December 2011
70 posts
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'No credible evidence' of Iranian nuclear weapons,...
Mohamed ElBaradei says Iran was ‘on the wrong side of the law’ but rejects British intelligence claims
The UN’s chief weapons inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today he had seen “no credible evidence” that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting British intelligence allegations that a weapons programme has been going on for at least four years.
The ...
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'I’m a cop, I can do whatever I want ' off-duty...
Detained: Off-duty cop deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Vanettes
An off-duty police officer has been charged with executing a man in a sports bar - after an argument over a game of darts.
Riverside County sheriff’s deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times, leaving him to die on the floor of the bar in Murrieta, California.
It is reported that Long,...
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D'ough! Boy, 10, punished for brandishing a...
The offensive weapon (above)
A 10-year-old elementary student has been punished for waving around a slice of pizza which resembled the shape of a gun.
Nicholas Taylor will be eating lunch at the ‘silent table’ for the rest of the semester after being accused of threatening other students ‘armed’ with a pizza slice with bites taken out of it.
The youngster has also...
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SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers
The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes.
“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative]...
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Tweeting the word 'drill' could mean your Twitter...
Fake profiles used by Department of Homeland Security, says privacy group
List of keywords flags ‘danger’ signal
DHS may attempt to identify users from their accounts
Keywords include ‘virus’, ‘drill’ and ‘illegal immigrant’
The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the...
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Bracelet reveals amazing craftsman's skill from...
A 9,500-year-old bracelet has been analysed using the very latest computers – and the results show that it is so intricate even today’s craftsmen would struggle to improve it.
Researchers from the Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes in Istanbul and Laboratoire de Tribologie et de Dynamiques des Systèmes studied the bracelet’s surface and its micro-topographic features revealing...
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NASA investigates 'space ball' found in Namibia
A large, metallic ball has baffled authorities after being found in grassland in Namibia.
Dubbed ‘a space ball’, the hollow object was located near a village at the north of the country.
The 6kg ball was found in mid November and locals reported hearing several small explosions in the few days before.
It was found in a hole 33 centimetres deep and 3.8 meters wide.
According to police...
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Alarm as Dutch lab creates highly contagious...
Fear of terrorism as university prepares to publish key details
A deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in a laboratory by European scientists – who now want to publish full details of how they did it.
The discovery has prompted fears within the US Government that the knowledge will fall into the hands of terrorists wanting...
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Calls to censor details of potential killer flu
The suppression of breakthrough research into deadly bird flu strains has been labelled scientific censorship by some, but others say it is a necessary step to prevent a possible biological attack.
Last month researchers in the Netherlands discovered that the H5N1 influenza virus, or bird flu, could develop into a dangerous virus that can spread between humans.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu is...
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Iraqi vice-president accused of masterminding hit...
Iraq’s vice-president has vowed to fight charges that he ran a hit squad and ordered the assassination of key government and security officials.
Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim, has rejected the accusations as a fabrication, and has accused prime minister Nouri al-Maliki - a Shiite - of leading a smear campaign against him.
Iraqi state television has run what it says are videotaped...
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Flu scare sparks mass Hong Kong chicken cull
Hong Kong has culled 17,000 chickens and suspended live poultry imports for 21 days after three birds tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.
Health chief York Chow announced the measures after a dead chicken at the city’s main wholesale market and two wild birds tested positive for the virus, which can be fatal to humans.
Authorities raised the bird flu alert level...
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Saudi prince invests $300m in Twitter
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi billionaire and investor in some of the world’s top companies, has bought a stake in social network Twitter for $US300 million, gaining another foothold in the global media industry.
The nephew of Saudi Arabia’s king was estimated by Forbes magazine this year to have a fortune of more than $US19 billion.
He already owns a 7 per cent stake in News...
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Scientists predict mind-reading machines
Photo: Scientists are researching how to link your brain to your devices, such as a computer or a smartphone
Century-old technology colossus IBM has depicted a near future in which machines read minds and recognise who they are dealing with.
The “IBM 5 in 5” predictions were based on societal trends and research which the New York State-based company expected to begin bearing fruit...
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Incest now encouraged at High Schools
Principal apologizes after shocking video shows blindfolded students making out with their PARENTS in high school prank
They were told to expect a kiss from a ‘special someone’.
But the joke was on teenagers at Rosemount High School when the mystery lip locks they suspected came from their classmates… were actually from their parents.
Now that footage of the...
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Come fly with he/she! Transexual Thai carrier PC...
Fasten your seatbelts! A Thai airline that hired transsexuals as flight attendants to set itself apart from competitors has taken to the skies.
PC Air, a new charter airline that plans to fly routes across Asia, originally set out to hire only male and female flight attendants.
But it changed its mind after receiving more than 100 job applications from transvestites and transsexuals.
Four...
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Canadian Politicians living like Kings
OTTAWA — The Canadian Taxpayers Federation aimed a broadside at Defence Minister Peter MacKay on Thursday, accusing him of living like a king while attending conferences in Europe.
The watchdog group said it used access-to-information requests to uncover hotel bills that show the minister spent $1,452 a night for a two-night stay at a luxury hotel in Munich and $770 a night for three nights in...
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South Korea military on emergency alert in swift...
South Korea placed its military on a state of high alert as its government reacted swiftly to news of the death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il.
Lee Myung-bak, South Korea’s president, immediately convened a national security council meeting and placed government officials on emergency response status, banning all leave and travel.
Mr Lee also ordered its military on emergency...
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AAPS Physicians Oppose Mandatory Flu Vaccine for...
In letters to Colorado public health officials, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) opposes a rule requiring workers in health care facilities to have an annual influenza vaccination or lose their jobs. Workers who had a rare religious or medical exemption would be required to wear a mask in patient care areas from November through March. The religious exemption is too...
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New hunt for elderly Nazis
The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre has launched a new drive in Germany to catch the last perpetrators of the Holocaust still at large.
The Centre’s Efraim Zuroff told a news conference the Centre would offer a reward of up to 25,000 euros ($33,000) for information leading to the capture and conviction of now elderly people implicated in Nazi crimes during World War II.
“The...
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NASA unveils plans to harpoon comets
NASA is developing a high-tech harpoon that could one day pierce a comet and grab samples for scientists on Earth to study for hints about how the universe formed.
The idea borrows on a concept developed by the European Space Agency but adds a sample chamber to the spear so it can capture dust from a fast-moving, ice-spewing comet by hovering near it and launching the space harpoon.
A...
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Putin deflects calls for election re-run
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin said the results of parliamentary elections reflected popular opinion but that he was pleased by the sight of mass protests of mainly young people.
“I saw on television mostly young, active people clearly expressing their positions. I am pleased to see this,” he said.
In the first questions in his annual phone-in session with Russians, Mr Putin...
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French President Chirac convicted in French graft...
A judge has declared French former president Jacques Chirac guilty of misusing public funds, in a political graft trial that made history by producing the first conviction of a head of state since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain in 1945.
In the absence of the 79-year-old, who ruled from 1995 until 2007, the judge declared Chirac guilty and handed down a suspended two-year jail...
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Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist...
Civil rights groups dismayed as Barack Obama abandons commitment to veto new security law contained in defence bill
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his...
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Narcolepsy link to swine flu vaccine investigated
For almost two years, an infant school pupil has found himself losing muscle control and falling asleep at a moment’s notice due to a rare sleeping illness.
Six-year-old Josh Hadfield, from Frome in Somerset, had shown no symptoms of narcolepsy prior to February 2010, and it took another year for doctors to diagnose the condition.
Josh’s mother, Caroline, fears it could be...
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DC Resident Fined Thousands For Not Recycling Cat...
WASHINGTON - It’s the law in D.C. - recycle or face a fine from the Department of Public Works. But is enforcement of the law going too far?
Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash. The fines total $2,000. White says she shreds old newspaper and junk mail to use as cat litter. She believes she is helping...
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Man convicted for wearing jeans to work
Photo: Shahram Forozandeh argued his jeans were tailor made
A taxi driver has been convicted and ordered by a court to pay more than $1,400 for wearing jeans to work.
Shahram Forozandeh, 44, was prosecuted by the Transport Department for failing to wear a specified uniform.
It claimed he breached state uniform standards by wearing denim jeans to work last January.
A routine check of drivers...
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Body found at home of Belgian gunman
Belgian police have found the body of a woman at the home of a gunman who opened fire on Christmas shoppers, as the city of Liege held a vigil for the victims.
A search of the home of Nordine Amrani found the body of a 45-year-old woman, who prosecutors believe was killed before he went on his murderous shooting spree in a town square packed with families.
The woman’s body was found in a...
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'The protester' named Time's person of the year
(Editor’s Note: Don’t get too excited, Hitler was the Time Person of the Year once)
Time magazine has named the collective protester around the world as its person of the year, citing the change brought by street demonstrations from Arab countries to New York.
The shared honour for protesters beat the traditional individual contenders, who included Admiral William McCraven, commander...
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Abbas raises Palestinian flag at UNESCO
The Palestinian flag has been raised for the first time above a UN agency, in a diplomatic victory won despite stiff resistance from the US and Israel.
President Mahmoud Abbas symbolically hoisted the flag at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO to celebrate the Palestinians’ admission in October as a full member of the organisation.
Around 50 diplomatic guests watched as he lifted the flag...
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CERN Scientists close in on possible 'God...
Scientists at the CERN physics research centre say they have found signs of - although not yet conclusively discovered - the Higgs boson, an elementary particle which is the missing link in the Standard Model of physics.
Fabiola Gianotti, the scientist in charge of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, said the signal was centred at around 126 GeV (Giga electron...
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Lunchtime massacre in Belgian market
A man has opened fire on a crowded market square in Liege, in eastern Belgium, killing five people and injuring dozens more with bullets and grenades.
Christmas shoppers using their lunch break to peruse the market stalls in the city’s Place Saint Lambert were sent screaming and running for their lives when the man opened fire in the square.
Three people were killed at the scene and two...
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Police to test laser that 'blinds rioters'
Police will trial a laser-firing rifle to suppress riots, the Home Office said.
A shoulder-mounted laser that emits a blinding wall of light capable of repelling rioters is to be trialled by police under preparations to prevent a repeat of this summer’s looting and arson.
The technology, developed by a former Royal Marine commando, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone who...
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US protests boost sales and fears of sonic...
US protests boost sales and fears of sonic blaster
Police deployment of sonic blasters at Occupy Wall Street and G-20 protest rallies is fuelling both sales and criticism of the devices, which emit beams of sound with laser-like intensity.
More US police and emergency-response agencies are using the so-called Long-Range Acoustic Devices instead of megaphones or conventional...
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US vacates air base in Pakistan: officials
The United States on Sunday vacated a Pakistani airbase following a deadline given by Islamabad in the wake of anger over NATO air strikes last month that killed 24 soldiers, officials said.
Pakistan’s military said in a statement that the last flight carrying US personnel and equipment had left Shamsi airbase, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, completing a process that...
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Iran says it is unlocking US spy drone secrets
A top Iranian official says his country will reverse-engineer the US spy drone it has in its possession and is in the “final stages” of unlocking the aircraft’s software secrets.
“Our next action will be to reverse-engineer the aircraft,” Parviz Sorouri, the head of Iran’s parliamentary national security committee said, according to the website of Iranian...
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Scientist creates lifelike cells out of metal
Scientists trying to create artificial life generally work under the assumption that life must be carbon-based, but what if a living thing could be made from another element?
One British researcher may have proven that theory, potentially rewriting the book of life. Lee Cronin of the University of Glasgow has created lifelike cells from metal — a feat few believed feasible. The discovery opens...
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17 yr old builds nanoparticle that kills cancer...
Angela Zhang is, and she’s just been awarded the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Individual category of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Her project was entitled “Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells.” Her creation is being heralded as a “Swiss army knife of cancer treatment.” Zhang...
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TSA Checkpoints Now On TN Highways
WATCH THIS VIDEO: “TSA Checkpoints on Highways In TN”
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security on Tuesday partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and several other federal and state agencies for a safety enforcement and awareness operation on Tennessee’s interstates and two metropolitan-area bus stations. They are...
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Taiwan spy agency denies 'magnetic' attack
Taiwan’s intelligence agency on Tuesday flatly rejected allegations that it had launched “electromagnetic wave” attacks against the running mate of an opposition presidential candidate.
“The National Security Bureau has not owned the alleged technologies, nor have we used equipment to harass the alleged targeted person,” the bureau said in a statement.
Lin...
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Workers being fingerprinted to and from toilet &...
Bosses finger printing scan all staff at Qantas, Dan Murphy’s, Breville and Unomedical
Companies using fingerprint scans to monitor workers
Qantas, Dan Murphy’s among those using technology
Scanners can stop staff recording false start times
FINGERPRINT scanners are being used to monitor workers’ hours and lunch breaks, with some businesses using the technology...
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Russians rally to demand new elections
Tens of thousands of Russians have taken to the streets demanding an end to Vladimir Putin’s rule and a re-run of last weekend’s election.
The protesters staged the opposition’s biggest protest rally since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
They waved banners such as “The rats should go” and “Swindlers and thieves - give us our elections back” in...
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This Is What a CIA Black Site Looks Like
The Associated Press’ Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman—who have been having a very good year—have tracked down the CIA secret prison where Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and other ghost detainees were tortured and interrogated. It’s on a residential street in Bucharest (here it is on Google Maps). Its code name was Bright Light. Sounds cozy.
The existence of black sites in Poland and Romania...
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Virginia Tech locked down after shooting
The US University of Virginia Tech is in lockdown amid reports of a gunman on the loose.
The university’s website is reporting that a police officer has been shot, and warning everyone on the campus to stay inside and secure their doors.
“Suspect remains at large. A police officer has been shot. A potential second victim is reported at the Cage lot. Stay indoors. Secure in...
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US agents laundered drug money: report
Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have...