be compulsory with ID cards, are to be put on a national database which can then be matched with images from CCTV. The database of faces will enable police and security services to track individu... (more)
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30% interest? State rules leave consumers defenselessWhat if you got a letter announcing that your 30-year mortgage rate had tripled, say from 6% to 18%, even though you'd been paying it on time? That couldn't happen, of course, unless you'd agreed to such onerous terms in the papers you signed with your lender.
But credit cards exist in a different realm, one governed by state laws carefully crafted to attract and benefit card issuers. Cards are loosely regulated, and some fine-print agreements say that issuers can change the rates... (more)
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Home prices 'extremely overvalued' in 53 citiesSingle-family home prices are "extremely overvalued" in 53 cities that make up nearly a third of the overall U.S. housing market, putting them at high risk of price declines, according to a study released today.
The report, by Richard DeKaser, chief economist of National City Corp., examined 299 metro areas accounting for 80% of the U.S. housing market. (Chart: High-priced housing faces risks; 299 metro areas ranked)
DeKaser terms a market extremely overvalued i... (more)
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Man Kills Another in Dispute Over War -- Press Calls It a FirstIt was bound to happen sooner or later, and in what newspapers in Kentucky are calling a first, one American has killed another in a dispute over the Iraq war.
It happened at Floyd County flea market on Thursday, when two friends, who were firearms vendors there, drew guns after quarreling about the war. Douglas Moore, 65, of Martin, who backs the war, shot and killed Harold Wayne Smith, 56, of Manchester, who opposed it, according to investigators.
Moore was releas... (more)
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Are Half of All Americans Mentally Ill?A new study by Harvard University and the National Institute of Mental Health claims that 46 percent of all Americans will, at some point in their lives, develop a mental disorder.
But this new statistic has experts arguing over exactly what constitutes a true mental illness.
According to experts, severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, dementia and manic depression are relatively uncommon. But the updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, o... (more)
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Mexico funds staging areas for illegalsThe Mexican staging area for illegal aliens that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson demanded this week be bulldozed is among hundreds of similar sites along the border sponsored and maintained by the Mexican government.
Many of the sites are marked with blue flags and pennants to signal that water is available. Others, such as the Las Chepas site that Mr. Richardson denounced, are a collection of old, mostly abandoned buildings or ranch houses where illegals gather for water and othe... (more)
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Secrets of the morgue - Baghdad's body countThe Baghdad morgue is a fearful place of heat and stench and mourning, the cries of relatives echoing down the narrow, foetid laneway behind the pale-yellow brick medical centre where the authorities keep their computerised records. So many corpses are being brought to the mortuary that human remains are stacked on top of each other. Unidentified bodies must be buried within days for lack of space - but the municipality is so overwhelmed by the number of killings that it can no longer provide th... (more)
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Hiroshima: The Falsehood FalloutWhen George W. Bush declared war on Iraq to destroy Saddam’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, he was following the great American tradition of the Big Lie. Sixty years ago, when President Harry Truman announced to the American public that the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, he told a whopper, describing the city as “a military base” targeted “because we wished… to avoid…the killing of civilians.” Yet Hiroshima was not a militar... (more)
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Making "PATRIOT" PermanentRenewal of the so-called PATRIOT Act for 10 years effectively means that U.S. citizens will "have their constitutional rights put on hold for a decade," wrote Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas).
“If the PATRIOT Act is constitutional and badly needed, why were sunset provisions included at all? If it’s unconstitutional and pernicious, why not abolish it immediately? All of this nonsense about sunsets and reauthorizations merely distracts us from the real issue, which is ... (more)
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It's Not the End Of the Oil AgeWe're not running out of oil. Not yet.
"Shortage" is certainly in the air -- and in the price. Right now the oil market is tight, even tighter than it was on the eve of the 1973 oil crisis. In this high-risk market, "surprises" ranging from political instability to hurricanes could send oil prices spiking higher. Moreover, the specter of an energy shortage is not limited to oil. Natural gas supplies are not keeping pace with growing demand. Even supplies of coal, which generates a... (more)
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