Officials consider massive 600M-dose swine flu vaccine campaign
A potential fall swine flu immunization campaign may involve an unprecedented 600 million doses of vaccine, but health officials are still trying to figure out how to find enough workers to administer all those shots. Officials are also looking at how to keep track of side effects if it's given at the same time as the seasonal vaccine...............
Lebanon reports Israeli buildup along border
Lebanese security sources said the Israel Army has deployed main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers along the northern border with Lebanon. The sources said Israeli troops and combat vehicles have undertaken what was termed "unusual military activity...............
Mass school-shootings double in a decade, report shows
Four-in-ten staff and students who witnessed 20 people being gunned down at Dawson College in Montreal in September 2006 have reported mental health problems while others experienced post traumatic stress syndrome. Researchers say their findings, which were presented at a conference on law and mental health in New York, show time does not heal all wounds and the issue of psychological damage is being overlooked...............
Mass school-shootings double in a decade, report shows
Four-in-ten staff and students who witnessed 20 people being gunned down at Dawson College in Montreal in September 2006 have reported mental health problems while others experienced post traumatic stress syndrome. Researchers say their findings, which were presented at a conference on law and mental health in New York, show time does not heal all wounds and the issue of psychological damage is being overlooked...............
North Korea trying to enrich uranium, South says
North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea's defense minister said on Tuesday. "It is clear that they are moving forward with it," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a parliamentary hearing...............
Contactless payment tech in all phones next year, says Ericsson boss
All mobile phones will feature Near Field Communications (NFC) technology within 12 months, a mobile industry executive has claimed. While speaking at a recent company event in Stockholm, Håkan Djuphammar, Ericsson's VP of systems architecture, said: “A year from now, basically every new phone that's sold will have [Near Field Communication]”...............
Church 'out of touch' as public supports equal rights for homosexuals
A revolution in attitudes towards gay men and lesbians is indicated in a poll which shows that a majority of the public want homosexuals to share identical rights to everyone else. Just 40 years after homosexual acts were legalised, and only nine years since the age of consent was equalised, 61 per cent of the public want gay couples to be able to marry just like the rest of the population, not just have civil partnerships...............
Israel Prepares F-15 Jets for Long Range Attack
The Israel Air Force’s F-15 fleet is undergoing an upgrade, with systems that make it better equipped for complex long distance attack scenarios. The systems are being installed in both the F-15 and the F-15I -- a model of the F-15 that was developed by its U.S. manufacturer specifically for the IAF...............
Britain Opening First Atheist Summer Camp for Children
The Jagos, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britain's first summer camp for atheists. The five-day retreat is being subsidized by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of "The God Delusion," and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups...............
More than 100 reported dead in Indian heatwave
An acute heatwave roasting much of India has claimed at least 100 lives, with more deaths feared because the annual monsoon rains have yet to come, officials said Thursday. In the eastern state of Orissa, at least 58 people have died due to sunstroke since April, disaster management official Durgesh Nandini Sahoo told AFP in the state capital Bhubaneswar. Local newspapers have reported at least 12 deaths in the impoverished northern state of Bihar, and 17 deaths in neighbouring Jharkhand state. The Press Trust of India has reported 18 deaths in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and six more in the...............
Connecticut church creates stir with gay exorcism video
A Connecticut church has outraged gay rights advocates by posting a video of members performing an apparent exorcism of a teen's "homosexual demons." The 20-minute video was posted on YouTube before it was taken down. Gay youth advocate Robin McHaelen (mih-KAY'-lehn) says the video appears to show abuse. She says she plans to report it to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families...............
Website records of UFO sightings over North Petherton
A witness statement on a UFO website claims seven bright lights were seen over North Petherton. The blog site, called UK-UFO.com, lets people record experiences of encounters with unidentified flying objects and lets other people comment on these posts. Steve Sims, of Taunton, wrote about a run-in with glowing lights he saw in the sky on May 30. Mr Sims, aged 28, said he saw orange fireballs flying through the sky while his partner drove down the M5 past the North Petherton junction. He said: "I noticed a series of at least seven bright lights in the sky. "I initially thought that it was Orion and that it was just very visible and low in the night sky but as we got closer it became apparent that the lights were red and moving and that they were at least four times brighter than any of the other stars that were in the sky...............
North Korea Threatens to Wipe U.S. Off the Globe
North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days. Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month. The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials...............
Paganism is going mainstream thanks to the Green movement
It's late May in central London and a man dressed as a tree, a witch in a velvet robe and a woman pretending to be a raven with a long black beak are dancing through the streets of Holborn, with several hundred others, moving to the rhythm of a dozen loud drums. They could wake the god of thunder with their noise but it's OK, the people at the back with the broadswords and shields are followers of Thor. This is a parade to celebrate pagan pride, and it would be wise not to get in the way. "We are moving into a new time," says the leader, brandishing a huge set of antlers. "We are becoming more accepted. Paganism is reasserting itself...............
US moves to isolate Iran with full Syria embassy
President Obama has decided to dispatch an ambassador to Syria, ending a four-year freeze in relations with a country that may represent his best chance of making early progress on faltering Middle East peace negotiations. The State Department said yesterday that an ambassador would return to Damascus for the first time since 2005 but added that it was likely to be several days before a formal nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation. “This decision reflects the Administration’s recognition of the important role Syria plays in the region and our hope that the Syrian Government will play a constructive role to promote peace and stability in the region,” an official said...............
River monster tales
On Aug. 1, 1990, a woman living in a mobile home near Eldon reported to Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department she heard noises, noticed a bad smell, and saw a creature about 10 feet tall and about 400 pounds. A deputy investigated and found impressions big enough to place both his feet in. Just two days later, an 8-year-old girl and her mother described a creature 8 feet tall with dark brown, frizzy hair and standing on two feet rummaging through a trash pile near their house. There have been several reports in this area since the early ‘70s. On Feb. 5, 1996, a man living in the Vian Bottoms, about two to three miles north of the Arkansas River, saw a black figure moving...............
CIA, 9/11, UFOs, and the Extraterrestrial Presence
"Look up John Gannon ... top secret and didn't come from me." My contributing source then added, "Nudge, nudge, wink wink!" and I knew a new spy game was afoot. In their search to know the future, CIA and other elements in the U.S. Intelligence Community have been shadowed by a growing number of private "intelligence" operations. I wondered about their Internet presence as new clues to the UFO spy game came into focus. The tales of spies, lies, and polygraph tape emerge at an unexpected intersection where the CIA, 9/11, UFOs, and a "core story" of an extraterrestrial presence are played as spy games on the Internet. And by September of 2006, the UFO spy game was taken...............
González favored to become first EU President
Former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González has received backing to become the European Union's first permanent president, should the Lisbon Treaty come into force by the end of the year. Javier Solana, the High Representative for the European Common, Foreign and Security Policy, gave the socialist politician his backing for the new role at a press conference in Brussels. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also expressed approval of the nomination, favouring González over former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he views as "not having done anything" in his current role as Special Envoy to the Middle East for the Quartet. José Manuel Barroso, from Portugal, is expected to be reconfirmed as head of the European Commission for the next five years. Solana had been tipped to become the EU's first foreign minister, but his term as High...............
Psychic helps police in case of missing Hingham man with dog
When it comes to a missing person case, police will take any information they can get. So when a woman claiming to be a psychic volunteered her sixth sense to help track a man who apparently went missing while walking his Saint Bernard in Hingham this week, police were willing to hear her out. Rockland police were at the Best Western on Hingham Street in Rockland on Thursday to see if employees had any information on the man in his mid-70s, who was last seen walking his dog in the woods near Accord Pond, then later walking south on Route 228 toward the hotel on Wednesday. The Best Western is the only hotel on that stretch of Route 228 that allows visitors to keep pets. Police have wondered whether the man................
Mom Credits Paranormal World on Daughter’s Recovery
A South Saint Paul family believes the world's paranormal community helped heal their little girl through the power of prayer. While most 8-year-olds are out enjoying their summer vacations, Gabby Mathis is stuck in the house. Last Sunday, Mathis was riding her bike down the alley to her grandfather's house when she was hit by a car. By the time Mathis got to the hospital, she was bleeding in her brain and doctor's didn't know if she would ever wake up. That's when Dave Schrader, who hosts a local radio show about the paranormal, heard about the accident and asked his listeners to pray for Mathis both on the air and on his Myspace page. By Tuesday, Mathis was awake and acting like nothing was wrong, much to her doctors’ surprise. As a paranormal investigator, Mathis’ mom...............
U.N. to Emerge as Global IRS
While our media sleep, the United Nations is proceeding, with President Obama's acquiescence, to implement a global plan to create a new international socialist order financed by global taxes on the American people. The Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development that begins on Wednesday will consider adoption of a document calling for "new voluntary and innovative sources of financing initiatives to provide additional stable sources of development finance..." This is U.N.-speak for global taxes. They are anything but "voluntary" for the people forced to pay them. The most "popular" proposals, which could generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue for global purposes, involve taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and financial transactions such as stock trades...............
UFO was huge and glowed orange
It was travelling at the speed of an aeroplane but it was bigger and orange. Sometimes the planes at night have flashing lights on but this was constant. "The something else dropped from underneath the plane. "Afterwards me and my partner just sat there thinking of what it could have been. The only thing we could think was that it was a plane that came apart and crashed...............
UFO-spotting Turkish night-watchman regards aliens as 'the world's policemen'
Former head of the UK defence ministry’s UFO desk and a well-known ufologist, Nick Pope, one of the speakers at the conference, confessed himself amazed at the turnout. “Ufology has a bit of an image problem back home – computer nerds, trainspotters, you know,” he said. “But that is not the sense I get here at all. And there seems to be an equal balance between men and women.” Haktan Akdogan, the organiser of last weekend’s International UFO and New Age Congress, the fourth of its kind in Turkey, put growing domestic interest in UFO sightings down to the increasingly receptive Turkish media, “more sympathetic than the media in the West”. But he described Yalman’s films of bright crescent-shaped objects hovering...............
Locusts swoop down on Ethiopia
Crops in large swathes of Ethiopia risk being destroyed by swarms of locusts coming from northern Somalia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) "reports that locust swarms have been confirmed in seven regions in the country, including in areas where there is no previous record of infestation," a statement said...............
Does being seen in two places herald death?
Here's a question about bilocation from a male reader whose name he requested to be withheld. “On two separate occasions, my officemates had seen me in the office during times I was absent. “I did some research and found it may be described as bilocation. Based on my readings, this is characteristic of the phenomenon. The scary thing is that it could herald death. Can you please enlighten me on this?” Bilocation means “being seen in two places at the same time.” It is not as rare a phenomenon as many people think, and it does not necessarily herald death. Bilocation happens when one’s astral body detaches itself from one’s physical body and travels without the person being aware of it. The astral body is sometimes called the “desire body” because it goes to where the person wants to go, either consciously or unconsciously...............