Sunday, January 15, 2006

see no evil



LOS ANGELES -- Comets have long lit up the sky and the imaginations of scientists. Now these icy bodies from the beginnings of the solar system are finally ready for their close-up. Six months after NASA scientists first peeked inside one comet from afar, they're bringing pieces of another to Earth for study under the microscope. This weekend, the Stardust spacecraft will jettison a 100-pound capsule holding comet dust. It will nosedive through the Earth's atmosphere and -- if all goes well -- make a soft landing in the Utah desert. (NBC NEWS)

AL-QAEDA is recruiting suicide bombers who are infected with the AIDS virus, according to documents revealed to the Sunday Mirror. (Rupert Hamer Defence Correspondent Sunday Mirror)

People who illegally share music files online are also big spenders on legal music downloads, research suggests. Digital music research firm The Leading Question found that they spent four and a half times more on paid-for music downloads than average fans. (BBC)

If anyone has any doubt about the kind of nuclear work Iran has been doing for the past 18 years, it must be a case of naivete compounded by gullibility. Nor should there be any uncertainty about what Iran's mullahocracy would do with a nuclear weapon. All of Iran's leaders since the Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini replaced the shah in February 1979 have made it clear the objective is Israel's destruction. (washington times)

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters) - There are no signs that the bird flu virus spreading in Turkey is being passed among humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

SHANGHAI — American homeowners wondering what follows a housing bubble can look to China's largest city.Once one of the hottest markets in the world, sales of homes have virtually halted in some areas of Shanghai, prompting developers to slash prices and real estate brokerages to shutter thousands of offices. ( LATIMES By Don Lee, Times Staff Writer)

Modern cats have their roots in Asia 11 million years ago, according to a DNA study of wild and domestic cats. The ancient ancestors of the 37 species alive today migrated across the globe, eventually settling in all continents except Antarctica, say scientists.(BBC)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is to allow users of its site to buy videos from content partners in an upgrade to its video-search service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Free drinks may improve the health and lives of homeless alcoholics and reduce their run-ins with police, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Iran closed a daily newspaper and a magazine, one of the publications said Tuesday, in a stiffening crackdown on the press. Iran's hard-line judiciary has closed down more than 100 pro-democracy publications in the past five years on vague charges of insulting religious sensibilities or top clerics. Since the election of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the government has given the judiciary a free hand to prosecute its crackdown against the media, which began in 2000. (AP)

The former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. (the weekly standard)

The Florida Supreme Court yesterday declared unconstitutional a school voucher program central to Governor Bush's education reform effort, leaving tens of thousands of children with fewer options to escape failing schools. (NY SUN)

WASHINGTON -- US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, who has collected more donations from tribal clients of once-powerful lobbyist Jack Abramoff than any other Democrat, intends to keep the money, joining a number of Democrats who have decided that Abramoff's plea bargain on conspiracy and fraud charges won't alter their decision.(BOSTON GLOBE)

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese state-controlled oil company CNOOC Ltd. said Monday it is paying $2.3 billion for a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian oil field in its first major investment since its failed bid to take over Unocal Corp. last year

Space tourists must be screened to ensure they are not terrorists, according to proposed regulations from the US Federal Aviation Administration. (BBC)

In a seven day stretch between Christmas and new year millions of consumers armed with new MP3 players (primarily IPODS) and stacks of gift cards gobbled up almost 20 million tracks from ITUNES and other down load retailers, Neilson Sound Scan reports( ABSCBN)

The SEC is poised to propose the most sweeping revamp of executive-pay disclosure rules in 14 years, seeking to push companies to reveal much more about perquisites, retirement benefits and total compensation. (WSJ)

Iran on Tuesday precipitated a fresh crisis over its nuclear programme by removing UN seals at a facility in the town of Natanz and announcing that it would begin research involving nuclear enrichment – which can produce weapons grade material. The move prompted immediate criticism from the US and Iran’s European negotiating partners, placing the country on a collision course with the west after more than two years of fruitless talks between Tehran and the EU. (FT)

Agence France Presse, WASHINGTON - Iran has secretly built thousands of centrifuge machines for its atomic plant at Natanz, an exiled opposition figure alleged Tuesday.

British man kidnapped in Iraq and held for five days by armed men who threatened to behead him was rescued last week by American special forces and astonished to discover that no one had noticed he was missing. Phil Sands, 28, a freelance journalist, was held by gunmen who ambushed his car in Baghdad. He said the worst aspect of his ordeal was imagining the anguish of his family. But his parents were holidaying in Morocco and knew nothing of his sufferings until he called them after he was released during a chance raid by US forces on a farm outside Baghdad. (David Smith, UK Guardian)

The government also reported a surplus for December. The deficit over the past twelve months is $320 billion, which amounts to 2.5% of GDP. (YAHOO FINANCE)




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