Blog-heap o' links from 2004-Jun

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer in Iraq approved letting officials at a Baghdad jail subject detainees to temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns and diets of bread and water whenever they wished, the Washington Post reported Saturday. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when he granted wide latitude to officers overseeing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, the Post reported citing newly obtained documents.

An official Bosnian Serb investigation into the Srebrenica events of July 1995 has found that several thousand Muslims were murdered by local Serb forces. It is the first time the Bosnian Serb authorities have admitted the killings which The Hague war crimes tribunal has declared an act of genocide.

McAlester, Oklahoma-AP -- In Oklahoma, the jury in the Terry Nichols trial has deadlocked on the question of whether to put the convicted murderer to death -- so, he will live.

Human Right

SAN DIEGO - Federal border officers in San Ysidro Thursday made the single-largest seizure of heroin to occur on the California-Mexico line so far this fiscal year, authorities said. A service dog alerted U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to the 47- pound stash at a vehicle-inspection station... The heroin was hidden in the trunk of a 1974 Opal sedan, along with 54 pounds of marijuana.

NORWALK -- A 37-year-old Willard man was among 22 people indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on a total of 95 counts accusing them of being a part of a drug ring that brought marijuana and cocaine through Florida and Texas to Ohio, according to U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White.

PIKEVILLE - They found cash under furniture and even under a couch cushion. In all, state and federal agents seized $450,000 in cash and 300 pounds of marijuana while executing 15 search warrants Tuesday in Pike and Letcher counties.

MANSFIELD -- A major area drug distribution network stretching to Detroit, Florida, Texas and Mexico was crippled Thursday in one of the largest drug busts in north central Ohio history. The amount of drugs that flowed through Richland and Ashland counties includes about 4,000 pounds of marijuana and 20 to 30 kilos of cocaine a month. Eleven local sites were searched. There were simultaneous raids in Florida and Texas, and 200 charges were brought against 81 people.

[Ray] Charles' career was at a peak in the mid-'60s when he was arrested in Boston for possession of heroin and marijuana. He revealed that he'd been addicted to heroin for 20 years, but he kicked the habit in 1965.

WAKAWAKA TIKI, Hawaii -- There is evidence that some Hawaiian cattle are under the influence of dope and going into the ocean thinking they are dolphins.

Authorities say MG and his friends earned nearly $5 million a month shipping tons of marijuana to central Ohio. Federal authorities plugged a nationwide pipeline Thursday and charged G, of Merritt Island, Fla., and 21 associates in a 95-count indictment involving conspiracy and money laundering.

Police officers with a warrant to search a woman's home in Cornwall expected to find cannabis plants being grown. But instead they discovered a large quantity of cannabis resin and herbal cannabis with a street value of about £35,000 in a cupboard.

THE son of a prominent attorney was one of two persons arrested and charged with trafficking in marijuana by Sangre Grande police yesterday.

Antisocial louts to get red card By Greg Truscott, South London Press POLICE are to use new powers to clean-up public spaces blighted by cannabis dealing and antisocial behaviour.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- Neighbors reported that they could smell marijuana coming from a downstairs apartment around 6:32 p.m. on Tuesday on the 200 block of California Avenue. The neighbors said it is an ongoing problem.

England fans were warned tonight they would be hunted down back home if they shamed the nation with racist chanting at Euro 2004. The man in charge of the British policing operation at the tournament made the threat after he overheard fans singing racist chants in the streets of Lisbon

Thatcher officers arrested Jessica Ann McKinnon, 18, at 1 a.m. after the vehicle she was driving was pulled over as the suspect vehicle in an egging reported minutes earlier. ...found a brass pipe that smelled like burned marijuana and a plastic bag containing a green residue that smelled like marijuana ...reported seeing an egg carton stuffed under the passenger seat.

WELLINGTON -- Wellington Police conducted a drug search of a city residence and discovered half a pound of marijuana

Marijuana Party of Canada

The Marijuana Party has six candidates but just one issue: the legalization of marijuana. "We are not campaigning like other federal parties, simply because we have the one issue," says Dan Zupansky, Marijunana candidate in Charleswood-St. James. "It's foremost people that will listen to a short interview with one of us, they will understand that that's what we're about completely."

PIQUA, Ohio -- Early Friday morning a state highway trooper pulled over a motorist in Miami County and discovered a large quantity of marijuana in the trunk of the car. The incident happened on Interstate 75 between Piqua and Troy. Investigators said the license plates on the car Stanley Flagg Jr., 23, of Cincinnati, was driving did not match the car's make or model. The trooper found trash bags inside the truck filled with 35.5 pounds of raw marijuana.

What officers discovered was a driver, allegedly high on marijuana, in a stolen vehicle loaded with what police believe are stolen items or ones bought with stolen credit cards.

The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party says veteran activist Dun Mihaka has agreed to run. Party leader Michael Appleby says it is a coup getting Mr Mihaka to stand because he has a strong record on Maori issues, especially the resurgence of the Maori language.

WILL ONLY BIG PHARM OWN AND DEAL WHAT CAN BE GROWN IN YOUR BACK YARD? Cannabis extract drug may help patients with rheumatoid arthritis ...GW Pharmaceuticals announces positive preliminary results in a Phase II clinical trial in patients with pain caused by Rheumatoid Arthritis.

MIDDLETOWN -- A Middletown police officer was arrested yesterday afternoon in connection with evidence that has been missing from the department since May 17. ...charged with stealing four bags of marijuana that had been gathered during an arrest and placed in a locked evidence box.

EDWARDSVILLE - A 17-year-old Warrior Run resident was arrested on drug charges after he allegedly asked people to purchase marijuana on Roosevelt Street at 11:10 p.m. Thursday, police said. The juvenile was charged with possession of marijuana and transported to Pennsylvania Child Care for incarceration.

SCOTTSDALE - More than 1 ton of marijuana, or about $2 million worth, was seized Thursday as Scottsdale police detectives arrested a drug dealer they first investigated three years ago. Three arrests were made in other parts of the Valley, as two stash houses and one home were raided. Investigators said the large bundles of pot seized were intended for distribution outside Arizona. ... Detective Sam Bailey said ..."Every little bit helps, but in this case it's a fairly substantial quantity... This is fairly unusual, for Scottsdale to make this large a seizure."

ASHINGTON, June 10 -- American spiritual leaders from different faiths condemn the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in a 30-second advertisement to be broadcast next week on the Arabic television networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. "The impetus for this ad was from the deep sense of moral regret that we were hearing from people of faith across the country,"

A Daily Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

Iran flatly rejected European demands to scale back further its nuclear programme yesterday, as its government insisted that the world must recognise that it had now become a nuclear nation.

KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Afghanistan has arrested a bomb maker, who a U.S. spokesman described on Saturday as a "medium-value target," during a raid south of the capital, Kabul. "The target was an improvised explosive device maker. The capture was accomplished without a shot fired, with no injuries and no damage,"

RIYADH (Reuters) - Al Qaeda claimed on Sunday the killing of an American and the kidnapping of another in Saudi Arabia to "avenge U.S. mistreatment" of Muslim prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to an Islamist Web site.

RIYADH (Reuters) - A U.S. national was shot dead in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday

WW3 - India

Srinagar, India - Four people were killed and 28 hurt in a grenade attack Saturday on a popular tourist hotel in Kashmir

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, issued a classified order last November directing military guards to hide a prisoner, later dubbed "Triple X" by soldiers, from Red Cross inspectors and keep his name off official rosters. The disclosure, by military sources, is the first indication that Sanchez was directly involved in efforts to hide prisoners from the Red Cross, a practice that was sharply criticized by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba in a report describing abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Iraqi gunmen kidnapped three Lebanese in Iraq, killing one and releasing another in return for a ransom ... Alyan was tortured and killed in "grisly circumstances" and his body dumped on a road ...Haddad was released after his parents negotiated with his captors and paid a ransom

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - ..."Two U.S. soldiers were slightly wounded when their helicopter was forced to make a landing," a military spokesman said. "The helicopter rolled over and caught fire."

kidnappers killed a Lebanese citizen, Hussein Ali Alyan, 28, and two of his Iraqi colleagues, after seizing them in Baghdad on Thursday,... the ordeal of seven Turks kidnapped in Falluja five days ago ended in their release on Saturday ... Kurds have dropped their threat to leave [the government] in protest at the failure of this week's new U.N. resolution to mention Kurdish autonomy.

Radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has issued conditional support for the interim Iraqi government, which he earlier rejected as a US puppet.

BAGHDAD, June 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's interim Deputy Foreign Minister Gassan Kuba was assassinated in Baghdad on Saturday

An Iraqi interim deputy foreign minister, Bassam Qubba, has been killed in an attack in the capital, Baghdad. ...The foreign ministry spokesman said he was shocked but not surprised by the murder of Mr Qubba. He added that he expected such attacks to increase as the handover to the interim government on 30 June neared. (BBC)

YUSUFIYAH, IRAQ--Gunmen stormed a police station south of Baghdad yesterday, drove off poorly armed police and blew up the building in the fourth such attack in a week against Iraqi security installations. Police in this Euphrates river town, 16 kilometres south of Baghdad, called for help from U.S. forces when they came under attack. But the Americans didn't reach the town until about five hours later

An audiotape purportedly of al-Qaeda's deputy leader condemning the US' plan for democratic reform in the Middle East has been broadcast on Arabic TV. In the recording, a voice said to belong to Ayman al-Zawahiri accuses the United States of trying to replace Arab governments.

WANA, Pakistan, June 12 (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes and helicopter gunships roared over hideouts of al Qaeda-linked militants on Saturday in barren mountains bordering Afghanistan where 53 people have been killed in four days of fighting.

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) - A powerful bomb exploded outside the home of a senior security official in central Pakistan on Saturday, killing one person and wounding three, police and doctors said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast outside the home of Ghani-ur-Rahman, the commander of Frontier Constabulary in Dere Ismail Khan, 180 miles southwest of Pakistan's capital Islamabad. It was not immediately clear whether Rahman was at home when the blast occurred, but police said he was not among the injured.

FRI 2004-JUN-11

Simpson murder trial - still with us

We remember the words of O.J. Simpson's attorney: "If you can't trust the messenger, you can't trust the message."

Fuhrman speaks Mark Fuhrman says view ers will see the O.J. Simpson murder case in a much differ ent light after he releases new information on "The O.J. Simpson Case: Unanswered Questions," airing Sunday (9 p.m.) on Fox News Channel.

Ronald Reagan - still with us

It was a radical idea in 1981 -- lower taxes, control spending, reduce regulation and bring down inflation -- the four pillars of Reaganomics that changed the economic debate then and still dominate today.

Before Reagan, people sleeping in the street were so rare that, outside of skid rows, they were almost a curiosity. After eight years of Reaganomics - - and the slashes in low-income housing and social welfare programs that went along with it -- they were seemingly everywhere. And America had a new household term: "The homeless."

Only Natural

Magnitude 7.0 - KAMCHATKA PENINSULA, RUSSIA 2004 June 10 15:19:57 UTC (usgs.gov)

Hong Kong - A strong earthquake hit the Kamchatka Peninsula ...no immediate reports of damage or casualties. ...magnitude 6.9 ...11.28pm Hong Kong time (15h28 GMT) on Thursday... (iol.co.za)

The November 4,1952 Kamchatka Earthquake and Tsunami

Preternatural Patterns

OMAHA, Neb -- An Omaha news photographer was killed Thursday when he was hit by a vehicle while filming a story about a dangerous intersection in west Omaha.

an off-duty officer saw a distinctly reptilian snout protruding from the front passenger-side window, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Inside was Petey, a 3½-foot-long gator, happily sitting in the lap of his owner, 29-year-old Danya Johnson. ..."She was very distraught when the alligator was taken away from her,"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh announced Friday that he and his wife, Marta, are divorcing. The Limbaughs "mutually decided to end their marriage of 10 years" and have "separated pending an amicable resolution," according to a statement released by Limbaugh's publicist.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - A disc jockey at a university radio station who turned a Sunday radio show into a "celebration" that Ronald Reagan "was finally dead" has been suspended. ...He said he played requests such as "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and told listeners he wanted to "walk over the newly laid dirt" on Reagan's grave. One listener said the disc jockey advocated urinating on Reagan's grave, but the student said he does not remember saying that. The show generated numerous complaints, KSUA program director Chip Brookes said. "Regardless of how you feel about (Reagan) or what he did ... we can all agree on a certain boundary of poor taste," Brookes told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

a Japanese company has developed a sleep machine system it says will deliver a full eight hours of Z's in your own bedroom. Matsushita Electric Works will open its "Sleep Room" to the public in Tokyo next week, giving the weary a chance to get a scientific take on their sleep patterns -- and take a nap. With sleep disorders a rising concern in Japan, the company is betting the elaborate system, which includes a special bed, wide- screen TV and sound-absorbent walls, will cater to a growing market. "We think that if we put all of these things together, we can solve some of the sleeping problems in Japan," said Takahiro Heiuchi, a Matsushita official running the demonstration.

Seven seventh-graders were arrested after a spat in a middle school cafeteria left two teachers and a detective with injuries Wednesday.

a man took off his seat belt, opened a door and intentionally fell to his death during a sightseeing flight over the Grand Canyon

Phoebe has boggled astronomers for over 100 years because of its dark surface and retrograde orbit, which sends it spinning around Saturn in the opposite direction from the planet's 30 other known moons. Many scientists now believe the 137-mile-wide moon may be a captured asteroid that has remained unchanged since it was first formed in the outer solar system. If Friday's flyby proves that theory to be true, data gathered from Cassini's instruments could shed new light on how planets are formed. (Wired)

Human Right

in prisons and jails across America...cellphones are becoming the newest form of coveted contraband, allowing inmates to communicate freely with the outside world and, at times, conduct illicit activity from behind bars

US Military Casualties

Army Pfc. Thomas D. Caughman, 20, of Lexington, S.C., died June 9, in Baghdad, Iraq when his up-armored high-mobility-multi-purpose wheeled vehicle was struck by rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire.

Bartlesville - prarie frontier town

One man injured, another jailed after alleged squabble over birthday cake by Tim Hudson June 10, 2004 E-E County Reporter

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003. The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program. (WorldTribune)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy on a Baghdad highway Friday, but it was not clear if there were any American casualties, Iraqi police said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One Iraqi fighter was killed and several more wounded in sporadic clashes between insurgents and U.S. forces in a Shi'ite suburb of Baghdad, an official of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's group said on Friday. Militiamen loyal to Sadr fired automatic weapons and lobbed hand grenades at U.S. forces, which responded by sending helicopters to fire at targets in the sprawling Sadr City slum early on Friday, Reuters television footage showed. "One of our members was killed while preparing to fire at the Americans," the official said, adding he had been killed during clashes overnight on Thursday.

WW3 - Congo

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo security forces put down a coup attempt on Friday by members of President Joseph Kabila's personal guard

Pakistan's army says it has killed a large number of al-Qaeda suspects and local tribal supporters in a major offensive in the Afghan border area.

The Department of Defense announced today that the secretary of defense issued new guidance on procedures for investigations into deaths of any person held as a detainee in the custody of the U.S. Armed Forces.

ROME (AP) - The Italian government and Red Cross on Friday denied an aid worker's claim that ransom was paid for three Italian hostages who were freed earlier this week in Iraq. ...Differing accounts emerged as to how the four were liberated.

Saudi and Western officials said countries such as Britain, France, Germany and the United States have increased support to the kingdom to help equip, train and advise Saudi security forces, reports intelligence newsletter Geostrategy-Direct. (WND)

Alleged al-Quida version of attack on Saudi compound reveals psychopathic paranoid xenophobic dogmatic misandry.

WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) - Despite the Oklahoma City bombing nearly a decade ago and repeated warnings from terrorism experts, the government has yet to follow up on a recommendation that buyers of ammonium nitrate fertilizer be required to show ID.

Moammar Gadhafi should either resign or be removed from power because he has "ruined Libya," a respected Arabic daily columnist wrote Friday. Jihad al-Khazen compared the Libyan ruler to ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, saying both had equivalent "evil intentions."

THU 2004-JUN-10

Ray Charles

Soul diva Aretha Franklin described him as "a fabulous man" who introduced the world to "secular soul singing". ...blind aged six...After the blood disease glaucoma (BBC)

He played his 10,000th concert last May at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and in 2002 celebrated the 40th anniversary of his first hit on the country music charts, "I Can't Stop Loving You."
Blind since the age of 6 from glaucoma (Reuters)

Ray Charles Dies at 73 ... acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends ... Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition.
"What'd I Say" ..."Georgia on My Mind" ..."I Can't Stop Loving You" ..."Hit the Road Jack" ...
Blind by age 7...Glaucoma is often mentioned as a cause, though Charles said nothing was ever diagnosed. (AP)

Not Ray Charles, but it came up today... Here's a vignette we're dying to see on the ABC broadcast of Sunday's Ford's Theatre Presidential Gala: When Stevie Wonder sat down at the keyboard center stage, President Bush in the front row got very excited. He smiled and started waving at Wonder, who understandably did not respond. After a moment Bush realized his mistake and slowly dropped the errant hand back to his lap. "I know I shouldn't have," a witness told us yesterday, "but I started laughing." [Lloyd Grove Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 6, 2002]

Digital Consequences

Drag-n-drop between computers... the owner of a handheld computer can pick up a file from their device, using a special pen, and drop it onto the screen of another computer, by placing the pen on its screen.

Preternatural Patterns

TOKYO (Reuters) - The pajama-clad skeleton of a Japanese man has been found in a vacant apartment building -- 20 years after his lonely death.

TAARBAEK, Denmark (Reuters) - A parish priest in Denmark was fired Thursday for saying God had abdicated "in favor of his son."

Much of the confusion of all orders of beings, high and low, in their efforts to discover the Father-Infinite, is inherent in their limitations of comprehension. The absolute primacy of the Universal Father is not apparent on subinfinite levels; therefore is it probable that only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit truly know the Father as an infinity; to all other personalities such a concept represents the exercise of faith. (Urantia Papers, Foreword)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - A 77-year-old Roman Catholic priest in Argentina has published his memoirs recounting sex with women and a frustrated gay liaison, angering Church officials.

CHICAGO RIDGE, Ill. -- Six-year-old Donnie Hauser-Richerme knew he couldn't swim, but he also knew the little girl in the murky, debris-filled swimming pool was in trouble. Donnie jumped in and helped save 5-year-old Karah Moran's life before becoming stuck in five feet of blackened rain water and muck at the bottom of the deep end. Paramedics eventually rescued him, but he was in critical condition and on life support Thursday. Karah called Donnie "my hero."

Simpson murder trial 10 years after: "If there's a negative legacy I have, it's all of those damned court shows on TV," said [O.J.] Simpson, 56.

"Eventually there will be an ice age coming and if we were still pumping [carbon dioxide] into the atmosphere then we could think about preventing that ice age," said Eric Wolff of the British Antarctic Survey in a telephone interview. "But we're predicting that an ice age won't come for another 15,000 years, and by then all the fossil fuels will be gone, so we won't still be pumping [carbon dioxide] into the atmosphere."

Human Right

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More Americans are abusing alcohol than in the 1990s, but fewer are technically alcoholics, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday. They found that the number of American adults who abuse alcohol or are alcohol dependent rose to 17.6 million or 8.46 percent of the population in 2001-2002 from 13.8 million or 7.41 percent of the population in 1991-1992. The researchers cannot say why heavy drinking is up.

ENGLAND fans will be allowed to smoke dope before Sunday’s crunch clash with France -- to keep them calm. Cops in Lisbon plan to crack down on drunk supporters while turning a blind eye to those spotted puffing on a spliff. Pot-smoking fans have been assured they will not be arrested, cautioned -- or even have their drugs confiscated. Last night experts said the Portuguese police’s “Here We Blow” policy would reduce chances of a punch-up between rival fans.

Butler Township police investigating a complaint about a man screaming and yelling early Wednesday morning instead found a tongue-tied teenager who wouldn't even give up his name. But his breath did the talking and led police to a marijuana growing room filled with 245 pot plants. "The kid smelled like marijuana," officer Ray Kriebel said. "There was a strong, pungent odor around the whole area."

The lucrative business of pot by Mary Lynn Young/Globe & Mail Thursday, June 10, 2004 ...There are strong arguments to decriminalize the drug, given the fact that its illegal status is largely a function of poor branding and accidents of history. ... the question becomes whether the public is ready to see marijuana cigarettes sold at the liquor store. But from a business perspective, when almost one in four Canadians (not some criminal underclass) admit to having used marijuana -- whether they 'inhaled' or not -- that's a hefty market for a budding industry.

District Attorney General Mike Flynn said his office will ``vigorously prosecute'' those who operate meth labs, especially those who endanger others by the operations. Flynn said Wednesday he was appalled by the dangers posed by someone "cooking'' meth at Atchley Apartments.

A mother/daughter team of alleged marijuana harvesters were arrested this week in Sutherland.
The I'm-so-clever (not) Nebraskoid headline writer came up with this banality: Family "farm" operation gets busted Mom, Daughter, Go To Pot Together
How about instead a headline thus: Mother and daughter's privacy and liberty violated by Puritan Taboo Priests

four members of a ...family have been charged with growing marijuana after narcotics agents recently seized four truckloads of plants and other evidence. ...accused ...of manufacturing marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

Accra, June 10, GNA - Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday called for a legislation to ban the smoking of tobacco in public place, to ensure the safety of non-smokers that were likely to inhale the smoke non-deliberately.

BUTLER TWP - An unrelated disturbance call ended early Wednesday morning in the arrest of two men accused in a marijuana-growing operation outside a Lyndora home. Township officers seized more than 240 suspected marijuana plants, many growing in a two-level shed outfitted with grow lights, chemical sprayers, fans and other tools and materials for growing the plants.

NEW YORK -- George Soros' dream is President Bush losing in November -- and so far, the billionaire philanthropist has donated nearly $13 million to independent groups that also want to turn that vision into reality. ...Among other causes, he has used his fortune to found Central European University in Budapest, pay for early childhood development programs in dozens of countries and promote democratic campaigns in several eastern European nations. He also supports better public schools in New York and legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.

The leader of the Marijuana Party of Canada said after a court appearance Thursday he plans to contest the constitutionality of the country's pot laws.

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE -- A trade organization is asking the Air Force to clarify that its ban on marijuana use doesn't apply to personal care products that contain hemp seed oil. ...criticizing a recent article in the Cannon Air Force Base newspaper ...warned airmen not to use products containing hemp seed oil, hemp oil or...THC ...using such products created the "statistically small" chance of flunking a drug test and could attract attention from the base's drug-sniffing dogs.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Orange County agents busted a marijuana growing and dealing operation during a raid Thursday morning. They say it was run by a major national gang that's establishing itself in Central Florida. They found marijuana plants growing behind a home on Makoma Road near Orange Blossom Trail. ...arrested 17-year-old ...and 24-year-old ...who they believe to be the local leader of a major national gang. "We just uncovered a cannabis growing operation in the back in a shed that looks very complex and very large," says Gross. Agents say they took about $30,000 worth of marijuana off the street. They hope that makes a lasting impression.

DAYTON, Ohio -- A Dayton man is behind bars Thursday after authorities said they found a significant amount of drugs... According to a police report, an officer smelled burnt marijuana coming from the home. Once inside, police found three large bags of marijuana, 125 grams of cocaine, 95 grams of crack, 37 OxyContin pills, three guns and $2,700 in cash.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said Mooroolbark police raided a house in Mooroolbark about 6.30pm (AEST) yesterday and found 16 mature cannabis plants and a hydroponic system. They also seized assets including a Ford Falcon XR8 car, a speed boat, three motorcycles and a jet ski. A Mooroolbark man, 23, has been charged with trafficking and cultivating cannabis, possessing a drug of dependence and possessing a controlled weapon.

Google search on marijuana OR cannabis OR hemp

DALLAS -- Dallas police hope a little exposure will get "johns" to think twice. The DPD is posting pictures on its Web site of people busted for allegedly soliciting prostitution.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Federal agents on Wednesday charged six Continental Airlines employees with smuggling hundreds of pounds of cocaine into the country through Newark Liberty International Airport. The workers were baggage handlers... laundered millions of dollars in profits by taking suitcases filled with cash out of the country... All face up to life in prison if convicted on the charge, conspiracy to traffic more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States brought three criminal charges on Thursday against Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks, an Australian accused of joining al Qaeda, but his military lawyer said Hicks committed no crime and that even prosecutors did not state he hurt anyone.

Sounding the drum for al-Qaeda hunt By Haroon Rashid BBC correspondent in Peshawar

KARACHI (Reuters) - A Pakistani army commander narrowly escaped assassination on Thursday when a gun and bomb attack on his convoy killed 10 people, in what officials saw as a response to a bloody assault on militants near the Afghan border.

WW3 - Germany

COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - A bomb that wounded 22 people in Cologne appeared on Thursday to be linked to organized crime although police said they could not exclude other motives, including political ones.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Major mining companies are wary about developing new projects in certain parts of the world because of war and fear of terrorism, mining executives said on Thursday.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Handing the government a stinging defeat in its war on terror, a jury acquitted a Saudi graduate student Thursday of charges he used his computer expertise to help Muslim terrorists raise money and recruit followers.

TEL AVIV -- Israel's military has succeeded in detecting and neutralizing improvised explosive devices from the air.

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libya on Thursday denied allegations by a jailed American Muslim leader and a Libyan intelligence agent of a plot to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom.

WW1 - still with us

Tragedy on the Somme: A Second Balaclava contributed by Eric Margolis at worldwar1.com ...Refusing to accept defeat, Haig continued the slaughter on the Somme for four more months. When he finally gave up, in November, 1916, the Allies had gained a pitiful 125 square miles of bloody mud from the Germans at a cost of 600,000 men: 400,000 British Imperial, and 200,000 French casualties. The Germans suffered 450,000 casualties. At Verdun, 1.2 million men were lost on both sides. The Somme - and Verdun - were the two greatest military follies of the 20th Century. In both titanic battles, military technology had far exceeded the general's 19th Century military intellect.

The Zimmermann Telegram by Alan Simpson The Zimmermann Telegram is probably the most important, and far reaching intercepted message of all time. It changed the direction of modern history. [warning: good article, but many typos]

Peace 3000

New hope for mutilated Iraqis ...a surgeon sliced off both his ears as his punishment for deserting from Saddam Hussein's army. ..."They cut off my left ear by mistake and so they chopped off the right one as well. Without my ears, I haven't been able to get a job or get married." ...doctors estimate that there are around 3,500 of them, and Iraq's ministry of health has just begun offering them free surgery.

WED 2004-JUN-09

Preternatural Patterns

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - A highway bridge in northeastern China collapsed early Thursday, sending at least three vehicles plummeting into a river, witnesses and the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Grand Canyon is in deep trouble, and the government-appointed panel assigned to come up with solutions is torn by competing interests and cannot muster the political will to act decisively.

LONDON (Reuters) - Laptops containing sensitive financial details and all manner of corporate secrets can be snapped up at auctions for a pittance, a security firm revealed Wednesday.

The scientist many regard as the father of nanotechnology has backed away from his famous claim that nanomachines could turn the planet into "grey goo". Eric Drexler now says nanomachines that self-replicate exponentially are unlikely ever to enter widespread use.

A German motorway was flooded with 34,000 liters (9,000 U.S. gallons) of pig's blood on Wednesday

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) ... in a bid to shake off its negative image, the booming industrial city of 1.2 million people is attempting a bold make-over to replace its reputation for vice and criminality with a highbrow renown for the arts and culture.

London's Harrods department store has apologised to its customers for selling controversial underwear bearing images of Hindu goddesses.

Scientists at the University of Arizona may have witnessed the birth of a new species for the first time. Biologists Laura Reed and Prof Therese Markow made the discovery by observing breeding patterns of fruit flies that live on rotting cacti in deserts.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Lake Worth resident Norm Gitzen didn't mind the more than half-million bees living in the roof of his house until recently. Rather, he said, they were "kind of mesmerizing," and he often sweetened his morning coffee with honey dripping from the hives. But when the bees started coming into the house, stinging him and his nephew, his love of that cohabitation changed. Local beekeepers started removing at least 700,000 bees from a tower above his breakfast nook on Tuesday, filling four buckets with honey weighing close to 65 pounds.

Baseball with 18000 coats of paint

Head nailed six times x-ray

Ostrich escapes, makes successful escape from abusive prison

MIAMI -- A plane passenger slapped a federal air marshal after refusing to sit down and ignoring instructions to end her cellular phone call, which she said would have been "rude," prosecutors said Tuesday.

Teachers and parents in Cape Elizabeth Maine are warning middle school students about the dangers of deliberately making themselves pass out, a developing trend among youngsters in the community. The strange behavior became an issue last week at Cape Elizabeth Middle School when teachers learned that students were going through a regimen in which they blocked the flow of oxygen to their brains, which caused them to lose consciousness. Students told staff members that it gave them a "rush" or a "good feeling."

Political cartoonist Ted Rall's comment that the late President Ronald Reagan is "turning crispy brown right about now" provoked a reaction that crashed his Web site for at least 24 hours after the remark was posted on the Drudge Report. "I think most people view the president as a fair target," Mr. Rall said yesterday in an interview. "Reagan was a public figure, and he was an idiot. And if he were around and lucid, he would probably say that it comes with the territory."

WW2 - still with us

A TEACHER banned from working in France for peddling revisionist views on the Holocaust has been sentenced to two years in prison by a French court after he made a film contesting a brutal Second World War massacre by Nazi SS storm-troopers. The conviction of Vincent Reynouard, 33, coincides with the 60th anniversary today of the slaughter of 642 villagers, including 245 women and 207 children, at Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June, 1944, four days after the D-Day landings by Allied forces. In his film entitled The Tragedy of Oradour-sur-Glane: 50 Years of Official Lies, Reynouard blamed the inhabitants of the tiny Limousin village for their fate. Disputing evidence of eyewitness survivors, the former teacher denied that the SS deliberately killed more than 350 women and children after rounding them up and ordering them into the village church, arguing that the deaths were due to explosives concealed in the church by members of the French Resistance active in Oradour.

US Military Casualties

Capt. Humayun S. M. Khan, 27, of Bristow, Va., died June 8 in Baquabah, Iraq, after a vehicle packed with an improvised explosive device drove into the gate of his compound while he was inspecting soldiers on guard duty.

Army Cpl. David M. Fraise, 24, of New Orleans, La., died June 7 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device hit his patrol.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy L. Bohlman, 21, of Sioux Falls, S.D., died June 7 from hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

WW3 - 9/11 still with us

Last man saved from wreckage of World Trade Center retires from Port Authority

Human Right

HEROIN is now so easily available in Cyprus that it is cheaper than cannabis

AN interstate drug courier has threatened to kill airport baggage handlers who allegedly stole more than 10kg of cannabis from his luggage. Police confirmed yesterday they were investigating death threats, while sources said two Virgin employees were expected to be charged over the incident.

VANCOUVER - A report published by a right-wing think tank argues legalizing marijuana would add billions to government coffers, and cut out organized crime.

The movie Reefer Madness was created to put the fear of reefer into American minds. The musical Reefer Madness was created to put those minds at ease, poking fun at the Roosevelt era's demonization of the drug.

TOPEKA, Kan. - A routine traffic stop on Interstate 70 last week led to discovery of what is being described as the second-largest marijuana seizure ever made in the state.... The authorities confiscated about 2,900 pounds of marijuana, which has an estimated value of $2.5 million. [Or worth maybe $5,000 without prohibition]

Greene County Sheriff's deputies and the Greene County Ace Task Force served a search warrant for the home located at 961 Beason Road. They found 125 marijuana plants in the basement of the house and even more drying in the garage. Sheriff Gene Fischer said each plant is worth about $1,000 on the street. He said they found lights, scales, fans and even guns inside the house.
*gasp* even GUNS!
and WHY is each little shrub worth $1000?? HAHAHahahah BECAUSE OF EVIL UNCONSTITUTIONAL PURITYRANNICAL PROHIBITIONISTS
oh, sorry, got all excited there for a moment...

Drugs with a street value of €1.2 million have been seized in two joint operations by gardaí and customs officers. ...cannabis resin valued at €700,000 was found in Ranelagh. Four men in their 40s were arrested.... cannabis valued at €500,000 was found concealed in packaging which had also arrived by ferry from Spain.

A MAN who confessed in court to being a marijuana farmer was jailed for two years yesterday for possessing the drug. Viliame Vuro, 22, of Sawene Village in Navosa, pleaded guilty to possession of dangerous drugs.

The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP) says it will stand a candidate in the by-election seat Tariana Turia expects to win in her bid to return to Parliament. Tariana Turia had hoped to take the seat unopposed and had pledged support for core ALCP issues in hopes of getting the pro-cannabis group to back away from plans to put a candidate up against her. But the ALCP says her pledge of "passive support" is not enough and that the issue of cannabis decriminalisation is an important Maori issue.

SUVA, Fiji (AP) - Police raided a factory in the Fijian capital Wednesday, seized illegal drugs and chemicals with a likely street value of $540 million, officials said. Fiji police commissioner Andrew Hughes described the illegal drug-making operation in Suva as the largest methamphetamine laboratory ever uncovered in the southern hemisphere.

WW3 - Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A man charged with leaving threatening messages at an Islamic center said Wednesday he made the calls in anger after learning last month that Islamic terrorists beheaded an American in Iraq.

WW3 - Germany

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) - A bomb packed with nails exploded in a shopping street Wednesday, injuring 22 people, police said. Authorities said they had no immediate evidence of a terrorist attack.

Washington -- The State Department is scrambling to revise its annual report on global terrorism to acknowledge that it understated the number of deadly attacks in 2003, amid charges that the document is inaccurate, dangerously outmoded and politically manipulated by the Bush administration.

MILAN (Reuters) - A group of suspected Islamic militants arrested in Italy and Belgium appeared to have been planning a suicide attack in Paris, according to an Italian detention warrant seen by Reuters on Wednesday. But France's Interior Ministry said the information was too sparse to prove an attack was being prepared.

Officials said the alarm was sounded when the small plane, carrying Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, entered restricted airspace.

NEW YORK - The "dirty bomb" allegedly planned by terror suspect Jose Padilla would have been a dud, not the radiological threat portrayed last week by federal authorities, scientists say. ... "It's the equivalent of blowing up lead,"

The U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court were briefly evacuated on Wednesday when a small plane that was likely carrying an official to Washington for former President Ronald Reagan's funeral violated restricted airspace

Pakistani forces clashed with heavily armed foreign militants Wednesday, killing more than 20 people in a mountainous tribal region near the Afghan border where hundreds of al-Qaida fighters are believed to be hiding, officials and a tribal elder said. The bloodshed follows weeks of failed efforts to get the militants in South Waziristan to surrender to authorities by peaceful means

WW3 - India

Suspected Maoists have exploded a bomb in an Indian-run school in the Nepalese capital

BEIJING (AP) - Ten Chinese construction workers were killed by "armed terrorists" in Afghanistan on Thursday, China's government said.

US forces in Afghanistan say they have killed about 20 suspected Taleban fighters in an operation in central Oruzgan province. Two US marines, two Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter are stable after being injured

WW3 - Sudan

Hundreds of children have started to starve to death in Sudan's war-torn western province of Darfur.

WW3 - Torture

AP - A Jordanian lawyer who claims he represents Saddam Hussein said he believes the ousted Iraqi leader was subjected to torture, although a copy of a letter reportedly sent to his daughters seems to show the ex-president in good spirits.

SAN DIEGO -- A lawsuit filed on Wednesday accuses a local company of conspiring with the U.S. government to torture Iraqi citizens. The Titan Corp. has said it supplied translators to work with the U.S. military in Iraq, but human-rights groups claim that it and another U.S. company had a role in the torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, near Bagdad.

At times flustered and searching for words, Ashcroft was grilled by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee about reports that memos by Bush administration lawyers concluded the president can legally order interrogators to abuse or even kill terrorist suspects in the interests of national security. ...he maintained President Bush never authorized torturing terrorist suspects.

WW3 - Israel-Palestine

According to Prof. Khaleel Mohammed, Assistant Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, the Koran clearly states that the Holy Land was promised by God to the Jewish People. In a revealing interview, Mohammed noted, "If God has 'written' Israel for the people of Moses, who can change this?"

Israeli helicopters have fired missiles during an operation in Gaza City. The raid, which targeted a metal workshop shortly before midnight (2200 GMT), was an apparent retaliation for an attack on town in southern Israel. Witnesses say the workshop, in Shati refugee camp on the Gaza City beach, was used to make motorcycles. The Israeli military said it contained weapons and ammunition

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. weapons experts have found 20 engines used in banned Iraqi missiles in a Jordan scrapyard along with other equipment which could be used to make weapons of mass destruction, an official said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - The State Department is planning to have more than 900 Americans staff the U.S. Embassy in central Baghdad, assisted by 600 to 700 Iraqis in the biggest American embassy in the world, department planners said Wednesday. A former palace of deposed President Saddam Hussein will serve as the new embassy until a site is chosen in the capital as a replacement for the embassy seized by Iraq in 1970,

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Kurdish parties warned Wednesday that they might bolt Iraq's new government if Shiites gain too much power. In another challenge to the interim administration, saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline, forcing a 10 percent cut in electricity output.

BAGHDAD, 10 June 2004 -- Mortar rounds fired at a base of Iraqi soldiers charged with maintaining security in Fallujah killed 12 Iraqis yesterday.

SEA ISLAND, Georgia (CNN) -- President Bush told world leaders at the G8 Summit in Georgia on Wednesday that he hopes NATO will take on a bigger role in Iraq now that the United Nations has endorsed the country's interim government. (CNN)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council gave resounding approval Tuesday to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government by the end of June. President Bush said the measure will set the stage for democracy in Iraq and be a "catalyst for change" in the Middle East. The unanimous 15-0 vote came after a last-minute compromise allowed France and Germany to drop their objections to the U.S.-British resolution, which underwent four revisions over two weeks of tough negotiations. Diplomats on the council, which was deeply divided over going to war against Iraq, welcomed the Americans' flexibility.

AGHDAD, Iraq, June 8 -- Car bombs exploded in two cities north of here on Tuesday morning, killing at least 11 Iraqis and an American soldier... Six soldiers from Poland, Slovakia and Latvia were killed south of Baghdad while trying to defuse mines... occupation forces helped free three Italian hostages held since early April and a Polish hostage held for the past week

...six European soldiers died while transporting munitions. Family members brought home the remains of two Japanese journalists killed while covering the occupation. There was celebration, too for the rescue of a Pole and three Italian security guards by U.S. Special Forces. More than 40 people have been kidnapped in Iraq, and the four were the first non-Americans freed by the military.

TUE 2004-JUN-08

Preternatural Patterns

After CBS broadcast the voices of Enron energy traders gloating over the crisis they helped create, more tapes were released. In one tape, an employee says, "You gotta think the economy is going to f------g get crushed, man. This is like a recession waiting to f-----g happen." The tapes show Enron tried to bring California to its knees. Elsewhere on the tapes, another employee says, "This is where California breaks." "Yeah, it sure does man," says another.

three entrepreneurs are creating what they say is California's first organic cemetery, hoping their ban on floral arrangements and formaldehyde will serve as a national model. Embalming fluid, metal caskets and marble headstones won't be permitted at Fernwood Forever. Instead, the dead will be placed in biodegradable boxes or shrouds and interred in nondescript graves that mourners can dig themselves.

she and many of her friends have been using instant messaging at school to have sexually explicit chats with strangers since January. It is a trend, she said, among some of the popular students and those who would emulate them to gather around a computer while one person chats and the others look on. A child engaged in an explicit conversation gets positive attention.

"Boys, if you vote for the liberals, I'll strip,"

A British robber who stole £115,000 pounds in cash from a bank broke back in a week later to give most of it back

A D-Day veteran who got lost on his way back from Sunday's commemorations received a surprise lift back to Paris - from French President Jacques Chirac.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A man who claimed he didn't get the taco he paid for has been charged with assault for allegedly pelting a Taco Bell clerk in the face with a chalupa.

Did the 1973 shooting of George Wallace lead to the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan? Well, yes, more or less. Read on for the strange tale of The Taxi Driver Connection.

US Military Casualties

Army Sgt. Jamie A. Gray, 29, of Montpelier, Vt. died June 7 in Scania, Iraq, when his military vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

WW3 Battles - Human Right

Detroit-AP -- Michigan authorities have charged 16 people with running a Canadian drug ring that smuggled hundreds of pounds of marijuana into the U-S, some of it in garbage trucks.

SEVEN kilos of marijuana were found on the side of the road by officers from the Inter Agency Task Force on Sunday night. (Trinidad & Tabago Express)

Narcotics officers on Friday discovered an estimated $42,000 worth of high-grade marijuana sealed in Mason jars (Appeal-Democrat, Marysville-Yuba City CA)

CHESTERTON -- An Amtrak passenger’s complaint about another passenger carrying a weapon led to the arrest of an Elkhart man Saturday after police stopped the train at 8th Avenue in Chesterton. ...was arrested for felony possession of marijuana and misdemeanor carrying a pistol without a permit.
FELONY FOR VEGETABLE ... MISDEMEANOR FOR FIREARM!!

The Swiss authorities have launched a campaign to raise awareness of the risks of driving under the influence of cannabis. The warning comes as more and more motorists in Switzerland are testing positive for the drug. “Over the past few years there has been a significant rise in the number of road offenders who have consumed cannabis,” said Hans-Ulrich Büschi, president of the Road Safety Council.

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco... recalled Mr. Reagan's reaction to a Burton bill to decriminalize marijuana. "He said, 'You know, John Burton is the one person in the Capitol who has got the most to fear from the squirrels in the park,' which I think was his way of saying that he thought I was a bit nuts," he said.

AUSTRALIA'S oldest convicted drug offenders were set free yesterday after being given a suspended sentence, but they could still lose their home. Under Western Australia's tough proceeds-of-crime laws, World War II veteran David William Sidney Davies, 81, and his wife, Florence Gladys Davies, 77, could be declared drug traffickers.

KENT, Ohio -- Police discovered a pizza shop was selling ... marijuana along with pizzas...

TUESDAY, June 8 (HealthDayNews) -- Despite limited evidence of marijuana's medicinal value, it's being used by many people with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy who believe the drug is an effective treatment, say two Canadian studies in the June 8 issue of Neurology.

This week, a new study says that smoking marijuana does not lead to oral cancer; a Canadian political leader promotes marijuana decriminalization; a federal judge allows drug reform ads on mass transit; a former NJ narcotics officer calls the drug war a "dismal failure"; California voters may have an opportunity to reorganize aspects of the 3-Strikes Law. (AlterNet)

Yukos has won a court victory: It can legally sell Cannabis Vodka. The oil giant and its billionaire owners, who are fighting multibillion-dollar tax claims and tax and fraud charges, may rest a little easier after a Voronezh court threw out a lawsuit claiming they were promoting drug use by selling the vodka at one of their gas stations. (Moscow Times)

Randolph County IN, June 8 - It took a 26-foot cargo truck to haul away what State Police call one of the most elaborate marijuana growing operations they've seen. ... Police arrested 51-year-old Winchester dentist ...and his 18-year-old son ....

DRESDEN, Tenn. (AP)- Investigators had no trouble finding 150 marijuana plants along the state border. The suspected growers left maps in their car that led authorities to the illegal plants.

MCALESTER, Okla. (Reuters) - Oklahoma executed a man on Tuesday who killed his aunt with a gunshot to the head despite appeals to have his death sentence stayed on the grounds that the murderer suffered from mental illness.

Forget drug-free and nuclear-free zones. A growing grassroots movement seeks to make the United States a Patriot Act-free zone, one city at a time. Or, at the very least, the people behind the movement hope to make their cities constitutional safe zones. In the past two years, more than 300 cities and four states have passed resolutions calling on Congress to repeal or change parts of the USA Patriot Act that, activists say, violate constitutional rights such as free speech and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

WW3 - Lebanon

The Israeli Air Force struck a Palestinian guerrilla target yesterday near the Lebanese capital of Beirut in response to rocket fire from Lebanon on an Israeli naval vessel earlier in the day

SAVANNNAH, Ga. (AP) - President Bush's counterterrorism chief said Tuesday that the administration is satisfied Saudi Arabia's government is doing all it can to clamp down on militants despite a surge in attacks against westerners there.

Gunmen have shot dead an American man in the Saudi capital Riyadh

WW3 - Spain

ROME, June 8 -- The Italian police said today that they had arrested an Egyptian man said to have played a pivotal role in planning the March 11 train bombing in Madrid

BAGHDAD Coordinated sabotage attacks on fuel and transmission lines around an enormous power plant south of Baghdad shut the plant down last weekend, American and Iraqi government officials said Tuesday, raising new fears that insurgents were targeting major sectors of the Iraqi infrastructure as part of an overall terror plan.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council gave resounding approval Tuesday to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government by the end of June.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi resistance forces displayed seven Turks said to have been kidnapped because they worked for Americans and threatened companies cooperating with U.S. forces with more attacks.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led special forces freed three Italians and a Pole held hostage in Iraq and captured some of their abductors in a bloodless rescue mission in Iraq on Tuesday, coalition officials said.

MOSUL, Iraq Two suicide car bombs killed at least 12 people, including a U.S. soldier, and wounded at least 50 people north of Baghdad on Tuesday

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Coalition forces freed Italian and Polish hostages in bloodless military operation south of Baghdad on Tuesday, the top U.S. general in Iraq said.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fires at the Iraq National Library set as U.S. forces took over Baghdad did not destroy large numbers of rare books and ancient manuscripts as initially feared, U.S. investigators say. Instead, the fires apparently were aimed at destroying sensitive records about Saddam Hussein's government

BAQOUBA, Iraq (AP) - A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb during rush hour outside a U.S. base in Baqouba Tuesday, killing four Iraqis and wounding 12 others

Four Iraqis have been killed and at least 10 others wounded after a car bomb exploded outside a US base in the Iraqi city of Baquba (BBC)

MON 2004-JUN-07

Preternatural Patterns

Texters beware. Like e-mail and Internet instant messages, text messages tend to be saved on servers. "One of the false assumptions that people make is that when they hit the delete button, messages are gone forever, but nothing can be further from the truth,"

Far from being an antique curiosity of World War II, radar technology today has become smaller, cheaper, easier to manufacture, and more powerful. Modern radars can look beneath the Egyptian desert from an orbiting spacecraft and see ancient riverbeds and ruins. From miles away, they can peer through clouds or fog to figure out what a ship at dock looks like by sensing patterns from its rocking motion. They soar overhead in small, unmanned planes to give military commanders a live picture of a battlefield in any weather, day or night....

Truman Presidential Museum & Library

CLUJ, Romania (AP) - The groom said "yes," but a city hall official said "no," refusing to marry a couple because the groom didn't voice his consent first in the Romanian language, authorities said Monday.

Dr Rainer Kuehne thinks the "island" of Atlantis simply referred to a region of the southern Spanish coast destroyed by a flood between 800 BC and 500 BC.

a Tirana newspaper on Friday offered a typically whimsical explanation behind CIA director George Tenet's sudden resignation... an ancient Albanian curse...

to lure men in Britain away from TV... and into book shops, publisher Penguin Books will send out a sexy model to offer 1,000-pound ($1,837) prizes to males spotted reading a selected title.

Ducks quack to each other in regional dialects

Avril Harriman, his wife received a letter that was in hieroglyphics, and she didn't know what to make of this and Avril Harriman said, “Well, that's Skull and Bones, and I have to tell you about that, and he said, no, I can't tell you about that.” If you want to know why they deal in secrecy, (a) you have Skull and Bones, and (b) so many of them were in the intelligence services and that whole side of Washington and New York. [from Skull & Bones: The Secret Society That Unites John Kerry and President Bush/Democracy Now!]

Harriman, William Averell , 1891--1986, American public official (infoplease)

For David Eisenhower, David Roosevelt and Arabella Churchill, the grandchildren of D-Day's three most important actors, the enormity of what their grandparents accomplished never fails to amaze. Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Sir Winston Churchill, respectively, planned and implemented the risky assault on Hitler's "Fortress Europe" 60 years ago this week.

Reagan

Ronald Reagan claimed that the Russian language had no word for "freedom." (The word is "svoboda"...) ...said that intercontinental ballistic missiles... could be recalled once launched.... said he sought a "Star Wars" defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U.S.S.R.... used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they'd both unite against an invasion from Mars.... used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the "End Times"... told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps.....!!!!!

Ronald Reagan was a conman. Ronald Reagan was a coward. Ronald Reagan was a killer. ... put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua... when Hezbollah... murdered hundreds of American marines... the TV warrior ran... turned around and invaded Grenada... murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport... Nancy, a skull and crossbones prancing around in designer dresses... bleated on about "family values" but didn't bother to see his own grandchildren.... union-busting and a declaration of war on the poor... with...Ollie North, plotted to give guns to the Monster of the Mideast, Ayatolla Khomeini.... taking cash from the hostage-takers to buy guns for the "contras" -- the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters....

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ronald Reagan lived long enough for his legacy to be almost universally hailed around the world, but in his day his policies were as divisive as those of President Bush are today.

US Military Casualties

Army Pfc. Melissa J. Hobart, 22, of Ladson, S.C., died June 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, after collapsing while on guard duty.

Army Sgt. Melvin Y. Mora, 27, of Columbia, Mo. died in Taji, Iraq, on June 6 when his camp was hit by a mortar attack.

Army Sgt. Humberto F. Timoteo, 25, of Newark, N.J.

Army Spc. Ryan E. Doltz, 26, of Mine Hill, N.J.
died June 5 in Baghdad, Iraq, when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

Army National Guardsman 1st Lt. Erik. S. McCrae, 25, of Portland, Ore.

Army National Guardsman Sgt. Justin L. Eyerly, 23, of Salem, Ore.

Army National Guardsman Spc. Justin W. Linden, 22, of Portland, Ore.

Army National Guardsman Sgt. Frank T. Carvill, 51, of Carlstadt, N.J.

Army National Guardsman Spc. Christopher M. Duffy, 26, of Brick, N.J.
died June 4 in Baghdad, Iraq, when individuals using improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades attacked their convoy.

WW2 - still with us

Oral history sites add authentic look at D-Day

Without microwave radar, it's not clear that the Allies could have mounted the invasion of France in 1944.... Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the US Army Air Corps, afterward. "The final bombs that paved the way for them, dropping only a few yards ahead of the first men to hit the beaches, went down through a solid overcast of clouds, without ... so much as scratching the paint on a single rowboat in that packed armada below.... [O]ur scientists had taken from Hitler even the comfort of bad weather."... no device existed capable of transmitting sufficient power at those frequencies. Then one afternoon in November 1939 two physicists at the University of Birmingham in England, John Randall and Henry Boot, sketched out the resonant cavity magnetron...

1968

Greatest Hits

Four-star General Vo Nguyen Giap led Vietnam's armies from their inception, in the 1940s, up to the moment of their triumphant entrance into Saigon in 1975.

VIETNAM 1968--I arrived in Vietnam in February 1968. American's counteroffensive to the infamous Tet offensive was fully engaged. I was assigned to the mostly volunteer 101st Airborne Division's Screaming Eagles as an infantry platoon leader. Reading about this time, you find little about the war other than the communist offensive. Yet although poorly chronicled, the fighting in 1968 was substantial. I turned 21 a month after arriving and found myself leading a platoon of mostly younger men through the jungle 12,000 miles from my home. This how it looked to us. Tim Lickness

MAY 1968 GRAFFITI

lib.virginia.edu/speccol/exhibits/sixties/1968

Greatest films

infoplease almanac

WW3 - Torture

In August 2002, the Justice Department advised the White House that torturing al Qaeda terrorists in captivity abroad "may be justified," and that international laws against torture "may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations" conducted in President Bush's war on terrorism, according to a newly obtained memo.

WW3 - Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States plans to cut its troops in South Korea by a third by the end of next year, as part of a worldwide shift to use higher technology in defense, the two countries said Monday.

Iraq's new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, says he has reached a deal to disband militias that opposed Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -court to try Saddam Hussein... atmosphere of fear and intimidation that shadows the 6-month-old Iraqi Special Tribunal as it struggles to its feet.

ABU DHABI -- Saudi Arabia is pressing clerics to take the kingdom's side in a war of credibility against Al Qaida. Saudi authorities have urged leading clerics to oppose Al Qaida attacks and discredit the religious rulings of Osama Bin Laden. The clerics were also ordered to condemn Al Qaida in Friday sermons in mosques, Middle East Newsline reported.

Violence unsettling Afghan vote Less than a third of Afghan voters are registered ahead of September's ballot as attacks target election workers. By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL - U.S. warplanes pounded dozens of insurgents hiding in caves in southern Afghanistan, the military said Monday, following a gunbattle between the militants and U.S. troops. Meanwhile, Taliban militants riding in pickup trucks killed two policemen in a raid south of the capital, an Afghan official said, the latest sign that violence is spreading ahead of crucial national elections in September. ... militants sought refuge in the caves, and coalition forces called in "air support that dealt with those caves," Mansager said.

CAIRO, Egypt - A statement published on a Web site Monday and bearing the name of al-Qaida warned that Western airliners will be targeted for terrorist attacks.

SUN 2004-JUN-06

Reagan

Reason Magazine 1975 interview with Ronald Reagan

Preternatural Patterns

(AP) "Dust" found on computer processors and monitors contains chemicals linked to reproductive and neurological disorders, according to a new study by several environmental groups. The survey, released Thursday by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Computer TakeBack Campaign and Clean Production Action, is among the first to identify brominated flame retardants on the surfaces of common devices in homes and offices.

(CBS/AP) The United States is cutting its back-up supply of nuclear weapons while bolstering its ability to build new and better bombs if necessary, the Energy Department said Thursday.

(CBS) Americans spend billions of dollars every year at health foods stores, assuming the foods and products they're buying are good for them. But, that's not always the case. The Saturday Early Show's Dr. Mallika Marshall has some advice on navigating health food stores.

Should the United States give peace a chance in war on terrorism? John Arquilla (SFGate)

"The Lord gave us everything we need in the Garden of Eden: fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds," the preacher-turned-diet adviser said... "That's why we call the way we eat the 'Hallelujah Diet.' We celebrate its true creator." Malkmus's vegan diet is one of a batch of Bible-based eating plans flooding bookstores and health food stores.

Afghanistan: ...kidnappers, involved in a worrying rise in the number of disappearing children across the country, planned to sell the kidneys in Pakistan where people are prepared to pay large amounts of money to get hold of healthy organs. There appear to be other motives, including extortion....

TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi said Sunday he regretted that former U.S. President Ronald Reagan had died without ever being tried for 1986 air strikes that killed dozens of people, including the Libyan leader's adopted daughter.

RENO, Nev. -- A brothel owner who bought the buildings and logo of Nevada's infamous Mustang Ranch bordello plans to reopen them this summer, possibly as a museum.

WW2 - still with us

Some facts and figures about D-Day

ARROMANCHES, France (Reuters) - World leaders paid solemn tribute Sunday to the thousands of Allied troops who fought and died in the D-Day landings in Normandy 60 years ago, and vowed to safeguard the transatlantic alliance they forged.
Chirac: "France will never forget what it owes America, its steadfast friend and ally,"

Heads of state and thousands of war veterans gathered in France this weekend to mark 60 years since the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. (BBC)

1968

Quicktime videos including MLKing, Cronkite, Johnson, and the good little Maxwell House wife.

The Democrats [were] gathering for their first national Convention in Chicago since 1968... The Online NewsHour also asked reporter John Sack to reflect upon the differences between 1996 and 1968.

The Whole World Was Watching - an oral history of 1968

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Television

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, starring the folk singing, comedy duo Tom and Dick Smothers

Human Right

Man arrested over Dublin drugs find Gardai are questioning a 32-year-old man in connection with a cash and drugs haul in north County Dublin. He was arrested last night after a search on a house in Skerries at around 9pm. Up to €100,000 worth of cocaine, €6,000 of cannabis and €6,000 worth of cash was seized.

SANDPOINT -- Approximately 60 pounds of marijuana was allegedly discovered when local and federal drug agents raided a Talache home on Thursday. Thomas Frank West, 52, and his 20-year-old son, Thomas Boone West, were arrested in connection with the bust. Both are charged with marijuana trafficking, a felony.

An officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety seized 46 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 east of Flagstaff Thursday. Sgt. Rod Wigman of the Flagstaff office of DPS said the officer stopped a 1994 Ford for speeding just after 6 p.m. about four miles east of the city. "The officer talked with the driver who also had a juvenile with him," Wigman said, adding that the two had conflicting stories and were evasive in answering questions.

Police seized more than $2 million worth of marijuana this week after shutting down four elaborate grow operations. Earlier in the week, police discovered a Winnipeg home that had been completely converted in to a grow operation. A 30-year-old woman was arrested Thursday in connection with the bust. Const. Shelly Glover said the drug unit received further information and raided three other homes in the city.

RAPID CITY -- A Box Elder man could face a combined maximum penalty of 35 years in prison and a $35,000 fine if found guilty on various drug charges. Christopher L. Larson, 23, is charged with possession of marijuana in the amount of more than 10 pounds, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine upon conviction.

WW3 - Congo

BUKAVU, Congo (AP) - Insurgents ambushed a U.N. convoy in eastern Congo on Sunday, killing two South African peacekeepers and wounding nine others

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A Briton was killed and one was injured Sunday in a shooting in the capital, the Riyadh police chief said.

Saudi Officials Reinforce Crown Prince Abdallah's Accusation that Zionists Are Behind Terror Attacks in Saudi Arabia

WW3 - Iran

Iranian Leader: 'The Source of Human Torment and Suffering is Liberal Democracy'; Iranian President: 'The Root of All Terrorist Activity is the Violence of the Superpowers'

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A car bomb outside an American base killed nine people Sunday and injured 30 others - including three U.S. soldiers - and insurgents blasted Iraqi police stations in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and in a town south of the capital. A U.S. soldier was killed in a mortar attack.

Two families were mourning the first New Jersey National Guardsmen killed in the Iraq war, and Guard officials were describing their deaths when an announcement arrived yesterday afternoon from Baghdad: Two more guardsmen from the same unit had been killed in a separate attack.

SAT 2004-JUN-05

Reagan

An Outpouring of Emotion to the News of Ronald Reagan's Death

Former Presidents React to Ronald Reagan's Death

World leaders on Reagan

BERLIN (AP) - President Reagan's dramatic 1987 challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" was the last high point of Cold War rhetoric in Berlin.

In one of the most memorable speeches of his presidency, Ronald Reagan stood at the beaches of Normandy 20 years ago Sunday and described how Army Rangers on D-Day had scaled cliffs and defeated enemy troops who were firing down on them.

Preternatural Patterns

Colorado armored bulldozer rampage details

Colorado armored bulldozer rampage man apparently kills self

US Military Casualties

Marine Lance Cpl. Todd J. Bolding, 23, of Manvel, Texas, died June 3 of wounds received due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

WW2 - still with us

On D-Day Anniversary, a German Son Delivers Ailing Father's Message to Old Enemies By Angela Doland Associated Press Writer

Human Right

A gunowners group is protesting the seizure of a legally armed citizen in a bookstore by two police officers who responded to an anonymous caller alarmed by the weapon. Michael Pelletier was browsing a Manchester, N.H., Barnes & Noble with his wife March 27 when a police officer, assisted by a colleague, suddenly grabbed him by the right shoulder and his holster and pushed him toward the corner of a bookcase, says Gunowners of America.... The group said the police were responding to an anonymous complaint from someone "alarmed by the sight of a private citizen possessing a gun."... The gun group said: "The cops assaulted Pelletier based on this flawed complaint in spite of what their own eyes revealed to them -- a family man wearing his gun openly and legally, peaceably browsing in a store." The police, however, claimed it was reasonable for someone to feel alarmed and threatened.

Two men exchanged marriage vows on Saturday in France's first gay wedding, hailed by supporters as a victory for human rights but swiftly denounced by the government as illegal.

AP , NAJAF, IRAQ ...she is told to go stand in a corner, because the guards have to be alert and her "presence here confuses us." "Is it because I'm a woman?" I ask. "Yes. Please stand there." "Why do you treat women as though we are the devil?" "No, on the contrary, we respect them." Another day, another skirmish. For a woman reporter, doing one's job in Iraq's holiest city is a constant battle of the sexes.

CHICAGO (AP) - Summer's almost here and that means teens will have more time on their hands to pick up bad habits - such as smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, a new federal survey says.

Is your teen using marijuana? (approach with grain of salt)

Medicinal Marijuana FAQ (approach with grain of salt)

he says marijuana helped him regain his appetite during chemotherapy, but believes drug companies will never support it, because they can't make money on it. "You're never going to buy it at the pharmacy if you can get it cheaper on the streets." He's had practical experience with synthetic substitutes such as Marinol. "If you're taking it because you're nauseous and you throw up anyway, then you've got to look at the vomit and see if you've thrown up the pill."

Two people may face felony charges after police found marijuana plants growing in their downtown Clarksville home. Police on Thursday morning found 15 plants in various stages of development ... a street value could not be determined since not all of the plants were mature... Clarksville police get about 15 calls a year about marijuana plants growing in the city. Officers have found evidence ranging from one plant to 50 plants growing in the cover of thick brush and people using a basement for a home pot plant nursery. Ashby said this bust isn't going to "put a big dent in the marijuana supply in Clarksville, but it's a good little pop that may generate some more calls," he said. In terms of arrests, marijuana is the No. 2 illegal drug in Clarksville, Ashby said, behind crack cocaine.

Jeff, New Orleans - Four people were booked Wednesday on drug charges, and more than $800,000 worth of marijuana was seized, in the culmination of a six-month undercover investigation... an informant told agents about three marijuana cultivation operations... 556 plants and 40 pounds of processed marijuana were seized. Each plant has a street value of about $1,500, or a total of $834,000,

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot at 11 times near Sonoita during a string of smuggling-related incidents but escaped injury, authorities said... Agents seized 325 pounds of marijuana

GALLUP, N.M. -- State police discovered an estimated $1 million worth of cocaine and marijuana at the Gallup port of entry early Thursday morning. They seized 42 pounds of cocaine and 76 pounds of pot in a load of potatoes on the way to Ohio from Arizona. It was a random inspection....

BALDWIN, Fla. -- Law enforcement agents swarmed a truck stop off Interstate 10 in Baldwin Thursday and discovered more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana... packed into 53 bales on a tractor-trailer coming from Texas. ...hidden in produce boxes filled with cabbage and onions... worth nearly $1 million on the street

POLICE have seized 100 kilograms of cannabis worth in excess of $1 million., Police arrested and charged a 66-year-old Mount David man with deemed supply, possession of a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant and cultivating a prohibited plant

Prime Minister Paul Martin pledged Friday that he would decriminalize simple possession of small amounts of marijuana if Canadians re-elect his Liberal Party in the coming federal election.

The Saudis Fight Terror, but Not Those Who Wage It By Neil MacFarquhar (NYTimes)

WW3 - Ideals & Beliefs

SINGAPORE (AP) - The United States and its allies are winning some battles in the terrorism war but may be losing the broader struggle against Islamic extremism that is terrorism's source, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saturday.

Baghdad, Iraq, Jun. 5 (UPI) -- Rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr met Saturday with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq. Arabic newspapers said that Sadr's troops had begun simultaneously to withdraw from the cities of Najaf and Kufa -- troops had occupied city centers in these since April. Details of the meeting were not reported but the Arabic media suggested that Sistani urged him to withdraw his troops and stop armed clashes with the coalition forces.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - New Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi condemned Washington on Saturday for disbanding Saddam Hussein's army and said his government could issue a law next week reinstating some former Baath party members.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers and wounded two in a series of attacks Saturday against occupation forces and their Iraqi allies
...while tensions eased in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Kufa just weeks ahead of the transfer of sovereignty to the new Iraqi government.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A group headed by suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for an attack on Saturday on two cars of the type favored by Westerners in Iraq, saying it had targeted "CIA agents." It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties or what caused the two four-wheel cars to burst into flames while driving on the main road leading to Baghdad's airport.

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen killed the brother of a man widely regarded as having revealed the location of Saddam Hussein's sons to U.S. troops

WW3 - Serbia and Montenegro

GRACANICA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - A Serb teenager was shot dead in Kosovo on Saturday and police quickly arrested two Albanians suspected of trying to ignite another round of ethnic violence in the United Nations-run province.

WW3 - Russia

Authorities in Russia say a bomb ripped through an oil tank at a refinery in the Stavropol area Saturday, causing extensive damage but no casualties.

WW3 - Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - A rebel group in Sudan's embattled Darfur region has kidnapped 16 relief workers from international aid organizations

The Sudanese air force Friday bombed a market in Sudan's western region of Darfur, a mediator in Chad trying to bring about an end to a conflict which has sparked a serious humanitarian crisis.

FRI 2004-JUN-04

Preternatural Patterns

O.J. Simpson complained Friday that the media have convinced the public he is guilty of murdering his ex-wife, and he said he hopes the real killer is found so that he can have the pleasure of proving people wrong.

GRANBY, Colo. (AP) - A muffler shop owner reportedly angry at local government over a zoning dispute tore through town Friday in an armored bulldozer, smashing buildings and firing shots as police tried to stop the slow-motion rampage.

Geneva, Switzerland, Jun. 4 (UPI) -- The U.N. said the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein removed a government that committed shocking, systematic and criminal violations of human rights.

Rep. Mark Kennedy has unhappy memories of his filmed encounter with leftist moviemaker Michael Moore, an encounter featured Thursday in a trailer for the upcoming U.S. release of the film "Fahrenheit 9/11." ..."He starts asking if I can help him recruit more people from families of members of Congress to participate in the war on terror." Kennedy said he told Moore that he has two nephews in the military, one who has just been deployed in the Army National Guard. ... But to Kennedy's annoyance, his response to Moore was cut from the trailer (and from the film, according to a spokeswoman for the movie). "The interesting thing is that they used my image, but not my words," Kennedy said. "It's representative of the fact that Michael Moore doesn't always give the whole story, and he's a master of the misleading."

Ray Bradbury: "Michael Moore is a screwed a**hole, that is what I think about that case... He stole my title and changed the numbers without ever asking me for permission... a horrible human being -- horrible human!"... Bradbury said he had tried to discuss the issue with Moore several months ago, but that the director avoided him.... The author also claimed Moore ruined Wesley Clark's chances of being president .... Bradbury dismissed any chance of the title being changed at this point: "Who cares? Nobody will see his movie. It is almost dead already. Never mind, nobody cares."

Partial guest list of the current 50th anniversary conference of the Bilderberg group, under way in Stresa, Italy... (WND)

Mobile phone service was the second-lowest ranked industry - beating only cable providers among the 40 rated - in the University of Michigan's newest customer satisfaction index.
Mobile companies were the No. 2 sector in complaints last year to Better Business Bureaus, dropping from first place in 2002. Only auto dealers did worse.

Students at Key Biscayne Elementary will have to hand over their yearbooks today to have a message of hate removed. An eighth-grader wrote an anti-Semitic remark in German in the comments section. Though misspelled, translated, it means, "Death to the Jews." About 450 copies of the yearbook had already been distributed by the time a parent noticed the phrase and contacted the school.

US Election 2004

(CNSNews.com) - Newly released FBI files reveal that presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry attended a second meeting with North Vietnamese communists in Paris in the early 1970s. Kerry has previously admitted to meeting only once with the North Vietnamese delegations in 1970.

Democrat John Kerry ...suggesting that many in the U.S. military would prefer him as commander in chief over President Bush. "You'd be amazed at the number of active duty personnel who are coming up at events around the country, greeting me in ropelines or coming to rallies and telling me how important it is for us to stand up and fight for those who are not able to speak out for themselves right now for obvious reasons..."

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) The Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times is asking Democrat John Kerry to apologize for what it says was the unauthorized use in a Kerry campaign commercial of photos copyrighted by the newspaper.

Freedom

What if D-Day had failed? By Dr David Stafford Centre for World War Two Studies, Edinburgh University (BBC)

from Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's address welcoming Bush to Rome: "Some of us have lived those days, while the majority of us have read about it. They must know that their fathers, their grandfathers, who took up arms against the Nazis, considered the allies as saviours. They must know the price the Americans paid to free our continent. Half a million killed in world war II. More than 7000 killed on D-Day alone, in Normandy; 25,000 killed to liberate Italy. Some of them rest in peace in our country, buried in Anzio. I suggest you visit that cemetery, and see the names of people unkown to you: John, Charlie, Robert, Ted, Howard... Men aged 20, 22, who gave up their life for our freedom. An ancient bond links us to the USA. Millions of Italians found their well-being in that hospitable country. Our brotherhood with the USA dates back to those days, and cannot be deleted. Besides, after the war, the reconstruction of our cities and our economy was made possible by that generous Marshall Plan, which allowed Italy to head for its economic miracle. It is even thanks to America that many Italians, thieves of bicycles, could then buy a Vespa and a Fiat Seicento. We must not forget. When two terrible planes violated New York's sky and demolished the Twin Towers, killing more than 3000 people, we said that we all felt American. We didn't say that just because we were touched, but because that attack was also an attack against the western world, and the entire world. We realised we were facing another threat to our freedom...."

Human Right

A Russian regional government has told its women employees to stop wearing short skirts and tone down their make-up because they were arousing their male colleagues' "animal instincts."

AMMAN Jordan -- A 25-year-old woman was shot and killed on Wednesday, reportedly by her cousin, while recovering in hospital after a Caesarean delivery... killed his cousin to “cleanse his family's honour....” The victim reportedly was involved with a married man for almost a year and became pregnant... (JordanTimes)

Boston: Birthday kids at Duxbury's Chandler School next fall will get ...no cupcakes - they're bad for you. ...School Committee unanimously ratified a new handbook. ...made the change, part of a district-wide move to improve student health, after a poll of parents found nutrition to be one of their top concerns... [WHAT ABOUT HEALTHY CUPCAKES?]

BEGLES, France (Reuters) - A French mayor defied Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin Friday by vowing to press ahead with France's first gay wedding

WW3 - China

Angered by China's hard line against democracy in Hong Kong, tens of thousands of people waved candles, sang and chanted Friday night to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

The guitarist in a rock tribute act was quizzed as a terror suspect after sending a text message containing lyrics from a song by punk rock act the Clash to the wrong person.

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) The U.S. military and Shiite militia loyal to a radical cleric agreed Friday to withdraw from areas around holy shrines south of Baghdad and turn over security to Iraqi police

Iraq's new prime minister defended the continued presence of U.S.-led troops in the country, telling Iraqis in his first nationally televised address Friday that the forces' withdrawal would be a "major disaster."http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/iraq04.html

Iraqi police forces have detained Umar Baziyani, an associate of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, U.S. Central Command announced Friday.... "His capture removes one of al-Zarqawi’s most valuable officers from his network," according to the Centcom statement.

Five U.S. soldiers were killed and five wounded on Friday when their vehicles were attacked in east Baghdad

WW3 - Russia

MOSCOW, June 4 -- An explosion tore through an outdoor market in the southern Russian city of Samara at lunchtime today, killing at least nine people and wounding at least 32 more.... Several of the injured were said to be wounded critically; the death toll seemed likely to rise. ...among the dead were two teenaged boys.

THU 2004-JUN-03

US Election 2004

The Libertarian Party Stays the Course Reports from a political convention full of both surprises and the status quo Brian Doherty (Reason Online)

Extraterrestrial

Within three weeks, a private spacecraft built and funded by two Americans will try to soar where only the space shuttle and other legendary creations of the U.S. and Russian space programs have ventured before

US Military Casualties

Marine Cpl. Bum R. Lee, 21, of Sunnyvale, Calif., died June 2 of wounds received from hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Human Right

Federal drug agents have seized marijuana plants from two Denver-area residents who are registered to grow the plants for medical purposes.

Juaso (Ash) June 3, GNA- A 36-year-old farmer at Agogo who was found with 17.5 grams of Indian hemp has been sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment by the Juaso circuit court.

An annual pro-marijuana event at The Ohio State University expected to draw thousands of people on Saturday has been canceled by the university because officials say organizers did not follow the rules.

LSD tabs -- enough to supply about 100 users -- were seized from a Darwin home during a raid by drug squad officers. The tabs -- believed to be manufactured interstate -- would have a street value of about $8000. They were found in a unit on Aralia St, Nightcliff, by detectives on Wednesday. The 22-year-old male resident of the unit has been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of the hallucinogenic drug. About 148 tabs of LSD have been seized by police since August 2002.

Meaux - A French secondary-school student was taken into custody by police after giving his German teacher and several students a cake laced with cannabis, police sources in the city of Meaux said on Thursday.

The officers at the Nogales port of entry found the 93 bundles - totaling 1,684 pounds of marijuana - mixed in with the melons being carried by a tractor-trailer on Monday. It marked the fourth time since the March 16 launch of the Arizona Border Control Initiative that CBP officers at the Mariposa cargo facility have made large marijuana seizures.

More British teenagers drink regularly, have used cannabis and have had sexual intercourse by the age of 15 than in most other European nations, an international study of adolescent health and lifestyle choices revealed today.

Iowa Department of Transportation officials found 700 pounds of marijuana in a semi-trailer Wednesday afternoon at a weigh station near Waukee... The officer found more than 12 safety violations on the exterior of the semi, and he asked Gardea for permission to inspect the truck's interior.

A local husband and wife face felony charges of cultivating well over $100,000 of high-grade marijuana, after an anonymous tip led sheriff's detectives to a suspected growing operation at two La Cañada Flintridge homes

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A planned nudist bicycle tour in the Netherland's so called bible-belt has upset local churchmen who are holding their own youth charity bike ride the same day.

Fifteen-years ago, Chinese students were emboldened in their bid to rid China of autocratic rule, corruption and nepotism. Their fervor was silenced, when the communist government used guns and tanks to crush their demonstrations, killing hundreds. But today's students seem more interested in making money than politics. (VoA)

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The owner of a popular pot club in Oakland is defying the city's order to close its doors.

Study Finds No Association Between Marijuana Use And Incidence Of Oral Cancer

MONTREAL - The Marijuana Party has officially launched its election campaign in Montreal with the slogan: "Let's Roll!" Marc-Boris St-Maurice The party is aiming to have 100 candidates across the country, including 40 in Quebec and 25 in Ontario.

VANCOUVER - The judge is now considering his verdict in what could be a precedent-setting case involving a young driver charged with impaired driving causing death -- while high on marijuana.

Medical-marijuana backers are targeting a bipartisan group of House members that they claim are hostile to patients who toke up to ease the pain.

America the stockade ASK YOURSELF: Are people in the United States six times more criminal than citizens of Canada, England, Mexico and other lands? Of course not. People are innately alike everywhere. Then why does America lock people in prison at a rate six times higher than those nations do? New figures from the U.S. Justice Department say this country’s prison population grew nearly 3 percent last year, to 2.1 million -- although the crime rate has declined, and most states are trying to reduce incarceration to save money. The biggest increase was in federal jailing, which grew 7 percent.

Copenhagen, Denmark, Jun. 2 (UPI) -- A 33-year-old hippie commune in Copenhagen called Christiania could soon have an independent committee to oversee its operation

Officers with the state highway patrol seized 43 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop in Interstate 40 Saturday. Sgt. Rod Wigman of the Flagstaff office of the Arizona Department of Public Safety said an officer pulled over the driver of a rented 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo for following to closely to another vehicle. The driver of the rental car, Cameron Peterson, 23, Lancaster, Calif., had a suspended license and a warrant out for his arrest. Wigman added that Peterson appeared very nervous to the officer, and made inconsistent statements about from where he was coming and to where he was going. The officer requested and received written permission to search the Monte Carlo.

Paul is dead LONDON -- Paul McCartney says he got no thrill from heroin, but did get a kick from cocaine for a time. "I did cocaine for about a year around the time of Sgt. Pepper... Coke and maybe some grass to balance it out. I was never completely crazy with cocaine.... I’d been introduced to it and at first it seemed OK, like anything that’s new and stimulating. When you start working your way through it, you start thinking: ‘Mmm, this is not so cool an idea,’ especially when you start getting those terrible comedowns..." confirmed drugs influenced some of the group’s songs. “A song like ‘Got to Get You Into My Life,’ that’s directly about pot, although everyone missed it at the time,” ... “‘Day Tripper,’ that’s one about acid (LSD). ‘Lucy in the Sky,’ that’s pretty obvious..."
John Lennon, who wrote “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” had denied the song was about drugs and said it was inspired by a nursery school drawing by his son, Julian.

ballot initiative Montana voters may see -- I-148, backed by the Medical Marijuana Policy Project of Montana, would allow chronically ill Montanans to possess, use and grow marijuana for medical treatment.

U.S. officials yesterday confirmed the FBI is investigating whether a government employee provided Iraqi political leader Ahmed Chalabi intelligence he is accused of giving Iran, but several said the prominent member of Iraq's now-dissolved Governing Council is the target of a disinformation campaign.

ROME (AP) - Several mortar shells were fired Thursday at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad, the Foreign Ministry in Rome said. Italian officials said some Iraqis died, but an Iraqi police officer in Baghdad said one Iraqi was killed. No Italians were hurt in the attack, the ministry said.

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Fighting broke out Thursday in nearby Kufa between U.S. soldiers and Shiite militiamen - the eighth straight day of clashes since a deal last week to end the violence. The country's most influential Shiite cleric, meanwhile, tacitly endorsed Iraq's new interim government.

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunfire and explosions erupted in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf Thursday afternoon as U.S. forces battled Shi'ite militiamen, sending hundreds of people fleeing from the crowded city center streets.

an administration official, speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, has insisted that the US-led coalition has inflicted a strategic defeat on the Sunni insurgents and the Sadr militia in Iraq.

The Iraqi exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi--formerly a key ally of the Bush administration--is suspected of leaking confidential information about U.S. war plans for Iraq to the government of Iran before last year’s invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, government sources told NEWSWEEK.

FBI agents are focusing on a Pentagon intelligence-gathering unit in their probe into who told Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi that the United States had broken Iran's secret communications codes (NY Post)

WW3 - America

A year and a half before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a British Muslim told the FBI that he was trained to be a hijacker for Osama bin Laden and was in the United States to carry out attacks, NBC News and The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. ...NBC quoted a former FBI official as saying that the Newark agents believed Khan but were ordered by headquarters to "return him to London and forget about it." But the FBI insists it investigated Khan's allegations thoroughly, could not confirm them, and had no grounds to hold him

WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director George Tenet, buffeted by controversies over intelligence lapses about suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has resigned.... Tenet spoke to CIA personnel at a late-morning gathering at the CIA auditorium. "It was a personal decision, and had only one basis in fact: the well being of my wonderful family, nothing more and nothing less".... Tenet has been on the job since July 1997, an unusually lengthy tenure in a particularly taxing era for the intelligence community that he heads.

US President George W. Bush announced on Thursday the resignation of CIA director George Tenet, ..."I met with George last night in the White House ... He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving," ...Tenet... has been on the job since July 1997... Former CIA director Stansfield Turner told CNN that he believed Tenet had been "pushed out and made a scapegoat," adding: "I don't think he would have pulled the plug on President Bush in an election cycle without having been told to do that."

Two members of the jury considering sentencing for Terry L. Nichols, the Oklahoma City bombing conspirator, were dismissed Wednesday and were replaced by the two remaining alternate jurors. The judge, Steven Taylor of District Court, did not explain why

WW3 - Congo

Children escape rape by Congo malitia, trade on sex with UN peacekeepers

WW3 - World Arms Trade

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Police arrested a Russian woman on arms trafficking charges after she was found in possession of 38 pen guns, officials said Thursday. The tiny weapons, which look like fountain pens, are used by crime gangs as a weapon of self-defense when they attend meetings with other groups

WED 2004-JUN-02

Sexual Equality??

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The state's top civil rights official has ruled that taverns cannot offer discounts to women on "ladies nights," agreeing with a man who claimed such gender-based promotions discriminated against men.

Freedom

Hundreds of supporters of libertarian ideals gathered in Las Vegas to hear speakers and see exhibits espousing what organizers call "the freedom philosophy" at the second annual FreedomFest conference... "We are not just conservative or libertarian; we are a freedom movement."... Author Mark Skousen, conference producer ...John McKay, CEO of Whole Foods Company, was the opening speaker. ...Ron Paul spoke on how he could survive in Congress for so long while voting against the majority. He said many congressmen would tell him privately how they agreed with his positions on limited government, constitutional laws, spending and foreign policy, but were afraid to do so publicly.

US Election 2004

Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines: ... Kerry has an "Addams Family" face--"as if Lurch had gone to Choate." ... "Kerry represents the liberal, charitable wing of the Privilege party and George W represents the conservative, greedy wing of the Privilege party...."

World - Energy

Qatar's energy minister on eve of OPEC meeting: "Everybody should produce what they want over the next few months... We do not want to see any shortage of supply at all, and we want to avoid shocks.''

Preternatural Patterns

RICHMOND, Texas, June 2 (UPI) -- A preliminary autopsy indicates a south Texas rancher apparently attacked by a swarm of bees while on his tractor died from insects' stings. ... second in two weeks attributed to an attack by a swarm of bees.

A survey has found disease-causing microbes in dried baby food products. Among the bugs found by scientists at the Nottingham Trent University was a bacterium called Enterobacter sakazakii - which can cause fatal meningitis.

A Peruvian school teacher blinded four of her pupils and left 20 suffering from severe eye irritation after she used a traditional hair shampoo to wash away hair lice

Naivete and chutzpah abounds! ZAGREB (Reuters) - A top Croatian pop star appealed to the public on Wednesday to return or destroy private pictures of her enjoying a lusty sex romp which appeared on the Internet this week. ...11-minute video of her making love to an unidentified dark-haired man had been stolen from her private collection. ...hottest news in the former Yugoslav republic, where 32-year-old Vuckovic had previously been an icon of righteous and religious modesty. "The pictures are my private property. They were taken two years ago and were stolen...."

Honda Motor Co. Ltd. is recalling nearly 8,200 model year 2004 motorcycles... the digital speedometer on some ...[may] understate actual vehicle speed by about 25 percent...

Junk foods such as sugary sodas and chips make up nearly one-third of calories in the U.S. diet

TOKYO (Reuters) - A stunned Japan was searching for answers on Wednesday after an 11-year-old schoolgirl killed a classmate by slashing her throat, the latest in a string of violent crimes by children. ... "We must make children understand even more the basic importance of life,"...

US Military Casualties

Army Capt. Robert C. Scheetz Jr., 31, of Dothan, Ala., died May 30 in Musayyib, Iraq, when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

Army Pfc. Markus J. Johnson, 20, of Springfield, Mass., died June 1 in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, when an Avenger rolled over.

Marine Lance Cpl. Dustin L. Sides, 22, of Yakima, Wash., died May 31 from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Army 1st Lt. Kenneth Michael Ballard, 26, of Mountain View, Calif., died May 30 in Najaf, Iraq, during a firefight with insurgents.

Army Pfc. Nicholaus E. Zimmer, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, died May 30 in Kufa, Iraq, when his vehicle came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades.

Army Sgt. Aaron C. Elandt, 23, of Lowell, Mich., died May 30 in Al Musayyib, Iraq, when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

Army Pvt. Bradli N. Coleman, 19, of Ford City, Pa., died May 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries sustained on May 29 in Mosul, Iraq, when mortar rounds hit his living quarters.

Army Spc. Charles E. Odums II, 22, of Sandusky, Ohio died May 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, when his military convoy hit an improvised explosive device.

Army Pfc. Nicholaus E. Zimmer, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, died May 30 in Kufa, Iraq, when his vehicle came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades.

Marine Lance Cpl. Rafael Reynosasuarez, 28, of Santa Ana, Calif., died May 29 from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Marine Pfc. Cody S. Calavan, 19, of Lake Stevens, Wash., died May 29 due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan had Osama bin Laden "within reach" on at least two occasions, but were unable to prevent him slipping away, France's top general said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ahmad Chalabi, a former Iraqi exile who recently lost his standing as a special friend of the Bush administration, told Iran that the United States had broken the code of its intelligence service, according to broadcast and published reports.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Three foreign medical workers and two Afghans were killed Wednesday when their car was ambushed in northwestern Afghanistan, police and the aid agency said. Resurgent Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - A guerrilla attack on a major U.S. military base in Iraq on Wednesday triggered a huge chain of explosions in an arms dump that left much of the area ablaze and shrouded in smoke, but no casualties were reported.

KUFA, Iraq (AP) - American troops clashed with Shiite militants in this southern city Wednesday - six days after a truce was supposed to have taken effect. At least five Iraqis were killed and more than 40 were wounded.

ROME (AP) - Weeks after their capture, three Italians taken hostage in Iraq were shown in a video broadcast Wednesday in Italy.... An Iraqi armed group calling itself the Green Brigade has said it was behind the abductions.

(CBS/AP) A car bomb exploded Tuesday in central Baghdad outside the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is located just outside the green zone headquarters of the U.S.-run coalition. At least three people were killed and 20 were injured, the military said. ... The bomb was one of several blasts heard in the capital just after reports circulated that Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, current head of the Iraqi Governing Council, had been selected as president of the interim government

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Arabic-language satellite television stations showed videotape Wednesday of two men - an Egyptian and a Turk - saying they had been kidnapped in Iraq and were being threatened with execution.

But the fact that they have been killed rather than arrested means that we may never know their identity or the details of the plot. (BBC analysis)

Saudi security forces have killed two suspected militants said to be linked to the weekend gun and hostage-taking rampage in Khobar ... Saudi Arabia meanwhile is to tighten control over charities to stem the flow of funds to militant groups. (BBC)

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. military officer suffered a gunshot wound after gunmen in Saudi Arabia opened fire on two vehicles leaving a military housing compound south of the capital, Riyadh

RIYADH, "The car was coming out of the compound with three passengers when small arms fire opened up on the vehicle," ...The passengers weren't believed to have been injured

"There has been shooting in Riyadh against Americans this morning," said a diplomat. "We have no word on casualties and no details at this moment."

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nabil al-Marabh was No. 27 on the FBI's list of terror suspects after Sept. 11. He trained in Afghanistan's militant camps, sent money to a roommate convicted in a foiled plot to bomb a hotel and boasted to an informant about plans to blow up a fuel truck inside a New York tunnel, FBI documents allege. The Bush administration set him free - to Syria - even though prosecutors had sought to bring criminal cases against him and judges openly expressed concerns about possible terrorist ties.

The Army will prevent soldiers in units set to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan from leaving the service at the end of their terms... thousands of soldiers who had expected to retire or otherwise leave the military will have to stay on for the duration of their deployment to those combat zones.

[Tracking cell phones to catch criminals] ...After years of tracking terrorists, investigators have amassed a large database of land-line and traditional cellphone numbers they are watching (or listening to). ...This is what led investigators to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 plot, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003. (CSMonitor)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Airliners about to take off from Philadelphia and Boston were searched Wednesday after authorities received a telephoned bomb threat against the two American Airlines flights... Nothing was found ...The flight to Boston was canceled anyway... Later, in Boston, a connecting flight to London's Heathrow Airport, American Airlines Flight 156, was searched at Logan International Airport as it was about to take off. Nothing was found and the flight was allowed to take off

SAN ANTONIO -- Two propane-delivery trucks were stolen from a San Antonio gas company over the long holiday weekend, city police said Tuesday. But Police Chief Albert Ortiz said his department does not suspect that terrorism was behind the fuel thefts. One of the tankers carried about 3,000 gallons of propane, while the other held 2,600 gallons, police said. Also under investigation is the weekend theft of 15 gas canisters from an ambulance supply company. "We think it is just a coincidence at this point,"

TUE 2004-JUN-01

Digital Consequences

There has been a tremendous boom in the consumption of online newspaper editions.

Natural Consequences

NEW YORK -- A glassful of cold New York City tap water not kosher? It may be true -- and just in case, restaurants and bakeries operated under Orthodox Jewish law were advised Tuesday to use filters that can ensure water purity. The problem: tiny harmless creatures called copepods. The little organisms are crustaceans and therefore not considered kosher.

A new government-funded study is investigating the possibility of harnessing bruised or spoilt bananas -- deemed not worth selling to consumers -- to provide energy for 500 homes.

A Swedish aid organization will roll out a new line of defense to the country's emergency services next week -- the condom ambulance. From Friday, June 4, amorous couples can call the telephone number 696969 and a white van featuring a large red condom with wings as a logo will deliver them a packet of 10 prophylactics.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tornadoes and thunderstorms packing high winds cut a swath of destruction through the U.S. Midwest, bringing to at least seven the death toll from two days of storms, emergency and police officials said on Monday.

Viet Nam War - still with us

A Ho Chi Minh City museum that honors Vietnam war protesters features a photograph of Sen. John Kerry being greeted by the general secretary of the Communist Party, Comrade Do Muoi. A snapshot of the display in the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum -- formerly known as the "War Crimes Museum" -- was acquired over the weekend by Jeffrey M. Epstein of Vietnam Vets for the Truth, a group opposing Kerry's campaign for the presidency.

WW3 - Human Right

The mother of an Ellender High graduate who landed in trouble after performing a back flip during his walk across the graduation stage said he should not have to do any extra labor to get his diploma.

A pizza deliveryman won't face charges for fatally shooting a would-be robber several times when he was approached in a high-crime area, but his employer, Pizza Hut, has fired him for violating a company policy against carrying firearms.

The long-debated and highly contentious Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was struck down today by a federal judge in California, who ruled that the bill jeopardized other legal forms of abortion and threatened the health of women ending their pregnancies. In a strongly-worded opinion that accused Congress of misrepresenting many scientific facts regarding the procedure used to abort a fetus late in the pregnancy, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton concluded that the bill -- approved by wide margins in Congress last year and signed by President Bush -- was unconstitutional.

WW2 - still with us

Bartlesville E-E: found the name she was looking for - Donald Leslie Jay. She covered her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Logan gave his aunt a warm hug. "He would have been so proud," said Jay of her late husband who served as an Army corporal in Europe during World War II. Similar scenes were repeated many more times throughout the afternoon as family members and friends located the name of a loved one on one of the many panels listing approximately 1,200 names of military veterans, both living and dead.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. atomic watchdog said Iran had admitted importing parts for advanced centrifuges that can be used to enrich uranium, reversing earlier claims that its P-2 centrifuges were domestically produced. The P-2 centrifuges can be used in making nuclear weapons. The report credited Iran, however, with more openness about its nuclear program.

WW3 - Battles

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Prisoners in Rio de Janeiro killed at least 33 fellow inmates and beheaded many of them in a gang turf war that marked the worst prison violence in years in Brazil's overcrowded penal system.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 1 -- A car bomb exploded today outside the Baghdad headquarters of one of Iraq's two main Kurdish parties, killing at least three people and injuring at least 20, an American military official said. At the time of the blast, people in the building were celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The building is near the headquarters of the American-led coalition.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Two Polish construction workers were abducted Tuesday near Baghdad, a Polish army spokesman said.

WW3 - Puritanical Tyranny

An agency says a new survey amongst schoolchildren in Powys has found drug misuse problems are "very small".

GATINEAU - A West Quebec man will finally get his day in court after battling the legal system for years. Johnny Dupuis will go on trial Tuesday for a five-year-old charge of possessing marijuana. He claims he needs the drug for health reasons. But his unsuccessful fight to get a medical exemption has tied his case up for years. Now he's hoping the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will help his case.

David William Sidney Davies, 81, and his wife Florence Gladys Davies, 77, are each accused of two counts of possessing cannabis with intent to sell or supply.

New 'Drugged Driver' Law Unconstitutional? Defense Attorneys Say Law Against Driving Under Influence Of Cocaine, Marijuana Too Vague

A school was forced to reinstate three pupils expelled after a cannabis dealing incident after an appeals panel overturned the decision.

A man who sold marijuana ... to pay for his wedding was reunited with this wife and three children yesterday, after a week in jail.

State police discovered more than $600,000 worth of marijuana hidden in futon mattresses inside a tractor-trailer heading south on I-95... the 1999 Freightliner for impeding traffic on I-95 south of I-295. The vehicle was traveling 39 mph in a 55 mph zone... suspicions were aroused after speaking separately with the driver, Singh, and passenger, Sangha, who gave conflicting accounts about where they were coming from and their destination.