Taking Preemptive Action Against North Korea

In light of North Korea's nuclear test, the United States and South Korea have agreed to develop a new contingency plan to take military action against North Korea in scenarios short of North Korea attack or in response to a catastrophic "collapse" in the North. The new revised plan - CONPLAN 5029 -focuses on preemptive action to thwart North Korean moves involving potential export of weapons of mass destruction. Pentagon sources confirm that the new plan will be the first joint U.S.-South Korean plan to take action against North Korea even if the North does not invade or attack the South first.

Nanobot Voyager Set To Sail

A Chiang Mai University team has developed a motor so small it will power a microscopic robot on an expedition through human blood vessels. Boffins at the university's science faculty describe their invention as a "nanomotor". It will drive a medical robot about the size of a blood cell on a tour of the maze of human veins and capillaries. A "nanobot" - or nanotechnology robot - developed at Kent State University in Ohio, United States will be powered by a motor made of an extremely fine and pure ceramic created at Chiang Mai University. In addition to powering the nanobot, the piezoceramic - also known as "smart ceramics" - motor will navigate the machine on its exploration for such things as tiny tumours in internal organs. It is remote controlled by either low-voltage electric current or microwaves, explains head researcher Assoc Prof Supon Ananta. Stimulated by electric current or microwaves, piezoceramics can be enlarged or shrunk by nano levels, propelling the nanobot forward, back, left or right - just like a submarine.

Egypt Prepares To Launch Nuclear Program

Officials said President Hosni Mubarak has ordered the start of the nuclear project over the next month. They said the program would focus on civilian projects, particularly nuclear energy and research. ‘No one protests Egypt's peaceful, clear and transparent nuclear program,’ Egyptian Electricity Minister Hassan Yunis said. Yunis told the state-owned Al Akhbar daily that Egypt would construct nuclear power stations in a project approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The minister said this would be part of what he termed a ‘permanent and vast nuclear program.’

Pentagon Admits Keeping Database on U.S. Civilians Deemed Suspicious

The US military has kept a database of unverified reports on US civilians who were deemed possible threats to national security interests, US forces or military installations, a defense spokesman said. Anti-war protesters from CodePink Women for Peace hold up one million signatures asking for an end to the war in Iraq outside the North Gate of the White House. The US military has kept a database of unverified reports on US civilians who were deemed possible threats to national security interests, US forces or military installations, a defense spokesman said. The acknowledgement followed the disclosure of the database by NBC News, which said it contained indications that the military has been monitoring anti-war activists and protests. It recorded 1,500 suspicious incidents over a ten month period, including four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, NBC reported. One example cited in the report was a small gathering of activists at a Quaker meeting house in Florida to plan protests of military recruiting in high schools. The document indicates that information was being gathered about people who attended the meetings and the vehicles they used, a military analyst told NBC. The defense spokesman, who would not be identified by name, would not say whether reports on activists or anti-war incidents were in the database, which is known as the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) reporting system. The database is made up of unverified reports of suspicious activities filed by "concerned citizens" and Defense Department personnel as well as by law enforcement, intelligence, security and counterintelligence organizations, he said.

New Terrorist Profiling Technology Will Be Unstoppable

TPM Media says of the menacing new technology, "Like TIA, Tangram would compile vast databases of information on hundreds of millions of innocent people, including communications records, credit card transactions and travel information, and mine them for patterns of behavior which look suspiciously terroristical. The problem with the old method of data mining, according to Tangram's caretakers, is that they used a "guilt-by-association" model -- that is, it found terror suspects by seeing who was linked to known or suspected terrorists. Tangram tosses that outmoded concept. It can find terrorists 'suspicions' among innocent people with no ties to suspected terrorists at all!"

Rise Of The Machines Is But One Of The Future's Menaces

The threat of a nuclear holocaust, as envisaged in The Terminator, is scarily real. Likewise, the manipulation of genes to create "perfect humans" in Gattaca appears to be more credible every year. The question of what it means to be human is no less topical today than it was in Blade Runner. The government-appointed Lockhart Committee's review into stem cell research concluded that a human embryo comes into existence not after conception but once it has started to divide and, in the case of a clone, only if it has the "potential for continued development towards a living being".

Microchips becoming the latest medical accessory

It's a technology that's already being used on millions of pets in America. Now, microchips are being implanted in human beings as well and this week in Las Vegas, the procedure is being performed on dozens of people attending a medical convention. The implants are inserted into the arm. The tiny computer chips can help doctors get important medical information. The chips are incredibly small and are implanted just under the skin. The chips that are used in dogs and cats contain information that can identify the animal if it gets lost. In the case of humans, the chips provide a link to a computer database that gives doctors instant access to a patient's complete medical history. All this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, health care professionals are having the chips surgically implanted. "If they've been in a car accident, or if the person has allergies, the chip will lead you to that data," said Dr. Darin Brimhall. The procedure leaves a small, temporary scar, and after that, the chip is so small, it virtually disappears into the body. The current cost for patents to have the chip implanted runs between $200 and $300. One idea for the chips is to implant them in U.S. Military personnel so that soldiers injured in the field can be quickly and accurately identified. According to the makers of the chip, ten hospitals and emergency rooms in Las Vegas have agreed to begin using the devices that scan for the implants.

In The Near Future Even Your Boss May Know If Your Lying

Until now, sorting the truth from deception has relied on subjective hunches about individuals’ honesty, or else the discredited measurements of old-fashioned polygraph machines. But what if there were a sleek scientific tool that could peer into the human brain and prove objectively when a person was lying? As advances in neuroscience have mapped out the brain in unprecedented detail in recent years, businesses have been clamouring to commercialise the emerging research. The newest trend is for companies to offer magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that they claim identify brain activity associated with deception. Once the technology becomes the norm, it will become cheap and then we will see small portable Lying Detection systems in workplaces and other places such as police stations, court rooms and more.

Israel, Syria heighten alert for possible war

Israel has visibly beefed up its military presence here in the Golan Heights while neighboring Syria reportedly has placed its army on high alert and has warned it is preparing for a possible war with the Jewish state. The Israeli Defense Forces yesterday carried out the second in a series of scheduled military exercises in the Golan. IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz earlier this week made a surprise visit to the mountainous territory, which the army here said was intended to test the operational readiness and capabilities of local divisions.

Global warming study predicts wild ride

The world, especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil — will likely suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts. But the prediction of a future of nasty extreme weather also includes fewer freezes and a longer growing season. In a preview of a major international multiyear report on climate change that comes out next year, a study out of the National Center for Atmospheric Research details what nine of the world's top computer models predict for the lurching of climate at its most extreme. "It's going to be a wild ride, especially for specific regions," said study lead author Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the federally funded academic research center. Tebaldi pointed to the Western U.S., Mediterranean nations and Brazil as "hot spots" that will get extremes at their worst, according to the computer models. And some places, such as the Pacific Northwest, are predicted to get a strange double whammy of longer dry spells punctuated by heavier rainfall.

North Korea Accuses U.S and S. Korea Of Preparing For Nuclear War

North Korea has just claimed the United States and South Korea were planning a nuclear war against the communist state, accusing them of devising a war plan and stocking up on the latest weapons. ‘The madcap nuclear war moves against the DPRK (North Korea) are extremely reckless proactive acts that make the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula all the more difficult to resolve and drive the situation to its worst,’ the Korea National Peace Committee said in a statement carried on the North's KCNA news agency. The statement also said the North's own nuclear test was part of preparations to defend itself against an US attack. It claimed US outrage over the regime's test was a smokescreen for its own war plans. ‘The people and its army are prepared for any provocations, any nuclear war moves,’ it said. It warned South Korea against relying on the United States for protection which would only make the country more vulnerable to an attack.

Court Told It Lacks Power Over President In Detainee Cases

Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush last week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. In a notice, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act (MCA), it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future.

Experts predict WAR in the Middle East in 2007

Middle East experts give their forecasts for the coming months in the region, warn of 'terrible deterioration' on Israel's northern border. The coming months will present Israel with strategic threats from three different directions, says Dr. Boaz Ganor, founder of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism. The first threat, stemming from the Shiite alliance of Iran and Hizbullah, will result in "terrible deterioration" on Israel's northern border, according to Ganor. "The year 2007 is going to be a critical year, as the international arena will do its utmost to narrow down the nuclear capabilities of Iran. It could be done by using more affirmative sanctions, or even a military campaign," Ganor said. "And the ramification of such an attempt, even if it's only sanctions, will cause a terrible deterioration of the situation on the northern border, where Iran will use its proxy Hizbullah to retaliate against Israel, and make clear that Israel has to pay for any activities against Iran," Ganor added.

U.N.: Number of ocean 'dead zones' rise

Scientists have found 200 "dead zones" in the world's oceans — places where pollution threatens fish, other marine life and the people who depend on them. The United Nations report showed a 34 percent jump in the number of such zones from just two years ago. Pollution-fed algae, which deprives other living marine life of oxygen, is the cause of most of the world's dead zones that cover tens of thousands of square miles of waterways. Scientists chiefly blame fertilizer and other farm run-off, sewage and fossil-fuel burning. Those contain an excess of nutrients, particularly phosphorous and nitrogen, that cause explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton. When they die, they sink to the bottom, where they are eaten by bacteria that use up the oxygen in the water. "The low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive as well as important habitats such as sea grass beds," U.N. officials said. "These areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods."

S. Korea says: North Korea can make 7 nuclear bombs

South Korea estimates North Korea has enough plutonium to make as many as seven nuclear bombs, according to a Defense Ministry report. The communist nation is also working to make a small, lightweight nuclear warhead that can be mounted atop a ballistic missile, the ministry said in the internal assessment made public by Song Young-sun, a lawmaker from the main opposition Grand National Party. The assessment is based on a meeting of top South Korean military officials a day after the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test. The report says the North is believed to have extracted 110 pounds of high-grade plutonium, enough for up to seven nuclear weapons. The North can use its Russian-made bombers to drop the bombs, the ministry said, adding that the North has 82 Il-28 bombers at bases in Uiju and Jangjin. North Korea also has built a nuclear warhead weighing some two to three tons. To be mounted on a missile, the warhead would need to be less than one ton, the ministry said.

Antarctic ozone hole biggest on record, U.S. reports

This year's ozone hole over Antarctica is bigger and deeper than any other on record, U.S. scientists recently reported. The ozone layer shields Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, and the layer thins out over the South Pole each year, primarily because human-made compounds release ozone-eating chlorine and bromine gases into the stratosphere. "From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles ," said Paul Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 million to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America, NASA said in a statement.

Professor invents radar invisibility cloak

The device can steer microwaves around it to make objects undetectable by radar. Experts are confident it can be developed to do the same with light rays — making things invisible to the naked eye, just like boy wizard Harry Potter’s cloak. A team led by Professor Sir John Pendry constructed the prototype at Duke University in North Carolina. It is made of ten fibreglass rings covered in wave-deflecting copper. Describing how it works, his colleague Professor David R Smith said: “All electromagnetic waves are swept around the area . . . to emerge on the other side as if they’d passed through an empty volume of space.” Prof Pendry, of Imperial College London, unveiled the blueprint earlier this year. It has been part-funded by the U.S. defense department.

Iran to start second network of centrifuges

Iran will start feeding uranium gas into a second network of centrifuges in days, an Iranian news agency said, expanding a program which Western powers fear is intended to make atomic bombs. The centrifuges can enrich uranium for making fuel for power plants or for nuclear bombs. Iran says it wants only to make electricity but has failed to convince world powers who are threatening United Nations sanctions.

Pig-to-Human Transplants on the Horizon

Thousands of patients die every year in the United States waiting for a suitable donor organ. So surgery professor David Sachs has been trying to figure out how to successfully put a pig organ into a primate. The Massachusetts General Hospital researcher and clinician thinks he has almost found the right protocol: a combination of organs from miniaturized, genetically engineered pigs and pig immune tissue that can prime the primate immune system to accept foreign parts. The longest any animal has survived such a transplant is 83 days, still far short of the one-year survival time that Sachs, director of the Transplantation Biology Research Center at MGH, considers a benchmark to start human trials. But he thinks with a few minor tweaks, the procedure will be ready to try in patients, possibly in as little as five years.

North Korea threatens war if South Korea joins sanctions

North Korea warned its neighbor against imposing sanctions. "South Korea, forced by the United States, has already halted inter-Korea humanitarian projects and is moving to stop cooperation in other areas. The South is even revealing an intention to join U.S.-led military operations aimed at blockade against us. "South Korea's participation in the U.S. racket to put pressure upon the North...is a serious provocation leading to a crisis of war on the Korean peninsula," a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying. "If South Korea joins the U.S. ploy to pressure us, we will consider it as a declaration of a showdown and take corresponding actions," the spokesman added.

U.N. Force Could Strike Israeli Jets

The expanded United Nations force in Lebanon has been equipped with anti-aircraft systems that could be used against intruding Israeli warplanes. Western diplomats said the planned 15,000-member force in Lebanon has received advanced surface-to-air missiles that could threaten Israeli fighter-jets that patrol the border area. They said Israel has already been warned that the SAM batteries could be used. ‘Israel has received such warnings and have taken them very seriously,’ a diplomat said. French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie reported that the Israel Air Force had suspended flights in Lebanon.

First Temple artifacts found in dirt removed from Temple Mount

The project of sifting layers of Temple Mount dirt has yielded thousands of new artifacts dating from the First Temple period to today. The bulk of the artifacts are small finds - the term used for artifacts that can be lifted and transported, rather than fixed features. The dirt was removed in the course of excavating the mammoth entrance to the underground mosque built seven years ago in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Islamic Movement in Israel separated dirt from stones, then used the ancient building blocks for rebuilding, in case the police barred construction materials from being brought in. The finds include 10,000-year-old flint tools; numerous potsherds; some 1,000 ancient coins; lots of jewelry (pendants, rings, bracelets, earrings and beads in a variety of colors and materials); clothing accessories and decorative pieces; talismans; dice and game pieces made of bone and ivory; and a host of other items.

Iran's Ahmadinejad Says Nuclear Program Will Proceed

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Iran's nuclear program had grown 10 times stronger in the last year and said Western powers were wrong if they thought Iran would retreat under political pressure from its nuclear plans. Ahmadeinejad's comments came as diplomats in Vienna said Iran is expanding its uranium enrichment program even as the U.N. Security Council focuses on possible sanctions for Tehran's defiance of its demand that it give up the activity and ease fears it seeks nuclear weapons, diplomats said. "Today the Iranian nation's (nuclear) strength is ten times stronger than it was last year at the beginning of this glorious path," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech to a crowd in the southern city of Rey. "On the other hand, our enemy's strength has become ten times less than it was last year. "They (the West) should know that taking advantage of nuclear energy is the demand of all the Iranian nation," he said, adding that "the Iranian nation insists on this right and will not retreat one iota."

U.S. To Dominate Space, Block Foes From Getting There

A new U.S. national space policy document says the United States may deny access to space to "adversaries" seen as interfering with its security or national interests. The document, released earlier this month to replace a ten-year old national space policy, also rejects any move to ban space weapons, while embracing development of a robust commercial space sector.

New Class Of Silent Submarines Poses Major Threat To The U.S.

The threat is real, and it has the Navy so concerned that it's turning to Sweden for help. That's because the Swedes have those silent submarines. And right now, one of them is stationed at Point Loma. Earlier this month, NBC4 had unprecedented access to the Swedish sub and its crew. What NBC4 aired few people have ever seen and certainly not in the United States. On the surface it looks like any other submarine, but the U.S. Navy said it could be the most dangerous sub in the world. Fredrick Linden is the commander of the HMS Gotland. He and his crew of 29 call the sub base at Point Loma home. They came to San Diego because the Navy is worried about this new generation of silent subs. The Pentagon leased the Gotland for one year, but now has extended the lease for a second year, as they try to learn why this submarine so difficult to find underwater. Subs have always had two weaknesses: they make noise and can't stay submerged very long. But the Gotland runs on a high-tech system called Air Independent Propulsion -- or AIP. Not only can the sub stay submerged for up to a month, the AIP technology also makes it quieter than other subs, and almost impossible to pick up on sonar. When the Gotland wants to be silent and undetectable, especially along coastal waters, there's not a place it can't go. And that's one of the reasons it's here. Since last summer the Navy has spent months playing a game of cat and mouse with the Gotland off San Diego, and time after time the Swedish sub has eluded its pursuers. According to Swedish newspapers, in training exercises the Gotland has sunk our most sophisticated nuclear submarines. But perhaps even more disconcerting, it reportedly sunk our largest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Reagan. As the U.S. funnels billions into the war on terror, countries like North Korea, China and Iran are building or trying to get submarines like the Gotland. Two months ago in the Persian Gulf, Iran tested a new anti-ship missile fired by one of its subs. If the Iranians are successful in getting a Gotland-class submarine, it could pose a new silent danger to vital oil tanker traffic in the region.

Israeli Defense Forces Preparing For Iranian Threat

Prime Minster Ehud Olmert spoke with a group of 100 Kadima activists at his home in Jerusalem and referred to the readiness of the Israel Defense Forces in light of the new dangers faced by Israel, saying that the troops will be trained to face any such threat. ’Our soldiers will be trained to deal with any of the dangers Israel is facing, including the Iranian threat, and we have already begun the work,’ he said. Olmert also referred to the achievements which were obtained as a result of the war and said that it will be apparent to all that the accomplishments that the IDF gained are real and important. He also referred to the probe into the war and said that ‘there will leave no stone unturned, and no warehouse unchecked.’ During the past week Olmert expressed his opinion several times regarding the Iranian threat. During his visit to Moscow last week, Olmert told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel will not accept a nuclear Iran.

Researcher says Official contact with aliens to take place within next 4 months

Well-known Brazilian UFO researcher Jan Val Ellam is convinced that by next year humanity will have an official definite contact with the extraterrestrial creatures from other galaxies. Jan Val Ellam is a bestselling author of 15 books about Spirituality and its connection with Ufology. According to Ellam’s own words he has been maintaining contact with the representatives from the outer space for the past 20 years and taking detailed notes in a special notebook. It was they who warned him about the earthlings’ upcoming encounter with several alien races some time between November 15, 2006 and April, 2007. Ellam explained that the aliens are nice and kind beings radically different from humans. The UFO enthusiast also added that the reason our Earth has had no contact with the other galaxies was due to the widespread violence that dominated the planet.

Flight Testing Aircraft-mounted Tactical Combat Laser Begins

Boeing has begun flight testing in New Mexico of the concept of an aircraft-mounted tactical combat laser that could eventually be used against ground targets. The low-power tests at White Sands Missile Range involve a laser mounted on a belly of a C-130 and are part of the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration. The low-power solid state laser is a stand-in for the high-power chemical laser designers believe can be deployed to attack ground targets, particularly in crowded urban settings or against moving targets where a high degree of precision is required. "ATL will transform the battlefield by giving the warfighter a speed-of-light, precision engagement capability that will reduce collateral damage dramatically," Boeing Vice President Pat Shanahan said Friday. "The start of flight and laser testing shows that Boeing is making solid progress toward making this revolutionary capability a reality." The oxygen-iodine chemical beam produces an effect similar to a blow torch that can easily cut through metal, and is effective as distances up to 9 miles, making it possible to be used both out of sight and earshot of the enemy. Boeing said in a release that the beam is precise enough to hit the tire of a moving vehicle without risking a hit on the fuel tank or passenger compartment. The chemical laser was fired for the first at a site in Albuquerque last month and will continue ground tests through the fall. It will be installed in a small turret on the C-130 next year for mission simulation flight tests.

Airport to tag passengers with RF Tags

Airport security chiefs and efficiency geeks will be able to keep close tabs on airport passengers by tagging them with a high powered radio chip developed at the University of Central London. The technology is to be trialled in Debrecen Airport in Hungary after being in development for two-and-a-half years by University College London as part of an EU-funded consortium called Optag. Dr Paul Brennan, of UCL's antennas and radar group, said his team had developed a radio frequency identification tag far in advance of any that had been used to now to label supermarket produce. People will be told to wear radio tags round their necks when they get to the airport. The tag would notify a computer system of their identity and whereabouts. The system would then track their activities in the airport using a network of high definition cameras. "[The tags] have got a long range, of 10m to 20m," said Brennan, "and the system has been designed so the tag can be located to within a metre, and it can locate thousands of tags in one area at a given time."

Stealth satellites: Cold War myth or operational reality?

A patent recently issued to an upstart space entrepreneur could be another sign that stealth satellites are real — not vestiges of the previous millennium’s battles. In late 2004, right about the time that some U.S. lawmakers publicly unveiled a previously classified $9.5 billion program to build satellites that orbit the Earth undetected from the ground, Robert Bigelow, hotel entrepreneur and founder of Bigelow Aerospace, submitted a patent application for a satellite that proposed to do just that. Bigelow’s patent, filed in November 2004 and approved a year later, follows a dozen or so previously filed inventions back to the early 1960s. Each outlined methods that could reduce or eliminate the optical and radar signatures that could be used to track, identify and determine the orbital parameters of a satellite from the ground. If the essentials of an orbit are obtained — potentially by low-cost, easily obtainable methods and equipment — an opponent can either hide above-ground activities during the reconnaissance satellite’s pass or possibly target the space vehicle with anti-satellite weapons. By all indications, the U.S. has launched and operated at least two such satellites in the post-Cold War era for photo reconnaissance or signal intelligence, one in 1990 and the other in 1999.

Israel Finds 39 Russian-Made Missiles in Hezbollah Hides

Military sources said the Israel Army has collected 39 Russian-origin anti-tank missiles from Hezbollah outposts in southern Lebanon. They said the missiles included the AT-14 Kornet and the AT-13 Metis. “Some of the missiles were still in their original packaging, which identified them as having been manufactured in Russia,” a military source said. The sources said photographs of the missiles were delivered to Russia in September as evidence that weapons exported by Moscow ended up with Hezbollah. They said the Kornets were exported to Syria in 2002. “The [Israel] army also found bills of lading and serial numbers with the missiles,” the source said. “It is probable that some of these missiles that were ordered by Iran for Hezbollah via Syria.”

Real-Life Skynet Scarier Than Terminator One

Fred C. Ikle, one of America's foremost strategic thinkers, in his latest book "Annihilation from Within", sees the ever-faster advances in brain science and computers merging to build superhuman intelligence systems. Brain-computer-interface (BCI) research projects are proliferating among universities in the G-8 major industrial countries and China. And when this quest succeeds, Mr. Ikle says it will trump the latest supercomputers (already up to 73 trillion operations per second) and the best human experts. In a nanosecond of history, the evolution that took millions of years from primates to Homo sapiens will jump into the unknown. Homo connectus will relegate the obsolete nation-state and its dysfunctional institutions to artifacts of history, quaint but useless. This gigantic leap of history will "obliterate all previous notions about military power, pose a fundamental challenge to all religions, and eventually upend human civilization."

U.S. says North Korea seeks to escalate crisis despite saying 'No More Tests'

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cast doubt on reports that North Korea had pledged to stop nuclear tests, saying it seemed bent instead on escalating the crisis. News reports had raised hopes that tension was easing by saying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had told China's special envoy Tang Jiaxuan that he planned no further nuclear tests. But Rice met Tang in Beijing and told reporters traveling on to Moscow with her: "Tang did not tell me that Kim Jong-il either apologized for the test or said that he would not ever test again." Russia is the last stop on Rice's five-day trip to shore up support for U.N. economic and weapons sanctions imposed a week ago to punish Pyongyang for conducting an underground nuclear test on October 9. She played down reports Kim had told Beijing he "regretted" the test, which was condemned internationally, including by China, the North's closest ally and economic lifeline. "The Chinese did not, in a fairly thorough briefing to me, say anything about an apology," she said. "The North Koreans, I think, would like to see an escalation of the tension."

FDA Is Set To Approve Milk, Meat From Clones

Three years after the Food and Drug Administration first hinted that it might permit the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals, prompting public reactions that ranged from curiosity to disgust, the agency is poised to endorse marketing of the mass-produced animals for public consumption. The decision, expected by the end of this year, is based largely on new data indicating that milk and meat from cloned livestock and their offspring pose no unique risks to consumers. "Our evaluation is that the food from cloned animals is as safe as the food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, the FDA's chief of veterinary medicine, who has overseen the long-stalled risk assessment. Farmers and companies that have been growing cloned barnyard animals from single cells in anticipation of a lucrative market say cloning will bring consumers a level of consistency and quality impossible to attain with conventional breeding, making perfectly marbled beef and reliably lean and tasty pork the norm on grocery shelves.

Britain Now # 1 Al-Qaida Target

Britain has become the main target for a resurgent al-Qaida, which has successfully regrouped and now presents a greater threat than ever before, according to counter-terrorist officials. They have revised their views about the strength of the network abroad, and the methods terrorists are able to use in the UK. Intelligence chiefs with access to the most comprehensive and up to date information have told the Guardian that al-Qaida has substantially recovered its organization in Pakistan, despite a four-year military campaign to seek out and kill its leaders. In that time, the organization has become much more coherent, with a strong core and a regular supply of volunteers. More worrying, officials say, is evidence of new techniques that would-be terrorists within the UK have adopted. The structure of individual al-Qaida-inspired groups is much more like the old Provisional IRA cells, with self-contained units comprising a lead organizer/planner, a quartermaster in charge of weapons and explosives acquisition and training, and several volunteers. Officials describe these groups as ‘multi-tasking’ - involved in fraud and fundraising and courier work as well as planning attacks. ‘There is a hierarchy within each cell with a very tightly run command and control,’ said one counter-terrorism source.

Shoppers could soon pay for goods using a microchip implanted under the skin

It may sound like a sci-fi fantasy but shoppers will soon be able to pay their grocery bills using a microchip implanted in their body. The idea is already catching on with today’s iPod generation. According to research released today by the Institute for Grocery Distribution (IGD), a retail think-tank, almost one in ten teenagers and one in twenty adults are willing to have a microchip implanted to pay shop bills and help to prevent card or identity fraud and muggings. A quick scan of the hand or arm would connect immediately to bank details and payments could be made swiftly. Such microchips are already used in cats, dogs and horses. They are used in cattle and sheep so that consumers can trace their food from farm to plate and are also being used to help to combat drugs counterfeiting. But now the retail industry is looking at body chips among a range of biometric payment methods, including fingerprint and iris recognition. So far the only example of a human body chip being used is at the VIP Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, where people wear bikinis and shorts and there is nowhere to carry wallets and purses. The club offers clients a microchip, injected in the arm, which gives them access to certain areas of the club and acts as a payment method at the bar. This chip, made by the VeriChip Corporation, is a glass capsule about the size of a grain of rice, which sits under the skin. It carries a ten-digit personal number that can be linked to a person’s bank account, and has been a success at the club. With teenagers happy to use MySpace (the networking website) and blogs to share details of their private lives, there is less concern surrounding privacy than for other generations. There is already a pay-by-touch experiment under way at the Midcounties Co-operative in Oxford, where a finger scan is linked to a bank account. This system is used by more than 2.3 million shoppers in the US and also allows them to cash cheques in stores. Fingerprint recognition is used at Ben-Gurion airport in Israel, rather than making passengers stand in a check-in queue.

Same-Sex Marriage Returns To Ballots, As Voters' Moods Warm To The Idea

Two years after voters in 13 states approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, gay rights activists hope to reverse that course next month. Colorado's first-in-the-nation ballot proposal to create same-sex domestic partnerships had strong support in a recent poll. At the same time, polls in three of the eight states that will vote on banning same-sex marriage show the measures either trailing or leading narrowly.

Ahmadinejad predicts Israel's collapse, warns of 'boiling wrath'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has predicted Israel will collapse and warned that its allies face the "boiling wrath" of the people if they continue to support the Jewish state. The renewed assault on Israel by Ahmadinejad -- who has been castigated by world powers for his frequent anti-Israeli outbursts -- came as tens of thousands marched through Tehran in an annual pro-Palestinian protest. "This regime (Israel) will be gone, definitely," Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for Israel to be "wiped from the map" and described the Holocaust as a myth, told the protestors. "You (the Western powers) should know that any government that stands by the Zionist regime from now on will not see any result but the hatred of the people," he added. "The wrath of the region's people is boiling." "Efforts to stabilise this fraudulent regime have completely failed, thank God ... This regime has lost the rationale of its existence," the president said. Ahmadinejad described his warning as an "ultimatum" for Western powers. "You should not complain that we did not give a warning. We are saying this explicitly now." "If a hurricane starts be rest assured that the dimensions of this hurricane will not be limited to the geographic borders of Palestine," he added. "This regime (Israel) will take its supporters to the bottom of the swamp." "The best solution is for you to take all the components of the regime and take it away," Ahmadinejad said.

Monster Making Technology Being Perfected By Scientists

Over the next 10 years gender confusion will exponentially escalate through genetic modification, human enhancement and transgenics. In some cases, transgenics will create human-animals and animal-humans whose genetic structure has been altered through introducing animal or human DNA into the others genome. Researchers claim the unique opportunity to study gene development and disease processes through this type of science should be aggressively pursued. The government must agree because biotechnology such as transgenic research continues to capture a large portion of government-funded research grants around the world. But no matter how one slices the redefinition of the human species, the Nephilim Goliath of the Bible is rolling over in his huge grave.

Hamas Renews Orders Of SAMs

Officials said the Israeli intelligence community has received information that Hamas has ordered and received anti-aircraft missiles. They said the missiles were comprised of Soviet-origin SA-7s, which arrived in the Gaza Strip from neighboring Egypt. The Cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was briefed on the Hamas missile order. Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of military intelligence's research department, said the Hamas surface-to-air missiles could endanger helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft that fly over the Gaza Strip. He also reported the arrival of anti-tank missiles to the Gaza Strip. A Cabinet statement said Baidatz discussed the ‘violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas, the increased smuggling of war materiel from Sinai.’ The statement did not elaborate.

Iran's Ahmadinejad says 'God told me we will win any war'

While the West is preparing to impose sanctions on Iran, due to the country's failure to suspend its nuclear activities, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still optimistic. ‘We shall win,’ he was quoted in the Iranian media as saying Monday, and added: ‘One day I will be asked whether I have been in touch with someone who told me we would win, and I will respond: 'Yes, I have been in touch with God'.’ ‘We must not be afraid of them,’ he stated, hinting to the western countries. Ahmadinejad also noted that although he was at times mocked for his preoccupation with spiritual matters and his use of ‘divine’ words,’ he was nevertheless certain that Iran would prevail, after having secured the support of international public opinion for its cause. Meanwhile, Iranian news agencies reported Monday that Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi addressed the possibility of an attack on Iran and said, ‘If Americans and Zionists want to try their luck in Iran, they will experience a larger defeat than in Iraq.’ Safavi added during a memorial service held at his headquarters: ‘We are obligated to our fallen to maintain the readiness and deal a powerful blow on the enemies in case of an attack.

Biometrics Firms Eyeing World 'Security'

Growing global demand for protection against terrorism and identity theft could help Biometrics Technologies New Zealand tap into a billion-dollar market, the Auckland-based company says. Its idea is as old as the pyramids, where workers were identified not only by name but by traits including size, face shape and complexion.
Biometrics was given $263,000 by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to help put a modern spin on the old idea - identifying among other things people's fingerprints, irises and faces. The company has a trial running in a Welsh school where supervisors use a hand-held device to photograph students' faces, which are automatically checked against records to weed out any would-be exam cheats. The school also uses web-cams to take a register by recording images of students as they enter classrooms. The images are matched to a database within seconds and trigger alerts if any students are missing. Biometrics said it could also use closed-circuit television cameras to monitor faces within a crowd. "The biometrics industry is going ahead so fast overseas," Jelowicki said. "In the United States, a customer can pay for credit card purchases by fingerprint touch and there are keyboards with fingerprint scanners." The technology was becoming more accepted as explanations of its potential benefits allayed concerns about lost privacy. "Technology is advancing," she said. "Why be scared of it, why not embrace it and make it work to your advantage."
Japanese banks were installing thermal image readers to check the vein pattern in customers' palms.

Hamas threatens Israel with 'unforgettable lesson'

The armed wing of ruling Palestinian movement Hamas has threatened to teach the Israeli military a "lesson it will not forget" should the army expand an offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades declared it had the "means and arms necessary to confront the Zionist enemy with all our force if it proceeds (further) with military operations in the Gaza Strip". Israel has threatened to step up an offensive in the Palestinian territory, where 22 people have been killed since Thursday, in a bid to stop persistent rocket attacks and arms smuggling from Egypt. A top security official quoted Defence Minister Amir Peretz as telling a parliamentary committee on Monday that there was no option but to expand the Gaza operation "in order to prevent Gaza from turning into southern Lebanon." Nobody wants such an operation deep in Palestinian territory but there can be no other option if Hamas continues to arm itself and stage attacks against Israel," he was quoted as telling the foreign affairs and defence committee. But hitting back at statements from Israel that Gaza militants are amassing stockpiles of smuggled arms, including surface-to-air missiles, Hamas's armed wing accused Israel of "using such allegations to justify criminal operations it seems to have decided to wage in the Gaza Strip". "It is our right to hold whatever weapons (we need) to defend our people since the enemy does not hesitate before using all sorts of weapons, banned by international conventions, against innocent Palestinian civilians". "If the enemy decides to go towards a large confrontation with Hamas, we will be up to this challenge and are totally ready to resist. We have finished preparations to teach the Zionist enemy a lesson it will not forget," it added.

Department Of Defense Wants Autonomy For Terminator Drones

A proposal, unveiled publicly in September but never before publicised, would give "armed autonomous systems" the authority to shoot to destroy hostile weapon systems but not suspected combatants. Accordingly, any people killed or injured in the attack would be considered the collateral damage of a successful strike on a legitimate target. "If you stop and think about what this is, it really is a new paradigm for conducting warfare," John S Canning, a chief engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center and one of the authors of the proposal said.

Torture Bill, Twilight Of American Freedom, And Nobody Cares

George W. Bush got what he wanted, ostensibly as a tool in his unfocused "war on terror": By signing into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Bush has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries, and for the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended for individuals who are designated "enemy combatants" against the U.S. (Designated by whom? That question remains unanswered.) The law also "establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence obtained by coercion [that is, torture], but would give defendants access to classified evidence being used to convict them." The provisions of Bush's new torture law mean that Americans have lost the key, constitutional right on which Anglo-American criminal law (and criminal-law procedures in true democracies in general) is founded; that's the basic right of an individual to know why he or she is being apprehended and detained. Now, technically, as in Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Mao's China or Pol Pot's Cambodia, anyone labeled an "enemy combatant" - again, by whom; by Bush? - can be whisked away and never heard from again. That kind of authority, in the hands of corrupt or untruthful politicians, may or may not be an effective tool in some kind of "war on terror," but it certainly can be a useful tool when it comes to silencing their opponents.

Say hello to your robot self

With little more than a train station and a few government buildings, the sleepy town of Keihanna is a far cry from the dazzling celluloid cityscapes of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. But just as in those classics of science fiction, futuristic robots are coming to life here -- androids that are astonishingly realistic, and could challenge our ideas of what we consider human. Hiroshi Ishiguro is at the forefront of designing machines that look just like us. The senior researcher at Keihanna's ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories drew headlines around the world last year when he unveiled a robot that, from a few feet away, could easily have been mistaken for a Japanese woman. Equipped with off-board cameras, microphones and floor sensors, Repliee Q1Expo can detect human presence and interview people with a microphone, moving its upper body in a smooth, natural fashion. All of which makes perfect sense, since Repliee is an android copy of Ayako Fujii, a real newscaster. Roboticist Masahiro Mori, a devout Buddhist, sees the latest humanoids as spiritual beings. "Like all things, advanced androids will have a Buddha nature -- the potential for enlightenment," he says. "It exists everywhere, not just in robots that look like humans."

North Korea 'days away' from second nuclear test

North Korea is paving the way for a second nuclear test within days amid intelligence reports that the first may have been less than a complete success. Aerial photographs showed an unusual pattern of activity that indicated possible nuclear preparations after Pyongyang denounced UN sanctions against it as an act of war. The White House said that it would not be surprised if Kim Jong Il defied world opinion again, particularly because the atomic explosion last week was relatively weak. “The first test, while nuclear, did have a low yield, and perhaps it would not be unreasonable to expect that the North Koreans might want to try something again, to be provocative,” Tony Snow, President Bush’s spokesman, said. For the first test North Korea may have used a sophisticated plutonium-fuelled device that did not achieve its maximum potential, Western intelligence sources said.

USAF Prepares To Militarize Cyberspace

Air Force Cyberspace Task Force director Dr. Lani Kass said: "Cyberspace is something on which, as a technologically advanced nation, the United States is hugely dependent. You use your ATM card, you use your cell phone and you go to an Internet cafe. If somebody is pregnant, they go have a sonogram. If they are sick, they have an X-ray or an MRI. All those things are in cyberspace. Our life has become totally bounded, dependent on cyberspace. Therefore, the importance of that domain is not only for how we fight, but also for our way of life.

North Korea Condemns UN Security Council Sanctions

The North Korean Foreign Ministry says the North will take what it calls ‘merciless’ action against any country that infringes on its sovereignty. It says North Korea ‘wants peace, but is not afraid of war.’ It also lashed out at the United States, saying the sanctions are based on what it calls a U.S. attempt to ‘destroy the socialist system.’ North Korea said it would continue to monitor U.S. actions and take appropriate measures - but did not specify what those measures would be. Senior American diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, arrived in South Korea Tuesday, for talks on how U.S. allies in the region should respond to the North's nuclear test last week. U.S. officials confirmed that the underground blast was a genuine nuclear explosion with a force of less than one kiloton.

Should We Make Cyborg Soldiers?

Should we implant future nanotech-enabled computers and actuators into soldiers to make them more effective? Patrick Lin, director of The Nanoethics Group, James Moor at Dartmouth University, and Fritz Allhoff at Western Michigan University have been given a quarter-million dollars, in the form of a pair of grants from the National Science Foundation, to try sorting out the answers to these kinds of questions. In a press release, Lin said, "Today, human enhancement may mean steroids or Viagra or cosmetic surgeries. But with the accelerating pace of technology, some of the more fantastic scenarios may arrive sooner than people think."

Hamas Seeks To Expand Training In Iran

Hamas has sought to expand Iranian aid to the Palestinian movement. Palestinian sources said Hamas leaders have been negotiating with Teheran to increase military and financial aid to the insurgency group. They said senior Hamas officials, led by Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Said Siyam, discussed the request during their visit to Teheran last week. ‘Siyam said that without Iranian help, the war with Fatah could continue indefinitely,’ a Palestinian source, who did not want to be further identified, said. ‘Siyam wants to essentially kick the Fatah militia out of Gaza.’ The sources said Siyam, accompanied by the head of the new PA Executive Force Yusef Zahar, has asked Iran to finance training of Hamas operatives. They said Hamas wanted hundreds of fighters to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt, and from there make their way to Syria. From these countries, the operatives would be flown to Iran for training similar to that received by Hizbullah.

Lost Tribe Of Israel Returning Home

Hundreds of Jews from a group of thousands in India that believes it is one of the 10 ‘lost tribes’ of Israel has been granted permission to immigrate here next month, fulfilling for many of them a life-long dream of returning to what they consider their homeland. ‘The significance of this should be readily apparent, even to the most hardened of cynics,’ Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israel, the organization leading the charge for the return of the tribe said. ‘After all, whoever heard of an ancient lost tribe returning to its ancestral homeland 2,700 years after their deportation? Without exaggerating, it seems fair to say that this is a miracle of biblical proportions,’ Freund said.

2nd Warning For Muslims To Leave U.S. Before Attack

Another Pakistani journalist is reporting receiving another threat – this one from a senior Taliban leader – warning all Muslims to leave the U.S. in anticipation of a major terrorist attack before the end of Ramadan. The head of the Islamabad-based al-Quds Center reported receiving an audio message from Mullah Masoom Afghani urging U.S. Muslims to get out of the country ‘because God's punishment would fall on America in the month of Ramadan.’ Jamal Ismail is the journalist who received the message. He formerly worked for al-Jazeera. He told the News of Pakistan that he received a phone call Oct. 5 from Afghani. ‘Afghani said he was speaking from somewhere in Kandahar province,’ reported Ismail. ‘In it, he advised Muslim residents of America to get out to escape harm because the U.S. could face big attacks in the month of Ramadan.’ Last month, WND reported the new al-Qaida field commander in Afghanistan called for Muslims to leave the U.S. – particularly Washington and New York – in anticipation of a major terror attack to rival Sept. 11, according to an interview by another Pakistani journalist. Abu Dawood told Hamid Mir, a reporter who has covered al-Qaida and met with Osama bin Laden, the attack is being coordinated by Adnan el-Shukrijumah and suggests it may involve some form of weapon of mass destruction smuggled across the Mexican border. ‘Our brothers are ready to attack inside America. We will breach their security again,’ he is quoted as saying. ‘There is no timeframe for our attack inside America; we can do it any time.’ As WND has previously reported, el-Shukrijumah is a trained nuclear technician and accomplished pilot who has been singled out by bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to serve as the field commander for the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

100 dead in India due to mosquito borne diseases

The number of deaths in India due to an outbreak of the mosquito-borne dengue and chikungunya viruses hit 100, a hospital official said, as authorities struggled to contain the spread of the diseases. "So far, six more people have died from dengue in Delhi over the past 24 hours," said the official at a control room at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the country's premier facility. With about 1,500 cases, New Delhi and its neighbouring states were the worst hit by dengue, a viral infection transmitted to humans through bites of the female Aedes mosquitoes. The disease causes a severe, flu-like illness and internal bleeding.

Private Report Details For Lawmakers President's Effort To Expand Power

President Bush's frequent use of signing statements to assert that he has the power to disobey newly enacted laws is ``an integral part" of his ``comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand executive power" at the expense of the legislative branch, according to a report by the non partisan Congressional Research Service. In a 27-page report written for lawmakers, the research service said the Bush administration is using signing statements as a means to slowly condition Congress into accepting the White House's broad conception of presidential power, which includes a presidential right to ignore laws he believes are unconstitutional. The ``broad and persistent nature of the claims of executive authority forwarded by President Bush appear designed to inure Congress, as well as others, to the belief that the president in fact possesses expansive and exclusive powers upon which the other branches may not intrude," the report said.

Disaster declared as quake hits Hawaii

A strong earthquake shook Hawaii early Sunday, jolting residents out of bed and causing a landslide that blocked a major highway. Ceilings crashed at a hospital, and aftershocks kept the state on edge. The state Civil Defense had unconfirmed reports of injuries, but communication problems prevented more definite reports. Gov. Linda Lingle issued a disaster declaration for the entire state, saying there had been damage to buildings and roads. There were no reports of fatalities. The quake hit at 7:07 a.m. local time, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua Kona, a town on the west coast of Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Israel has raised the prospect of a Middle East War in 2007

Military sources said the Intelligence Corps has warned of the possibility of war in 2007. The sources said the corps, in its annual intelligence assessment, has notified the General Staff that Syria represented the greatest danger of war over the next year. ‘The main message was that the chance of war with Syria in 2007 was greater than during 2006,’ a source said. ‘This does not mean that it will happen. It means that there is a reasonable change of it taking place.’ The annual assessment relayed to the General Staff was expected to be revised over the next few months. The Cabinet would receive the annual assessment toward the end of 2006.

Exorcists Call for More Understanding of Paranormal Activity

Ireland's leading exorcists have called for the creation of a special forum to deepen our understanding of the paranormal world. Exorcists within both the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland want the forum set up to learn more about spooky goings-on around the country. Between them Fr Pat Collins and Rev William H Lendrum have carried out hundreds of exorcisms. Among the frightening cases they have dealt with include a 10-year-old boy who became possessed after using a Ouija board and the ghost of a young woman who physically attacked people living in her former home. Despite being from different traditions the two churchmen have also worked together on a number of exorcisms. But they both believe the world of the paranormal is something, which requires much more investigation. "This is a part of Christianity that has been overlooked or simply ignored," Rev Lendrum claimed. He added that the creation of a forum would bring this issue into the centre and give us an opportunity to discuss it in detail.

United Arab Emirates Plans Reserve Military Force

The United Arab Emirates, amid increasing tensions with Iran, has launched an effort to establish a reserve military force. Officials said the UAE, which contains a U.S. and British combat air presence, would set up a major military reserve unit that would ensure indigenous capabilities. They said the reserves would retain the services of experienced officers and technicians. ‘The UAE military will be the most modern in the Gulf Cooperation Council state,’ an official said. ‘It must establish a reserve force that would retain the expertise and experience required to maintain such a military.’ Currently, Kuwait, another neighbor of Iran, is the only GCC state with a reserve military force. The UAE has the most modern fleet in the region, with the advanced F-16 Block 60 multi-role fighter

Could Nanotech Open The Bottomless Pit?

CRN is concerned that nanofactories would lead to a nano "arms race" in which hard-to-detect nanoweapons could be designed, manufactured and tested much quicker than they are today. "Imagine a suitcase filled with billions of toxin-carrying flying robots that could be released anywhere to target a population," he says.

Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip

An investigative report raises the possibility that Israel has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip in recent months, causing especially serious physical injuries, such as amputated limbs and severe burns. The weapon is similar to one developed by the U.S. military, known as DIME, which causes a powerful and lethal blast, but only within a relatively small radius. The report is based on the eyewitness accounts of medical doctors in the Strip, as well as tests carried out in an Italian laboratory. The investigation, by Rai24news, follows reports by Gaza-based doctors of inexplicably serious injuries. The doctors reported an exceptionally large number of wounded who lost legs, of completely burned bodies and injuries unaccompanied by metal shrapnel. Some of the doctors also claimed that they removed particles from wounds that could not be seen in an x-ray machine. According to those who testified, the wounded were hit by munitions launched from drones, most of them in July. Dr. Habas al-Wahid, head of the emergency room at the Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital, in Deir el-Balah, told the reporters that the legs of the injured were sliced from their bodies "as if a saw was used to cut through the bone." There were signs of heat and burns near the point of the amputation, but no signs that the dismemberment was caused by metal fragments. Dr. Juma Saka, of Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, said the doctors found small entry wounds on the bodies of the wounded and the dead. According to Saka, a powder was found on the victims' bodies and in their internal organs. "The powder was like microscopic shrapnel, and these are what likely caused the injuries," Saka said.

Intelligent Unmanned Aircraft Planned

U.S. researchers say they are creating an intelligent airborne fleet of small, unmanned vehicles for military use. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists and their colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Boeing Phantom Works in Seattle say such unmanned aerial vehicles would require little human supervision and could automatically monitor their own condition.

Experts Warn Nuclear-Tipped Missiles Are North Korea;s Next Goal

Kim Tae-woo is a senior analyst with Seoul's Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. He says two types of North Korean missile, the medium-range Rodong and the longer-range Taepodong lines, eventually may be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Kim says a nuclear device would need to weigh one ton or less to be placed successfully on a missile. To fit on a Rodong missile, he says it should weigh no more than 500 kilograms. North Korea tested at least seven missiles in July, including one long-range Taepodong-2 theoretically capable of reaching parts of the United States. That missile apparently failed within minutes of leaving the ground. This week, Pyongyang said it had exploded a nuclear device. While international experts are not yet certain if there was a successful nuclear blast, it is clear, they say, that the isolated country is moving forward in its efforts to build a nuclear bomb. Pyongyang says it needs nuclear weapons to prevent an attack by the United States. Washington has said repeatedly it has no intention of attacking North Korea, and calls on the country to comply with its past pledges to not build nuclear weapons.

World Grain stockpiles at lowest for 25 years

The world’s stockpiles of wheat are at their lowest level in more than a quarter century, according to the US Department of Agriculture, which slashed its forecasts for global wheat and corn production. The lower forecasts were largely attributable to the severe drought in Australia, where the forecast for this year’s wheat crop was cut by 8.5m tons to 11m. That is less than half of the 24m produced last year, of which about 17m went to exports. As a result of the low Australian crop, AWB, the country’s main wheat exporter, said it would suspend exports from the country’s east coast due to the poor crop and review its export requirements. To add to the global supply concerns, Ukraine has introduced licences and quotas on its wheat exports, effectively bringing shipments to a standstill. This has already halted Ukrainian wheat shipments of 50,000 tonnes to India. The USDA also lowered wheat output for China, Brazil and the European Union. “The concern now is what happens next year. If we have poor conditions for growing wheat again, supplies could get very tight and we might see some demand rationing,” said Dan Cekander, grains analyst at Fimat.

U.S. Government Workforce To Get Biometric Smart Identifications Cards

The government's new smart-card I.D.s are the latest and, in the United States, the broadest use so far of biometric technology that recognizes a person's physical features. "In the case of the card that'll be produced for federal employees and contractors," he notes, "your fingerprints can be read by scanners. Present the finger at the [machine] reader, and it just scans it and can match it on the card. The smart card is capable of doing that kind of biometric verification."

Iran expected to follow North Korean model

Israeli and Western intelligence sources said Teheran has been in close consultations with North Korea regarding missile and nuclear development. They said Iran has been a leading client of North Korea's exports of missiles and nuclear expertise. ‘The two countries are extremely close on strategic issues,’ a Western intelligence source said. ‘If the North Koreans get away with this test, then Iran could be expected to move in that direction.’ On Monday, North Korea -- believed to have accumulated up to 40 kilograms of plutonium -- announced its first nuclear test. At least one Western intelligence agency confirmed an atomic explosion in a mountain tunnel and expressed concern of yet another North Korean test. Intelligence sources said the agencies would require another two weeks to determine whether the test was successful.

Communicating With The Dead Or The Devil?

In the 1990s it was "Touched by an Angel." Then it was John Edward's "Crossing Over." Now it's the increasingly popular "Medium" and "The Ghost Whisperer." Americans have always seemed fascinated by the idea of communicating with spirits in another world. According to a recent study by the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, 20 percent of Americans believe that the living can communicate with the dead. In an online survey of over 10,000 Beliefnet members, 77 percent said they'd felt the presence of a spirit, angel or dead soul.

Bush Calls For War "Across The World"

Determined to spread limitless chaos, US President George W. Bush yesterday called for fighting America's enemies "across the world" as he stepped up his counteroffensive following charges that his policies were breeding a new generation of Islamic terrorists. The call, delivered in his weekly radio address, was aimed at countering a rash of accusations that the Bush administration has seriously mishandled the war in Iraq and created fertile ground for Islamic extremism. The criticism was fueled by the United State's Own National Intelligence Estimates, portions of which were declassified this past week. These document argue that the war in Iraq has spawned a new generation of Islamic radicals determined to strike against the United States.

North Korea threatens more nuclear tests warns of war with the U.S.

North Korea stoked regional tensions Wednesday, threatening more nuclear tests and saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war, as nervous neighbors raced to bolster defenses and punish Pyongyang. South Korea said it was making sure its troops were prepared for atomic warfare, and Japan imposed new economic sanctions to hit the economic lifeline of the communist nation's 1 million-member military, the world's fifth-largest. Further pressure will be countered with physical retaliation, the North's Foreign Ministry warned in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the statement, said without specifying what those measures could be.

Scientists teleport two different objects

Beaming people in "Star Trek" fashion is still in the realms of science fiction, but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality. Until now scientists have teleported similar objects such as light or single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split second. But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both light and matter. "It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium," Polzik explained in an interview. "Teleportation between two single atoms had been done two years ago by two teams, but this was done at a distance of a fraction of a millimeter," Polzik, of the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics, explained. But the achievement of Polzik's team, in collaboration with the theorist Ignacio Cirac of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, marks an advancement in the field of quantum information and computers, which could transmit and process information in a way that was impossible before.

Public Kept In Dark As Sovereignty Bartered Away In N. American Integration

Away from the spotlight, from Sept. 12 to 14, in Banff Springs, Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor met with U.S. and Mexican government officials and business leaders to discuss North American integration at the second North American Forum. According to leaked documents, the guest list included U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mexican Secretary of Public Security Eduardo Medina Mora and Canadian Forces chief General Rick Hillier.... The event was chaired by former U.S. secretary of state George Schultz, former Alberta premier, Peter Lougheed and former Mexican finance minister Pedro Aspe... To make it worse, our government will not be issuing a public statement and refuses to release any information about the content of the discussions or the actors involved.

'Israel has cause for concern over N. Korea's nuclear test'

"Israel should be very concerned by North Korea's nuclear test," Uzi Eilam, former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) said on Monday. According to Eilam, "The cause for concern is three-fold. First, as a world democracy, it should be concerned by the threat a North Korean nuclear capability poses to the entire world. Second, It is certainly possible that Pyongyang would share its nuclear know-how with Iran, in return for a sizeable financial reward. North Korea's nuclear program is far more advanced than Iran's. While Iran has only started to produce fissile material, North Korea has done so at least five years ago." "Third, Syria, which is also under heavy international pressure, could look at the North Korean example and decide to actively push for its own nuclear capability, taking into account that it would be a great deterrent to alleviate the pressure and get the international community off its back," Eilam said.

U.S. Expected To Push For Air Strikes If Evidence Proves N. Korea Test Was Nuke

Pentagon hawks will try to persuade US President George W. Bush he should order immediate military air strikes to obliterate North Korean nuclear sites. "The President will receive some advice to the effect that it is better not to wait, that there will not be a clearer trigger point than what we have now," said Dr Huisken, senior fellow at the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

North Korea Threatens to Fire Nuclear Missile if U.S. Won't Commit to Talks

This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and intimidation," John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said. "It's worked for them before. It won't work for them now." Meanwhile, the White House said the world may never be able to confirm North Korea's claim that it had successfully tested a nuclear weapon on Monday. White House press secretary Tony Snow suggested that the test may not have been nuclear in nature. "You could have something that is very old and off-the-shelf here, as well, in which case they've dusted off something that is old and dormant," he said. Snow said the intelligence community would continue to assess the explosion. A South Korean newspaper report said the North Korean blast was smaller than Pyongyang expected, but the unnamed North Korean diplomat called the explosion a "success" nonetheless. The latest North Korean threat came in a report by the country's Yonhap news agency. "We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," it quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying. "That depends on how the U.S. will act."

Scientists are planning to create a ‘frankenrabbit’

Scientists are planning to create a ‘frankenrabbit’ by fusing together human cells with a rabbit egg. It is hoped the ‘chimeric’ embryos, which would be 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent rabbit, could lead to breakthroughs in stem cell research which could one day cure diseases such as Alzheimer's or spinal cord injury. The embryos will allow scientists to perfect stem cell creation techniques without using human eggs. ‘If we learn how to do this with animal eggs, we should be able to have more success with human eggs, and I'd much rather know that if we were going to ask women to donate eggs that we were very likely to get stem cells as a result,’ said Chris Shaw, at the Institute of Psychiatry. We know this is a huge challenge after Dr Hwang in South Korea failed to get stem cells despite having 2,000 human eggs.’ Teams in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle are to submit application to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority this month, requesting licences to create embryos that will be 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent rabbit or cow.

North Korea May Be Preparing Second Test

Unusual activities were detected in a rugged area in North Korea, causing South Korean authorities to suspect that the communist state might be preparing a second nuclear test, a news report said. Kim Seung-Gyu, head of South Korea's spy agency, told parliament that activity involving vehicles and some 30 to 40 people was under way at Punggyeri in the northeastern county of Kilju, Yonhap news agency reported. ‘From three p.m. (06:00 GMT) today, there have been some unusual movements under way at Punggyeri where we had thought the first nuclear test would be carried out,’ Kim was quoted as saying. ‘We have been closely following developments there to find out whether North Korea is moving to conduct a series of tests as India and Pakistan did,’ he said. An unidentified lawmaker who serves on parliament's intelligence committee quoted Kim as telling the committee that there is a ‘sufficient possibility’ of the North carrying out further nuclear tests. Punggyeri is where vehicle movements and the unloading of large reels of cable were spotted by satellite images last month, prompting speculation that a nuclear test was being prepared.

North Korea Nuclear Test Could Spark Asian Arms Race

The specter of an Asian atomic arms race loomed over the region Monday after communist North Korea shocked the world by announcing it conducted its first-ever nuclear test in a brazen move that fueled global jitters. Officials from Washington to Seoul had warned of a possible arms race even before North Korea said it fulfilled its threat to join the elite club of nuclear powers. South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan had said a test could give Japan a pretext to go nuclear, triggering countermoves by suspicious Asian neighbors in a cascade that upends regional security.

Has King David's spa been uncovered?

There's a buzz of excitement among archeologists. In recent days, archeological digs in Jerusalem revealed a tunnel that, according to a number of estimates, leads to a pool used by King David. The digs, which have been underway for years, are located in David's City, west of the Wailing Wall. A year ago, archeologists discovered a pool from the days of the Second Temple that had been used by pilgrims to Jerusalem, to refresh them after their long journey. Recently, the edge of a tunnel was discovered in the digs. Archeologists posit that it leads to a pool, originally located next to a garden full of fruit trees, where King David and other kings of the dynasty used to bathe. In order to ascertain whether it is really King David's spa, it will be necessary to dig for several months to the other end of the 30 meter long tunnel. Such digging requires special permission from the Greek Orthodox patriarchy, who is the holder of the land.

General: Iraq War Unraveling U.S. Army

The Iraq war has left the U.S. military in critical condition, stretched beyond its limits in manpower and equipment and in danger of "breaking," retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey said. "The United States Army is stumbling toward the edge of a cliff. It's starting to unravel," McCaffrey told the Rocky Mountain News, prior to addressing the Homeland Defense Symposium at the Broadmoor Hotel. "It has $61 billion in equipment shortages. It has a $50 billion shortfall in the vital equipment and parts you need to run a war," said the former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Southern Command. "I hope there's new thinking and new debate because the course we're on now won't sustain us for the next 24 months." The 14 Army brigades now deployed in Iraq have their full complement of troops and "extremely competent" leadership, said McCaffrey, but "the other two-thirds of the Army's combat brigades are not ready to fight." That's because many brigades leave their equipment in Iraq for their replacements when they return home and are rapidly depleted of manpower as returning soldiers complete their service and leave, McCaffrey said. Any new emergency, he said, such as heightened tensions in Korea or Taiwan, a domestic terrorism attack or natural disaster, could push the Army beyond its limits.

Pentagon Confirms China's Anti-Satellite Laser Test

The Pentagon has confirmed that China has tested its anti-satellite laser and jammed a U.S. satellite but wouldn't say which satellite was involved. The U.S. has 30 Global Positioning Satellites that it relies on for a number of tasks. That ranges from military uses such as targeting bombs and finding enemy locations to consumer uses such as automobile navigation systems and bank automatic teller machines. The Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Office Director Donald Kerr acknowledged the incident to Defense News last week, but said it did not materially damage the U.S. satellite's ability to collect information. "It makes us think," Kerr said. Air Force Space Commander General Kevin Chilton said, "We're at a point where the technology's out there and the capability for people to do things to our satellites is there. I'm focused on it beyond any single event."

Defiant North Korea says nuclear test successful

North Korea said Monday it had performed its first nuclear weapons test, an underground explosion that defied international warnings but was hailed by the communist nation as a "great leap forward" for its people. The reported test drew harsh condemnation from world powers and some warned it would destabilize the region. The U.N. Security Council was expected to discuss North Korea on Monday, and the United States and Japan were likely to press for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on the impoverished country. The U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a seismic event with a preliminary magnitude-4.2 in northeastern North Korea that coincided with the announced test. But the Colorado-based agency was unable to tell whether it was the result of an atomic explosion or a natural earthquake, USGS official Bruce Presgrave said. Australia and South Korea said there was seismic confirmation that pointed to a nuclear test. A top Russian military officer confirmed the device tested was a nuclear weapon, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Ozone hole matches record size

The "ozone hole" over Antarctica this year has matched the record size of 11.4 million square miles, the U.N. weather agency said. The area of the so-called hole — a thinning in the ozone layer during the South Pole winter — is the same as in the record year of 2000, according to measurements by NASA, said Geir Braathen, ozone specialist. But Braathen said of greater concern is that the amount of ozone gas particles remaining in the hole is even lower than in 2000, a measurement called "the mass deficit." According to the European Space Agency, the loss has been 39.8 megatons, he said. "In a way this mass deficit is a better measure of how much ozone is depleted ... because it counts how many tons of ozone are lacking," The thinner layer this year "will lead to more ultraviolet radiation on the ground," Braathen said. Too much ultraviolet radiation can cause skin cancer and destroy tiny plants at the beginning of the food chain.

Seizures of radioactive materials fuel 'dirty bomb' fears

Seizures of smuggled radioactive material capable of making a terrorist “dirty bomb” have doubled in the past four years, according to official figures. Smugglers have been caught trying to traffick dangerous radioactive material more than 300 times since 2002, statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show. Most of the incidents are understood to have occurred in Europe. The disclosures come as al-Qaeda is known to be intensfiying its efforts to obtain a radoactive device. Last year, Western security services, including MI5 and MI6, thwarted 16 attempts to smuggle plutonium or uranium. On two occasions small quantities of highly enriched uranium were reported missing. All were feared to have been destined for terror groups. Scientists responsible for analysing the seizures have given warning that traffickers are turning to hospital X-ray equipment and laboratory supplies as an illicit source of radioactive material. Investigators believe that the smugglers, who come mainly from the former Eastern bloc, are interested only in making a swift fortune and believe that they may have no compunction in selling to jihadist groups. Most undercover operations and recent seizures have been kept secret to protect the activities of Western security services.

North Korea warns catastrophe after border incident

North Korea warned of catastrophic consequences on Sunday if South Korea's military engaged in "unforgivable military provocation" like the weekend skirmish at a heavily fortified border between the two Koreas. South Korean troops fired warning shots on Saturday after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed over the border, adding to mounting tension after Pyongyang said on Wednesday it planned to conduct a nuclear test. "This was an undisguised challenge against us and an unforgivable military provocation," the North's KCNA news agency said in a commentary. "It was only the high patience and self control of our Korean People's Army soldiers that the incident did not spread to an armed clash on both sides," it said.

Shots fired at tense Korean border

South Korea fired warning shots on Saturday after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed into its side of their heavily defended border, adding to mounting tension after Pyongyang said this week it planned a nuclear test. The skirmish follows demands by the UN Security Council the previous day for the reclusive North not to carry out the test and warning of unspecified consequences if it did. "Our troops fired warning shots at the five North Korean soldiers after they climbed over the military demarcation line despite several loudspeaker warnings," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said they went about 30 metres (yards) across the line within the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the last frontier of the Cold War. The North Korean soldiers did not return fire and none was reported injured in the incident. "It seems the North intended to raise tensions after their announcement on October 3 of a plan to conduct a nuclear test," Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean military source as saying.

Syria Preparing For Israeli Attack

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that his nation is ready for war with Israel. In an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anba, he was asked whether, pursuant to the war in Lebanon, Syria was prepared against Israeli attacks and would be prepared to wage war. In response, the president replied: ‘During the aggression against Lebanon, there was vast pressure from among the population to fight against Israel and liberate the Golan. Many people made suggestions to this effect, directly and informally.’
According to Assad, his nation is expecting an Israeli attack: ‘As far was we're concerned, the prospect for peace is unrelated to the changing circumstances and constitutes a basic principle, but, at the same time, we are preparing for an Israeli attack at any minute. We all know that Israel is military strong and backed by the US.’
‘Ever since Ariel Sharon came to power, Israel has given up on the peace process. Sharon's election was a sign that Israel had comprehensively given up on the peace process and the US government only strengthened this trend. Therefore, naturally, our expectation is that there will not be peace and perhaps will be war,’ said the president.

Alaskan storm cracks iceberg in Antarctica

A bad storm in Alaska last October generated an ocean swell that broke apart a giant iceberg near Antarctica six days later, U.S. researchers reported. The waves traveled 8,300 miles (13,500 km) to destroy the iceberg, said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, they said their study shows how weather in one region can affect events far away. "One of the things we're debating in the world right now is whether global warming might increase the storminess in the oceans," MacAyeal said in a statement. "The question we then pose is: Could global storminess have an influence on the Antarctic ice sheet that had never been thought of ?" The researchers were watching icebergs using satellite images and saw that on a clear, calm day last October, a big iceberg known as B15A broke into half a dozen pieces.

Venezuela arms buildup concerns Rumsfeld

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld passed on an offer of Venezuelan tobacco, but tried to smoke out the government of President Hugo Chavez on the country's recent military buildup. "I don't know of anyone threatening Venezuela, anyone in this hemisphere," said Rumsfeld, who is attending a meeting here of Western hemisphere military leaders — many of them concerned about the weapons, jets and helicopters Chavez is buying. Other countries in the region are worried that the weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists, Rumsfeld told reporters Monday, adding, "I can understand neighbors being concerned."

Experts warn of an accidental atomic war

A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warn. Russian military officers might misconstrue a submarine-launched conventional D5 intercontinental ballistic missile and conclude that Russia is under nuclear attack, said Ted Postol, a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pavel Podvig, a physicist and weapons specialist at Stanford. "Any launch of a long-range nonnuclear armed sea or land ballistic missile will cause an automated alert of the Russian early warning system," Postol told reporters. The triggering of an alert wouldn't necessarily precipitate a retaliatory hail of Russian nuclear missiles, Postol said. Nevertheless, he said, "there can be no doubt that such an alert will greatly increase the chances of a nuclear accident involving strategic nuclear forces." Podvig said launching conventional versions of a missile from a submarine that normally carries nuclear ICBMs "expands the possibility for a misunderstanding so widely that it is hard to contemplate." Mixing conventional and nuclear D5s on a U.S. Trident submarine "would be very dangerous," Podvig said, because the Russians have no way of discriminating between the two types of missiles once they are launched. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the project would increase the danger of accidental nuclear war.

Syria's Assad: No one can stop Hezbollah weapons smuggling

No military or international body can stop Hezbollah from smuggling weapons into Lebanon, Syrian President Bashar Assad said. "If there is a real desire to smuggle [weapons], neither Security Council resolutions nor surveillance nor the whole armies of the world can prevent this," he said in an interview that was released by Syria's state-run SANA news agency. Hezbollah is widely believed to have received weapons and other support from its backers, Syria and Iran.

Waiting for the imam's return to Earth

The followers of Moqtada al-Sadr believe that the US invaded Iraq to prevent the return to Earth of their sect’s messiah-like figure, the Mahdi, or 12th imam. Hojatoleslam al-Sadr claims that his militia is preparing for the day when the Mahdi, the last direct descendent of the revered Shia figure Ali, reappears. Shia believe that the Mahdi, who disappeared in 868, will bring justice to Earth. At a prayer service in the central Iraqi city of Kufa, the cleric told a crowd of thousands that the Americans were collecting a dossier on the Mahdi to prevent his return. “Did you ever ask yourself about why all of this, the bloodshed and the prisons? Why are the brothers fighting each other for a political game planned by the Americans? This all happened because they (the Americans) are waiting for the Mahdi. This planning started ten years ago. They have a big file for Imam Mahdi and they just need his picture to complete it.” Hojatoleslam al-Sadr and his advisers are convinced that the Americans want to destroy Islam and stop the Mahdi. “The Americans are trying to hijack Islamic movements. They think that these are serving the Mahdi’s interests. Whatever they did in Afghanistan and Iraq are all attempts to hijack the Mahdi’s return.”

U.S. 'Cannot Allow' Nuclear North Korea

The US will not accept a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons, a top US envoy has said, after Pyongyang announced plans for a nuclear test. North Korea must choose either to have a future or to have nuclear weapons ‘but it cannot have them both’, top US negotiator Christopher Hill said. He did not specify how the US would respond if a nuclear test took place. The US wants other countries to unite against the test plans, but talks at the UN have been inconclusive. ‘At this stage, there's division,’ said John Bolton, US envoy to the UN. Japan was leading efforts to agree a strongly-worded UN statement.

American Barcode & RFID Announces TETRAGATE Biometric Facial System

American Barcode and RFID is pleased to announce the creation of a new technology -- TETRAGATE -- which combines UHF RFID (radio frequency identification) technology inside an employee ID card with biometric facial recognition. TETRAGATE recognizes people approaching from 60 feet away in a fraction of a second, reading up to 60,000 faces in a single second -- and without people even knowing their images are being scanned.

Ahmadinejad: Iran is determined to expand its nuclear program

Speaking to professors at Tehran University, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran hopefully will increase its enrichment program to produce nuclear fuel. The president has repeatedly rejected calls by the United States and its allies to stop enrichment. "Allegations or charges by the United States than Iran is seeking nuclear weapons is a big lie," Ahmadinejad said during his speech, which was broadcast on state-run television. The process of uranium enrichment can be used to produce electricity or to build nuclear weapons depending on the level of enrichment. The U.S. alleges Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, but Iran contends that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Ahmadinejad said in his speech that he hopes Iran will install up to 100,000 centrifuges to process uranium gas for enrichment in order to produce nuclear fuel. He said Iran has no plans to suspend enrichment, not even for a day. "Not a single person has a right to give up the rights of the Iranian nation," he said.

China tells North Korea to step back from brink

China has urged North Korea not to destabilise the Korean peninsula by testing a nuclear weapon. The only ally of Kim Jong Il's increasingly paranoid regime advised Pyongyang today to negotiate with the international community rather than "take actions that escalate tensions". "We hope that North Korea will exercise necessary calm and restraint over the nuclear test issue," said Liu Jianchao, the chief spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in a short statement. Beijing remained conspicuous by its silence yesterday when North Korea said for the first time that it was planning to test a nuclear bomb. The threat, coming after months of sabre-rattling and a series of conventional missile tests in July, provoked an international outcry, with South Korea, Japan, Russia, France, Britain and Russia all expressing their concern.

Syria, Iran intelligence services aided Hezbollah during war

During the fighting in Lebanon Hezbollah received direct intelligence support from Syria, using data collected by listening posts jointly manned by Russian and Syrian crews. Hezbollah was also fed intelligence from new listening posts built on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which are operated jointly with Iran. This information was confirmed in recent reports by the defense journal Jane's. Syria's centrality to the collection and transfer of intelligence to Hezbollah is based on separate agreements Damascus signed with Moscow and Tehran on intelligence cooperation. The agreement with Russia is much older than the one with Iran, which was signed earlier this year. As happened with the significant numbers of advanced Russian anti-tank missiles procured by Syria and transferred to Hezbollah, Russia found itself operating indirectly in favor of the Lebanese Shi'ite organization in matters of intelligence.

Creating the North American Union

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) serves as the intellectual incubator for most of the foreign policy direction followed by the executive branch of the federal government. Before the trilateral meeting between the heads of state in Waco on March 23 of last year, the CFR had already undertaken an initiative with its counterparts in Mexico and Canada (Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives) to study the possibility of integrating the three nations.

North Korea 'To Conduct Nuclear Test'

North Korea is to conduct a nuclear test ‘in the near future’, the foreign ministry has said in a statement. The move would bolster the country's self-defense in the face of US military hostility, official agency KCNA said. Pyongyang has faced mounting pressure over its nuclear program. It is thought to have a handful of warheads but is not known to have tested one. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso has called the test plans ‘totally unforgivable’, Kyodo agency reports. Six-nation talks on its program have been stalled for nearly a year, and the US has imposed financial sanctions on North Korean businesses. The statement from Pyongyang said it would ‘in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed’. ‘The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean Peninsula,’ it said. The ministry went on to say that ‘under the present situation in which the US moves to isolate and stifle’ North Korea, the country ‘can no longer remain an onlooker to the developments.’

Russian Bombers Penetrate N. American Buffer Zone, Intercepted by U.S., Canadian Jet Fighters

A new U.S. push for greater Russian military openness collided with Cold War habits last week as Russian long-range bombers flew within 15 miles of U.S. airspace off Alaska. Fully-armed U.S. fighter jets responded, intercepting the two bombers. The Russian Tu-95 bombers on a training exercise Thursday penetrated a North American buffer zone, said a statement Friday from Maj. Gen. Brett Cairns, operations chief for Colorado Springs-based North American Aerospace Defense Command. The U.S. response “was appropriate,” said Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. “We have a near-sacred responsibility to protect and defend the United States and Canada against any and all threats. We will not waver in this responsibility,” Keating said. Four U.S. F-15 fighters, supported by two Canadian CF-18 fighters, found and intercepted the bombers. A U.S. pilot snapped a photo of the silvery Russian craft with a red star on its tail.

New strain of hospital bug linked to 49 deaths in Britain

A virulent strain of a superbug has been linked to at least 49 deaths in three Leicester hospitals this year, the local NHS trust has revealed. Figures released by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said the superbug clostridium difficile (C Diff) was probably responsible for the deaths of 28 patients, and possibly contributed to the deaths of a further 21 found to be infected. Another 29 cases have been referred to the coroner. The superbug, a common cause of diarrhoea, is carried without side effects by as many as one in 33 adults. But it can be fatal for vulnerable patients with suppressed immunity and the elderly. It is hard to eradicate and cannot be prevented with alcohol gels or routine cleaning. It can survive for months outside the body, lurking on floors, handles, lavatory seats, lockers and beds. Many patients will already be carrying it before being admitted to hospital. The trust held an audit after noticing an increase in the number of cases of a new strain, C Diff 027, which arrived in Britain from Canada and the US around 15 months ago. The 027 is said to be the most recent mutation of the bug and is particularly nasty because it produces 20 times as much toxin as others strains of C Diff and resists many antibiotics.

Jesse Ventura Highlights Government Plan To Attack U.S. Cities & Kill Americans

In a sit-down video interview recorded on Monday night, former Minnesota Governor, pro-wrestling star and actor Jesse Ventura told radio host Alex Jones he found it very disturbing in light of what happened on 9/11 that the U.S. government had once planned to "attack certain cities within the United States," as a pretext for war. "In the early sixties the Pentagon had an operation called Operation Northwoods and it never came to reality but it was on the table that our military would attack certain cities within the United States and make it look like Cuba did it to justify an invasion of Cuba," said Ventura. "It never happened but just the simple fact that they contemplated it and it was actually on the table in the Pentagon I find that just very disturbing - that they would even consider using our military to try to justify an invasion of another country."
Ventura, a former Navy Seal, then cited the Gulf of Tonkin cover-up as an example of how false provocations are staged by governments to lead nations into war. "It was very disappointing to believe in your country that they would lie to you to get into a war - that they would perpetrate a lie and that the media would go along with it - it's a real eye opener and you realize that if they would do it in the sixties they'll do it again - and if it works once it will work again - government very much operates that way," said Ventura.

Russian oil grab 'puts western supplies at risk'

A former government adviser has warned it is "only a matter of time" before BP or Shell faces a bid from a Russian state-owned group such as Gazprom which could threaten western oil supplies. Professor Peter Odell, an energy economist, says ExxonMobil is also vulnerable to a Chinese takeover as the large UK and American stock-listed oil groups lose their influence in global markets. "A Chinese bid for Exxon and/or Chevron and/or a Russian bid for Shell and/or BP, backed by funds provided by the wealthy member countries of Opec seem likely to be only a matter of time.

Israel Fears War with Syria More Likely

Israeli intelligence sources say the likelihood of a war breaking out between Syria and Israel has increased. For years, the prevailing assessment of the Israeli army’s intelligence corps was that the likelihood of a war with Syria was low, but the new assessment estimates that Syria’s top brass is seriously contemplating a military option against Israel, the paper reported. Reports of the new review coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling Syria the “capital of anti-Israeli terrorism.” Negotiations with Syria are not realistic,” Olmert said in an interview. The main bone of contention between Israel and Syria is the Golan Heights, a strategic area in northern Israeli spanning about 447 square miles. Israeli captured the Golan Heights in 1967 and annexed the area in 1981, but Syria considers it occupied land.

Documents disclose 'shadow government'

Government documents released by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal the Bush administration is running a "shadow government" with Mexico and Canada in which the U.S. is crafting a broad range of policy in conjunction with its neighbors to the north and south, asserts WND columnist and author Jerome R. Corsi. The documents, a total of about 1,000 pages, are among the first to be released to Corsi through his FOIA request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, which describes itself as an initiative "to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation." "The documents clearly reveal that SPP, working within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is far advanced in putting together a new regional infrastructure, creating a 'shadow' trilateral bureaucracy with Mexico and Canada that is aggressively rewriting a wide range of U.S. administrative law, all without congressional oversight or public disclosure," Corsi said.

Terminator Robots In Pentagon Warfare Plans

The United States has robots prepared to fight in the battlefield and is planning to create more complex machines in the future that think for themselves. Among the robots soon to hit the battlefield are Sword, a machine-gun equipped robot and iRobot's shotgun-totting robot. Sword was approved as safe for use by the U.S. armed forces in June. Sword was created by Foster-Miller of Waltham, Massachusetts - a company that already has robots working for the army. Talons are lightweight robots used to detonate potential bombs in many countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Talon is controlled by nearby remote control. The model can drive at high speeds and have arms that place small detonators used to disarm suspected bombs. Sword replaces Talon's arm with a machine gun. The inventors point out that a human is always in control of Sword, but that may soon change. The Pentagon Office of Naval Research issued a request in August asking for research on more complex machinery that could make its own decisions. The robots would "understand cooperative and uncooperative" people via a stress-detecting artificial-intelligence system. Cues would be taken from speech, face and gesture recognition. While gun-totting robots are hitting the battlefield, the creation of a "Terminator" robot seems all the more real with the unveiling of an artificial skin that looks and feels human. Cosmetics manufacturer Kao Corporation showed off their new skin-for-robots at the Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan. They claim that 10 out of 12 people who touched the skin described it as feeling like human skin.

Interrogation Bill May Codify Military Dictatorship!

Lawmakers and administration officials announced last week that they had reached accord on the plan for the detention and military trials of suspected terrorists, and it is scheduled for a vote this week. But in recent days the Bush administration and its House allies successfully pressed for a less restrictive description of how the government could designate civilians as "unlawful enemy combatants." The government maintains that, based on its reading of the laws of war, anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at military or CIA prisons. As a result, human rights experts expressed concern yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as the bill states, "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" or its military allies. The definition applies to foreigners living inside or outside the United States and does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant.

Former U.S. Senator Gary Hart: Get Ready For October Surprise

It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election. Were these more normal times, this would be a stunning possibility, quickly dismissed by thoughtful people as dangerous, unprovoked, and out of keeping with our national character. But we do not live in normal times. And we do not have a government much concerned with our national character. If anything, our current Administration is out to remake our national character into something it has never been. The steps will be these: Air Force tankers will be deployed to fuel B-2 bombers, Navy cruise missile ships will be positioned at strategic points in the northern Indian Ocean and perhaps the Persian Gulf, unmanned drones will collect target data, and commando teams will refine those data. The latter two steps are already being taken. Then the president will speak on national television. He will say this: Iran is determined to develop nuclear weapons; if this happens, the entire region will go nuclear; our diplomatic efforts to prevent this have failed; Iran is offering a haven to known al Qaeda leaders; the fate of our ally Israel is at stake; Iran persists in supporting terrorism, including in Iraq; and sanctions will have no affect (and besides they are for sissies). He will not say: ...and besides, we need the oil.
Therefore, he will announce, our own national security and the security of the region requires us to act. "Tonight, I have ordered the elimination of all facilities in Iran that are dedicated to the production of weapons of mass destruction....." In the narrowest terms this includes perhaps two dozen targets.

China Tried To Blind U.S. Satellites With Laser

China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in what experts see as a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft, according to sources.It remains unclear how many times a ground-based laser was tested against U.S. spacecraft or whether it was successful.

Physicists Close In On Other-Dimensional, Omnipresent Entities

The research comes from the edge of quantum mechanics, the submicroscopic realm of fundamental particles. There, things behave with total disregard for our common sense. They can show signs of being in two places at once; of being both waves and particles; of taking on some characteristics only at the moment these are measured; and of acting synchronously while far apart, with no apparent way to communicate. Although these tiny building blocks of our universe do this, the relatively huge things we see every day don’t. The uncanny behavior fades the bigger a thing becomes.