Sections on today's Signs Page:
SOTT Focus
Update: Clear and Present Danger
SoTT Editors
Signs of the Times
2008-10-06 20:43:00
The one thing that's been proven is the absolute fear-mongering that's being used to drive us is false. I've seen members turn to each other and say if we don't pass this bill, we're going to have martial law in the United States. -- Rep. Brad Sherman, October 1, 2008
We've had a bad feeling these past several years, as those of you who have read these pages may know, that the Iraq disaster wasn't so much a resource grab or to encircle Iran and Russia, nor just to protect Israel, but something more sinister: training soldiers to be mindless killers so that when they're brought back home they would have no problem killing their fellow citizens when martial law is declared and the cow pies really hit the fan.
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Best of the Web
Flashback: The Betrayal of Adam Smith
David C. Korten
The People-Centered Development Forum
1998-10-07 15:13:00
This is an excerpt from "When Corporations Rule the World", 2nd Edition, by David C. Korten.
It is ironic that corporate libertarians regularly pay homage to Adam Smith as their intellectual patron saint, since it is obvious to even the most casual reader of his epic work The Wealth of Nations that Smith would have vigorously opposed most of their claims and policy positions.
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Flashback: Nature of the Beast: the Demonic Right
Sheila Samples
Yurica Report
2006-05-22 13:55:00
"The demonic appears most terrible when it assumes dominance in some one person. They are not always the most admirable persons, either in mind or in gifts. But a tremendous force goes out from them, and they exercise an unbelievable power over all creatures. It is in vain that the brighter part of mankind tries to throw suspicion on them as betrayers or betrayed; the masses are attracted by them." ~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
America has lost its way. We are a confused nation, beset on all sides by fear and paranoia. After the orchestrated 9-11 attack on New York City and Washington D.C., and its follow-up anthrax attack on Democratic legislators, Americans of all stripes rushed en masse to George Bush's Fools' Gate to trade their morality and compassion for empty promises of security.
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Incoming Asteroid - Will Hit Earth October 7
SpaceWeather.com
2008-10-06 21:13:00
A small, newly-discovered asteroid named 2008 TC3 is approaching Earth and chances are good that it will hit. Steve Chesley of JPL estimates that atmospheric entry will occur on Oct 7th at 0246 UTC over northern Sudan [ref]. Measuring only a few meters across, the space rock poses NO THREAT to people or structures on the ground, but it should create a spectacular fireball, releasing about a kiloton of TNT in energy as it disintegrates and explodes in the atmosphere. Odds are between 99.8 and 100 percent that the object will encounter Earth, according to calculations provided by Andrea Milani of the University of Pisa. [ephemeris] [3D orbit]
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U.S. News
British Airways flight diverted to O'Hare due to onboard situation
Chicago Sun Times
2008-10-05 17:30:00
A Houston-bound British Airways plane was forced to land at O'Hare International Airport Sunday afternoon after the pilot reported a situation onboard. The landing prompted a Hazardous Materials response by the Chicago Fire Department.
An EMS Plan 1 and Level 1 HazMat was called on an O'Hare runway at 2 p.m. as an electrical precautionary measure, according to Fire Media Affairs Cmdr. Will Knight, who said all passengers from the plane were cleared and there were no injuries.
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McCain - Make-Believe Maverick
Tim Dickinson
Rolling Stone
2008-10-07 01:15:00
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty
At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.
McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.
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Alaska: Red Flag exercises and sonic booms return to Interior
Christopher Eshleman
newsminer.com
2008-10-06 15:24:00
Fairbanks - Hear that?
If it sounds like a sonic boom, it could be coming from the fighter jets that will be blasting across Interior Alaska during the next couple of weeks.
Eielson Air Force Base, which sits just southeast of North Pole, periodically hosts training exercises and invites military forces from outside the Fairbanks area to join. Some involve joint training with military forces from other countries.
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Ex-CIA Agent Ken Moskow; Died Atop Mount Kilimanjaro
Joe Holley
Washington Post
2008-10-07 14:34:00
Ken Moskow, a 48-year-old former CIA agent who worked in counterterrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, died of the effects of altitude sickness Sept. 19 while climbing 19,000-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, with a group of agency friends. He was within 20 yards of the summit when he died.
Born in Newton, Mass., Kenneth Andrew Moskow was a Concord, Mass., resident who had lived in Georgetown at times during his CIA career.
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California: 10 killed, 38 injured in bus crash
Tami Abdollah
The Los Angeles Times
2008-10-07 02:12:00
The bus was heading to Colusa Casino Resort in Northern California when the driver lost control. The bus spun out, rolled completely over and ended up on its wheels in a ditch, the CHP reports.
Ten people died and 38 were injured when a charter bus overturned near the Northern California town of Williams on Sunday night, the California Highway Patrol said.
CHP Sgt. Patrick Landreth said the accident was reported at 6:18 p.m. about six miles east of Interstate 5. The bus was traveling north from Sacramento on Lone Star Road in Colusa County, headed to Colusa Casino Resort.
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4 children may face charges in cat torture
Jo Collins Mathis
The Ann Arbor News
2008-10-04 00:42:00
Beaten pet euthanized; suspects are ages 8-11
Michigan - Four young children are suspected of beating a cat with a large stick and assaulting it with a butter knife, leaving the feline so badly injured that it had to be euthanized.
The Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office is now reviewing whether to file charges against the Ypsilanti Township children, two boys and two girls ranging in age from 8 to 11.
"It's a very disturbing case, and we're deeply saddened by the suffering this cat went through and worried about the children involved as well,'' said Tanya Hilgendorf, executive director of the Humane Society of Huron Valley.
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UK & Euro-Asian News
Ministry of Defence to investigate Eurofighters sonic booms heard over Málaga
Typically Spanish
2008-09-27 20:53:00
The booms were caused by two Eurofighters flying at 37,000 feet.
The Minister for Development, Magdalena Álvarez, has said that the Ministry of Defence is to investigate and will try to avoid a repetition of the shocks suffered by Málaga and part of the Costa del Sol which was rocked by two explosions as two military planes broke the sound barrier.
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Turkey to set up professional "anti-terrorism" units
Ercan Yavuz
Today's Zaman
2008-10-07 18:08:00
The government has plans to launch a new strategy in the fight against terrorism. Under the new plan, only professional teams will fight terrorists and a temporary security zone in northern Iraq may be set up along the Iraqi border.
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Mr Gay UK 'stabbed man to death and cooked his thigh with herbs and olive oil'
Nick Button
The Daily Telegraph
2008-10-06 16:15:00
The first winner of Mr Gay UK stabbed a man to death before carving a piece of flesh from his thigh, seasoning it with fresh herbs and cooking it in olive oil, a court heard.
Anthony Morley, 36, then attempted to eat a piece of Damian Oldfield's flesh before walking to a nearby takeaway and telling staff he had killed someone, Leeds Crown Court was told.
Morley, who worked as a chef, also cut a piece of 33-year-old Mr Oldfield's chest and nipple and left a bank card over the wound, it was claimed.
Andrew Stubbs, prosecuting, said the two men had been involved some kind of relationship in the past and that Morley was troubled by his sexuality.
He said the two men arranged to meet in Leeds on April 23 this year and later went back to Morley's house, where the defendant prepared a meal for them both before the pair went upstairs to his bedroom.
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Iran Arms Sales Top Olmert's Visit to Russia
Nabi Abdullaev
The Moscow Times
2008-10-07 15:17:00
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to urge President Dmitry Medvedev not to sell advanced anti-aircraft systems to Iran at Kremlin talks on Tuesday.
Olmert, who arrived Monday in one of his last trips after resigning last month in a corruption scandal, told a Cabinet meeting Sunday that he would press Medvedev over arms sales to "irresponsible elements."
Defense analysts said Olmert was clearly referring to the possible sale of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran. A sale could prompt an Israeli strike against Iran that would almost certainly include U.S. military support, they said.
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Four dead in Hungary train wreck, minister resigns
Reuters
2008-10-06 02:06:00
Hungary's transport minister and railways chief both resigned on Monday after a train crash killed four people and injured 26, state news agency MTI said.
Two trains collided on a bend, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Budapest, after one of them had slowed because of a faulty signal, a spokesman for state railway MAV said.
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Couple scavenge for recycling rubbish to pay for honeymoon with air miles
Caroline Gammell
The Daily Telegraph
2008-10-05 23:56:00
It may not be everyone's idea of romance but one couple spent three months scavenging for more than 60,000 pieces of recycling - to help pay for their honeymoon.
Plastic bags in hand, John and Ann Till trawled the streets near their home gathering cans, bottles and containers to put in the recycling centre at their local supermarket.
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Around the World
Cape Town: Rocky marriage spurs bizarre car-theft dare
Buyekezwa Makwabe
The Times
2008-10-05 21:01:00
The discovery of steamy love letters to a high-school sweetheart ended with a jealous husband daring his wife to steal a car to prove her love.
But when the couple took the vehicle home they panicked and wrapped it in plastic to stop their big dogs from scratching it. Details of the bizarre crime emerged during the trial of Ullricht Walter, 42, a German citizen who rents out classic cars in Cape Town, and his 41-year-old wife, Linda.
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Ecuador has a new constitution
MetaFilter
2008-09-29 20:31:00
Voters in Ecuador appear to have approved a new constitution, guaranteeing rights to clean water, universal healthcare, pensions, and free state-run education through the university level. It also may allow President Rafael Correa to remain in power until 2017. Particularly of note is a world first bill of rights for nature which grants inalienable rights to nature.
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More die as clashes continue in India's troubled Assam
Biswajyoti Das
Reuters
2008-10-07 20:01:00
Guwahati - Police used helicopters to spot armed mobs attacking Muslims in India's troubled northeast on Tuesday, where clashes between indigenous tribesmen and settlers have left 47 people dead and tens of thousands homeless. Police said four people died from their wounds overnight. More than 85,000 people have lost their homes and are being sheltered in government camps after the clashes broke out last week between mainly Hindu tribesmen and Muslim Bangladeshi settlers in the oil and tea-rich state of Assam. "At least 47 people had lost their lives so far," said R.N. Mathur, Assam's police chief. Muslims have responded with some violence as well, he said.
The clashes have reignited a long-simmering conflict as local Assam tribes, mainly Hindu but with some Christians, fear being overrun by Muslim immigrants. More than 40 percent of Assam is now Muslim, mainly immigrant settlers.
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Absurd reasoning! U.S. cuts condom funding in Africa
United Press International
2008-10-04 14:08:00
London -- The U.S. government has acted to keep contraceptives from reaching clinics run by a charity in Africa, claiming the group condones forced abortions.
The Guardian reported Saturday that the clinic, Marie Stopes International, based in London, denies it supports either forced abortions or sterilization anywhere in the world.
The group says the Bush administration's move will actually lead to more abortions being performed in Africa because fewer women will have access to contraception.
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Pakistan: Will it be Bush's third war?
Andrew J.Bacevich
Chron.com
2008-10-04 14:22:00
President Bush will leave office without concluding either of the two wars he initiated after Sept. 11, 2001. Now, in the waning months of his administration, the president seems intent on expanding his "global war on terror" still farther. To the existing fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq, he is adding a third: Pakistan.
Eclipsed perhaps only by Iraq, Pakistan ranks in the very top tier of the Bush administration's foreign policy blunders. Even as it vowed after 9/11 never to compromise with evil, the administration wasted no time in forging an alliance with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the army general who seized power in 1999 through a military coup. Although Musharraf was anything but a democrat, Bush proclaimed him a close friend and ally. Washington quickly began funneling military and economic aid toward Islamabad, the total since 2001 exceeding $13 billion.
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Australia: Dozens hurt in Qantas Airbus plunge
Neale Maynard and Peter Morley
The Courier Mail
2008-10-07 19:45:00
Ten passengers are recovering in hospital after they were injured when a Qantas Airbus A330 airliner was involved in a mid-air incident over Australia's north-west.
They were hurt when the passenger jet carrying 313 people experienced a "sudden change in altitude", forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing near Exmouth [at Learmonth RAAF airfield].
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Big Brother
Big Brother goes high-tech
Karlin Lillington
The Irish Times
2008-09-19 21:09:00
Phones which know who is holding them; remote controls that sense when you are speaking too fast during a presentation; hand-helds that tell your house when you walk into a room and get it to adjust the music to your favourite playlist.
Those are just a few glimpses of possible intelligent devices in the near future thanks to embedded sensors, according to Andrew Chien, Intel's director of research, who was in Ireland last week to address an Intel-hosted conference on innovation in Leixlip.
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Stop Calling It 'mainstream'. It's Corporate Media. It Benefits The Few.
Peter Phillips
Project Censored
2008-10-07 20:38:00
Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States. Mainstream implies that the news being produced is for the benefit and enlightenment of the mainstream population - the majority of people living in the US. Mainstream media include a number of communication mediums that carry almost all the news and information on world affairs that most Americans receive. The word media is plural, implying a diversity of news sources.
However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population - nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense - as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants.
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Homeland Security's Space-Based Spying Goes Live
Tom Burghardt
Dissident Voice
2008-10-06 18:20:00
While America's attention has shifted to the economic meltdown and the presidential race between corporate favorites John McCain and Barack Obama, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Applications Office (NAO) "will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn't yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws."
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Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin goes on trial over sedition charges
Lee Glendinning and agencies
The Guardian
2008-10-06 10:43:00
The trial of one of the most prominent anti-government bloggers in Malaysia, who faces charges of sedition, began today.
Raja Petra Kamarudin, who runs the popular Malaysia Today news website, is accused of implying that a government minister had some involvement in the murder of a Mongolian woman.
The British-born 58-year-old faces up to three years in prison if found guilty.
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Germany to allow domestic military deployment
David Rising
Associated Press
2008-10-06 21:23:00
BERLIN - Germany's governing coalition partners want to change the constitution to allow for military deployment within the country if needed to combat terrorism, officials said Monday.
The proposal would allow use of the military only if police are overwhelmed and cannot properly respond to a situation themselves.
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Guidelines Expand FBI's Surveillance Powers
Carrie Johnson
Washington Post
2008-10-04 19:40:00
Techniques May Be Used in U.S. Without Any Fact Linking Subject to Terrorism
Justice Department officials released new guidelines yesterday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, alarming civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that they invite privacy violations and other abuses.
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Axis of Evil
McCain Linked to Right-Wing Death Squads and Nazi Collaborators
Pete Yost
Associated Press
2008-10-07 11:11:00
GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.
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The Wounded Shark: 'Good War' Lost, But the Imperial Project Goes On in Afghanistan
Chris Floyd
Empire Burlesque
2008-10-05 08:26:00
Don't tell Obama and McCain, but the war they are both counting on to make their bones as commander-in-chief -- the "good war" in Afghanistan, which both men have pledged to expand -- is already lost. Their joint strategy of pouring more troops, tanks, missiles and planes into the roaring fire -- not to mention their intention to spread the war into Pakistan -- will only lead to disaster.
Who says so? America's biggest ally in the Afghan adventure: Great Britain. This week, two top figures in the British effort in Afghanistan -- Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, UK ambassador to Kabul, and Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the senior British military commander in Afghanistan -- both said that the war was "unwinnable," and that continuing the current level of military operations there, much less expanding it, was a strategy "doomed to fail."
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Advocating Genocide as Electoral Tactic in Canada
Kim Petersen
Dissident Voice
2008-10-06 08:11:00
In a 60 Minutes interview from 1996, then US ambassador to Washington, Madeleine Albright infamously quipped of the deaths of half a million Iraqi children to maintain US policy: "... we think the price is worth it."[1] On 24 September, a prominent Canadian politician said that the collective punishment of the Palestinian people "... is the right thing to do." The name candidate with Canada's Liberal Party delivered a shocking statement that is, in essence, advocating a genocide against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
"Speaking at Toronto's Beth Emeth synagogue, hockey hall-of-fame goalie, former federal cabinet minister, and current member of the Canadian parliament for the Ontario riding of York Centre, Ken Dryden sounded like an arch-Zionist:
'Stop all aid that flows into Gaza. While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians... it is the right thing to do at this time.'" [2] [emphasis added]
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Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame
Dana Milbank
The Washington Post
2008-10-07 05:05:00
John McCain is collapsing in the polls in Florida and other swing states, but Sarah Palin, God bless her, has a solution.
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Taser guns 'weapons of torture'
BBC News
2008-09-25 00:23:00
Taser stun guns have been described as torture weapons and a judge has been urged to ban them immediately.
Lawyers acting for an unnamed Belfast child have won the right to a judicial review of the Police Service of Northern Ireland using the weapons.
On Thursday, they asked for an interim order at Northern Ireland's High Court banning their use until after the outcome of the hearing in January.
They argued their medical effect on "vulnerable people" remains unclear.
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Palin's Tax Return Missing Travel Reimbursements
Peter Overby
NPR.org
2008-10-04 18:45:00
Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin didn't report thousands of dollars in state travel reimbursements that she collected while living at home last year, according to her tax return for 2007.
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Middle East Madness
Iran denies report U.S. plane forced to land
Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
2008-10-07 19:56:00
Tehran - A senior Iranian official denied on Tuesday a local news agency report that a U.S. military plane had violated the country's airspace and was forced to land, saying both the aircraft and the people on board were Hungarian.
The Pentagon also denied the report by Iran's semi-official Fars News agency, which came at a time of tension over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, and said all American planes were accounted for.
The oil market spiked briefly after the Fars report.
"The Fars report was not accurate. It was an Hungarian aid plane. No American was on board. The incident happened on September 30," the Iranian official, who declined to be named, said.
Iran's Arabic-language al-Alam channel, citing a military source, said the Hungarian plane was carrying aid to Afghanistan and that it had been allowed to leave Iran after the incident.
There has been persistent speculation about a possible U.S. or Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, which U.S. and Israeli officials say form part of a covert weapons programme. Iran denies the charge.
Hostile rhetoric and close encounters in the Gulf have fuelled tension. In April, the U.S. navy said a cargo ship hired by the U.S. military fired warning shots at approaching boats in the Gulf. Iran denied that any confrontation had occurred.
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Yemen arrests militants with links to Israel
Reuters
2008-10-06 19:07:00
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Monday authorities had arrested a group of Islamic militants which he said had links to Israeli intelligence.
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Syria: Israeli withdrawal from Golan is basis for peace, Minister Bilal says
Isria
2008-10-07 18:23:00
Minister of Information Mohsen Bilal underlined that the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan into the line of June 4th, 1967 is a basis to realize the just and comprehensive peace in the region.
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US hands over Saddam Hussein palace after staff move to new embassy
Deborah Haynes
Times Online
2008-10-07 18:02:00
The United States is preparing to hand control of Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace in Baghdad to the Iraqi Government in one of the most symbolic examples of the country's increasing sovereignty.
Plans are also under way to turn over swaths of the green zone, which surrounds the palace, to the Iraqi authorities, with Iraqi forces expected to replace US troops at some checkpoints over the next year, according to sources inside the compound.
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U.S. says business jet forced down in Iran
CNN
2008-10-07 17:20:00
The U.S. military coalition in Iraq confirmed Tuesday that a business jet -- not a U.S. military aircraft -- was recently forced down in Iran due to an airspace violation.
"The airplane is now being confirmed as a light transport plane with no Americans onboard," Multi-National Forces-Iraq said in a statement issued Tuesday. "From what we have been seeing, it was a Falcon business jet. We have accounted for all our aircraft and none are missing."
The U.S. coalition in Iraq had no information on who owned the aircraft, stressing that it was not a registered American plane.
Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency initially reported that five American military officials were on board the U.S. aircraft. But other Iranian media reports -- quoting Iranian officials -- said the aircraft was Hungarian and no Americans were on the plane.
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Breaking: US plane 'forced to land in Iran'
BBC News
2008-10-07 13:33:00
A US plane has been forced to land in Iran after violating Iranian territory, the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency has reported.
The report said the Falcon aircraft entered Iranian airspace from Turkey, flying at low altitude to avoid radar.
The agency said all those on board were released, without saying when the incident happened.
The Pentagon denied the report, saying all its aircraft were accounted for and none had landed in Iran.
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Grand Theft Economics
US: September consumer sales drop sharply: MasterCard
Sarah Coffey
Reuters
2008-10-07 21:19:00
New York - U.S. shoppers worried by shrinking bank and retirement accounts tamped down spending across the board in September as the country's financial crisis worsened, MasterCard Advisors said in a report on Tuesday.
Not one spending category posted positive gains over last year, according to the report by SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors.
Overall September apparel sales fell 5.5 percent from a year ago, with women's apparel down 9.1 percent. Furniture sales sank 13.3 percent, the worst decline since 2003, while electronics and appliance sales tumbled 13.8 percent.
"The turmoil on Wall Street had an immediate impact on consumer confidence," said Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research for SpendingPulse. "Uncertainty around the financial markets naturally forces people to scale back their own spending."
But consumers wary of Wall Street woes taking a bite out of their wealth could also be curtailing purchases until holiday promotions heat up, he said.
"People will save in the months leading up to the holiday season. So this may be some of that pullback," Rao said.
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Financial crisis: The rise and fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland
Andrew Pierce
Reuters
2008-10-07 20:49:00
Only seven years after RBS defied the odds to buy Nat West for £10 billion - which was three times its size - it announced the £49 billion acquisition of ABN Amro the biggest bank in the Netherlands.
Sir Fred Goodwin, the RBS chief executive who earned the moniker Fred the Shred for cutting 18,000 jobs after the Nat West takeover, could seemingly do no wrong.
He had already been named businessman of the year by the influential Forbes magazine for his "brilliantly strategised hostile takeover" of NatWest.
RBS had been transformed from a regional bank into a major global player.
Yet Sir Fred, 49, and RBS scaled even greater heights with the ABN Amro purchase.
The deal - agreed after the Scottish banking monolith joined forces with Spain's Banco Santander and Belgium's Fortis - was hailed as the "deal of a generation". So much so that the admiring directors agreed a £4 million pay package for their chief executive who, when he took over the helm of the bank, had been one of the youngest ever bosses of a FTSE 100 company.
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U.S. Stocks Tumble, Sending S&P 500 Below 1,000; Banks Drop
Elizabeth Stanton and Eric Martin
Bloomberg
2008-10-07 20:38:00
U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index below 1,000 for the first time since 2003, on speculation banks and real-estate companies are running short of money as the credit crisis worsens.
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Landsbanki's UK bank icesave suspends operations
Dan Lalor
Reuters
2008-10-07 20:31:00
London - Icelandic bank Landsbanki's British internet bank icesave has stopped customers withdrawing or depositing money, according to its Web site.
"We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts," icesave said on Tuesday. "We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly."
Earlier, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority said it would take control of Landsbanki, the country's second largest bank by value.
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Rabobank reduces London operations and cuts jobs
Daisy Ku
Reuters
2008-10-07 20:16:00
London - Dutch lender Rabobank on Tuesday said it is reducing the number of its staff in London in response to the structural changes in the financial markets.
Rabobank, which employs around 800 staff in London, did not reveal how many jobs would go, although it said it remained committed to its presence in the city.
"We're convinced that these changes are necessary to ensure the well-being of the London branch and its business in the years ahead," said Rutger Schellens, regional manager Europe and member of the managing board of Rabobank International.
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To heat or to eat? Britain in court on fuel poverty
Kate Kelland
Reuters
2008-10-07 20:09:00
London - Mary Phillips, a 72-year-old pensioner, says she often escapes the cold of her council flat and the dread of unaffordable fuel bills by taking refuge in her centrally-heated local library.
But this week, she took her sofa to the streets outside the High Court to try to force the government to do more for people like her who are being forced into an often fatal choice between heating and eating.
Wearing fluffy boots, wrapped in blankets and a dressing gown, and clutching a hot water bottle to her chest, she posed as a symbol of the some 25,000 elderly people who will die of the cold in Britain this winter.
Data collated by a lobby group, National Energy Action, show that despite a relatively mild climate, 19 percent more people in England die in winter than in other seasons, compared with 10 percent in Finland, 11 percent in Germany and 12 percent in Denmark.
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The Living Planet
'Deadly Dozen' Reports Diseases Worsened By Climate Change
Science Daily
2008-10-07 19:09:00
Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society have released a report that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and global economies. Called The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, the new report provides examples of diseases that could spread as a result of changes in temperatures and precipitation levels.
The best defense, according to the report's authors, is a good offense in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how these diseases are moving so health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.
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Schools closed for safety after Tibet quake
Reuters India
2008-10-07 17:21:00
Beijing - China closed schools in Tibet's capital for safety reasons on Tuesday a day after a huge earthquake struck to the west and months after hundreds of classrooms were flattened in a devastating quake in Sichuan.
The 6.6 magnitude Tibet earthquake, with an epicentre 80 km (50 miles) west of Lhasa, killed at least nine people, state media reported, revising down an earlier estimated death toll of at least 30.
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Rare 5.8 Earthquake in the Arctic Ocean
IRIS.edu
2008-10-07 15:50:00
DATE: 07-OCT-2008, 10:00:48
LAT: 79.83
LON: -115.23
MAG: 5.8
DEPTH km: 10.0
REGION: Arctic Ocean
A Global picture of recent seismic activity can be seen here.
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Topsoil's Limited Turnover: A Crisis In Time
Science Daily
2008-10-05 22:24:00
Topsoil does not last forever. Records show that topsoil erosion, accelerated by human civilization and conventional agricultural practices, has outpaced long-term soil production. Earth's continents are losing prime agricultural soils even as population growth and increased demand for biofuels claim more from this basic resource.
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Strong quake hits Afghanistan
Agence France-Presse
2008-10-06 22:05:00
Kabul - A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit central Afghanistan Monday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The quake struck about 68 kilometres (42 miles) southeast of the capital Kabul at 3:26am local time (2256 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.
It was 35 kilometres deep, the centre said.
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A quarter of the world's mammals risk extinction
The Independent (UK)
2008-10-06 21:58:00
A quarter of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction, the latest global analysis of threatened species revealed today.
At least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are under threat, largely as a result of hunting and the destruction of their habitat by humans, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
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Health & Wellness
Outcasts quick to spot a fake smile
Misty Harris
Canwest News Service
2008-10-05 20:58:00
Smile and the world smiles with you. Fake it and the recently divorced, socially unpopular and romantically rejected will be onto you.
This is the conclusion of a new study that shows people who have been cast off or excluded have an enhanced ability to determine whether the "happy" face before them is genuine or feigned.
Researchers from Miami University found subjects who were manipulated to feel rejection were able to tell a fake smile from a real one roughly 80 per cent of the time, while the odds of doing so among people with a sense of inclusion were only slightly better than chance.
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Give your brain a workout
Anna van Praagh
Telegraph
2008-10-06 17:12:00
Use your brain and it will grow - it really will. This is the message from neuropsychologist Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin and founding director of the university's Institute of Neuroscience.
For the next 10 weeks, we will be publishing puzzles from his new book Puzzler Brain Trainer 90-Day Workout which he devised to stretch, sharpen and stimulate the brain.
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Brave fight of a girl with half a brain
Glenis Green
HeraldSun.com.au
2008-10-07 17:05:00
Just like lots of children her age, little Keeley Green is a bright and mischievous, loves music and playing tricks but she is not like other kids. She has only half a brain.
Keeley, 5, was forced to have surgery to remove the left side of her brain when she was only 16 months old, the victim of a rare neurological condition that was causing uncontrollable seizures.
But her parents, Amanda and Daniel Green, of Bundaberg, have seen their baby emerge from those dark days when her life hung in the balance to become a little girl who is winning small battles in her quest for a normal life.
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Traumatic brain injury common among homeless, study finds
CBCNews.ca
2008-10-06 17:00:00
More than half of the people who are homeless in Toronto are suffering from a traumatic brain injury, according to a new study that suggests early diagnosis and treatment may help stem the number of homeless people in major cities.
In Tuesday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Stephen Hwang, of the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital, and his colleagues reported the results of their survey of 601 men and 303 women at homeless shelter and meal programs in 2004 and 2005 - the largest study of its kind in Canada.
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Occasional Memory Loss Tied To Lower Brain Volume
ScienceDaily
2008-10-07 16:55:00
People who occasionally forget an appointment or a friend's name may have a loss of brain volume, even though they don't have memory deficits on regular tests of memory or dementia, according to a study published in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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Unravelling the mysterious curse of a flawless memory
Patricia Casey
Independent.ie
2008-10-06 16:47:00
In May of 1928, Alexander Luria, a Russian neuropsychologist, got what was probably one of the greatest shocks of his life.
A man with a perfect memory had just walked through his office door. The man's name was Solomon Shereshevskii, and he remembered absolutely everything that had happened him from the age of one until his then age of 40.
The sceptical Luria asked Shereshevskii, once he was comfortable, to recite a list of 30 random numbers that Luria had scribbled down on a piece of paper. To Luria's astonishment, Shereshevskii did it perfectly -- and then did it backwards.
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Science & Technology
Stars Stop Forming When Big Galaxies Collide
Science Daily
2008-10-07 19:45:00
Astronomers studying new images of a nearby galaxy cluster have found evidence that high-speed collisions between large elliptical galaxies may prevent new stars from forming, according to a paper to be published in a November 2008 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Led by Jeffrey Kenney, professor and chair of astronomy at Yale, the team saw a spectacular complex of warm gas filaments 400,000 light-years-long connecting the elliptical galaxy M86 and the spiral galaxy NGC 4438 in the Virgo galaxy cluster, providing striking evidence for a previously unsuspected high-speed collision between the galaxies. The view was constructed using the wide-field Mosaic imager on the National Science Foundation telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.
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Cassini Flyby Of Saturn Moon Offers Insight Into Solar System History
Science Daily
2008-10-07 19:41:00
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is scheduled to fly within 16 miles of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Oct. 9 and measure molecules in its space environment that could give insight into the history of the solar system.
"This encounter will potentially have far-reaching implications for understanding how the solar system was formed and how it evolved," said professor Tamas Gombosi, chair of the University of Michigan Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.
Gombosi is the interdisciplinary scientist for magnetosphere and plasma science on the Cassini mission. His role is to coordinate studies that involve multiple plasma instruments on the spacecraft.
Enceladus is Saturn's sixth-largest moon, orbiting within the planet's outermost ring. It is approximately 313 miles in diameter.
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Evolution stops here? Future Man will look the same, says scientist
David Derbyshire
Mail Online
2008-10-07 17:43:00
For centuries, writers have attempted to predict the future of the human race.
Some have argued that we are destined to evolve into super-beings, others that we are turning into dim-witted goblins incapable of anything more demanding than watching TV.
But according to a leading geneticist, both visions are wrong because human evolution has ground to a halt.
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Revealed: The cave paintings which could show how humans survived dramatic climate change during the Ice Age
Mail Online
2008-10-06 17:33:00
British scientists are set to unlock the secrets of hidden cave paintings which could reveal how humans survived during the changing climate of the Ice Age more than 15,000 years ago.
The paintings, concealed in the caves of northern Spain, will be dated accurately for the first time by experts from the University of Bristol using a new technique based on the radioactive decay of uranium.
A team from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology has just returned from an expedition to the Cantabria and Asturias regions of Spain, where they removed samples from more than 20 prehistoric painted caves.
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Mysterious Snippets of DNA Withstand Eons of Evolution
Imperial Valley News
2008-10-06 17:27:00
Stanford, California - Small stretches of seemingly useless DNA harbor a big secret, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. There's one problem: We don't know what it is. Although individual laboratory animals appear to live happily when these genetic ciphers are deleted, these snippets have been highly conserved throughout evolution.
"The true function of these regions remains a mystery, but it's clear that the genome really does need and use them," said Gill Bejerano, PhD, assistant professor of developmental biology and of computer science. In fact, these so-called "ultraconserved" regions are about 300 times less likely than other regions of the genome to be lost during mammalian evolution, according to research from Bejerano and graduate student Cory McLean published in the Oct. 2 issue of Genome Research.
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Flashback: Defenses Down, Galactic Dust Storm Hits Solar System
Robert Roy Britt
Space
2003-08-14 12:27:00
Our solar system's natural defenses are down and a vigorous cosmic dust storm is blowing through, according to a new study. The forecast calls for a prolonged and increasing blizzard of small interstellar bits.
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Our Haunted Planet
Does America Really Want To Know?
Steve Bass
American Chronicle
2008-10-06 16:35:00
During a criminal investigation, it is common to interview witnesses and suspects or persons of interest. When an interviewee gives conflicting testimony, this is a sure sign that they know something and are trying to conceal it from investigators. At this point, the interview becomes more intense, more direct questions are asked, and tactics are employed that have a high rate of success in routing out the truth. Sometimes that truth is that this interviewee is in fact the perpetrator of the crime or knows who is. Other times the truth is that information damaging to the interviewee but crucial to the case is unearthed.
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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Leprechauns are stealing our gold, claims Darling
The Daily Mash
2008-10-07 21:19:00
Chancellor Alistair Darling last night warned UK banks could collapse after a series of daring raids by hordes of 'little people'.
Darling said the leprechauns were sneaking into savers' bedrooms in the early hours, climbing onto their pillow and promising to hide their gold under an old rowan tree.
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Bat in coffee gives woman an extra jolt
Associated Press
2008-09-29 11:15:00
It wasn't just the caffeine that gave an Iowa woman an extra jolt after she had her morning coffee. It was also the bat she found in the filter.
The Iowa Department of Public Health says the woman reported a bat in her house but wasn't too worried about it. She turned on her automatic coffee maker before bedtime and drank her coffee the next morning.
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Czech court to rule on fairy-tale kingdom
Rob Cameron
BBC News
2008-10-07 04:44:00
A court in the Czech city of Olomouc is to deliver its verdict in one of the oddest legal disputes in the country's history.
Comic actor Bolek Polivka is suing former business partner Tomas Harabis over the rights to the fictitious Wallachian Kingdom.
The court must decide whether Mr Polivka is the true "king" of the fairy-tale realm.
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