News -- October 23, 2006

Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon - "Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory."

Iraq Is Coming Apart at the Seams - "As Iraq falls apart, rumors are flying that there will be a Bush-backed coup, an open three-sided civil war and a host of other nightmarish outcomes."

Bush vows to adapt Iraq tactics - "US President George W Bush has said military tactics in Iraq will keep changing to deal with insurgents. But the US would not abandon the goal of building a strong democracy, Mr Bush said in his regular radio address."

Bush says Iraq attacks are propaganda - "U.S. President George W. Bush said the spike in violence in Iraq is a calculated ploy by terrorists to swing public opinion against the U.S. presence in Iraq."

US in secret truce talks with insurgency chiefs - "AMERICAN officials held secret talks with leaders of the Iraqi insurgency last week after admitting that their two-month clampdown on violence in Baghdad had failed."

Diplomat cites U.S. 'stupidity' in Iraq - "A senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq but was now ready to talk with any group except Al-Qaida in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation."

Bush’s absolute power grab - "On October 17, George W. Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This new law gives Bush power similar to that of Stalin or Hitler, and grants agencies within the executive branch powers similar to those of the KGB or Gestapo."

Troops in debt can't go overseas - "Thousands of U.S. troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt they are considered security risks, according to an Associated Press review of military records."

Bush's family profits from 'No Child' act - "A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act."

Recipe for a Cooked Election - "A nasty little secret of American democracy is that, in every national election, ballots cast are simply thrown in the garbage. Most are called "spoiled," supposedly unreadable, damaged, invalid. They just don’t get counted. This “spoilage” has occurred for decades, but it reached unprecedented heights in the last two presidential elections. In the 2004 election, for example, more than three million ballots were never counted."

Sen. Obama says he's weighing 2008 run - "Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday he was considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so."

YouTube becomes political weapon - "You've likely heard of YouTube. Well, rest assured, your representatives in Washington, D.C., most definitely have too. That's because campaign operatives are starting to place negative images of the candidates they oppose on the video sharing site. The campaigns have camera-wielding staffers who go to the opposition's campaign events with the hopes of shooting something negative or embarrassing the candidate says and then putting it on YouTube."

YouTube's no friend to copyright violators - "People posting copyright material on YouTube shouldn't be surprised if the company makes no effort to protect them in a copyright battle."

Devils in Disguise - "A documentary portrait of a pedophile priest and his pious protectors."

Modern western culture against religion, pope says - "Modern Western culture is unable to dialogue with religion and cannot answer fundamental questions about the meaning of life, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday. Speaking in the northern Italian city of Verona, where he attended a convention of the Italian Catholic Church, Benedict said the West must return to its Christian root, warning against its secular drift."

Church is not political, pope says - "Pope Benedict XVI outlined on Thursday his view of the Catholic Church's role in Italy, saying it was not to be a political player but to oppose the advance of a Godless culture."

Battle of the New Atheism - "The New Atheists will not let us off the hook simply because we are not doctrinaire believers. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it's evil. Now that the battle has been joined, there's no excuse for shirking."

Mother sues over Bible class - "A Mooresville woman is suing her son's public school, alleging that its practice of allowing some students to attend Bible classes once a week on school grounds while others stay behind without instructional time is unconstitutional."

This is the moment for Europe to dismantle taboos, not erect them - "Far from criminalising denial of the Armenian genocide, we should decriminalise denial of the Holocaust."

U.S. immigrants pose TB threat - "Although the number of confirmed drug-resistant TB cases in the U.S. is relatively small – still measured in the dozens – health officials say visitors from other countries are bringing in the deadliest mutations."

See a smoker in Omaha? Dial 9-1-1 - "Omaha's tough new anti-smoking ordinance banning the practice in nearly all public places comes with an even tougher enforcement policy."

Spam Trojan Installs Own Anti-Virus Scanner - "The Trojan, which uses peer-to-peer technology to send commands to hijacked computers, has been fitted with its own anti-virus scanner—a level of complexity and sophistication that rivals some commercial software."

Germany Extends License Fees to Computers, Mobile Phones - "German state premiers have agreed on a monthly license fee for computers that can access television and radio programs via the Internet. The move has attracted criticism."

Becoming mother at 50 'no risk to health' - "WOMEN who give birth in their fifties are just as healthy, both physically and psychologically, as those who start families much earlier in life, according to research that will significantly strengthen the case against upper-age limits for fertility treatment."

CDC sends Morgellons investigators to California - "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sending a team of investigators into California as a beginning step in its recently announced decision to investigate Morgellons disease, a mysterious condition heretofore diagnosed by most physicians as a psychotic disorder."

Study Links Bread, Kidney Cancer Risk - "An Italian study shows that people with renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer, may eat more bread and fewer vegetables than those without kidney cancer. But the study, published online in the International Journal of Cancer, doesn't claim bread causes kidney cancer."

Rain makes the ground shake - "A wet weekend may be enough to set off an earthquake."

Gold mine holds life untouched by the Sun - "The first known organisms that live totally independently of the sun have been discovered deep in a South African gold mine. The bacteria exist without the benefit of photosynthesis by harvesting the energy of natural radioactivity to create food for themselves. Similar life forms may exist on other planets, experts speculate."

Floating Pile Of Rubble A Pristine Record Of Solar System's History - "A small, near-Earth asteroid named Itokawa is just a pile of floating rubble, probably created from the breakup of an ancient planet."




Quote of the Day
"Selling skin, selling God. The numbers look the same on their credit cards."
~ Queensryche