Blog-heap o' links from 2005-Apr

SAT 2005-APR-30

Supernaturalfreep.com/ ... 13:36:15MARK SCOTT — 1936-2005: Acerbic radio personality was much-loved, reviled... He began each radio show with the soaring guitars of George Thorogood and the Destroyers from "Bad to the Bone," and he always ended with the clarion cry of "Excelsior!" In between was a singular mix of conservative and libertarian talk, occasional health and fitness insights and rightist certitude that made Mark Scott one of the highest-rated -- and in some circles, most-hated -- radio voices in Detroit during the 1980s and '90s....cbsnews.com/ ... 13:35:24The United Methodist Church reversed itself Friday, deciding to reinstate a lesbian minister who was defrocked after revealing her relationship with another woman.

Theory of Educationdesmoinesregister.com/ ... 13:34:31Two Des Moines Roosevelt High School students say their right to free expression was violated when they were directed this week to change their anti-abortion T-shirts that administrators said might have disrupted school.washingtontimes.com/ ... 13:34:09A St. Louis charter school principal is accused of cheating on state standardized tests by ordering teachers to help students finish incomplete test sections.worldnetdaily.com/ ... 13:25:06A federal judge allowed a history teacher's lawsuit to proceed against school-district officials who barred him from providing supplemental handouts to students – including the Declaration of Independence – because the historical documents contain some references to God and religion.

1000 Wordsabcnews.go.com/ ... 13:18:36 Tonya Vasilov

It really doesn't get much worse than this," said.. Hoffman Estates Police Lt. Rich Russo.. who would not discuss a possible motive for the killings. The autopsies showed that both children tried to fight off their attacker...worldnetdaily.com/ ... 13:10:31 Wilbanks & finacee

"I never ever thought that she left because she had cold feet," Wilbanks' mother, Joyce Parrish, originally told CNN, before the true circumstances were revealed. "She and John are crazy about each other. ... She told me how many times she loved John."

Modern Family Lifeap.tbo.com/ ... 12:58:31CORRY, Pa. -- ...Danielle Bimber had no names for the boys because she never intended to be their mother. But leaving the hospital without them, her job seemingly done, the surrogate mom grew uneasy. Where was the couple who had hired her? When would they come to the hospital to take the newborns home? Why had they stopped visiting after the first day?... with the hospital preparing to put the children in foster care, Danielle obtained permission to take the boys home... would soon become engaged in a bitter battle with the triplets' biological father... 63-year-old math professor said complicated paperwork was partly to blame for his early absence....ap.tbo.com/ ... 12:55:49BOULDER, Colo. - A 14-year-old girl who claimed she shot her father to death to help him commit suicide has been charged with second-degree murder... after finding him in pain after he had tried to shoot himself to death....news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:50:36Dhaka - A married couple who spent eight years in prison after being convicted of killing the wife's son have been freed after he turned up alive... his father - who he said had kept him hidden in different places - had lodged a false case against Ms Khatun. Ms Khatun has now taken shelter with a human rights group...

But is it Art?rogerebert.suntimes.com/ ... 12:33:48(Ebert:) Palindromes... a brave and challenging film for which there may not be much of an audience.... no heroes without flaws and no villains without virtues... no matter who you think the heroes and villains are.... The plot circles relentlessly, setting up moral situations and then pulling the moral ground out from under them. The movie is almost reckless in the way it refuses to provide us with a place to stand. It is all made of paradoxes....

Yuck!cbsnews.com/ ... 02:53:51...before and 2 1/2 years after she began using meth...

Cascading Weirdnessworldnetdaily.com/ ... 13:24:42Kids across America – as well as some young adults – are falling for an elaborate Internet hoax suggesting rap star Tupac Shakur, murdered nine years ago, is alive and well... According to a 2002 survey, 83 percent of Tupac Shakur fans believe he is still alive – or coming back in a resurrected form....nytimes.com/ ... 12:37:16A bride-to-be whose disappearance prompted a widespread search and commanded national media attention went to the police in Albuquerque early today, telling investigators that she had gotten cold feet days before her wedding and fled.... had taken a Greyhound bus from Georgia to Las Vegas, then boarded another bus on Friday to Albuquerque... "It has been determined Jennifer had some issues the family was not aware of. The family would appreciate some time and space to assist Jennifer in dealing with these issues."...cnn.com/ ... 03:00:51Wilbanks, 32, told her family she was released by the two strangers. They abducted her Tuesday night before driving to the southwestern U.S., according to Pastor Alan Jones, who was supposed to preside at her wedding Saturday in Duluth, Georgia.abcnews.go.com/ ... 02:57:02WOONSOCKET, R.I. Apr 29, 2005 — He didn't have any money. But police say that didn't stop Wayne Glaude, 22, from soliciting sex from an undercover officer Thursday night. Instead, police said, he offered steak.abcnews.go.com/ ... 02:55:57New Trike-Bike Design - No Training Wheels Needed - Could Take Fear Out of Junior's First Solo Ride cbsnews.com/ ... 02:52:02President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah holding hands as they stroll.... When it comes to two men holding hands, America's got issues....foxnews.com/ ... 02:50:20A 32-year-old woman who vanished just days before she was to be married was found alive early Saturday in New Mexico.... no immediate details....

Extraterrestrialnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:51:48Scientists say they have photographed a planet outside the Solar System for the first time... about five times the size of our Jupiter... 200 light-years away near the southern constellation of Hydra...nypost.com/ ... 12:46:57Here's why nobody in the press or public believes the alleged affair between Cruise, 42, and Holmes, 26, is real, no matter how many glossy magazines do cover stories hyping the notion in the coming weeks:reuters.com/ ... 00:55:59An unmanned Titan 4 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday evening to place a classified military payload into orbit, ending nearly five decades of Titan launches from Florida .

Transport Tragedyap.tbo.com/ ... 00:54:36....Union Pacific Railroad train operator Rod Bomberger saw the children and stopped his train in plenty of time, then radioed a warning to a second train coming from the opposite direction... The second train stopped just inches short of hitting the children...

Only Naturalnewsbox.msn.co.uk/ ... 13:35:04Scientists in Hong Kong and Britain have discovered a gene responsible for hearing, a breakthrough that could eventually lead to a cure for congenital deafness.

Justice?rogerebert.suntimes.com/ ... 12:28:40(Ebert:) Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room... No matter what your politics, "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" will make you mad... a con game almost from the start... Strange, that there has not been more anger over the Enron scandals.... If the crisis had been created by Al Qaeda, if terrorists had shut down half of California's power plants, consider how we would regard these same events....suntimes.com/ ... 12:26:29EAST MOLINE -- Ronald Schickel, convicted of choking Michael Chambers to death after a 2000 wedding reception in Countryside, walked out of prison Thursday morning after serving just 16 months of a 54-month sentence for involuntary manslaughter... It's complicated math that allowed Schickel to go free so early....

Human Rightreuters.com/ ... 12:53:08Kenyan Women Take Risks with Backstreet Abortions news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:25:21Some say forcing a 13-year-old to give birth is illegal and cruel....

Science Marches Onnnnnncnn.com/ ... 12:24:39RENO, Nevada -- On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs... "It's mice on a large scale...." falls firmly within the new ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past week for stem cell research....

US Militarycbsnews.com/ ... 02:51:10Amputee GI Sets Example In Iraq

Under Tyrannynews.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 13:32:04Farmers with magic mushrooms growing on their property could be arrested for possession of controlled drugs under legislation rushed through Parliament before the election.

Police Riotfirstcoastnews.com/ ... 13:31:41...That night, police charged Lewis with reckless driving and DUI. He says no field sobriety or breathalyzer tests were done. Lewis went to trial and was found not guilty. Cleared of the charges, he is now suing the Navy, some of the police officers and high ranking Naval officers. "It's hard to forget being treated like a terrorist being tortured. It's a hard thing to forget."...ksdk.com/ ... 13:27:20URBANA, Ill. -- A federal jury ordered two state police supervisors to pay more than $600,000 to a former lieutenant who said he was moved to a desk job because he pursued evidence linking a political contributor to a double murder.sfgate.com/ ... 13:26:52After eight years and three trials, a group of protesters whose eyes were swabbed with pepper spray during a series of anti-logging demonstrations finally won their case Thursday against Humboldt County sheriff's deputies and Eureka police -- but were awarded only $1 each in damages... Police and deputies put pepper spray directly into the eyes of the protesters, who had chained themselves together, in hopes that the burning would force them to unlock their shackles....

Rebuildingreuters.com/ ... 12:54:45...cooperatively owned Colors eatery in Greenwich Village which expects to open in September.... will honor the group's 73 co-workers who died when Windows On The World -- a top-floor World Trade Center restaurant -- crumbled to ashes.... will also stand as a model of justice in an industry that regularly exploits immigrants... "Our workers will be treated with dignity, working in their own business, with good pay and health benefits...."

Big City Storiessuntimes.com/ ... 12:25:57Chicago -- He's accused of ripping off 13 banks since 2003. But despite a sizable girth, prominent scarring on his face and a $5,000 reward for his capture, no one could catch the "Bandaged Bandit." Then the man believed to be the bandit did what no one in law enforcement could imagine: He walked into their path.

WW2 - still with usap.tbo.com/ ... 12:23:12Ironically, the bad press Japan gets for its restrained apologies obscures the fact that since 1945 it has been the very model of a world citizen, guided by an American-inspired constitution that bans war as an instrument of foreign policy.

Threatscanoe.ca/ ... 13:33:52Dynamite, fertilizer and fuel oil -- the same deadly combination used in the Oklahoma City bombing a decade ago -- were found in the possession of a former Calgarian who was arrested in a stolen truck... "The suspect isn't what you'd call real talkative on the subject..." what was found in the truck would be enough to destroy a three-storey building if distributed among key support columns and used in a confined space....abcnews.go.com/ ... 02:56:37A call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. All over a giant burrito. Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High. The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.....

9/11 - still with usap.tbo.com/ ... 00:55:40Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers used a public-access computer at a New Jersey college library to buy tickets for the plane they seized and crashed into the Pentagon... Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., said.. "We put Americans' lives at risk if we foolishly provide sanctuaries - even in our public libraries - for terrorists to operate...."

Violenceap.tbo.com/ ... 12:56:53An airstrike on a suspected insurgent camp killed three civilians and four militants in central Afghanistan.... Afghan security forces opened fire during a celebration in a western city, killing a mother and her daughter....reuters.com/ ... 12:52:56Three car bombs targeting military patrols exploded in Baghdad on Saturday, killing four people and wounding 16....news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:52:22Experts have examined a mass grave containing what are believed to be the bodies of some 1,500 Kurds, mostly women and children, in southern Iraq... believed to have been killed in the late 1980s after being forcibly moved from northern Iraq....reuters.com/ ... 12:42:21A bomber and two veiled women attacked tourists in separate incidents that killed two people in Cairo on Saturday, targeting a museum and a tourist bus... seven people injured near the museum... two veiled women opened fire on the bus in southern Cairo but missed... One of the women then shot dead the other and the second was wounded, possibly by herself....ap.tbo.com/ ... 00:53:44 An airport police officer was killed Friday as he struggled with a suspect who stole his patrol car and slammed into a fire hydrant... officer had been hanging partly outside the car... suspect.. gained control of the police car after the officer stopped him and they got into a fight... After he crashed the officer's car, [suspect] carjacked a sports-utility vehicle, hit a curb and flipped over....

People Dienews.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 13:34:46A mother died of a heart attack in a New York hospital after flying from Ireland for a facelift and nose surgery without telling her husband.ap.tbo.com/ ... 00:52:17TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Six children died and... an 18-year-old man.. lost his hands and feet .. on Friday... when a hand grenade they found and were playing with exploded... all members of the same family.... apparently left over from the conflicts of the 1980s... apparently left over from the conflicts of the 1980s....

FRI 2005-APR-29

Lasting Contributionsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 19:39:07The 350th episode of The Simpsons will be screened in the US on Sunday... Writers are already working on the next series, its 17th - a TV sitcom record....

History - still with usturkishpress.com/ ... 12:33:40Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a number of rare Pharaonic seals of soldiers sent out on desert missions in search of red paint to decorate the pyramids, Egypt's culture minister said Thursday. The 26 matchbox-sized seals belonged to Cheops, who ruled from 2551 to 2528 BC, in whose honour the greatest of the great pyramids of Giza southwest of Cairo was built, and show Pharaonic soldiers' ranks

Digital Consequencesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:01:22Voice and video files streamed over the net could be made untappable and ultra-secure in the next few years thanks to a breakthrough by Toshiba.... Simply put, quantum cryptography involves encoding bits of encryption data onto particles of light... [oh yeah... simple...]

Theory of Educationworldnetdaily.com/ ... 12:25:11A father who protested a pro-homosexual book his 6-year-old son had been given in school spent a night in jail after being arrested by police.abcnews.go.com/ ... 10:57:42PHILADELPHIA... one child brought her mother's diabetes testing needle to school and started pricking her classmates... as many as 19 third-graders, including one who is HIV positive, were pricked by the same needle.... a substitute teacher allegedly ignored children's complaints that the little girl was stabbing them with the needle... one of the children who was stuck with the needle is HIV positive....

Only Naturalap.tbo.com/ ... 19:45:19Peru's "little mermaid" - the baby born with legs fused together from her thighs to her ankles - celebrated her first birthday Friday in the public hospital where doctors hope to perform risky surgery to repair her rare birth defect.

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 12:35:26

Army Pvt. Robert C. White III, 21, of Camden, N.J., died April 23 at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, of non-combat related injuries.defenselink.mil/ ... 12:35:09

Army Sgt.1st Class Allen C. Johnson, 31, of Los Molinos, Calif., died April 26 in Khanaqin, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces using small arms fire attacked his patrol. defenselink.mil/ ... 12:34:51

Army Spc. David L. Rice, 22, of Sioux City, Iowa, died April 26 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, when his HMMWV rolled over.

US Militarymcall.com/ ... 10:53:14"It is the unanimous decision of us all that you should be put to death,'' the jury foreman said... Akbar, a Muslim, has become the first U.S. soldier since the early Vietnam era to receive death for murdering a comrade during wartime....

Transport Tragedyap.tbo.com/ ... 19:45:39A bus carrying more than 30 people crashed into a truck in southeastern Brazil on Friday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 18, authorities said.

Viet Nam War - still with uscsmonitor.com/ ... 12:33:58Lessons of Vietnam linger for US

Under Tyrannychron.com/ ... 12:30:26...The local homeowners association had sold the house, valued at about $250,000, saying Bernhardt failed to pay a $420 assessment fee. "It was so devastating... I was just stunned..." another example of the excessive power of homeowners associations and the need to reform the use of foreclosure sales to collect fees....

WW2 - still with usreuters.com/ ... 11:02:0860 years after the Fuehrer killed himself on April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler still casts a long shadow. As weary of their past as many young Germans are, there is still a lingering fascination over history's greatest villain.

Threatsmedicalnewstoday.com/ ... 19:38:07Eighteen new cases of polio have today been announced in Yemen, bringing the reported total number associated with an outbreak in the country to 22. Yemen had been polio-free since disease surveillance began in 1996 - a genetic investigation is ongoing to determine the precise origin of the outbreak....rednova.com/ ... 12:24:22Investigators have taken several computers from the home of a missing bride-to-be to examine e-mails for clues to her disappearance..alertnet.org/ ... 12:20:23A posting on an Islamist Web site stirred speculation over the fate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and prompted a flurry of denials on Friday that the world's most wanted man was dead.worldnetdaily.com/ ... 12:19:59"A nuclear missile concealed in the hold of a freighter would give Iran or terrorists the capability to perform an EMP attack against the United States homeland without developing an ICBM and with some prospect of remaining anonymous...."nytimes.com/ ... 10:59:18The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency said Thursday that American intelligence agencies believed North Korea had mastered the technology for arming its missiles with nuclear warheads, an assessment that if correct, means the North could build weapons to threaten Japan and perhaps the western United States.

Violenceap.tbo.com/ ... 19:43:03A string of highway shootings since mid-March has left four people dead in Southern California and raised fears of a return to the bad old days of the 1980s, when the Los Angeles area gained a reputation for freeway gunplay.ap.tbo.com/ ... 19:42:30The mother of a 9-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl who were fatally stabbed more than 100 times each inside their suburban Chicago home was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder... The stabbings came five years after the couple's 3-month-old daughter died in a fire at an Elk Grove Village town house where the family then lived. The cause of the 2000 fire remains undetermined, but foul play was never suspected... Elk Grove Village Police.. will investigate that fire again....apnews.myway.com/ ... 19:38:22Insurgents set off at least 17 bombs in Iraq on Friday, killing at least 50 people, including three U.S. soldiers sfgate.com/ ... 12:32:35The 45-year-old Canadian citizen killed his Vallejo host earlier this year, buried him in the backyard of his lifelong home, and then spent several weeks spending a "substantial" portion of his nest egg on trips to Texas, New York and Puerto Vallarta worldnetdaily.com/ ... 12:27:07Unidentified arsonists set fire to Jerusalem's only "gay" bar this week ahead of plans, blasted by top religious figures, to bring a world homosexual event here this August cbc.ca/ ... 10:50:39 At least 24 people were killed in Iraq on Friday after nine car bombings rocked Baghdad and a nearby town. Eighty-nine people, mostly Iraqi police and security officers, were injured in the attacks.

THU 2005-APR-28

WW2 - still with usboston.com/ ... 22:47:06On April 28, 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

Extraordinary Lifeboston.com/ ... 22:00:13An 80-year-old woman rescued her 67-year-old neighbor from an apartment fire, carrying the ailing woman down two flights of stairs.

Modern Family Lifeboston.com/ ... 22:01:48CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Police did not arrest a woman accused of trying to run down an officer with her car because she was expected to give birth within 24 hours....boston.com/ ... 22:01:02A man hired to repossess a pickup truck drove off with a sleeping toddler in the back seat. The 2-year-old girl was found about 40 minutes later, still asleep.boston.com/ ... 21:59:39WEEHAWKEN, N.J. -- A pregnant woman traveling home in a taxi went into labor and gave birth Thursday while her cab was stuck in traffic at a tunnel toll booth.

Prehistory - still with ustheinquirer.net/ ... 15:20:48A CHAT CHANNEL spat ended when a wannabe hacker was duped into deleting his own hard drive.english.eastday.com/ ... 15:19:43Chinese archaeologists said newly found evidence proves that a valley of Qingjiang River, a tributary on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, might be one of the regions where Homo sapiens, or modern man, originated. The finding challenges the "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis of modern human origins....

But is it Art?cnn.com/ ... 15:21:40TULSA, Oklahoma -- Eleven-year-old Thomas Adams thought Warner Bros. had gone daffy when he saw the company's plans for a new cartoon called "Loonatics," based on Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes pals. The grimacing, hollow-eyed, power-fisted prototypes of a futuristic Bugs, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner struck the boy as dark and scary. In the words of Daffy Duck, he found them "dethh-picable." Now, nearly two months after starting an Internet petition drive against the TV series' fall debut, Thomas has gotten the company's attention.....reuters.com/ ... 13:53:06Norwegian police expressed skepticism about a newspaper report Thursday that thieves had burned Edvard Munch's missing masterpiece "The Scream" out of fear that investigators were closing in.

Supernaturalreuters.com/ ... 13:41:24...The prophecy -- widely dismissed by scholars as a hoax -- is attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop recognized by members of the Church for his ability to read the future. Benedict, believers say, fits the description of the second-to-last pope listed under the prophecy before the Last Judgement...
...St. Malachy was said to have had a vision during a trip to Rome around 1139 of the remaining 112 Popes. The new pope would be number 111 on that list, and is described in a text attributed to St. Malachy as the "Glory of the Olive."... the Order of Saint Benedict, a branch of which is known as the Olivetans... On Wednesday, Benedict dedicated his papacy to "the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples." ... "...will... carry the olive branch...."

Whoops!news.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 15:18:53...His wife unwittingly discovered the camera, installed in the ceiling, after she turned on the television and saw her naked husband in the bath...ap.tbo.com/ ... 13:36:12The Chicago Tribune apologized Thursday for publishing a photo caption that misidentified a man as a high-ranking mobster, a day after a second man sued the newspaper over a picture wrongly identifying him as a mobster.

Broadcast is Deadsun-sentinel.com/ ... 15:16:14The Florida Supreme Court said Thursday it will not consider an appeal from conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh over prosecutors' seizure of his medical records during an investigation into whether he illegally purchased painkillers.worldnetdaily.com/ ... 15:15:55Randi Rhodes: "This was just a stupid, stupid bit!"news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:27:46Anti-TV campaigners want us to switch off the box this week... a new book in the US is challenging the notion that TV has "dumbed down" over the years...

Love is Strangethisislondon.com/ ... 13:19:56Growing numbers of teenagers are taking part in a new group sex craze known as 'daisy chaining'... Colleagues are coming across reports of groups of young people having sex in large groups. As we understand it, it involves groups of older teenagers going round to each other's homes and having sex in a similar way as swinging....' Charities warned that the practice could lead to a rise in young people contracting sexually-transmitted diseases.... [um... duh?]apnews.myway.com/ ... 13:18:26FORT RUCKER, Ala. - An Army officer was acquitted by a military judge Wednesday of raping a soldier in her barracks room... also acquitted on an adultery charge but convicted of having sex without informing his partner that he had genital herpes....

Extraterrestrialthisislocallondon.co.uk/ ... 11:17:04IT has taken 26 years for.. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy to make it to the big screen... How then does first-time director Garth Jennings' film manage to look so rushed?... streamlining sacrifices, bafflingly for what is a comedy, most of the humour.....startribune.com/ ... 11:15:09For 20 years, fans of the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" have wondered when the 1979 novel would be made into a movie. That question is finally put to rest today, but the film's release is sure to pose others

Human Rightsuntimes.com/ ... 21:59:05The achievement gap between blacks and whites has stayed the same since 1990, and absent significant changes, the gulf could persist for much of the 21st century, according to new research by a University of Chicago economist.palmbeachpost.com/ ... 15:17:16WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The state's social services agency went to court to block a 13-year-old girl who is pregnant and living in a state shelter from having an abortion, and the girl wants to challenge the judge's decision.

Only Naturalnc-es.fws.gov/ ... 21:52:27The last confirmed Ivory-billed Woodpecker was found in the mid-1940s in mature hardwood forest of northern Louisiana in what is now Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge. More recent reports from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida have not been confirmed by photographs.news.scotsman.com/ ... 20:38:48THE House of Lords has ruled that the creation of so-called "designer babies" to treat siblings with genetic disorders is lawful.medpagetoday.com/ ... 20:38:30Vitamin D and calcium supplements -- the inexpensive routes to bone health -- may be ineffective in the prevention of fractures.news.independent.co.uk/ ... 20:38:12For more than 60 years, scientists thought the ivory-billed woodpecker was extinct. Now new evidence suggests it is alive and well and living in Arkansas...freeinternetpress.com/ ... 15:18:14Thousands of toads are also exploding in central Denmark reuters.com/ ... 13:42:08A family of "missing" gorillas reappeared in Uganda, scotching speculation in the national media that they had been lured to neighboring Rwanda.

Why people go veganreuters.com/ ... 13:41:49Oregon came a step closer to bidding au revoir to foie gras after the state's Senate passed a bill to outlaw the production and sale of fattened duck and goose livers....

Theory of Justicereuters.com/ ... 13:37:27A Norwegian court has sentenced a woman to nine months in jail for raping a man, the first such conviction in the Scandinavian country that prides itself for its egalitarianism. [click here for all the smarmy details]

US Militaryap.tbo.com/ ... 13:28:24The Army honorably discharged an officer who had gone to court to challenge his assignment to Iraq, saying he had properly resigned more than a year earlier.

Viet Nam War - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:24:01Veterans still feel Vietnam scars... 300,000 war veterans are homeless across America on any one night. Half of them fought in Vietnam.... "I was excited when I got the call-up, because it meant I was finally going abroad. But I don't think I was ready for what war was all about...."

Police Riotboston.com/ ... 22:00:41A state trooper directing traffic at a deadly car crash was arrested on a drunken driving charge after other officers said they smelled alcohol on his breath.

Threatsnews.independent.co.uk/ ... 15:17:56A leading Russian scientist has claimed that the sarcophagus entombing Chernobyl's broken nuclear reactor is dangerously degraded and he warned that its collapse could cause a catastrophe on the same scale as the original accident almost 20 years ago.worldnetdaily.com/ ... 15:16:50The "Decision-Hour" for Iran is rapidly approaching. The Financial Times announced yesterday in a front-page article that the Pentagon has notified Congress of the pending sale to Israel of 100 "bunker-buster" bombs that could be used to attack Iran's secret underground nuclear facilities...

Fine Diningap.tbo.com/ ... 13:35:54Miami -- Seven men... of Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian descent.. doctor.. real estate agent.. insurance broker.. restaurant owner... all U.S. citizens... have sued a South Florida Denny's restaurant franchisee and one of its managers for $28 million, saying they were kicked out because of their ancestry and compared to Osama Bin Laden....

People Dieabcnews.go.com/ ... 15:22:12J.B. Stoner, an unrepentant white supremacist and anti-Semite convicted in the civil rights-era bombing of a black church, has died. He was 81.news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:25:40A cemetery in Australia will soon be offering people the chance to be buried feet first... an environmentally-friendly and cheaper option... "When you die, you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment..."

World Without Borderschinadaily.com.cn/ ... 13:56:55The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT) Party, whose leader Lian Chan has just arrived in Beijing today in a historial visit, are reportedly to end decades of hostilities at a meeting between their leaders on Friday news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:21:17The changing face of Jerusalem... Look to the horizon, and you'll see the wall... It's defining what Jerusalem is...

Under Tyrannyazcentral.com/ ... 15:21:01Filmmakers aghast at 'scrubbed' feature films nytimes.com/ ... 13:16:46The House passed a bill on Wednesday making it a federal crime for any adult to transport an under-age girl across state lines to have an abortion without the consent of her parents.

Unclear on the Conceptapnews.myway.com/ ... 13:16:10On Wednesday, the [Houston TX] City Council passed a series of library regulations.. prohibits sleeping on tables, eating, using restrooms for bathing and "offensive bodily hygiene that constitutes a nuisance to others." .. Two council members voted against the ordinance, saying it was a direct attack on the homeless... [One council member called it] "targeting a community..."

Violencecbs4boston.com/ ... 13:13:31Revere Mass... [woman] walks her purebred pug every night... Wednesday.. a man with a knife approached.. demanded she turn over her pet... [she] refused... [he] slashed her in the hand and chest... superficial wounds.. police.. searching for the man... dog.. is just fine....channels.netscape.com/ ... 11:23:25...Retired businessman Frank Calabrese is suing the Tribune Co. for more than $1 million in damages, claiming defamation. His picture ran Tuesday as part of a package about the indictment of several mobsters - including one named Frank Calabrese Sr. - on charges of plotting at least 18 murders....suntimes.com/ ... 11:19:50HOFFMAN ESTATES -- Two children were stabbed to death in their suburban Chicago home, and authorities were questioning their parents Thursday morning after finding several knives they believe were the murder weapons... "We are not looking for anybody else at this point in time...." mother.. was in the home Wednesday night when the children were attacked.. husband arrived later and called 911...abcnews.go.com/ ... 11:18:19DULUTH, Ga. Apr 28, 2005 — The case of a woman who disappeared just days before she is to be married is now considered a criminal investigation

WED 2005-APR-27

Whoops!newsday.com/ ... 22:51:59FRESNO, Calif. -- A man attempting to burglarize a car over the weekend locked himself in the trunk and was swiftly arrested....

Theory of Educationnews.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 22:48:58...[UK] documentary.. shows pupils swearing in class, searching for porn on the internet, assaulting each other and refusing to co-operate with or respect their teachers.... Pupils drift into lessons, sometimes 15 minutes late. They use mobiles and hide under desks. They arrive with crisps and other food despite notices on the doors prohibiting eating or drinking during the lesson. They get up and leave lessons despite being told to sit down....timesleader.com/ ... 22:46:14WILKES-BARRE – Two Coughlin High School ninth-grade students have been suspended from school and charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly engaging in sexual activity in an empty hallway inside the school.... no one saw.. but word.. got back to faculty members... "very nice kids and high-achieving students..."abclocal.go.com/ ... 22:45:03A 5-year-old preschooler says his teacher took him to her car, made him pull down his pants and spanked him with a belt... Raleigh family is looking at legal action... Wake County deputies and school officials look[ing] into abuse allegations.... "I was crying and then she spanked me..." has bruises....reuters.com/ ... 16:50:20...a growing number of U.S. schools ..teach Chinese -- a hot language thanks to China's surging economy and growing world clout....

Now That's Funny!reuters.com/ ... 16:48:53LOS ANGELES -...guerrilla artists have erected mock guard towers to protest what they see as a disturbing proliferation of gated communities....

Preternatural Patternsreuters.com/ ... 16:45:59A performance artist... attempts to kiss a photograph of Blair for eight hours in a marathon display of affection for the British leader....

Yuck!canada.com/ ... 22:51:13A Windsor hairstylist who suffered "recognizable psychological injury" after discovering a dead fly in a bottle of Culligan water has been awarded more than $340,000 in damages.reuters.com/ ... 16:42:53Doctors found around 50 maggots in the ears of an 84-year-old Thai man after he went to hospital complaining of an itch.

Transportnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:42:42...air passengers are risking their health... oxygen levels in the blood dropped so low in 54% of passengers that they would need extra supplies....news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:41:51The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has landed safely, completing its maiden flight.

Unclear on the Conceptnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:41:28Togo's opposition presidential candidate has declared himself president with 70% of the vote, despite official results giving him only 38%.

Lasting Contributionscbsnews.com/ ... 00:05:14Philip Morrison, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb and an early leader in the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, has died. He was 89.

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:54:34

Army 1st Sgt. Timmy J. Millsap, 39, of Wichita, Kan., died April 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained in Taji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.defenselink.mil/ ... 22:54:15

Army Cpl. Kevin W. Prince, 22, of Plain City, Ohio, died April 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained in Iskandariyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:54:02Spc. Gary W. Walters Jr., 31, of Victoria, Texas, died April 24 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 22:53:43This week, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps announced a decrease in the number of reservists on active duty in support of the partial mobilization. The Air Force and Coast Guard had no change in their numbers. The net collective result is 1,147 fewer reservists mobilized than last week.estripes.com/ ... 22:53:23First Lt. Derek Ping and wife Jamie kiss outside of a chapel at West Point following their religious wedding ceremony April 8. They received their civil marriage certificate five months earlier, thanks to a Montana law that allows couples to be married without appearing in person.... double-proxy marriage — a legal ceremony requiring neither party to be present....

Great Quake of 2004news.yahoo.com/ ... 22:50:22The devastating 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which caused the worst tsunami in modern times, should have left a detectable scar on Earth's gravity field, European scientists said Monday.... already been said to have shortened the day by fractions of a second, shifted the North Pole by an inch, and made the planet less fat around the middle....

Theory of Justicesun-sentinel.com/ ... 22:51:34A Burger King customer who berated the employees when a drive-thru clerk told him the restaurant was out of french fries has been convicted of multiple charges and sentenced to 45 days in jail.wftv.com/ ... 22:43:48SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- A Seminole County judge claims he has a mental disorder and that's what caused him to send 11 people to jail for being late to his court....

Science Marches Onnnnnnreuters.com/ ... 16:49:23"It ought to send a chill through a lot of defendants to know after 32 years you can still test for DNA...."ap.tbo.com/ ... 16:47:47A tabletop experiment created nuclear fusion - long seen as a possible clean energy solution - under lab conditions... the amount of energy produced was too little to be seen as a breakthrough in solving the world's energy needs...

Only Naturalap.tbo.com/ ... 16:46:14The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that 29 peanut farmers in Texas can proceed with their lawsuit against Dow Agrosciences after the chemical giant's weed killer unexpectedly destroyed their crops.cbsnews.com/ ... 00:04:34A woman who agreed to be a surrogate mother for a childless couple gave birth Tuesday — to five boys.

Rebuildingap.tbo.com/ ... 16:44:47..."We made all this happen," said Mario Arbid of the hundreds of activists who have camped in Martyrs' Square since Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination. With the last Syrian soldier walking across the border into Syria on Tuesday, camp residents say they are ready to leave. But the fight for independence has not ended, they point out, and the activists will return if necessary....

Violencereuters.com/ ... 16:49:42Ahmed Ressam, convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport after he was caught on the U.S.-Canada border with a car full of explosives, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday in Seattle.ap.tbo.com/ ... 16:46:29Thousands of Israelis poured into the Gaza Strip's main Jewish settlement bloc Wednesday to protest this summer's planned withdrawal from the area Israel occupied for 38 years, but the rally was marred by low turnout and a mortar attack.ap.tbo.com/ ... 16:43:56IOLA, Kan. - A 10-year-old boy was charged Wednesday with murder in the shotgun slaying of his father....ap.tbo.com/ ... 16:43:34Militants mounted a series of attacks near Afghanistan's lawless border with Pakistan, killing a U.S. soldier and at least four Afghan police officers, while three Afghan civilians were wounded by gunfire following the bombing of an American patrol....reuters.com/ ... 16:42:29At least five people were killed by gunfire during a political demonstration on Wednesday in Haiti

Digital Threatap.tbo.com/ ... 16:45:20A federal magistrate has ruled that two North Carolina universities do not have to reveal the identities of two students accused to sharing copyrighted music on the Internet.newsday.com/ ... 16:41:11The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act... passed on Tuesday by the House, proposes up to 3 years in prison for anyone who electronically distributes a movie that hasn't been released on video or DVD, or songs or software that haven't been released to the public....news.yahoo.com/ ... 16:38:53President Bush on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at helping parents keep their children from seeing sex scenes, violence and foul language in movie DVDs. .. ...gives legal protections to the fledgling filtering technology that helps parents automatically skip or mute sections of commercial movie DVDs....

Transport Tragedyabcnews.go.com/ ... 16:36:24A passenger train rammed into a bus that tried to dash through a railroad crossing Wednesday, killing at least 35 people and injuring another 60. Witnesses said people, some of them on fire, jumped out of windows after the crash.

Threatsworldnetdaily.com/ ... 22:41:34...disclosure of secretly recorded comments from the kingdom's chief justice encouraging young Saudis to travel to Iraq to wage war against Americans....reuters.com/ ... 16:42:12President Bush was hustled into an underground shelter on Wednesday amid fears an aircraft had entered the restricted airspace around the White House... false alarm....upi.com/ ... 16:39:13A recent article in a scientific journal describes two outbreaks of smallpox in 1901 that were attributed to infected letters, and bioweapon experts said it is possible terrorists could spread the deadly disease in this manner today.cnn.travel.printthis.clickability.com/ ... 00:09:04United Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco [diverted to Chicago] ... two passengers reported that another one appeared suspicious... man was carrying two vials of medicine, an MP3 player and wires for his laptop computer

Sick, Sick, Sickdrudgereport.com/ ... 16:37:56...announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]." ...aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show [on Air America]....
"Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio... we are taking this very seriously," a government source explained....cbsnews.com/ ... 00:07:24A college production tells the story of Matthew Sheppard, a student beaten to death because he was gay. And soon, it could be banned in Alabama. Republican Alabama lawmaker Gerald Allen says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. As CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, under his bill, public school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay authors, or about gay characters.

TUE 2005-APR-26

Unclear on the Conceptreuters.com/ ... 15:16:46Bangladeshi customs officials found luxury cars, large-screen television sets and refrigerators in a container declared to be carrying metal scrap -- so they.. used bulldozers to crush a Mercedes Benz and a Toyota car and other luxury goods at a railway container terminal in Dhaka... They wanted to befool us by saying they brought in scrapped metals...so we are giving them the same. They, or anyone like them, will not forget this"... Cash-strapped Bangladesh is trying hard to increase domestic revenue... [Wouldn't it have been a little smarter to sell the vehicles to raise that domestic revenue rather than destroy them?]

Theory of Educationreuters.com/ ... 15:12:41The University of California, Berkeley has suspended a fraternity whose members hazed a pledge by repeatedly firing a BB gun at him... shot on April 8 at least 30 times and was later treated at a local hospital for welts and bruises....

Sex can be Dangerousreuters.com/ ... 15:10:30Best to Eat Like the Greeks After Heart Disease...
[...or even better (DUH!) BEFORE!...]reuters.com/ ... 15:09:34Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta... study of more than 5,600 men between the ages of 15 and 29 found that more than three-quarters of those who tested positive for HIV were unaware they were infected. Moreover, before being tested, a majority of these men thought themselves at low risk of having the AIDS virus, and half had had unprotected sex with another man during the previous 6 months....

Chappaquiddickdrudgereport.com/ ... 14:57:41Ted Kennedy remembers "The sad anniversary of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal...."

Whoops!drudgereport.com/ ... 14:56:15Galveston, Texas... President Bush: "Do you still have Splash Day? You have to be a baby boomer to know what I'm talking about. I'm not saying whether I came or not on Splash Day. I'm just saying, Do you have Splash Day?" ...Bush was unaware "Splash Day" is now a fully gay and lesbian event on the beaches....

Digital Consequencesabcnews.go.com/ ... 14:51:43Computer storage technology is getting so cheap a person could record every conversation of a lifetime and decades of photographs, but experts must improve search systems so users can make sense of such mind-boggling amounts of information, Microsoft's top research executive said Tuesday.... button-sized computers of the future that could be worn on a shirt and equipped with cameras and other sensors to record all a person's movements, activities and conversations....reuters.com/ ... 13:57:10Web search leader Google Inc. said on Monday advertisers could now choose the Web sites that carry their ads and it was introducing animated graphical advertisements.

Transportthemoderatevoice.com/ ... 13:54:27Skydiver Killed After Hitting Plane Shows Fate's Quirkiness reuters.com/ ... 13:53:57... at least 73 people killed in Japan's worst rail accident in four decades.... More than 150 of the 440 injured in the crash were in a serious condition...

Yuck!newsday.com/ ... 13:44:04CARROLL, Iowa -- City officials are perplexed over the discovery of mysterious chunks of flesh that have been clogging up city water lines.... "There was no hair and no real bone. There were varying degrees of the substance, whatever it is...." said drinking water was not affected by the blockages and is safe to drink... Chlorine levels have been temporarily increased as a precaution...

Sex -- always attractivethisislondon.com/ ... 15:04:06...ITV1 show This Morning... presenter Lorraine Kelly... welcomed [Robert] Downey Jr to the show by telling him: "You look fantastic, you look really well."
The 40-year-old actor replied: "Thanks. I was going to say that your t*ts look great too!"
A clearly shocked Kelly, 45... "Thank you, that's nice."
..Downey Jr..: "Particularly today."
Kelly..: "Oh good, well I'm glad I made you happy." Gazing down at her cleavage and adjusting her top..: "I didn't realise they were so out."
..co-host.. on his first day as temporary replacement..: "Let's move swiftly on."
Kelly.. "I think we should."...news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:29:06Peruvian virgin turns down $1.5m

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 23:59:05

Army Spc. Robert W. Defazio, 21, of West Babylon, N.Y., died April 24 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of non-combat related injuries defenselink.mil/ ... 23:58:48

Marine 2nd Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr. of Pearl River, N.Y.

Marine Sgt. James N. Tycz of Milwaukee, Wis.

Marine Lance Cpl. Samuel A. Sharp Jr. of San Jose, Calif.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Malcolm T. Miller of Tampa, Fla.
died while on reconnaissance patrol operating near the U.S. Marine base in Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, May 10, 1967.defenselink.mil/ ... 23:56:17

Navy Hospitalman Aaron A. Kent, 28, of Portland, Oregon, died Apr. 23, from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations near Fallujah, Iraq. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:55:59

Army Sgt. Anthony J. Davis Jr., 22, of Long Beach, Calif., died April 23 in Mosul, Iraq, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his Stryker military vehicle. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:55:42

Marine Pfc. Robert A. Guy, 26, of Willards, Md., died April 21 as a result of a non-hostile incident near Al Karmah, Iraq.

Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!ap.tbo.com/ ... 15:19:25Afghan farmers have begun harvesting this year's opium crop, exposing the limits of a U.S.-sponsored crackdown on the world's largest narcotics industry despite claims Tuesday by President Hamid Karzai that drug cultivation was down sharply.

Only Naturalap.tbo.com/ ... 15:18:54Gov. Janet Napolitano signed into law Tuesday a ban on the sale of junk food in Arizona's elementary, middle and junior high schools.

Human Rightreuters.com/ ... 15:18:33A Swedish lesbian couple who were thrown out of a Stockholm restaurant in 2003 for kissing won an appeal Monday against an earlier court ruling that cleared the restaurant owner of sexual discrimination.

Great Quake of 2004news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 15:06:59...Much has changed since the 26 December tsunami destroyed their homes and livelihoods along the coastline of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gone are the big boats laden with huge catches returning home and the dozens of eager buyers cackling incessantly as they haggle for the prize catches. No more women clutching straw baskets waiting to sell fish, or sandy stretches that doubled up as mile-long playgrounds for the children who occupied themselves all day....

Justice?apnews.myway.com/ ... 15:05:14PIKESVILLE, Md. (AP) - A herd of buffalo somehow got loose and wandered around an upscale neighborhood Tuesday, disrupting traffic and alarming homeowners before officers managed to corral them in a tennis court....sfgate.com/ ... 13:46:34An Oakland woman alleges that Berkeley police violated her First Amendment rights when an officer ticketed her last year for honking in support of a labor union's picketing outside the Claremont Resort and Spa to protest rising health care costs and other issues.news.com.au/ ... 13:40:49JUDGE Ian Dodd slept and snored through the evidence of an alleged rape victim in the fourth and most shocking case of his appalling performance on the bench. And while the judge has admitted to being asleep - and the Judicial Commission has upheld the woman's complaint - no action will be taken to discipline him. The judge has not even apologised directly to the woman....

Slow Learnersreuters.com/ ... 15:14:51A Roman restaurant owner called the police Monday after a smartly dressed customer got up and calmly declared that he didn't have any money to pay the bill. Identity checks showed that 96 complaints had been filed against the man for pulling that same stunt across Italy over the past 12 years...

Viet Nam War - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 15:07:24Three decades since the end of the Vietnam war, the families of more than 1,800 US soldiers who went missing in action are still waiting for an end to their uncertainty.

Digital Threatguardian.co.uk/ ... 14:58:22Fad of filming violent attacks on mobile phones spreads

World Without Bordersthinkprogress.org/ ... 14:52:55Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah visited President Bush’s Texas Ranch yesterday. Here’s what President Bush did – and did not – do during the visit:

Threatsreuters.com/ ... 15:08:39CHICAGO (Reuters) - A black student has confessed to sending racist hate mail to three fellow students at her Christian college, apparently because she was unhappy and wanted to be pulled out of the school... "The notes became her way to leave the school (Trinity International University) by implying it was not a safe campus...." charged with disorderly conduct and a hate crime...reuters.com/ ... 14:54:11A United Airlines plane from New York to San Francisco was diverted to Chicago on Tuesday after a passenger reported suspicious materials, but police investigating the complaint said the items turned out to be vials of a harmless herbal extract.signonsandiego.com/ ... 14:53:49A TACA Airlines plane bound for Central America was grounded at San Francisco International Airport early Tuesday when a flight attendant thought she heard a passenger say he had a bomb in his carryon luggage.abcnews.go.com/ ... 13:56:32Jordanian rebel Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — Iraq's most wanted fugitive — recently eluded capture by American troops, but left behind a treasure trove of information... Zarqawi's computer and 80,000 euros (about $104,000 U.S.)... "a very big hard drive...." recent pictures of Zarqawi...

Aftermathwashingtonpost.com/ ... 13:54:46U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war

Under Tyrannynews24.com/ ... 13:45:50Amman - A Jordanian man shot dead his divorced sister... a 31-year-old mother... after seeing her photo on his friend's camera-equipped cellphone... fifth example of a so-called honour killing in Jordan this year. Those found guilty usually face sentences of a maximum of one year in jail under Jordanian law.... At least 19 women lost their lives in honour killings in Jordan last year....

WW2 - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 15:06:12Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, 91, is one of the last living eyewitnesses to Hitler's final days. He escaped Hitler's bunker just 24 hours before the dictator shot himself.expatica.com/ ... 13:42:35Only one in two Germans below the age of 24 know that the term 'Holocaust' is used to describe the mass murder of Jews by the Nazi regime... four out of five Germans were aware of the effects of the Nazi regime's views on race.... men tended to be better informed about history than women. On the Holocaust question, for example, twice as many women as men did not understand the term.... eastern Germans tended to know history better than those in the west...

Violencenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:38:17Iraq shooting: Differing accounts... The US military says the car carrying Mr Calipari was speeding... Soldiers used "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots" to get the driver to stop... When the car did not stop, soldiers shot into its engine block...
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says an Italian agent who was in the car with Mr Calipari has given his version of events. "A light was flashed at the vehicle from 10m away... The driver at this point stopped the car immediately and at the same time there was gunfire for about 10 or 15 seconds. A few shots reached the vehicle - one killed Mr Calipari and another bullet injured Ms Sgrena in the shoulder."...

Rebuildingnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:35:30...Thirty years on and you have to pinch yourself at the transformation. The jungly marshes are fast disappearing, pumped out by a steel forest of cranes and engineering equipment hired by South Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong development companies. The area where the Vietcong fired their 122mm rockets is now a rapidly expanding executive housing estate, decked out in the sort of pastel colours favoured in Florida coastal resorts....

MON 2005-APR-25

History - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:38:25The woman featured in Robert Doisneau's classic photograph of a couple kissing outside Paris city hall has sold her original print at auction. The picture, Kiss by the Hotel de Ville, sold for 155,000 euros (£105,000) - more than 10 times what it was expected to fetch.... said she was selling her original print and other items to finance a film production company she wants to start with her husband....

Preternatural Patternsap.tbo.com/ ... 19:04:26Experts and medical groups say numerous physical and psychological changes can be a tip-off that adolescent girls are abusing anabolic steroids google.com/ ... 16:35:23Google search on "exploding frogs"local6.com/ ... 16:31:16Hamburg, Germany.. Scientists.. baffled.. strange deaths of hundreds of toads.. in and around a pond... As many as a thousand toads have died after their bodies swelled to bursting point and then exploded.... Scientists are looking at a fungus that may have been spread by foreign race horses from a nearby track...

Sex can be Dangerousreuters.com/ ... 16:55:10NEW DELHI -- ...Twenty-nine-year-old... born with both male and female genitals.. became a man to marry a female relative was dumped after the surgery... suing her for breach of trust...wftv.com/ ... 16:29:48COCOA, Fla... 29-year-old, 360-pound sixth grade teacher... charged.. with... raping a 13-year-old.. boy.. repeatedly after school, at school, every day for months... been at Endeavour Elementary School for 10 years...

Yawnworldscreen.com/ ... 14:15:55George Lucas... is looking to develop a live-action TV series based on.. Star Wars....

Transportabcnews.go.com/ ... 14:03:46AMAGASAKI, Japan -- A seven-car commuter train... carrying 580 passengers... behind schedule.. may have been speeding.. jumped the tracks Monday and hurtled into an apartment complex, killing 57 people and injuring 440 in Japan's worst rail accident in 40 years... inexperienced, 23-year-old driver... overshot the last station before the wreck... not clear how many of the dead were passengers or if bystanders and apartment residents were among the victims....

Extraterrestrialuniversetoday.com/ ... 14:12:09The Soyuz capsule carrying the crew of Expedition 10 and ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori landed safely in north-central Kazakhstan early Monday, approximately 85 km (53 miles) from the town of Arkalyk. Recovery personnel reached the spacecraft within minutes of their touchdown, and the crew was airlifted out safely. Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov spent a total of 192 days in space, and completed two spacewalks.

Only Naturalrxpgnews.com/ ... 14:15:12WHO Assessment of the Marburg haemorrhagic fever Outbreak
... an extreme test of international capacity to hold emerging diseases at bay.. Two factors make the rapid detection of outbreaks of Marburg haemorrhagic fever difficult: the extreme rarity of this disease and its similarity to other diseases seen in countries where deaths from infectious diseases are common. Neither the source nor the date of the initial cases in Angola can be presently identified with any certainty....
...In theory, the measures needed to end the Angolan outbreak are few in number and straightforward in nature. Rapid detection and isolation of patients, tracing and management of their close contacts, infection control in hospitals and protective clothing for staff work to interrupt chains of transmission and thus seal off opportunities for further spread.

Such straightforward measures are complicated by the distinct features of this disease. The sudden onset, dramatic symptoms, and rapid deterioration of patients, and the absence of a vaccine and effective treatment, invariably incite great anxiety in affected populations. This anxiety, in turn, can interfere with control operations, especially when communities begin hiding cases and bodies because of suspicions about the safety of hospitals.
In the current outbreak, such suspicions are understandable. Very few patients with laboratory-confirmed Marburg haemorrhagic fever have survived...ohio.com/ ... 14:11:06A rare late spring snowstorm dumped over a foot of snow onto parts of northeastern Ohio and knocked out power to about 80,000 electricity customers in the Cleveland area on Sunday....

Reasons for Repealbloomberg.com/ ... 14:05:53 Federal agents arrested Haji Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan drug lord with close ties to the Taliban... indicted by a grand jury in New York on charges of conspiring to import $50 million worth of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the U.S. and other countries....
[Cut funding for terrorists and gangsters... eliminate the black market... repeal! repeal! repeal!]

WW2 - still with usreuters.com/ ... 19:04:10A German army officer responsible for drafting battle-front maps for Adolf Hitler's daily briefings said that a week before the Nazi dictator killed himself they were relying on "enemy" news for Germany's defense.

Viet Nam War - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:53:01BBC--In pictures: The Vietnam War

Cold War - still with ususatoday.printthis.clickability.com/ ... 16:26:49Russian President Vladimir Putin told the nation Monday that the collapse of the Soviet empire "was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" and had fostered separatist movements inside Russia.

Big City StoriesYou couldn't sell a fiction novel with stuff like this...cbs2chicago.com/ ... 14:20:48
...Joey "The Clown" Lombardo... "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, and his brother, Michael, who were buried alive in an Indiana cornfield... Among those charged were two retired law enforcement officers... The Chicago Outfit, a criminal enterprise also known as the Chicago Syndicate and the Chicago mob... Lombardo.. previously convicted.. of corruption involving the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund...suntimes.com/ ... 14:07:10FBI agents have begun rounding up and arresting reputed mob leaders across the Chicago area as part of its case involving as many as 18 Outfit hits... expected to result in the most significant mob prosecution in Chicago history... Operation Family Secrets... M&M Amusement, an alleged illegal video poker business that Mickey Marcello runs in Cicero... Frank Calabrese, once the top mob loanshark in the city...

Currentcnn.com/ ... 16:24:40The bodies of two toddlers reported missing over the weekend were found Monday in a pond near their rural Georgia home foxnews.com/ ... 14:08:47...2-year-old girl and her 3-year-old-brother ...reported missing Saturday evening after last being seen at their Warren County home, in east Georgia about 100 miles from Atlanta....

SUN 2005-APR-24

Yuck!sfgate.com/ ... 20:09:13The line stretched out the door. The parking lot was full. And no one seemed to be avoiding the chili. "It's still finger-licking good," said San Jose resident Jonathan Riga, 52, unable to resist the obvious in describing the most famous item on the menu at Wendy's....fool.com/ ... 20:08:10The Big Lebowski (1998)... "I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways... I can get you one by three o'clock this afternoon... With nail polish..." ...I have to admit, that line was one of the first things that came to mind...

Theory of Educationwashingtontimes.com/ ... 11:16:02..."He came home and told me about it after school, and he said, 'I just stood there, Mom. I didn't even know what to do. We all just stood there and didn't even finish it,'" Mrs. Pulciani-Johnson said, quoting her son. Margo Lucero, the eighth-grade guidance counselor at the school, substituted the phrase "under your belief system" as she led the recitation of the Pledge on Wednesday....

Sex can be Dangerouschron.com/ ... 11:15:00...the lawsuit may be made a class-action. That could mean notifying a lot of other men who used credit cards to pay for lap dances in recent years. And that might not go over very well in some households.....

US Election 2008nypost.com/ ... 11:13:56...two weeks ago... [Sen. Hillary] Clinton spoke at a Minneapolis Democratic dinner and Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) told the cheering crowd that he was introducing "the next great president of the United States." Two days later, [Sen. John] Kerry came over to Dayton on the Senate floor "with daggers in his eyes and said, 'What are you doing endorsing my 2008 presidential opponent?' . . . He was very serious...."

Digital Consequencesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:21:05One step on from virtual reality, augmented reality takes the real world and digitally distorts and transforms what we see around us... When I walked past a paper mill I could see the inner workings, and hear the sound of the mechanics thumping in my ears. In 1943 Doctor Albert Hoffman invented LSD in Basel, and there is an amazing section of the tour that plunges the user into full-blown psychedelia....

Transportapnews.myway.com/ ... 10:19:48DELAND, Fla. - A man who was skydiving in central Florida struck the wing of... the airplane that he jumped from Saturday morning... losing both his legs in the accident. ..later died... [the man's name:] Albert Wing III...

Only Naturalhosted.ap.org/ ... 13:47:48Alaska -- Record-setting snow depths and water-content measurements have hydrologists warning of the potential for spring floods along several major Interior rivers.usatoday.com/ ... 11:26:12vast fields of far-flung wreckage exist beneath the blue-green ocean off Hawaii.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ ... 11:23:58...A group of monkeys descended on an Orissa village, quaffed down pots of an intoxicating brew lying in the open and then set upon the villagers, injuring three of them... The intoxicating 'pana' drink had been prepared from marijuana leaves as part of an offering to Hindu gods on the occasion of the Oriya new year Friday. The villagers had kept it in pots outside their huts to ferment, an official said....news.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 11:22:00A French computer science student has stunned the world of mathematics by working out the 13th root of a 200-digit number in his head in under nine minutes... "As this was my first attempt, I was cautious." On June 3, he will try to find the right answer in less than three minutes. In a few months, he believes that he will break the one-minute barrier. "If I do that, without being pretentious, it will probably be the best piece of mental calculation ever," he said....news.independent.co.uk/ ... 11:18:52Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification.... Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.... Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body... if the gene were to escape to wild relatives of the rice it could create particularly vicious superweeds that were resistant to a wide range of herbicides....

Digital Threatnewscientist.com/ ... 11:23:21...Rather than attack PCs or email inboxes, their latest trick is to subvert the very infrastructure of the internet, the domain name system (DNS) that routes all net traffic.... redirect internet users to bogus websites, where visitors could have their passwords and credit details stolen, be forced to download malicious software, or be directed to links to pay-per-click adverts.... DNS cache poisoning or polluting.. was first done by pranksters in the early years of the internet, but it had limited impact and security patches eliminated the problem. Now new loopholes have opened and poisoning appears to be back. This time experts can't be sure how much damage it might do....

Supernatural Threatsworldnetdaily.com/ ... 11:19:40Pope Benedict XVI will strive during his tenure to re-Christianize Europe by making the way for greater religious freedom on the continent and then converting millions of the Muslims who now populate the area, asserts geopolitical analyst Jack Wheeler.

Under Tyrannyworldnetdaily.com/ ... 11:09:53A 27-year-old Australian beauty student is facing a firing-squad sentence in Indonesia for smuggling marijuana she claims was planted in her luggage.

Violencechron.com/ ... 11:20:49The child, 18-month-old Aiden Naquin, was shot in the head at his family's mobile home park the night of April 12 when five members of the MS-13 gang tried to rob his father, Ernest Naquin, of money he had obtained from an alleged Xanax sale that occurred minutes earlier news.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 11:19:14Iraqi Shias have admitted taking part in brutal attacks on members of their own religious community after being recruited as paid hitmen for the Sunni terrorist leader, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.ap.tbo.com/ ... 10:25:26An Afghan man killed his daughter for allegedly committing adultery, officials said Sunday, but denied reports that she was stoned to death.... The man she had visited was beaten as a warning but remained alive....reuters.com/ ... 10:24:31A bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad Sunday...
A sailor was killed by a bomb during combat operations on Saturday in Falluja...
A second U.S. soldier was killed Saturday when a bomb exploded near a military convoy near al Haswah, west of Baghdad.....abcnews.go.com/ ... 10:11:40A car bomb exploded outside a police academy in Saddam Hussein's hometown on Sunday, and another one went off moments later as authorities rushed to the scene, killing at least six Iraqis and wounding 33... occurred as recruits at the academy were about to travel to Jordan for a training program...

SAT 2005-APR-23

Yuck!abclocal.go.com/ ... 15:51:43...Davila thinks justice is finally being served. Bertha Davila, bought mobile home: "I told her God sees everything, and one day I'm going to get my money back."sfgate.com/ ... 15:51:28... tests showed that the digit wasn't cooked...
...Officers raided Ayala's home around 9 p.m. Thursday and found her alone watching "Meet the Fockers" on video...aolsvc.news.aol.com/ ... 12:24:14according to a person knowledgeable about the case who spoke on condition of anonymity, the attempted larceny charge stemmed from San Jose police interviews with people who said Ayala described putting a finger in the chili. The source said the interviews were with at least two people who did not know each other and independently told similar stories... still did not know where the finger came from....sfgate.com/ ... 12:19:25The Bush administration said Friday that it would enforce a nearly 3-year-old federal law that requires doctors to attempt to keep alive a fetus that survives an abortion.

Modern Family Lifecnn.com/ ... 12:37:35FRESNO, California -- ... the city's worst mass murder [trial]... testimony of incest, child brides, vampire aliases, coffin beds and an apocalyptic obsession that led a one-time bank teller to turn his extended family into a reclusive cult....zwire.com/ ... 12:19:01The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the state must provide new birth certificates for children born in Virginia and adopted by gay couples in other states... "We couldn't let our son go through his life with a birth certificate that was a lie," said upstate New York resident Diane Pineiro-Zucker, who adopted her son, now 6, with her partner of 25 years after he was born in Virginia. "It's been a long, hard fight, but it was worth every bit of it."...

Supernaturalcomicbookresources.com/ ... 12:03:12The new Superman (picture)usatoday.com/ ... 12:02:53Nicolas Cage is revved up to play Ghost Rider

Theory of Educationcnsnews.com/ ... 12:16:51A conservative legal group is threatening to sue a Michigan school district over the administration's confiscation of several copies of a science book that teaches the theory of intelligent design in tandem with the theory of evolution.worldnetdaily.com/ ... 12:14:39"The ACLU is obviously engaged in religious bigotry – in cases concerning homosexual groups, they argue that Prince fully applies, but now, when it clearly applies, using the ACLU's own standard, to a religious club, they are seeking to overturn the Prince decision,"news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:57:30A lawyer has threatened to sue police officers who handcuffed an allegedly uncontrollable five-year-old after she acted up at a Florida kindergarten. [Video footage of the tantrum and arrest available]... Three officers rushed to the scene and handcuffed the girl, by that time apparently calm, after pinning her arms behind her back....

Preternatural Patternsap.tbo.com/ ... 03:02:28KENNEWICK, Wash. - A woman was jailed after police and wildlife agents found hundreds of wild birds - many of them dead or neglected - littering her home and yard... 400 birds - including wild magpies, hawks, owls, pheasants and quail... Some were in cages, others were perched on curtain rods and still others were in trees or bushes outside... Dead birds in various states of decay were scattered throughout the house and yard... chickens and roosters, pigeons, a goose and peacocks, as well as a couple of dogs and a cat... all.. appeared to be neglected....

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 12:10:32

Army Pfc. Gavin J. Colburn, 20, of Frankfort, Ind., died April 22 along a supply route in Iraq when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy vehicle.

Only Naturalcnews.canoe.ca/ ... 12:20:55Scientists think they have found a gene that predisposes men to prostate cancer in... mitochondria...thescotsman.scotsman.com/ ... 12:20:01AN ARTIFICIAL nose that can tell whether someone is ill from the smell of their breath is being developed by Scottish scientists.news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:59:42A fierce species of Amazonian ant has been seen building elaborate traps on which hapless prey are stretched like medieval torture victims, before being slowly hacked to pieces.themoderatevoice.com/ ... 11:40:23...leukemia, the most common cancer among the young, could be warded off if a child interacts with a large number of other kids and picks up common infections....

Justice?reuters.com/ ... 03:00:46Dog owners in Turin will be fined up to 500 euros ($650) if they don't walk their pets at least three times a day, under a new law from the city's council.

Under Tyrannyzwire.com/ ... 12:45:44NJ couple ...both pleaded guilty April 14 to federal charges they employed an illegal alien, first in their Evesham home and later in their residence in the Sewell section of Washington Township, so they could have cheap or free domestic help.... could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for "concealing, harboring and shielding from detection" a Sri Lankan woman they illegally brought into the country to be a domestic servant.... held her a captive in their homes, forbidding her to go outside, even to get mail or take out trash... she entered the country thinking she had come on a three-month visa to care for a sick child. When she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport, authorities said Manal confiscated her passport and return ticket and told her she had to stay in the country for five years.... cooked, cleaned, took care of their three children, did laundry and cleaned their cars... worked seven days a week, sometimes for as many as 17 hours a day... had been promised a salary of $300 a week but was not paid... overhearing the couple talk... the woman feared for her life... Feb. 21, 2004... fled from the Jishi's Sewell residence without a coat or shoes and ran to a neighbor's house for help and police were notified... a settlement agreement was reached awarding the woman $225,000 for back wages and damages....

World Without Bordersnews.telegraph.co.uk/ ... 12:22:25Belize, the only English-speaking country in Central America, disappeared off the map for the past week and almost no one noticed.

Disinformation Propaganda & Spinwesh.com/ ... 12:41:01Someone's posting sex offender fliers outside his house, but he's not the man on the flier and he's not a sex offender worldnetdaily.com/ ... 12:16:33....a religious leader whose salary is paid by the PA added a new accusation, preaching that the U.S. war effort in Iraq and elsewhere, including "Palestine," attempts to force Muslims to convert to Christianity...

Violencereuters.com/ ... 15:51:58The U.S. military said on Saturday it had detained six Iraqi men in connection with the shooting down of a commercial helicopter this week in which 11 people were killed, including six Americans.reuters.com/ ... 12:02:29...A car bomb attack on an Iraqi National Guard convoy killed nine troops on Saturday...
...An attack on a U.S. patrol in western Baghdad killed two civilians... three American soldiers and seven Iraqi civilians were wounded....
...One Iraqi National Guardsman was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb at Yusufiya, about 47 miles south of Baghdad...
... two suicide car bombers wounded seven Iraqis on a road 10 km (six miles) south of