Russia lays claim to the North Pole - and all its gas, oil, and diamonds

Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic - so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth. His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia's continental shelf. One newspaper printed a map of the "new addition", a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia. The dramatic move provoked an international outcry. The U.S. and Canada expressed shock and environment campaigners said it would be a disaster. Observers say the move is typical of Putin's muscle-flexing as he tries to increase Russian power. Under current international law, the countries ringing the Arctic - -Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Denmark (which owns Greenland) - are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts. A UN convention says none can claim jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match the surrounding continental shelves. But Russian scientists have returned from a six-week mission on a nuclear ice-breaker to claim that the 1,220-mile long underwater Lomonosov Ridge is geologically linked to the Siberian continental platform - and similar in structure. The region is currently administered by the International Seabed Authority but this is now being challenged by Moscow. Experts estimate the ridge has ten billion tons of gas and oil deposits and significant sources of diamonds, gold, tin, manganese, nickel, lead and platinum. A Russian attempt to claim Arctic territory was rejected five years ago, but this time Moscow plans to make a far more serious submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. A British diplomatic source warned that Russia was planning to secure its grip on oil and gas supplies "for decades to come".

Hindu Prayer Will Open U.S. Senate Session in July

For what is believed to be the first time in its history, the U.S. Senate will on July 12 be opened with a Hindu prayer, the Senate Chaplain's Office confirmed on June 25.
For more than 200 years, the Senate has opened each workday with a prayer usually delivered by the Senate Chaplain, currently Barry Black, a Seventh Day Adventist. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain from Nevada, on will become the first Hindu to deliver the morning prayer. In a statement announcing his scheduled appearance, Zed called the occasion "an illustrious day for all Americans and a memorable day for us." Zed has previously offered prayers to open sessions of the Nevada State Assembly and Nevada State Senate in March and May of this year respectively. According to reports, he was the first Hindu to deliver opening prayers in any state legislature in the U.S. He said he plans to start and end the prayers with "'OM,' the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work." While the prayer will draw from Hindu religious texts, Zed said it will be "universal in approach."

2007 seen as second warmest year as climate shifts

This year is on track to be the second warmest since records began in the 1860s and floods in Pakistan or a heatwave in Greece may herald worse disruptions in store from global warming, experts said on Friday, June 29. "2007 is looking as though it will be the second warmest behind 1998," said Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia, which provides data to the U.N.'s International Meteorological Organization. "It isn't far behind ... it could change, but at the moment this looks unlikely," he told Reuters, based on temperature records up to the end of April. Jones had predicted late last year that 2007 could surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record due to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels and an El Nino warming of the Pacific. Almost all climate experts say that the trend is towards more droughts, floods, heatwaves and more powerful storms. But they say that individual extreme events are not normally a sign of global warming because weather is, by its nature, chaotic. "Severe events are going to be more frequent," said Salvano Briceno, director of the Geneva-based secretariat of the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The 10 warmest years in the past 150 years have all been since 1990. Last year ranked number six according to the IMO. NASA, which uses slightly different data, places 2005 as warmest ahead of 1998.

Boeing Demonstrates Autonomous Command And Control Of Multiple UAVs

Boeing has successfully demonstrated the simultaneous command and control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) by a single operator, using advanced autonomous control software, three ScanEagle aircraft and an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) console. This next-generation capability will enhance interoperability with current and future command and control systems through an open, standards-based system and significantly reduce the workload of unmanned vehicle operators.

New study from Pilots for 9/11 Truth: No Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon

Pilots for 9/11 Truth obtained black box data from the government under the Freedom of Information Act for AA Flight 77, which The 9/11 Report claims hit the Pentagon. Analysis of the data contradicts the official account in direction, approach, and altitude. The plane was too high to hit lamp posts and would have flown over the Pentagon, not impacted with its ground floor. This result confirms and strengthens the previous findings of Scholars for 9/11 Truth that no Boeing 757 hit the buillding. A study of the black box data provided by the government to Pilots for 9/11 Truth has confirmed the previous findings of Scholars for 9/11 Truth that no Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon on 9/11. "We have had four lines of proof that no Boeing 757 hit the building," said James Fetzer, founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. "This new study by Pilots drives another nail into a coffin of lies told the American people by The 9/11 Commission" The new society, an international organization of pilots and aviation professionals, petitioned the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) under the Freedom of Information Act and obtained its 2002 report on American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 that, according to the official account, hit the ground floor of the Pentagon after it skimmed over the lawn at 500 mph plus, taking out a series of lamp posts in the process. The pilots not only obtained the flight data but created a computer animation to demonstrate what it told them. According to the report issued by Pilots for 9/11 Truth (http://pilotsfor911truth.org/), there are major differences between the official account and the flight data.

Autonomous Insect Cyborg Sentinels

In a very brief article, AZoNano reports that nanotechnology is turning insects into flying cyborgs. Researchers from Cornell University have implanted 'microfluidic devices in insects before they hatch into fully grown flying creatures.' Of course, when they grow, these insects still carry the sensors. And if this works, they'll be used for monitoring and security surveillance. The article doesn't say that this project is funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which has a full Hybrid Insect MEMS program. The goal of this program is to realize 'cyborgs with most of the machine component inside the insect body to provide stealthy robots' at low cost.

Bishop Argues Chimeras Have Right To Life

Human-animal hybrid embryos conceived in the laboratory - so-called “chimeras” - should be regarded as human and their mothers should be allowed to give birth to them, the Roman Catholic Church said yesterday. Under draft Government legislation to be debated by Parliament later this year, scientists will be given permission for the first time to create such embryos for research as long as they destroy them within two weeks. But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished.

ID cards 'to be UK institution'

The identity card scheme will become a "great British institution" on a par with the railways in the 19th Century, Home Office minister Liam Byrne says. He said it was "time to get on with it" and predicted that the National Identity Scheme "will soon become part of the fabric of British life". But plans to "multiply the uses" of the ID scheme would mean there should be stronger accountability to Parliament. Current ID trials include employment, age and criminal records checks. The Home Office intends to introduce biometric identification for foreign nationals in 2008, with the first ID cards for British citizens issued in 2009.

School adopts fingerprint system for student meals

Fingerprint recognition systems and mathematical algorithms may sound like something from a hi-tech spy film. But for pupils at a Lowestoft school, they are to become simply part of the daily routine of ordering their school dinners. The new technology is part of a “cashless catering” drive, giving students the opportunity to pay on account and avoid the daily scramble for dinner money. From July 3, Kirkley High School will use biometric fingerprinting to identify each of the school's 1300 pupils when they make their food orders. Once pupils' digits have been scanned, canteen staff will have instant access to their account which will be pre-paid by their parents, or topped up at “reval” machines in the school. Parents will be able to control the amount of money available and even place conditions on what kind of food their children should be eating. Yesterday, pupils from years nine, 10 and 12 had their right index fingers scanned, and saw their fingerprints converted into a mathematical algorithm to be stored on the system. The school's IT manager, Toby Hacker, said: “The scan plots up to 45 points on the fingerprint, then turns them into a long, unique number, like a barcode.
“Only this number will be stored, not the image itself, so there can be no worry of anyone passing fingerprint information on. “We believe we're one of the first schools in this area to use this technology.” The system will also allow parents to monitor the food choices of their children through a database stored in the computer's memory.

Wear your microchip or eat it

Care to eat chips — not the potato ones in colourful packaging and different flavours but the digital ones, info rich variety! For starters, swallow this: If you happen to be among the select VIP members of the Baja Beach Club, one of Barcelona’s hottest night spots, you’ll not only be in the company of some very exclusive people, but also among the few with an implantable microchip. The chip was club owner Conrad Chase’s idea of offering a unique identity to the club’s VIP patrons. Slightly larger than a grain of rice, the chip is used to identify people when they enter and pay for drinks. It is injected by a nurse under a local anesthetic. It is an RFID tag — radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips which listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response. At the Baja Club if a special tag-reader is waved near the arm, a radio signal prompts the chip to transmit an identification number which is used to access information about the wearer from a database. Otherwise the chip is dormant. But its applications are wider. The Baja club members are not the only users of such geeky stuff. Very soon most people might have some kind of a chip implanted in them, as a means to identify, deliver medicines, monitor health, give access to secure areas and also functions as digital door locks. Just recently Kodak filed a patent for edible RFID chips. They’re designed for monitoring a patient’s gastric tract. The chips are covered in a harmless gelatin, which eventually dissolves. These RFID chips embed deep in the body and can be read by a scanner. After swallowing a tag a patient need only sit next to a radio source and receiver.

Consumer Reports says more testing, regulation needed for nanotechnology

Nanotechnology promises to be the most important innovation since electricity and the internal combustion engine. But some applications might pose substantial risks to human health and the environment, according to the July issue of Consumer Reports. Nanomaterials are already being used in consumer products such as car wax, computer chips, and sunscreen and about $2.6 trillion worth of goods worldwide are expected to use nanotech by 2014, up from $50 billion in 2006. But the risks of nanotechnology have been largely unexplored, and government and industry monitoring has been minimal. Moreover, consumers have been left in the dark, since manufacturers are not required to disclose the presence of nanomaterials in their labeling. Nanotechnology involves creating new materials or reducing the particles in standard materials to sizes as small as a nanometer, or about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. At this size, the characteristics of materials change, carbon becomes 100 times stronger than steel, aluminum turns highly explosive, and gold melts at room temperature, for example. New characteristics such as these can be used to bring positive changes to consumer products. But in some cases, they may make benign materials toxic and toxic ones more hazardous.

Chavez: Prepare for war with U.S.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for his military to prepare for a guerrilla-style war against the U.S., accusing Washington of using psychological and economic means to overturn his government. Clad in military attire, Chavez addressed hundreds of soldiers inside Tiuna Fort, surrounded by tanks and armored vehicles decorated with banners declaring, "Fatherland, Socialism, or Death! We will triumph!" Chavez repeatedly warned of a U.S. invasion and commanded, "We must continue developing the resistance war, that's the anti- imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war everyday." Chavez told soldiers the U.S. would invade to steal control over Venezuela's oil reserves.

The New World Order Tracking Device: RFID

The use of RFID chips are increasing around the world at an astonishing rate, with continuous promotion from New World Order heavyweights including the Bush Administration and also from the VeriChip Corp, who manufacture human implantable chips and have been pushing for RFID chips to be tested on the U.S. military. We have already seen the use of RFID being used in unethical ways that not only strip away personal privacy but also personal freedoms, removing the right to refuse the chips. In just the past few weeks alone we have seen: 1) Microchip implants being tested on Alzheimer's patients; 2) RFID implants for workers: 3) The combination RFID and Wi-Fi to Track Students; 4) Used to track 2,500 staff in London; 5) Over 500,000 UK bins use the digital spies... These are just some of the more recent uses, and right now as RFID implants are being sold to the America's youth as time saving, trendy devices that will impress your friends, development and use of these chips show no signs of slowing down.

Israel braces for July war with up to five enemies

Israel is preparing for an imminent war with Iran, Syria and/or their non-state clients. Israeli military intelligence has projected that a major attack could come from any of five adversaries in the Middle East. Officials said such a strike could spark a war as early as July 2007. On June 24, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that the Jewish state faces five adversaries in what could result in an imminent confrontation. Yadlin cited Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and Al Qaida. "Each of these adversaries is capable of sparking a war in the summer," Yadlin was quoted as saying. Al Qaida's No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri endorsed the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. The Al Qaida statement came after Zawahiri repeatedly criticized Hamas for tolerating Palestinian Authority cooperation with the United States. Yadlin said Hamas could be planning a major attack to divert attention away from efforts by the Palestinian Authority to isolate the Gaza Strip. He said Syria might be promoting such an attack. Officials said Iran has direct influence over Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. He said Al Qaida has increasingly come under Iranian influence and was being used by Iran and Syria in such countries as Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Already, military intelligence has assessed that Hamas acquired more than 50 missiles with a range of 22 kilometers. Officials said this would allow Palestinian missile strikes on any part of Ashkelon, the largest city in southeastern Israel and which contains strategic sites. Hamas has also deployed at least 20 SA-7 anti-aircraft systems, officials said. They said the missiles threaten Israeli combat helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft that conduct missions over the Gaza Strip.

West Texas National Bank Adopts Pay By Touch Biometric Check Cashing Service

West Texas National Bank announced on June 26, that it has adopted Pay By Touch's biometric check cashing service. Paycheck Secure(TM) powered by Pay By Touch lets consumers use a finger scan to quickly and securely identify themselves to cash a government or payroll check. West Texas National Bank introduced the innovative check cashing service through its branch location adjacent to the new Town and Country Convenience Store at I-20 and Rankin Highway. Paycheck Secure powered by Pay By Touch is fast and easy to use. To enroll, customers visit West Texas National Bank, where a bank employee will check their government-issued ID, scan their fingerprint and take a digital photograph. The one-time enrollment takes only minutes, and thereafter the customer need only place his/her finger on a scanner at the branch location to safely and securely cash checks. "We are thrilled to be the first bank to bring this innovative service to Midland, and are pleased to provide check cashers with a secure environment in order to conveniently and quickly cash their checks," said Jerry Rogers, Chief Operating Officer of West Texas National Bank. "Pay By Touch's secure and easy check-cashing solution helps West Texas National Bank attract new customers," said John Rogers, Founder and Executive Chairman of Pay By Touch. "Paycheck Secure powered by Pay By Touch can help banks generate additional non-interest, fee-based revenue while decreasing the risk of fraud and meeting applicable regulatory compliance requirements."

Biowarfare Research: Corporate America's Deadliest Secret

A number of major pharmaceutical corporations and biotech firms are concealing the nature of the biological warfare research work they are doing for the U.S. government. Since their funding comes from the National Institutes of Health, the recipients are obligated under NIH guidelines to make their activities public. Not disclosing their ops raises the suspicion they may be engaged in forbidden kinds of germ warfare research. In case you didn't know it, the White House since 9/11 has called for spending $44-billion on biological warfare research, a sum unprecedented in world history, and an obliging Congress has authorized it. Thus, some of the deadliest pathogens known to humankind are being rekindled in hundreds of labs in pharmaceutical houses, university biology departments, and on military bases. An international convention the U.S. signed forbids it to stockpile, manufacture or use biological weapons. But if the U.S. won't say what's going down in those laboratories other countries are going to assume the worst and a biowarfare arms race will be on, if it isn't already.

Bill paves way for Canada's 'disappearance' as it integrates with U.S.

Lawmakers in Canada appear to be paving the way for "deep integration" with the U.S. and Mexico with a proposed measure that advances the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America promoted by the Bush administration. It's an issue Corsi has fully investigated for his newest book, "The Late Great USA." The conservative minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pressing for "The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement", which would enable a Canadian company to challenge laws in provinces that block the North American Free Trade Agreement. Murray Dobbin, a Vancouver author and journalist critical of SPP, argued in an article titled, "The Plan to Disappear Canada – 'Deep Integration' comes out of the shadows," the secretive trilateral bureaucratic working groups organized under the auspices of SPP are "harmonizing" virtually every important area of public policy with the U.S., including "defense, foreign policy, energy (they get security, we get greenhouse gases), culture, social policy, tax policy, drug testing and safety and much more."

NATO backs U.S. missile plan on eve of Russia talks

NATO's secretary-general mounted a stout defense of Washington's missile shield plan on Monday, June 25, the day before meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin when the issue is likely to top the agenda. Russia has described United States' plan to place part of its missile shield in eastern Europe as a threat and the issue has divided European politicians with some saying it is vital for defense and others saying it is misguided. "You don't have to be Einstein to understand that 10 interceptor rockets don't pose any threat to Russia and the Russian people," NATO's Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said via an interpreter in a debate on Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio station. He underlined the shield was aimed at shooting down missiles fired by rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, and that Russia also shared these common enemies.

Iran says they will launch a Nuclear Plant in Oct

Iran's energy minister said on Monday, June 25, the country would launch its first nuclear power plant in October, state-run television reported. A Russian company leading construction of the plant near Iran's southern port of Bushehr, earlier this year delayed its launch, which had been set for September, saying Teheran was behind schedule on payments. But Atomstroiexport said in April that it had agreed on a financing plan with Teheran, setting the stage for the June 25 announcement. "Bushehr nuclear power plant will be launched in October, according to schedule," Iranian television quoted Energy Minister Parviz Fattah as saying. "Power substations and lines for supplying electricity, which would be produced by the plant, are ready to use." The international community fears Iran could be seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Teheran insists its nuclear development is meant only for electricity production.

False Prophet 'held' in Nepal as doomsday passes

Police in Nepal have detained a self-styled holy man who sowed panic across much of the country by prophesying that a massive earthquake would kill 300,000 people in South Asia last week. Bishweshwor Chaudhari, a former builder, had his followers distribute thousands of pamphlets last month forecasting that the earthquake would strike at 6.15am on June 22 and last until July 10. The prophesy caused such widespread alarm that the home ministry and council of astrologers were forced to issue statements in denial. When Friday came and went without the slightest tremor, angry residents of the city rushed to Mr Chaudhari’s house and beat him up, declaring him a charlatan and demanding that he be punished. Police intervened and detained him for disturbing the peace. The incident illustrates how deeply superstitious much of Nepal remains and how easy it is for the unscrupulous to exploit the millions of Nepalis who have little access to basic education and healthcare.

Churches worldwide to rally for an end to Israel's occupation of Arab lands

A Geneva-based church body said on June 18, it would launch a global initiative to have churches worldwide rally for an end to Israel's occupation of Arab lands seized in the 1967 Mideast war. The World Council of Churches said in a statement that it designated Jordan as a venue for its initiative, which would enlist support from religious groups worldwide. "The initiative aims at calling on all churches to work seriously for putting an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands," the statement said. The World Council of Churches, founded in 1948, groups 347 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing over 560 million Christians in more than 110 countries. The council also will create an advocacy initiative, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum, meant to improve cooperation among churches worldwide advocating for Mideast peace. The council's call came during the opening of a three-day meeting gathering 130 member churches and related organizations from around the world.

100-foot deep Andes lake disappears

A five-acre glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared -- and scientists want to know why. Park rangers at Bernardo O'Higgins National Park said they found a 100-feet-deep crater in late May where the lake had been in March. Several large pieces of ice that used to float atop the water also were spotted. "The lake had simply disappeared," Juan Jose Romero, head of Chile's National Forest Service in the southernmost region of Magallanes, said recently. "No one knows what happened." A group of geologists and other experts will be sent to the area 1,250 miles southeast of Santiago in the next few days to investigate, Romero said. One theory is the water disappeared through cracks in the lake bottom into underground fissures. But experts do not know why the cracks would have appeared because there have been no earthquakes reported in the area recently.

Creating chimera human-animal organisms will mean the creation of new species of intelligent life

The only thing stopping the creation and then self-propagation or cloning of such human-animal chimeras will be a rule (that any government can U-turn on) that states the newly created human-animal embryo will be destroyed after a certain number of cell divisions. But that rule will only apply where it is enshrined in law, in some other countries there will be no legal compulsion to destroy the human-animal embryos after x number of cell divisions and it is inevitable that we will witness in our lifetimes the creation of “master races” that will have genetic attributes that ordinary man could not possibly compete with. Countries that can hardly be described as pro-West will inevitably combine human-animal chimera technology with cloning technology to create ‘special forces’. Cloned human-chimeras with the ability to out-run, out-think and outfight ‘conventional armies’, ie of ordinary human beings. The human-animal chimeras will simply want power over humans. They will have one goal, total and complete subjugation of all genetically inferior humans.

Darpa Seeks Miniature Networking Robots For Urban Combat

Darpa recently announced that it wants proposals for self-healing miniature "LANdroids" that could help U.S. military members fighting in cities. The droids would intelligently choose locations and self-configure to form a mesh wireless voice/data network that isn't dependent on line of sight, according to the Darpa spec sheet. The networks could supplant radio communications, which are often ineffective in urban combat. The new network pathways would be redundant. Soldiers must be able to drop the robots (no heavier than 2.2 pounds each) and go the other way, without having to return to a dangerous area to retrieve them. The robots must be able to move slowly through indoor areas, and should cost about $100 each. Designers must use inexpensive, long-life batteries and program the robots to conserve power when necessary. "The LANdroid is meant to be carried into the field, and as such it must not be a brittle or delicate platform," Darpa said in its 34-page announcement (PDF). "They must be sufficiently rugged and robust to perform credibly and reliably in the field. For the purposes of this task, we will evaluate platforms based on their ability to withstand reasonably hostile environments in terms of mechanical shock, vibration, temperature, dust, and humidity." The robots don't have to be designed for climbing stairs, but Darpa said it welcomes novel ideas.

European Human Rights Body Fights Creationism

Europe's main human-rights body will vote on a proposal next week to defend the teaching of evolution and to keep creationist and "intelligent design" out of science class in state schools in its 47 member countries. The unusual move shows that a U.S. trend for religiously based attacks on the theory of evolution is also worrying European politicians, who now see such arguments put forward in their countries by Christian and Islamic groups.

New Technology Lets User Control Electronics With Brain

Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity. The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. (HIT) analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals. A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo. "Take a deep breath and relax," said Kei Utsugi, a researcher, while demonstrating the device on June 20. At his prompting, a reporter did simple calculations in her head, and the train sprang forward — apparently indicating activity in the brain's frontal cortex , which handles problem solving. Activating that region of the brain — by doing sums or singing a song — is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too. Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography , which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow. Although brain-machine interface technology has traditionally focused on medical uses, makers like Hitachi and Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. (HMC) have been racing to refine the technology for commercial application. Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking. Honda, whose interface monitors the brain with an MRI machine like those used in hospitals, is keen to apply the interface to intelligent, next-generation automobiles. The technology could one day replace remote controls and keyboards and perhaps help disabled people operate electric wheelchairs, beds or artificial limbs. Initial uses would be helping people with paralyzing diseases communicate even after they have lost all control of their muscles.

Israeli Air Force preparing for Iran strike

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been training on long-range flights, including refueling in mid-flight, in preparation for potential strikes against Iranian nuclear targets. The training program has been taking place for some time but has only been released for publication recently. Intelligence assessments received by the defense establishment concur that once Iran passes the point of no return in its nuclear efforts, the entire Middle East will enter a frantic nuclear armament race. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are expected to take the lead should such a scenario become reality.

“Playing God” -Scientists in Final Stage of Creating Man-made Life

Dr Craig Venter, who has led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has been working for years to create a man-made organism. He says his company Synthetic Genomics Inc, has nearly completed the journey to create the world’s first free-living artificial organism. According to Venter, it will only be a few more weeks before manmade life is unveiled in his very own laboratory. “It will be one of the bright milestones in human history, changing our conceptual view of life.” Said Venter. Others have a less “bright” view of Venter’s work—they say it could be potentially dangerous. It has been suggested that this type of technology could turn out to be the scary side of “playing God”, since it invariably suggests the chance that dangerous organisms could be inadvertently (or purposefully) unleashed on a world unprepared to deal with the consequences. Because there is no precedence, scientists don’t know for sure what kind of negative impact is possible.

Iran moves closer to making a nuclear bomb

Iran claimed on June 22, to have stockpiled 100kg of enriched uranium, enough in theory to create two nuclear bombs of the kind that destroyed Hiroshima. The news will once again stoke fears that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Iran would need 50kg of weapons-grade uranium in order to make one nuclear weapon equal in power to the one dropped by the Americans in 1945. So far, the regime’s uranium has only been enriched to the level needed for generating electricity in civilian nuclear power stations. But if Iran chooses to enrich it to 84 per cent purity, it would reach weapons-grade level and become the essential material for building a bomb. Mustapha Pourmohammedi, Iran's interior minister, told the official news agency that the moment of maximum international pressure on his country had passed and that Teheran would press ahead with its nuclear programme. "When the world saw that the nation is pursuing this goal with unity, the world has surrendered. We have passed the dangerous moment," he said.

'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot

One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands. Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light". As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. "It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737. "But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide." Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a "second identical object further to the west". He said: "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes. "I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying." The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: "I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval." The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline. The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.

Jesus Picture To Be removed from Court

Jesus has no place in Slidell City Court, says the Louisiana ACLU, which has asked court officials to remove his portrait from the lobby within a week or face the possibility that the organization will file a lawsuit to force the issue. Several people have complained to the ACLU about the picture, and one has filed a written complaint, prompting the organization to intervene, said Joe Cook, the Louisiana chapter's executive director. The ACLU also wants the court to remove lettering beneath the portrait that says, "To know peace, obey these laws."

Archaeologist sparks hunt for Holy Grail

An archaeologist has sparked a Da Vinci Code-style hunt for the Holy Grail after claiming ancient records show it is buried under a 6th century church in Rome. The cup - said to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper - is the focus of countless legends and has been sought for centuries. Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist, claims that it is buried in a chapel-like room underneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches which Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome. Mr Barbagallo based his claim on two years spent studying mediaeval iconography inside the basilica and a description of a particular chamber, in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra. The friar describes a room of about 20 square metres with a vaulted roof ceiling. "In the corner of a wall-seat there can be seen a terracotta funnel whose lower part opens out over the face of a skeleton," he wrote. Da Bra then explains that giving liquid refreshment (refrigerium) to the dead was part of ancient funeral rites. According to Mr Barbagallo, who heads an association called Arte e Mistero [Art and Mystery], this funnel is the Grail.

A third US carrier, the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise Strike Group is speeding towards the Persian Gulf

The U.S. naval build-up off the shores of Iran marks rising military tensions in the region, accentuated by last week’s Hamas victory which has endowed Iran with a military foothold on Israel’s southwestern border. The USS Enterprise CVN 65-Big E Strike Group, the US Navy’s largest air carrier, will join the USS Stennis and the USS Nimitz carriers, building up the largest sea, air, marine concentration the United States has ever deployed opposite Iran. This goes towards making good on the assurances of four carriers US Vice President Dick Cheney offered the Gulf and Middle East nations during his May tour of the region. The “Big E” leads a strike group consisting of the guided-missile destroyers USS Arleigh Burke DDG 51, USS Stout DDG 55, Forrest Sherman DDG 98 and USS James E. Williams DDG 95, as well as the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg CG 64, the SS Philadelphia SSN 690 nuclear submarine and the USNS Supply T-AOE 6. On its decks are the Carrier Air Wing CVW 1, whose pilots fought combat missions in the Gulf and Arabian Sea during 2006. The Air Wing is made up of F/Q-18 Super Hornet strike craft, the Sidewinders Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-86, the 251st Marine Fighter Attack Squadron MFA, and the Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ 137. The 32nd Sea Control Squadron VS consists of S-3B Vikings. The Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAQ 3 flies E-2C Hawkeye craft. The Fleet Logistics Support Squadron VRC is based on C-2A Greyhounds. Sources report Washington is considering deploying the fourth U.S. carrier for the region in the Red Sea opposite Saudi Arabian western coast to secure the three U.S. carriers in the Gulf from the rear as well as the Gulf of Aqaba and Suez Canal.

Bionic Boom: The Miraculous Mechanical Body Parts That Are Being Made In The Lab

Researchers are beginning to understand how to wire silicon chips to the brain, with the prospect of artificial implants that can restore lost function. At the University of Southern California, Professor Theodore Berger's team has shown that it is possible for a silicon chip to "talk to" a mammalian brain. In other words, it might eventually be possible to replace damaged areas with a microprocessor implant that could receive and process signals. Ultimately this could "repair" brains in people who have Alzheimer's disease or who have other damage.

NAFTA superhighway extends north

A NAFTA superhighway plan under way in Texas will be extended to Oklahoma and Colorado, stretching the four-lane, train-truck-car-pipeline corridor from the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, to Denver. The Federal Highway Administration is promoting public-private partnership projects to expand superhighway projects, consistent with extending the Trans-Texas Corridor network north. The plan is for the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado to apply the TTC toll road concept first developed by the Texas DOT to largely rural areas along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor. To advance this plan, the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition – sponsored by the consulates of Mexico and Canada along with the Texas and Colorado transportation departments – is co-sponsoring a "Great Plains 2007" international conference Sept. 19-21 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver. A brochure on the planned conference recommends it be attended by real estate developers, transportation planners, highway services business executives, as well as state, local, county and municipal public officials and international trade professionals. An April Texas DOT study on the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition website documents the tie between the two groups. The study says the Ports-to-Plains Corridor offers an opportunity to apply the Trans-Texas Corridor technology to NAFTA superhighway development in rural settings. It concludes by recommending new highway construction be undertaken parallel to the existing Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor route in order to apply the superhighway design north through Oklahoma into Colorado.

U.S. and allies lay global foundation for biometric border checks

The UK has proposed a transatlantic arrangement for sharing biometric data about travellers as US coalition countries in the "war on terror" push for a global system to control migration. The initiative officially lays the first brick in a concerted effort to establish a common border. Launching the UK's borders and immigration strategy in Washington today, Home Secretary John Reid said the UK and US should "routinely share information about travellers of interest", as well as people caught with fake passports, or those trying to side-step immigration controls. He proposed greater co-operation between coalition countries because, he said, the UK couldn't protect its borders "by operating in a bubble". "Today we are undertaking to improve that co-operation through better exchange of immigration data and working together to tackle the reasons for migration," he said in a statement. The UK Borders and Immigration Agency's Strategy to build stronger international alliances to manage migration, published today, proposes establishing the international legal basis to share biometric immigration data. It said the UK would "rapidly" bring forward plans to use other technologies to pick undesirables out of queues at UK borders. It proposed "voice analysis" as one example. New technologies would be used for the "scientific and technical identification of nationality" and to "fix people's identities".

Groups Associated with Al-Qaida Grow

Since Sept. 11, 2001, dozens of radical groups have sprung up across North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere that claim links to al-Qaida. Some of these groups are new. Others are long-standing networks that have recently tacked the al-Qaida name onto their own. Intelligence officials say some of these groups really are part of al-Qaida, while others are simply local bands of religious militants. Either way, they present worrying evidence of an expanding, revitalized al-Qaida. For a local terrorist group, joining al-Qaida makes it harder for members to move around — and harder to raise funds openly. But, on the plus side, publicity will increase, which is good for recruitment. A link to al-Qaida may bring other monetary investment. And, seen through the eyes of would-be jihadi, al-Qaida means prestige. "Al-Qaida, because of its perceived success — especially in Iraq — is the team you want to be on," said Daniel Benjamin, of the Brookings Institution, who was formerly a director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council. The appearance of new offshoot groups across the Middle East and North Africa is good news for al-Qaida's core leadership, believed to be holed up in Pakistan, Benjamin said. "Remember, what al-Qaida wants most is to mobilize the Muslim world. And so every time a new group signs on, particularly takes the name, then it's — it's a coup for them," Benjamin said. One of the most significant recent developments along these lines is the appearance, in Algeria, of "Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb." This is not a new group. Under its previous guise, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, it worked for years to overthrow the Algerian government. But this past September brought a formal announcement that the group's ambitions were about to widen.

U.S. Military Prepared For Worst With China

China's secretive transformation of its military power leaves the United States preparing for the worst eventualities, including over Taiwan, a Pentagon official said recently. About 900 Chinese missiles are in place opposite Taiwan, while China is also rolling out far more sophisticated long-range nuclear missiles, combat planes, warships and submarines, the Department of Defense official said. Richard Lawless, the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for Asia-Pacific affairs, said the US government urgently wanted to launch a strategic dialogue to discuss China's military intentions, especially over nuclear arms. "I think if we had a true dialogue of depth... we might be able to constrain and put some of those issues of (Chinese) intent to bed," he told a hearing of the House of Representatives armed services committee. "Not being able to, we must plan and prepare for the worst," he said. "It is an area of intense concern and we're giving it due attention from the highest levels of the Department of Defense and the inter-agency discussion."

Shoot-Through, Invisible, Self-Healing Shields: Darpa Goal

Darpa, the Pentagon's wide-eyed research arm, is betting big on "metamaterials" -- composites that can seemingly-impossible new properties, thanks to their molecular structure. But even for Darpa, and even for metamaterials, this seems like a long shot: a $15 million program to build shoot-through, one-way-invisible, self-healing shields for soldiers in urban battlefields. Metamaterials are already showing promise, as the building blocks to real-life invisibility cloaks; that's because the composites let electromagnetic waves flow around them, instead of reflecting 'em back. Darpa's "Asymmetric Materials for the Urban Battlespace" program goes way, way beyond mere invisibility, however. "Asymmetric, or 'one-way,' materials will support basic unit operations such as raids, cordon and search activities, snap checkpoints, and fire fights," according to military budget documents. "Friendly forces will be able to see through [one of these new materials] and shoot through it, but hostile forces will not." Such shields will also have "the ability to 'self-heal' if necessary. The materials must be lightweight, respond instantly, and be easy to deploy and retract in confined spaces."

U.S. Concerned About Possible Secret Iranian Atomic Work

Iran's refusal to give early notification of new nuclear facilities raises concerns about possible secret atomic work, the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said recently. Gregory Schulte said in an interview with AFP that Iran was clearly working to master uranium enrichment, the process that makes fuel for civilian nuclear reactors or, at highly refined levels, atom bombs. In retaliation for UN sanctions, Iran is also refusing to honor a safeguards clause that requires it to provide "early declaration of any decision to construct a new nuclear facility or to modify an existing one," Schulte said. He said that as Iran masters uranium enrichment, "they can do one of two things. They can either develop at other locations a covert capability ... or they can develop a larger-scale capability at (their enrichment facility) at Natanz to enrich uranium to low levels and then kick out the (UN nuclear) inspectors and run it through again and enrich it to high levels" that would be weapons-grade, Schulte said.

Al Qaida Network Planning UK Plot Of 'Hiroshima Caliber'

A British intelligence report stated that recent planned terrorist attacks in Britain, including the July 2005 suicide attacks in London, were linked to ‘core Al Qaida leaders.’ ‘Networks linked to AQ Core pose the greatest threat to the UK,’ stated the report by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center at Britain’s MI-5 headquarters and obtained by the Daily Telegraph. The report said there is a potential threat from Al Qaida in Iraq. ‘A member of this network is reportedly involved in an operation which he believes requires AQ Core authorization,’ the report said. ‘He claims the operation will be on 'a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki' and will 'shake the Roman throne.'

'Christians must accept Islamic rule' in the Gaza Strip or be 'dealt with harshly'

Christians can only continue living safely in the Gaza Strip if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza recently said in an interview. The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly." The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group. "I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza. Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations school in Gaza last month, after the school allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in that attack. "The situation has now changed 180 degrees in Gaza," said Abu Saqer, speaking from Gaza on June 18. "Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," "Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly."

Teenage abortions in the UK hit all-time high

More teenagers are having abortions than ever before, fuelling a significant rise in the number of terminations in England and Wales. The abortion rate is continuing to rise with the biggest increase among under-18s. Despite huge Government spending on contraception education, 19-year-olds are now the most likely of any age group to have an abortion, with 35 in every 1,000 undergoing the procedure, according to official Department of Health figures. Previously the highest rate was among women aged 20-24 years. The number of girls aged under 16 and under 18 having abortions also increased last year, increasing concern that the procedure is now being seen as a form of contraception. The rise in the abortion rate comes just one week after a hard-hitting report - Sex, Drugs, Alcohol and Young People - from a Government-funded advisory group, warned British teenagers were in the grip of a sexual health crisis, fuelled by a "celebrity culture" that condoned alcohol abuse, drug addiction and promiscuity.

Germany Fears New Atomic Age

Germany's security experts are convinced that the world is heading for a new and "more dangerous" atomic age as international conflicts take on further heat. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip, the unresolved nuclear conflict with Iran, surging military spending and ongoing proliferation are just a few things that have Germany's peace and security experts concerned. "Relentlessly, the major nuclear powers modernize their arsenals and thus undermine the non-proliferation regime and egg on dictators to protect themselves from forced-upon regime changes with nuclear weapons. The Iraq war has supported that notion," Bruno Schoch of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt said Thursday in Berlin at the official presentation of the Peace Report 2007, which looks at international conflicts around the world and is compiled by Germany's five peace research institutes. "The world has entered a renewed and more dangerous atomic age."

FBI Searching Trucks, Ships For Nuclear Devices: Terrorists Could Use To Unleash Destruction Worse Than 9/11

In New York, cops armed with Geiger counters pull over trucks for random inspections. Robotic underwater cameras crawl along the hulls of cruise ships looking for explosives and traces of radioactivity. And from the air, sensors snoop for radiation hot spots. It is the last line of defense against an unthinkable threat. "Terrorists — al Qaeda, bin Laden — have sought nuclear materials for a number of years now," FBI Director Robert Mueller told CBS News correspondent Bob Orr in an exclusive interview. Mueller says terrorists would like nothing better than to hit the U.S. with a nuclear weapon. "When we saw 9/11, everyone I think pretty much looking at those pictures thought this is about as bad as it could get," Mueller said. "Its not as bad as it could get. A nuclear device — if a nuclear device went off, you're talking about devastation that is far, far beyond what we saw on September 11th." That kind of devastation was portrayed in the film "The Sum of All Fears," when a nuclear bomb leveled much of Baltimore. That was just a movie, but officials warn the threat is real, and the bomb wouldn't have to be that big. A small nuclear device packed inside a case and left in the heart of Washington could take out the White House and everything else within a square mile. "It could kill tens of thousands of people, and that's why it is a tremendously serious matter for us to address," Mueller said.

More Americans Believe in God, Heaven than Devil, Hell

The latest study found that 86 percent of American adults believe in God which is a drop from 90 percent in 2004 and in 2001. Seventy percent expressed belief in the Devil. Also, 81 percent said they believe in Heaven; 75 percent in Angels; and 69 percent in Hell. When the Gallup Organization posed different alternatives to belief in God, less people reported they believe in God. The study found that 78 percent of Americans said they believe in God and 14 percent said they believe in a universal spirit or higher power. When the "higher power" alternative was removed and replaced with "something you're not sure about," nearly nine in 10 Americans reported believing in God. An earlier Barna Group study revealed that 9 percent of the American adult population identify themselves as an atheist, an agnostic or having "no faith." The statistic equates to roughly 20 million people in the nation. And about 5 million adults expressed that they staunchly reject the existence of God. When measuring Americans' belief in the Devil, Gallup poll results showed that more Americans believe in the Devil this year compared to 1990 when only 55 percent agreed. However, Gallup researchers noted that there have been changes in the context in which the belief in the Devil question has been asked. Older Gallup surveys included the Devil in a list of things such as witches, reincarnation, and ghosts. Surveys conducted since 2001 included the Devil in a list of more directly religious entities. The percentage of people who believe in Hell peaked in 2001 at 71 percent and has slightly declined since to 69 percent this year. Gallup poll results are based on telephone interviews with 1,003 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 10-13, 2007.

America is facing worst drought since the Dust Bowl

America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still. From the mountains and desert of the West, now into an eighth consecutive dry year, to the wheat farms of Alabama, where crops are failing because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual, to the vast soupy expanse of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, which has become so dry it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago, a continent is crying out for water. In the south-east, usually a lush, humid region, it is the driest few months since records began in 1895. California and Nevada, where burgeoning population centres co-exist with an often harsh, barren landscape, have seen less rain over the past year than at any time since 1924. The Sierra Nevada range, which straddles the two states, received only 27 per cent of its usual snowfall in winter, with immediate knock-on effects on water supplies for the populations of Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Risk of nuclear warfare rising

The world's top military powers are gradually dismantling their stockpiles of nuclear arms, but all are developing new missiles and warheads with smaller yields that could increase the risk of atomic warfare, a Swedish research institute said recently. In its annual report on military forces around the globe, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute also said the rising number of nations with nuclear weapons is raising the risk such arms could be used. "The concern is that countries are starting to see these weapons as useable, whereas during the Cold War they were seen as a deterrent," said Ian Anthony, a nuclear expert at the institute. SIPRI for the first time counted North Korea among the world's nuclear countries, because of its underground test explosion of an atomic device last October. While saying it remains unclear whether the communist country has developed a deliverable nuclear weapon, the institute estimated North Korea could have produced about six nuclear bombs, based on its stockpiles of plutonium. Iran is a potential member of the nuclear club if it decides to turn its uranium enrichment program to military use, Anthony said — something the U.S. and its allies suspect is the Tehran regime's plan but Iranian leaders deny. "Iran could appear on this list, but at the earliest five years from now," Anthony said. The U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain, Pakistan and India are known to have nuclear weapons, while Israel is thought by most experts to have them. The report estimated those nations had 11,530 warheads available for delivery by missile or aircraft at the start of 2007, with Russia and the United States accounting for more than 90 percent — 5,614 in Russia and 5,045 in the U.S. Both countries are reducing their stockpiles as part of bilateral treaties, but are developing new weapons as they modernize their forces. Britain, France and China also plan to deploy new nuclear weapons, the institute said. India, Pakistan and Israel each have dozens of warheads, but their stockpiles are believed to be only partly deployed, the institute said. "India and Pakistan are both thought to be expanding their nuclear strike capabilities, while Israel seems to be waiting to see how the situation in Iran develops," it said.

Mideast 'may see full-scale war'

UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen has warned that the Middle East could see full-scale war. He said a fresh effort was needed to contain the current violence, or energetic diplomacy to try to bring peace. "The picture which emerges is very dark, and apparently getting darker," he said. "So there are reasons for real concerns in the international community." Roed-Larsen, the current UN envoy for Lebanon-Syria issues who for many years was the top UN Mideast envoy, said "the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East has changed fundamentally over a few years". "A few years ago, as it had been over many, many decades, the centre of gravity for all the conflicts were the Israeli-Arab conflicts," he said. "Now, there seems to be four epicentres of conflict in the region with their own dynamics, the Iraqi issues, the Iranian issues, the Syrian-Lebanese issues, and of course the heart of hearts, the traditional conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli issue."

FBI warns colleges of terror threat, be alert for theft of research

Federal agents are warning leaders at some of the region's top universities -- including MIT, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts -- to be on the lookout for foreign spies or potential terrorists trying to steal their research, the head of the FBI's Boston office said yesterday. Agents plan to visit many more New England colleges in the coming months and are offering to provide briefings about what they call "espionage indicators" to faculty, students, or security staff as part of a national outreach to college campuses. "What we're most concerned about are those things that are not classified being developed by MIT, Worcester Polytech, and other universities," said Warren T. Bamford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office. He said colleges are vulnerable to those looking to exploit that information and use it against the United States. The FBI's website says universities should consider the possibility of foreign spies posing as international students or visitors and terrorists studying advanced technologies and scientific breakthroughs on campus, as well as violent extremists and computer hackers.

'Military plan against Iran is ready'

Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power. Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to "go nuclear." A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran. Predictions within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike against its nuclear facilities. On Sunday, June 10, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said the US should consider a military strike against Iran over its support of Iraqi insurgents. "I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," he said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

Scientists Getting closer to the reality of Invisibility

Scientists at Duke recently demonstrated a working cloaking device, hiding whatever was placed inside, although it worked only for microwaves. In the experiment, a beam of microwave light split in two as it flowed around a specially designed cylinder and then almost seamlessly merged back together on the other side. That meant that an object placed inside the cylinder was effectively invisible. No light waves bounced off the object, and someone looking at it would have seen only what was behind it. The cloak was not perfect. An alien with microwave vision would not have seen the object, but might have noticed something odd. “You’d see a darkened spot,” said David R. Smith, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. “You’d see some distortion, and you’d see some shadowing, and you would see some reflection.” A much greater limitation was that this particular cloak worked for just one particular “color,” or wavelength, of microwave light, limiting its usefulness as a hiding place. Making a cloak that works at the much shorter wavelengths of visible light or one that works over a wide range of colors is an even harder, perhaps impossible, task.
Nonetheless, the demonstration showed the newfound ability of scientists to manipulate light through structures they call “metamaterials.” Obviously the military would be interested in any material that could be used to hide vehicles or other equipment.

Alzheimer's Patients and Caregivers Receive VeriMed RFID Implantable Microchip at Conference

VeriChip Corporation, a provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, announced today that 25 Alzheimer's conference attendees, including patients and caregivers received the VeriMed RFID implantable microchip at the Alzheimer's Community Care (ACC) 2007 Alzheimer's Educational Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida on June 7-8. Those who elected to receive the microchip are not part of VeriChip's previously announced collaboration with ACC. "We have always believed that the Alzheimer's patient population is an important, at-risk group who could benefit from the VeriMed Patient Identification System," said Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and CEO of VeriChip Corporation. "Until recently, however, we did not fully understand the value of the VeriMed system for the caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. By providing medical personnel quick access to identification and medical records information in an emergency situation, that caregiver is simultaneously informing medical personnel that he or she is responsible for someone unable to care for themselves." Enrollment for VeriChip's collaboration with ACC - a voluntary, two-year, 200 patient project to study the effectiveness of the VeriMed Patient Identification System in managing the records of Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers - is scheduled to commence this month. "We believe this most recent ACC event is only the beginning of a very productive relationship between VeriChip and ACC," said Silverman.

Mosquito-borne virus threatens thousands

A mosquito-borne viral fever epidemic that raged across India and the islands of the Indian Ocean in 2005-2006 is flaring again, with officials reporting a caseload that could reach into the millions, and even touch the United States. "The 37 imported cases of CHIK fever in 2006 was unprecedented in the United States; during the preceding 15-year period, 1991-2005, only seven patients had [symptoms]," according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control. According to Salem Voice Ministries, which carries on its Christian ministry in that region of the world, official reports have put the number of cases centered in the Kerala state of India as of this month at 800,000. "The unofficial report says more than three million people [are] affected by viral fever," the ministry said in a new report. The reports have come from the Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki and Ernakulam districts, and indicate there have been at least 100 fatalities from the virus already.

MI6 probes UK link to nuclear trade with Iran

A British company has been closed down after being caught in an apparent attempt to sell black-market weapons-grade uranium to Iran and Sudan. Anti-terrorist officers and MI6 are now investigating a wider British-based plot allegedly to supply Iran with material for use in a nuclear weapons programme. One person has already been charged with attempting to proliferate 'weapons of mass destruction'. During the 20-month investigation, which also involved MI5 and Customs and Excise, a group of Britons was tracked as they obtained weapons-grade uranium from the black market in Russia. Investigators believe it was intended for export to Sudan and on to Iran. A number of Britons, who are understood to have links with Islamic terrorists abroad, remain under surveillance. Investigators believe they have uncovered the first proof that al-Qaeda supporters have been actively engaged in developing an atomic capability. A Customs and Excise spokesman said: 'We continue to investigate allegations related to the supply of components for nuclear programmes including related activities of British nationals.'

A Voice Only You Can Hear: DARPA's Sonic Projector

Imagine a weapon that creates sound that only you can hear. Science fiction? No, this is one area that has a very solid basis in reality. The Air Force has experimented with microwaves that create sounds in people's head (which they've called a possible psychological warfare tool), and American Technologies can "beam" sounds to specific targets with their patented HyperSound (and yes, I've heard/seen them demonstrate the speakers, and they are shockingly effective). Sound Now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is jumping on the bandwagon with their new "Sonic Projector" program: The goal of the Sonic Projector program is to provide Special Forces with a method of surreptitious audio communication at distances over 1 km. Sonic Projector technology is based on the non-linear interaction of sound in air translating an ultrasonic signal into audible sound. The Sonic Projector will be designed to be a man-deployable system, using high power acoustic transducer technology and signal processing algorithms which result in no, or unintelligible, sound everywhere but at the intended target. The Sonic Projector system could be used to conceal communications for special operations forces and hostage rescue missions, and to disrupt enemy activities.

Gene tests 'to mean higher insurance premiums'

Insurance firms may use genetic information to increase premiums unfairly, a senior doctor has warned. Dr Richard Ashcroft, professor of biomedical ethics at the University of London, said there was a risk that people would be discriminated against on the basis of a poor understanding of genetics. The concerns come a day after scientists announced they had discovered a series of genes linked to common diseases affecting 20million Britons. Companies offering life, critical illness or health insurance say they should be able to use genetic information on these risks, otherwise more people than expected may claim and they would go bankrupt. Writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr Ashcroft warned: "It is important to note how genetic information can be misunderstood, or its importance overestimated, and therefore used in discriminatory ways. "For example, if a woman were to test positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 [breast cancer] gene, a naive insurance salesperson might think that she represented a poor risk for life insurance, even though the actuarial advice might be that this made little difference to her life expectancy.

FBI Terror Watch List 'Out of Control'

A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names. The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified. A portion of the FBI's unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to "the entire watch list of 509,000 names," which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force. "It grows seemingly without control or limitation," said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani of the terrorism watch list. Sparapani called the 509,000 figure "stunning."

Man-made microbe 'to create endless biofuel'

A scientist is poised to create the world's first man-made species, a synthetic microbe that could lead to an endless supply of biofuel. Craig Venter, an American who cracked the human genome in 2000, has applied for a patent at more than 100 national offices to make a bacterium from laboratory-made DNA. It is part of an effort to create designer bugs to manufacture hydrogen and biofuels, as well as absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases. DNA contains the instructions to make the proteins that build and run an organism. The J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, is applying for worldwide patents on what it refers to as "Mycoplasma laboratorium". based on DNA assembled by scientists. Yesterday, Mr Venter said: "It is only an application on methods." As for whether the world's first synthetic bug was thriving in a test tube in Rockville, all he would say was: "We are getting close." The Venter Institute's US Patent application claims exclusive ownership of a set of essential genes and a synthetic "free-living organism that can grow and replicate" that is made using those genes. To create the synthetic organism his team is making snippets of DNA, known as oligonucleotides or "oligos", of up to 100 letters of DNA. To build a primitive bug, with about 500 genes in half a million letters of DNA, Mr Venter's team is stitching together blocks of 50 or so letters, then growing them in the gut bug E coli. Then they turn these many small pieces into a handful of bigger ones until eventually two pieces can be assembled into the circular genome of the new life form. The synthetic DNA will be added to a test tube of bacteria and the team hopes that one or more microbes among the one hundred thousand million starts moving, metabolising and multiplying. The Canadian ETC Group, which tracks developments in biotechnology, believes that this development in synthetic biology is more significant than the cloning of Dolly the sheep a decade ago.

Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'

A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting. Pentagon officials on June 8 confirmed that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb." Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior." The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon. "The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soliders to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviwing the documents. "The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond.

Russia's Putin is 'Not Kidding' about Missile Threat says Yushchenko

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he took seriously Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent threat to target Europe with ballistic missiles, and said such talk has heightened his country's desire to quickly join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Yushchenko also complained of Russian interference in his country's turbulent domestic politics. Despite heated opposition from the Kremlin, the pro-Western politician said he still plans to take his country into NATO and the European Union. ‘I think the President of Russia is not kidding,’ he said, referring to Mr. Putin's warning last week that Russia could aim its missiles at ‘new targets in Europe’ if the United States pushes ahead with its controversial plans to build an anti-missile shield based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Although Mr. Putin has since moved to defuse the standoff by suggesting the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan as a possible location for a joint missile-defense system that would include Russia, Mr. Yushchenko said the new belligerence of Ukraine's larger neighbor demonstrates the need for his country to be swiftly brought under NATO's security umbrella. ‘The recent events, I think, show to everyone that we have quite a creaky security balance. This really triggers some concerns and could be really painful.’ ‘It's becoming more and more apparent that the best response to all the challenges regarding defense and security policy can only be given through a collective system of defense,’ he said, sitting in a chandelier-lit meeting room in the country's Soviet-era Presidential Administration building. He gave the interview one day after meeting Mr. Putin in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

China exports lead poisoning - Eye Shadow, Charms and Toys to glazed pottery, products pose danger

In the wake of scandals involving tainted food and toothpaste from China comes word of a new concern from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as the Food and Drug Administration – toys, makeup, glazed pottery and other products that contain significant amounts of lead. While lead poisoning among children was once mainly caused by old paint, U.S. manufacturers long ago banned the ingredient. Today, a new rash of high lead levels in the bloodstreams of American kids is being caused by foreign products – mainly from China. So serious is the resurgence of lead poisoning among U.S. children that the Iowa Department of Public Health is working on writing a new law to require mandatory testing of those entering school for the first time. Lead poisoning, once a concern mainly in dilapidated urban areas, can cause learning disabilities, kidney failure, anemia and irreversible brain damage in children. Rita Gergely, chief of Iowa's bureau of lead poisoning prevention, specifically cited concerns about children's jewelry imported from China.

Face recognition set for takeoff in Australia

In development since 2002, SmartGate uses facial-recognition technology to verify the identity of travelers by comparing a scan of their face with a facial scan encoded in the microchip contained within the newly launched ePassport. While facial-scan technology has been successfully tested in the Sydney and Melbourne airports, with Qantas staff and a select group of frequent flyers, integrating the e-passport readers and extending the technology to all travelers has proved more challenging. Speaking at the annual Biometrics Institute Australia Conference, project leader Gillian Savage of Australian Customs Service attributed the delays to unforeseen integration issues. "We've had the booths and gates in place since the end of February, but through the testing, we discovered a whole range of issues around hardware and software," Savage said. "The biometric component of the gates is working well. Other issues are holding us back." According to Savage, the challenges largely arose because of the dual-process design of the SmartGate system. This requires travelers to first submit their ePassport to a kiosk, where the passport information is scanned, and an exit ticket is issued. Passengers then proceed to the actual SmartGate, submit the ticket and have their biometrics tested against that contained in the electronic passport. "We have three kiosks and two gates, and a lot of the challenges come from transferring information between those sites," Savage said. "We also need to make sure the technology will work for real travelers who might be tired, or might somehow damage their tickets before they get to the gates." If successful, the public trials in Brisbane will be followed by the launch of the technology in the Sydney and Melbourne airports, also set for August. Participants of the current SmartGate trial, which has been running since 2002, will need to update their ePassports to continue to use the self-processing facilities. "Initially the SmartGates will only be able to process Australian ePassport holders. However, we will open the service up to New Zealand ePassport holders as soon as possible after that," Savage said. "Other e-passport holders beyond that will require foreign-language support, but the SmartGate program will ultimately be open to all eligible e-passports from around the world."

U.S. scientists discover new, potentially deadly bacteria

In a dramatic case of microbial sleuthing, US scientists said they have discovered a new, potentially deadly strain of bacteria previously unknown to medicine. The bacteria was found in a 43-year-old American woman who had traveled across Peru for three weeks and suffered from symptoms similar to typhoid fever or malaria. The woman has since recovered. Named Bartonella rochalimae, the new species is a close relative of a microbe that sickened thousands of soldiers during the First World War with what became known as trench fever, spread through body lice. It is also related to a bacteria identified 10 years ago during the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco as the cause of cat scratch disease, which infects 25,000 people a year in the United States. It was this previous work on cat scratch disease related to AIDS that helped experts at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isolate the new bacteria found in the female traveler. The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two weeks after returning to the United States from her trip to Peru, the woman experienced potentially life-threatening anemia, a rash, an enlarged spleen, insomnia and a high fever that lasted for several weeks. Her traveling companion did not fall ill. The Peruvian Andes is home to a related bacteria, spread by sand flies, and at first this was what experts thought was causing her illness. Further investigation indicated the culprit was a new species altogether.

“Smart Mice” Created - A new mechanism of learning

U.S. scientists have genetically engineered mice that are more skilled at learning, remembering and adapting to new situations than normal mice. "It's pretty rare that you make mice 'smarter,' so there are a lot of cognitive implications," said Dr. James Bibb, assistant professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study. "Everything is more meaningful to these mice. The increase in sensitivity to their surroundings seems to have made them smarter." The researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center recently revealed their findings, which imply a new mechanism of learning. The experiment involved engineering the mice to eliminate a particular enzyme in their brains. The hope is that these findings can be targeted in humans to treat a wide variety of brain-related disorders from Alzheimer's disease to drug addiction. Bibb says the engineered mice have superior memory capabilities. They learn how to navigate mazes and adapt to new situations more quickly. For example, if a water maze was rearranged, the engineered mice quickly realized something had changed and were faster to develop a new route. While not mentioned in the report, there are other fascinating implications of this type of research. In the future, if could theoretically be possible to alter the human brain to function more efficiently. Currently scientists are banned from working on genetic engineering goals meant solely to “enhance” normal humans, rather than treat disorders.

Homosexual Marriage Approved by California Assembly

In a 42-34 vote, the State Assembly voted to pass AB 43, allowing homosexual marriage in California. After a lengthy floor debate, Democrats voted to flout the will of California voters by choosing to overturn Proposition 22, the 2000 initiative that clearly defined marriage as between one man and one woman. "The arrogant majority in the California legislature have decided that they know better than the people by voting to force AB 43 on California," declared Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol Resource Institute. "The people of California clearly decided this issue when they passed Proposition 22. It is outrageous for legislators to waste time and money debating an issue that Californians have decided." Several lawmakers expressed their opposition to AB 43 by boldly declaring their support for traditional marriage. Assemblyman Chuck DeVore eloquently argued that this is not an issue of rights, but is a fundamental question of the purpose of marriage. Assemblyman Doug La Malfa expressed his dismay that there are no longer any institutions so sacred that they are untouchable by the liberal California legislature. Also speaking out against AB 43 were Assembly members Anthony Adams, Joel Anderson, Sharon Runner, Bill Maze, Mike Villines and Ted Gaines. "Especially alarming was the tone of lawmakers as they argued in favor of AB 43. The contempt lawmakers have for the constituents they supposedly represent is appalling," continued England. "Instead of respecting the decision voters made with the passage of Proposition 22, lawmakers chided them for being 'discriminatory' and 'bigoted'."

Evangelicals Are Addicted To Porn

If there could be one place protected from the cancerous infection of pornography and sexual misconducts, one would assume that the Christian church would be that sanctuary. But, recent research is revealing that no one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive behaviors. The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even clergy. And, to the surprise of many, a large number of women in the church have become victim to this widespread problem. Recently, the world’s most visited Christian website, ChristiaNet.com, conducted a survey asking site visitors eleven questions about their personal sexual conduct. Amazingly, there were one thousand responses to the poll conducted by ChristiaNet.com. ChristiaNet.com partnered with Second Glance Ministries in evaluating the poll responses and it seems the Christian community is struggling with many of the same “temptations” that the secular society is faced with. “The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography,” said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries whose ministry objectives include providing people with information which will enable them to fully understand the impact of today’s societal issues. 60% of the women who answered the survey admitted to having significant struggles with lust, 40% admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past year, and 20% of the church-going female participants struggle with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis.

Brain Machine Interfaces Making Incredible Leaps of Technology

Modifying the human body or enhancing our cognitive abilities using technology has been a long-time dream for many people. Nano-bio-info-cogno-synbio (NBICS) is now reaching a critical stage where it could lead to the fulfillment of that dream. An increasing amount of research tries to link the human brain with machines allowing humans to control their environment through their thoughts. It is said: "Ultimately the technology will be used for people whose spinal cords are destroyed in accidents or those handicapped by strokes." Scientists demonstrated in 2002 that human thoughts can be converted into radio waves and used by paralyzed people to create movement. (1) "Scientists in Australia have developed a mind switch that enables people to activate electrical devices (e.g. turn on a radio or open doors) by thinking." The IDIAP Research Institute (formerly the Institute Dalle Molle d'Intelligence Artificielle Perceptive/Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence) is developing non-invasive brain machine interfaces. Many researchers are working on brain machine interfaces. Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc. of Foxborough, Massachusetts, received FDA approval to test the "Brain Gate." The company started with people with spinal cord injuries and is now recruiting patients for BrainGate ALS trials, according to deal.com. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, are developing a wireless neuroprosthetic that could potentially be used to control robotic limbs for quadriplegics. Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of the university’s Department of Neurobiology has a variety of articles on his webpage. A 14 year-old boy plays space invaders using thoughts alone, as a grid connected to his brain measures his electrocortigraphic activity. A 'Berlin Brain-Computer Interface (BBCI)' -- a 'mental typewriter' -- was unveiled at the 2006 CeBIT in Germany, the biggest consumer technology conference worldwide. Cambridge Consultants' Virtual Helmet can link brain wave patterns to a virtual reality system, allowing the wearer to enter an illusory world of movement. Researchers at Columbia University have combined the processing power of the brain with computer vision to develop a novel device that allows people to search through images ten times faster than they can on their own.

The Holy Grail Of Particle Physics May Have Been Found

A rumor flying around physics departments these last few weeks claims that physicists working at the Tevatron, an accelerator located outside of Chicago, have found something new. Originally passed by word of mouth and private e-mail, the rumor made it into the blogosphere May 28, with an anonymous comment on the blog of a particle physicist living in Venice, Italy. Since then, the rumor has spread. This isn't the first time a story like this has circulated. Until the LHC opens, the Tevatron remains the largest accelerator in the world. Among its most significant past discoveries is another standard-model particle, the top quark. And in 2009, it will shut its doors forever. Like the LHC, the Tevatron was built with the Higgs in mind, and as time runs out for America's biggest atom smasher, some nervy experimentalists have jumped the gun. Last summer, two Tevatron groups released some suggestive, but fruitless, graphs (PDF), just before the International Conference on High Energy Physics; in January, a new crop of rumors emerged, which were reported in the Economist and New Scientist in March. These other rumors have described "bumps": anomalies in the data that suggest a new particle but are too small for a definitive identification. The current rumor, which comes in time for the summer conference circuit, may be different. It claims an experiment at the Tevatron has found a peak twice as high as the previous rumors' bumps. And unlike the other rumors, this one includes details: the new particle's mass, for instance, which fits within theoretical bounds on the standard model Higgs. Some versions include a decay chain, which describes what the new particle turned into as the experiment progressed, and which may be consistent with the standard model's predictions.

Iran Threatens Massive Gulf Blitz If U.S. Hits Nuclear Plants

Iran is planning to launch a missile blitz against the Gulf states and plunge the entire Middle East into war if America attacks its nuclear facilities. Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a senior defence adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that Gulf states providing the US with military cooperation would be the key targets of a barrage of ballistic missiles. Shamkhani told the US journal Defense News that missiles would be launched not only at US military bases but also at strategic targets such as oil refineries and power stations. Qatar, Bahrain and Oman all host important US bases and British forces are based in all three countries. Any Iranian attack would be bound to draw in the other Gulf Cooperation Council states: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Global warming 'is three times faster than worst predictions'

Emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted. News of the studies - which are bound to lead to calls for even tougher anti-pollution measures than have yet been contemplated - comes as the leaders of the world's most powerful nations prepare for the most crucial meeting yet on tackling climate change. The issue will be top of the agenda of the G8 summit which opens in the German Baltic resort of Heiligendamm on June 6, placing unprecedented pressure on President George Bush finally to agree to international measures. Tony Blair who is flying to Berlin on June 3, to prepare for the summit with its host, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. They will discuss how to tackle President Bush, who last week called for action to deal with climate change, which his critics suggested was instead a way of delaying international agreements. June 2, there were violent clashes in the city harbour of Rostock between police and demonstrators, during a largely peaceful march of tens of thousands of people protesting against the summit. The study, published by the US National Academy of Sciences, shows that carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing by about 3 per cent a year during this decade, compared with 1.1 per cent a year in the 1990s. The significance is that this is much faster than even the highest scenario outlined in this year's massive reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - and suggests that their dire forecasts of devastating harvests, dwindling water supplies, melting ice and loss of species are likely to be understating the threat facing the world.

Incredible Internal Body Devices Coming Soon

The first bites of pizza fall into your eager stomach. All feels great, until you grab that extra slice and your gastric pacemaker awakens. The tiny device, which doctors sewed onto your gut, watches what you eat. Whenever you overindulge, a faint shock makes you too ill for more. Science fiction? No. The gastric pacemaker exists, and it's just one of many medical prototypes that run on microchips from Texas Instruments Inc. The Dallas-based company, which grew rich by planting tiny devices in machines, hopes to grow richer by planting them in you. It hopes to heal many ills and enrich the Dallas area, where existing centers for medical research and mobile computing may spawn a medical computing hub. "The potential is incredible," said TI chief executive Rich Templeton, explaining his company's plans for medical technology at a conference last week. "We're talking projects like restoring sight to the blind." Indeed, researchers at the University of Southern California can already make blind patients "see." Camera glasses send video to a computerized belt, which translates digital images to electrical pulses for the brain. Patients today see blocky images that evoke early video games. It's enough to navigate everyday tasks, though, and improvements are in the works. The improving tie between tissue and silicon also underlies a new generation of artificial limbs. Scientists at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have attached a mechanical arm, one wire per nerve, to a volunteer's shoulder. The man can now use his mind to move fingers, hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder. Prototype devices already reduce arduous office visits by sending information directly from a patient's chest to a doctor's computer. A smart pacemaker could one day sense a pending heart attack, call 911 and use a built-in GPS device to guide medics to a patient in crisis. Other chip-based devices may prevent that heart attack from ever happening. Engineers have used TI chips in prototype systems that constantly measure blood pressure. When readings get too high, the system zaps the gland that expands blood vessels during exercise. When blood vessels expand, blood pressure decreases.

Police, FBI Plan To Examine Iran Links in JFK Plot

As New York police and the FBI interview suspects in an alleged plot to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport, one thread the ongoing investigation will explore is why one of the suspects was planning to go to Iran. A former Guyanese legislator, Abdul Kadir, was arrested in Trinidad on June 1, on a plane bound for Caracas, Venezuela. According to Mr. Kadir's wife, Isha Kadir, he was in the island nation to pick up an Iranian visa so he could attend an Islamic conference in Tehran. Two of Mr. Kadir's children are studying in Iran, according to Mrs. Kadir. Trinidad's counterterrorism police are also investigating whether one of Mr. Kadir's alleged co-conspirators, a 56-year old Shiite imam in Trinidad named Kareem Ibrahim, had ties to Shiite organizations in southern Iraq and Iran through an Islamic discussion group he hosted, according to the Trinidad Express.

Robots to Guard Schools

Sophisticated security robots will be deployed in the near future to patrol schools around the clock to protect students from violence and other dangers. DU Robo said on May 30, that the Seoul-based venture start-up company plans to begin a pilot run of the security robot, dubbed OFRO, in a middle school. This is the first time in the world that a robot will be employed to guard an educational institution, according to DU Robo. ``We are set to check the viability of OFRO as a school robot at a middle school in southern Seoul this week along with KT Telecop,'' DU Robo CEO Kang Jung-won said. ``After going through the feasibility test, we look to commercialize the feature-rich OFRO that retails at around $100,000 as a school guardian,'' he said. Affiliated with the country's dominant fixed-line telecom company KT, KT Telecop offers security services based on landline telephone lines. OFRO, which moves at a maximum speed of 5 kilometers per hour, can automatically patrol areas on pre-programmed maps or it can be manually controlled. Equipped with a camera and a microphone, OFRO also provides visual files to officials of KT Telecop or teachers at schools on a real-time basis. ``One possible scenario is that OFRO will alert officials when it detects someone trying to seduce a student. Then, teachers will send a warning to the perpetrator through a loudspeaker,'' Kang said. ``If the suspicious person refuses to comply with the instruction, KT Telecop guards will be sent there,'' he said.

VeriChip Corp Sponsors Alzheimer's Community Care 2007 Alzheimer's Educational Conference

VeriChip Corporation, a provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, announced that it is the premier sponsor of the Alzheimer's Community Care 2007 Alzheimer's Educational Conference on June 7-8 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The conference, which is titled "Where there is help, there is hope," is presented by Alzheimer's Community Care (ACC) and The Alzheimer's Alliance, and will take place at the Palm Beach County Convention Center (650 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach, Florida). "In conjunction with VeriChip's two-year project with ACC in which 200 Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers are to receive the VeriMed(TM) RFID implantable microchip to provide emergency department staff easy access to those patients' identification and medical information, VeriChip is proud to sponsor this important event," said Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and CEO of VeriChip Corporation. Alzheimer's disease is dramatically on the rise in the United States with 16-million new cases predicted by 2050.(1) There can be a number of challenges associated with caring for these patients. One of the most concerning issues is having a centralized location for vital medical information accessible, regardless of the patient or caregiver's ability to communicate. The VeriMed Patient Identification System allows physicians in the emergency room to scan the patient's arm and immediately obtain his or her unique 16-digit identification number. The physician can then access the VeriMed database and obtain the patient's name and address, caregiver contact information, and current medical issues. At the exhibit, local physician, James Provo, MD, will perform the procedure on Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. "The VeriMed RFID implantable microchip can be an integral part of a comprehensive healthcare strategy, especially for those who suffer from chronic illnesses," said James C. Provo, MD. "In the ER, it is an absolute necessity to rapidly obtain emergency contacts, current prescriptions and medical history. All of that information helps us provide the appropriate care for our patients." "By offering caregivers of Alzheimer's patients the VeriMed RFID implantable microchip, we are supporting the safety net which allows emergency medical professionals quick access to medical records for both the patient and the caregiver," said Mr. Silverman.

Cyborg machine-insects prepare for the battlefields of the future

Whilst UAVs have been among the most successful and high-profile innovations in military technology over the past decade, the arena of unmanned aerial technology is about to become a whole lot stranger as hybrid insect-machine "cyborgs" become a reality. The prospect of a remote controlled dragon-fly capable of transmitting video and other environmental data from the front-line still seems like the stuff of science-fiction, but research into hybrid insect-machines is accelerating under the auspices of DARPA. The specific goals of the DARPA proposal include the delivery of an insect to within five meters of a specific target located a hundred meters away using electronic remote control or GPS navigation, the ability to control the insect so that it remains stationary until otherwise instructed and the successful transmission of data pertaining to the local environment through video, microphones or other sensors. The project also aims to develop ways of "scavenging" the biological properties of the insect to power these capabilities. And its not just flying insects like moths that are being targeted in the new research. DARPA envisions that insects that hop and swim could also prove valuable in attaining these objectives.

Plot to blow up JFK is just the 'tip of the iceberg'

The alleged conspiracy to blow up John F Kennedy airport, in New York, and a recent plot to kill soldiers at a nearby United States Army base represent only the "tip of the iceberg" of terrorist plots against America, according to US officials. "There's a lot of activity out there," a counter-terrorism official said yesterday. "Obviously, you don't want to tip off every suspect that they are being monitored. On the other hand, we are not going to wait until the fuse is lit." He said that the airport plot, which sparked a lengthy FBI sting operation, was first detected by CIA operatives in the Caribbean and South America nearly 18 months ago. "Our intelligence agencies pay careful attention to what goes on there," the official told The Daily Telegraph. "Although a lot of the public focus is on Europe, we're also looking closely at the home-grown threat and what's going on in our own back yard." He indicated that dozens of other plots were being monitored but that improved co-operation between the CIA and FBI - the patchy nature of which was a major criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report - was bearing fruit. The FBI announced at the weekend that they had foiled a plan to blow up a 40-mile fuel pipeline to JFK airport, which handles a thousand flights a day. It was allegedly hatched by Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born American citizen who had enlisted the help of a Guyanese politician and a radical Islamist group in Trinidad, when he worked as a cargo handler at the airport before 1995.

Scientists Report Altering Bacteria To Make It More Infectious

Researchers in Germany reported May 31, that they had altered the DNA of a disease-causing bacterium so that it can infect a species it cannot normally sicken. Experts called the development a double-edged advance. Although the research could deepen scientists' understanding of human diseases, it also could speed development of novel bioterror agents. The change in infectiousness - the first of its kind ever engineered from scratch - poses no direct threat to human health, scientists said, because the microbe already causes a human disease - the food-borne illness called listeriosis. The change allows that microbe to sicken mice, a species that it has no natural capacity to infect. Still, the work has biosecurity implications because it could, in theory, be applied in reverse, endowing a bacterium that causes a serious animal disease with an unprecedented ability to sicken people. Several experts said they were disappointed that the report, in today's issue of the journal Cell, does not mention those implications. Also worrisome to some is that Cell's editors did not seek outside advice on whether publication of the study posed a security threat. Although in this case the consensus appears to be that it would easily pass muster, several U.S. organizations have called for such reviews when "dual use" microbiological advances are submitted for publication.

Armageddon in the offing?

The greatest risk to global security is the combination of global warming and nuclear proliferation. This was the view of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist when in January it moved its doomsday clock two minutes closer to midnight - the figurative end of civilisation. It is now five minutes to midnight, closer than at any time since the height of the cold war. The White House seems to be doing its best to accelerate the hands of the ticking clock on both counts. I will leave Al Gore and others to make the case for a new US approach to climate change. Here I want to focus on the nuclear proliferation challenge. In January, a bipartisan group of architects of the US cold war nuclear policy pointed out that: "The world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era."

Department Of Homeland Security Asks Sci-fi Writers To Join The War On Terror

Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described "deviant" thinkers: science-fiction writers. "We spend our entire careers living in the future," says author Arlan Andrews, one of a handful of writers the government brought to Washington last month to attend a Homeland Security conference on science and technology. Those responsible for keeping the nation safe from devastating attacks realize that in addition to border agents, police and airport screeners, they "need people to think of crazy ideas," Andrews says.

Is China trying to poison Americans and their pets?

While Americans are still recovering from a scandal over poison pet foods imported from China, FDA inspectors report tainted food imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs. Last month, like most months, China topped the list of countries whose products were refused by the FDA – and that list includes many countries, including Mexico and Canada, who export far more food products to the U.S. than China. Some 257 refusals of Chinese products were recorded in April. By comparison, only 140 were from Mexico and only 23 from Canada. Refused by the FDA in April because they were "filthy": salted bean curd cubes in brine with chili and sesame oil, dried apple, dried peach, dried pear, dried round bean curd, dried mushroom, olives, frozen bay scallops, frozen Pacific cod, sardines, frozen seafood mix, fermented bean curd. Among the foods rejected because they were contaminated with pesticides: frozen eel, ginseng, frozen red raspberry crumble, mushrooms. Frozen catfish was stopped because it was laced with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines were turned away because they were coated with putrefying bacteria. Toothbrushes were rejected last month because they were improperly labeled. And last week the FDA found Chinese toothpaste contaminated with a chemical used in antifreeze – the same chemical that killed people in Panama last year when it turned up in cough syrup. Just three days ago, the U.S. warned consumers not to buy or eat imported fish labeled as monkfish, which actually may be puffer fish, containing a potentially deadly toxin called tetrodotoxin. Two people in the Chicago area became ill after consuming homemade soup containing the fish. One was hospitalized due to severe illness. The FDA is also on the lookout for vegetable proteins contaminated with melamine – the chemical that killed American cats and dogs when it was imported from China in pet food. In the past year, the FDA rejected more than twice as many food shipments from China as from all other countries combined.

U.S. braces for flood of celebrity F-words on TV

An American judge has given warning that a landmark court ruling on the use of "fleeting expletives" could open the gates to a flood of celebrity 'F-words' on primetime television. U.S. networks were celebrating today after a U.S. appeals court threw out a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling against the Fox television network, saying that the agency's new policy on indecency was "arbitrary and capricious".

CCTV Surveillance in the UK is here to stay

Whether we are happy with CCTV surveillance or not, it is here to stay. The question is: how much more expansion will there be into our privacy and when should we draw the line? Some indication may be given by the House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry on the constitutional implications of the collection and use of surveillance and other personal data by the state and private companies, which is gathering evidence. Meanwhile, we are bombarded with information telling us the 4.2 million cameras in the UK are 20% of the world's total and that the average citizen in central London is captured on camera 300 times a day. This is the result of the unimpeded development of CCTV, brought about by the availability of government funding, and politicians and community representatives sold on CCTV as a crime-prevention tool. However, this is not the case in Europe, where there is little CCTV coverage away from motorways and crime hot-spots; surveillance cameras are frowned upon in France and Germany. In the UK, little heed has been taken of alternative views. As a result, we exist in an environment where the potential for intrusion into individual privacy has never been higher and the average citizen feels powerless to control the advance of the surveillance society. The proliferation of CCTV in Britain means we find ourselves being filmed - with automatic number-plate recognition and speed cameras - as we drive, in shopping malls, on pedestrian ways, inside and outside football stadiums, and in garages and banks. Even children are monitored in and around schools and employees in the private and public sectors are being watched by employers. Sadly, in the future, our grandchildren will not experience or understand the notion of privacy.

Rapidly Advancing Technology Will Be Our Savior... Or Destroyer

We are riding the cusp of a technobiological revolution that promises (or threatens, depending on point of view) to transform what we do, how we do it, and even what we are. Through our technological prowess we seem to be transitioning to a new species. Expert best-guess prognoses for the future are startling and controversial, but if they are right, what it means to be human will soon change forever—in part because, according to some leading-edge thinkers, technology is about to challenge the notion of mortality itself. How most of us live in the Western world has already been utterly transformed by comparatively recent innovations: the car, the airplane, the telephone; then the personal computer, the Internet, robotics and sophisticated medical procedures, to name just a few examples. This would have seemed like science fiction—or black magic—if our forebears could somehow have glimpsed what the future held for our time. But soon the rate of change will accelerate in an almost unimaginable way and have an even greater effect on us.

NewsMax Interview with Author Paul Williams: 'al-Qaida 'Definitely Has Nukes' and they are already here in the U.S.

In his interview with NewsMax, Williams discussed al-Qaida's successful efforts to obtain nuclear weapons for use against the United States. NewsMax: Does al-Qaida have nuclear weapons? Williams: They definitely have nukes. There's no doubt about it. There's positive proof. As I wrote in my book, in the first three months of Operation Enduring Freedom — the Gulf War — our troops found in a cave outside of Khandahar in Afghanistan a canister filled with Uranium 238 [the basic ingredient for a nuclear bomb] and in Turnak Farms [where at one time 1,800 members of al-Qaida lived and worked] they found jars and jars and jars of yellow cake [pure uranium, dried]. The most alarming thing of all involved a Pakistani operative who was driving over the Allenby Bridge between Jordan and Israel in a shabby Volkswagen mini-bus. The Israelis stopped him and in the back of the Volkswagen was a plutonium implosion device, the most sophisticated of all nuclear weapons. According to the Mossad people I spoke to, it was in excess of 10 kilotons. It could have taken out all of Israel in the blink of an eye. If one of these babies went off with 10 kilotons, first of all you'd have the conventional explosion, which if it occurred at the site of 9/11, would take out all of lower Manhattan. From that would come a fireball that would be about 750 feet in diameter — the core would reach a temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius, which means in the blink of an eye everything would disintegrate. After that would come juggernaut blasts ripping through the city with winds in excess of 640 miles per hour, and after that would come the mushroom cloud and the radioactive fallout that would spew into the five boroughs of New York, into Connecticut and New Jersey. The end result is that millions would be dead. NewsMax: What is the possibility that there is a store of nukes here in the United States? Williams: There's no doubt about that. Before 9/11 a guy by the name of Sheik Kabbani, the president of the Supreme Islamic Council of North America, appeared before the Senate and the House and said that over 48 nukes were here. There was also a Waziristan summit meeting in Pakistan in April 2004. Attending it were the leading planners of the next 9/11. Included was one Sharif al Masry, and Adnan el-Shukrijumah, the next Mohammad Atta, and a terrorist from Brooklyn. They all confirmed that nuclear weapons had been developed by al-Qaida with the help of scientists and technicians from the A.Q. Khan Research laboratories. The most chilling thing, they said was that all of the weapons had been forward deployed to Mexico and transported over the border into the U.S.

Putin issues sharp warning to US, vows to counter 'imperialism'

President Vladimir Putin issued an acerbic warning recently, to the United States, saying the recent test of a new Russian missile was a direct response to US actions and condemning "imperialism" in world affairs. "Our American partners have quit the ABM Treaty," Putin told reporters after meeting his Greek counterpart, referring to the landmark 1972 US-Soviet treaty limiting the missile defenses of the Cold War superpower foes. "We warned them then that we would come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world. May 30, we conducted a test of a new strategic ballistic missile with multiple warheads, and of a new cruise missile, and will continue to improve our resources." The United States informed Russia in 2001 that it was exercising its option to withdraw unilaterally from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact. It has since stepped up controversial plans, fiercely opposed by Russia, to deploy a missile defence shield in eastern Europe. Putin warned recently that the US missile defense plan would turn Europe into a "powder keg" and he repeated on Thursday previous assertions that the planned deployments would ignite a new Cold War-style arms buildup. "We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin said.

Rice made with human genes goes commercial

Rice containing human genes is being grown commercially for the first time, in a dramatic application of genetic modification. The highly controversial development - which environmentalists say bears out their charge that the technology is creating "Frankenstein Foods" - is also likely to open the door to a new generation of GM crops. The rice, which has been called "the Holy Grail" by GM enthusiasts, has been modified to grow two proteins found in human breast milk. It is produced by the California-based Ventria Biosciences, which says that it wants to use them in baby milk and rehydration drinks to fight the severe diarrhoea that kills some two million small children in the Third World every year. Critics dismiss this as window-dressing, citing a US government disclosure that the proteins will be used in "yoghurts" and "granola bars". Apart from its use of human genes, the rice heralds a new type of crop modified to grow drugs, a process dubbed "pharming". This could lead to people who should not be exposed to the drugs unwittingly eating them in their food. The leading technical journal Nature Biotechnology compared growing such pharmaceuticals in crops to "packaging pills in candy wrappers". Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth said: "This product is both risky and completely unnecessary. The solutions to diarrhoea are already out there and we do not need a genetically modified product, especially one that may risk public health."

Intelligent robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction

For decades the staple of science-fiction films such as Robocop, gun-toting machines capable of firing at will are now terrifyingly close to science fact. Last year, South Korea revealed an autonomous robot guard equipped with a human tracking device and a machine gun, and the CIA has already used a flying robot called the Predator to launch a Hellfire missile at a truck full of suspected terror leaders. In Iraq, robo-recruits that can seek out and destroy improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are fast becoming a soldier's best friend in a country where roadside bombs have killed more than 1,300 US troops since the 2003 invasion. In the past four years, the American engineering firm Foster Miller has shipped more than 1,100 of its remote-control Talon robots to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Department of Defense plans that by 2015 one-third of its fighting strength will be composed of robots. "It's only a matter of time before we see similar police robots moving to the civilian world," says Professor Noel Sharkey, a robotics expert at the University of Sheffield.

New Cold War Fears As Putin warns he will point missiles at Europe

Russia will once again aim its missiles at targets in Europe if U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield near Russia's borders go ahead, President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on June 3. In an interview reported in Italy's Corriere della Sera, Putin acknowledged Russia's response risked restarting an arms race but he said Moscow would not be responsible for the consequences because Washington had started it. Putin made the tough statement days before a Group of Eight summit in Germany on June 6 where, among other world leaders, he will come face to face with U.S. President George W. Bush. Russia has not expressly targeted its missiles at Europe since the end of the Cold War but, asked if it would do this again if the U.S. missile shield plant went ahead, Putin said: "Yes, naturally." "If the American nuclear capability widens across European territory, we will have to give ourselves new targets in Europe," Italy's leading daily quoted Putin as saying. Russia's combative response to the U.S. missile shield has prompted comparisons with the Cold War. Putin has directed angry rhetoric at the White House, last week calling U.S. policy "imperialist." But Russia has gone further, test-launching a new ballistic missile in a move it tied to the U.S. missile plans, and suspending its compliance with a treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces near Russia's western borders.

Trip proposed to centre of Earth via Arctic hole

A U.S. scientist and a small band of believers are planning a journey to the Canadian Arctic for what they call "the greatest geological expedition in history." Are they searching for Arctic oil reserves? Documenting evidence of climate change? Not quite. They're looking for a fog-shrouded hole in the Arctic Ocean that leads -- they say -- to the centre of the Earth, where an unknown civilization is lurking inside the hollow core of the planet. This time next year, Kentucky based physicist and futurist Brooks Agnew hopes to board the commercially owned Russian icebreaker Yamal in the port of Murmansk, and to sail into the polar sea just beyond Canada's Arctic islands.
"Everest has been climbed a hundred times," Mr. Agnew says. "The Titanic has been scanned from stem to stern. [But] this is the first and only expedition to the North Pole opening ever attempted." Mr. Agnew is the latest in a long line of people to peddle the nutty, yet persistent, theory that humans live on the surface of a hollow planet, in which two undiscovered openings, near the North and South poles, connect the outer Earth with an interior realm. In the 17th century, English astronomer and mathematician Sir Edmond Halley, who calculated the orbit of Halley's Comet, advanced hollow-Earth theories, as did German scientist Athanasius Kircher. More recently the myth has experienced a slight revival, thanks in part to a 2006 book, by American author David Standish, titled Hollow Earth: The long and curious history of imagining strange lands, fantastical creatures, advanced civilizations, and marvellous machines below the Earth's surface. A year before the book was published, a Utah adventure guide named Steve Currey also tried to cash in on the hollow- Earth legend, by organizing an expedition to locate the North polar opening. While he insists the journey has a genuine scientific purpose, Mr. Agnew also says the expedition will include several experts in meditation, mythology and UFOs, as well as a team of documentary filmmakers.

'High Tempo' Of Terrorist Chatter: FBI

The FBI has increased its use of secret search warrants over the past two years because of a "high tempo of terrorist activity," a top official said on May 30. FBI Assistant Director John Miller said the 2,176 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act search warrants approved last year, compared with only 1,754 granted in 2005, mostly targeted plotters inside America. "We're seeing a very high tempo of terrorist activity, not just based on the cases you're seeing being brought in the United States," Miller said in an interview recently. Miller said the warrants, issued by a secret federal court in Washington, are usually not a "way to a prosecution," but are "an intelligence tool." The FBI's chief spokesman - who as a TV newsman conducted a 1998 interview with Osama Bin Laden - echoed other counterterror officials who say the U.S. may have underestimated top Al Qaeda leaders' ability to oversee operations in recent years. One measure is the record-high output of video and audio messages from Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. Typically there has been "a two-year arc between major attacks to develop the plan and execute it," Miller said. Al Qaeda is "on a bell curve and they're getting more effective" at planning new strikes while pushing propaganda to inspire others to "take that ball and run with it." "They're counting on both happening at once," Miller said. "They're better at this than they were before and they're thinking about it differently."

Bio-Electromagnetic Weapons: The Ultimate Weapon

Electromagnetic weapons operate at the speed of light; they can kill, torture and enslave; but the public are largely unaware that they exist, because these weapons operate by stealth and leave no physical evidence. Electromagnetic weapons have been tested on human beings since 1976. By widely dispersing the involuntary human test-subjects, and vehemently attacking their credibility, it has been possible for the United States to proceed with these human experiments unhindered by discussions or criticisms, let alone opposition. In 1959, Saul B. Sells, a professor of social psychology at a minor US university submitted a proposal to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to build for them the most sophisticated electroencephalography machine that would have an integral computational capacity to analyze and, hopefully, make sense of the brain waves it recorded. In other words, the professor proposed to make a machine that could tell the CIA what a person was thinking, whether or not the person wished to disclose that information. The CIA approved the project in 1960, adding some library research with five objectives. The fifth objective of the research was, "Techniques for Activating the Human Organism by Remote Electronic Means". The entire assignment was thereafter known as MKULTRA subproject 119, MKULTRA being the CIA's notorious mind control programme. It was based on the erroneous notion that the Soviets already possessed the means to control minds and the US had to catch up as rapidly as possible.

FBI In Massive Search Of The Man Who Leads Nuclear '9/11' Plan - The American Hiroshima

He is the most wanted man in America yet most Americans have never heard his name. He has been described as the "Fixer" of the Sept. 11 attacks. Several captured al-Qaida operatives have revealed this is the same man who bin Laden has tapped to lead the terror group's diabolical scheme to detonate nuclear devices simultaneously in several U.S. cities. Meet Adnan el-Shukrijumah, now believed to be operating within the U.S. – a man the FBI warns is likely armed and dangerous. "But no one on planet earth is more of a threat to the lives and well-being of every man, woman, and child within the United States than Adnan." That's the dire warning from Paul L. Williams, author of his just released book "The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World." According to Williams, Adnan has not only been charged by al-Qaida with orchestrating a nuclear attack – he may have already smuggled nuclear material into America. The U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. Ominously, Adnan "possesses the uncanny ability to blend into a crowd, to alter his looks, and to assume a multitude of identities," writes Williams, a seasoned investigative reporter and former FBI consultant. "Few things about el-Shukrijumah indicate his radical Islamic orientation … He has been known to have a beer on occasion … to smoke an occasional Camel, and to carry rosary beads in his pocket. Williams believes Adnan then enrolled at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, site of a five-megawatt nuclear research reactor. Incredibly, Adnan was able to get a job as a guide at the reactor. "Bit by bit, the al-Qaida operative allegedly managed to pilfer approximately 180 pounds of nuclear material from the university – enough to build several radiological bombs," Williams reports. Adnan disappeared from the school in October 2003, several days before the nuclear material was reported missing. Alerted about Adnan's plans by a captured high-ranking al-Qaida official, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller issued a BOLO (be-on-the-lookout) alert for Adnan on March 21, 2004. In the following months Adnan was spotted in Colorado, Pakistan, Honduras, Belize and Mexico. In November 2004, another key al-Qaida operative was captured in Pakistan. He told interrogators that the terrorist group had arranged to smuggle nuclear supplies and tactical nuclear weapons into Mexico, then to transport them across the U.S. border with the aid of a Latino street gang. The gang was later identified as Mara Salvatrucha – a group Adnan at met with during his visit to Honduras.

G8 Give Green Light For Global Biometric Database

G8 Justice and Interior Ministers recently endorsed a range of vital policing tools proposed by Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble aimed at enhancing global security. Secretary General Noble exposed the global problem of prison escapes of terrorists and other dangerous criminals not being promptly and adequately reported to police worldwide, thereby placing the citizens of all countries potentially at risk. During the past two years alone, Interpol has become aware that more than 500 prisoners have escaped from at least 72 prisons across 43 countries worldwide. 'With no system in place to automatically alert the international police community, these dangerous criminals are given an unacceptable opportunity to escape apprehension and to cause further harm,' said Secretary General Noble. 'Moreover, the absence of a global protocol on sharing vital information such as fingerprints and photographs of escaped prisoners, including terrorists, constitutes a serious threat to the safety and security of citizens worldwide,' he added. Secretary General Noble also sought G8 support for the creation of an international missing persons and unidentified bodies database. Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, the need to develop a permanent structure to deal with any such future natural or manmade disasters was first raised by Germany at Interpol’s 2005 General Assembly. Hosted by Interpol, this centralised database would enable police around the world to maintain and access information on unidentified persons and bodies on a day-to-day and long-term basis. Mr. Noble also provided an update on the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) image database being developed by Interpol at the G8’s request. Endorsed by the G8 in 2005, the creation of the ICSE image database at the General Secretariat in Lyon will assist national investigators across the globe to identify and potentially rescue victims of child sexual abuse whose images have been posted on the Internet or retrieved from seized computers. Interpol has progressed with the initiative and a pilot project with three G8 countries, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, will be launched by the end of 2007.

Scientists Close In On “Cyborg-Like” Memory Chips

Two scientists from the Tel-Aviv University have shown that information can be stored in live neurons. The research results provide a new way to help understand how our brain learns and store information, but also indicate that a “cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips” could become a reality in the foreseeable future. The experiment published on May 16 in Physical Review E, is based on the idea that linking neurons can result in spontaneous, coordinated firing. Itay Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel-Aviv University said that they were able to create additional firings by using a special protocol of local chemical stimulations, which created multiple, rudimentary memories stored in the neuron network. To create stored memory in the neurons, the researchers introduced a chemical stimulant into the culture at a specific location. The stimulant induced a second firing pattern, starting at that location. The new firing pattern in the culture along coexisted with the original pattern. 24 hours later, they injected another round of stimulants at a new location, and a third firing pattern emerged. The scientists used an array of electrodes to monitor the firing patterns in a network of linked neurons, which revealed that the three memory patterns persisted, without interfering with each other, for more than 40 hours. Previously published researched already indicated that coordinated neuron firing, referred to as synchronized bursting events, could be viewed as “memory templates” or “precursers of memory-related activity modes in task-performing in vivo networks.” However, Baruchi and Ben-Jacob are apparently first to actually “store” information in a cultured neuron network for an extended period of time. Baruchi and Ben-Jacob concluded that chemical signaling mechanisms might play a “crucial role in memory and learning in task-performing [living] networks.” With some imagination, the experiment resulted in a chemically operated neuro-memory chip – which could show a way towards a memory chip that not only includes “dead”, but also living material.

Russia says new ICBM can beat any system

Russia tested new missiles May 29, that a Kremlin official boasted could penetrate any defense system, and President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe would turn the region into a "powder keg." First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a "preliminary" test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons. "As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Terror Plot Foiled At JFK Airport

Three people were arrested and one was being sought in connection to a plan to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs through residential neighborhoods, officials close to the investigation said. The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced. A senior law enforcement official told FOX News that of the three arrests, one was in New York and two were in Trinidad. The New York suspect was identified as Russell Defreitas, a former JFK employee who allegedly planned to attack the airport's fuel supply because he thought he could do more damage than attacking a passenger terminal. Afreitas is a Muslim U.S. citizen from Guyana. Defrietas predicted the attacks would destroy ‘the whole of Kennedy,’ according to an FBI press release, and that only a few people would survive the attack. He then compared the plot to 9/11, saying ‘even the Twin Towers can't touch it,’ and it would destroy the economy of America for some time.’

Freak snow, freezing temperatures and tropical storms across Europe

In Spitzing in Germany, locals have been forced to wrap up after ten centimetres of snow brought out the snowploughs for the first time this year. It was the same story in towns close to the Alps in Austria, Switzerland and even northern Italy where temperatures in May routinely climb into the 80s. In one Swiss valley, 3,000 were trapped in hotels and guest houses because trains could not reach them in the snow. Ironically, the weather follows one of the worst winters ever for snow at Alpine ski resorts. On the Mediterranean island of Corsica, two hikers died in freezing fog and on its beaches a 19-year-old man was killed by a wave. Further north in cities like Berlin, tropical storms have brought four days of chaos, dumping hailstones as big as golf balls, uprooting trees and causing widespread flooding. There have been many fatalities across Germany from the weather, the most poignant being three workmen who sheltered beneath their bulldozer during a rainstorm only to die altogether from a single lightning strike. Britain was drenched over the weekend in some of the worst rain of the year. The AA said thousands had to cut their long weekends short, to battle appalling conditions on motorways. Arctic winds hit the country on Monday at speeds of up to 50mph in what was described as one of the coldest Whitsun Bank Holidays.

NAFTA superhighway lobbying moves north

The lobbying for NAFTA superhighway projects is moving north, but supporters of the mega-transportation corridors aren't finding an enthusiastic team of supporters in Minnesota, according to a report by WND columnist Jerome Corsi. U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, is distancing himself from the North American Super-Corridor Coalition, Inc., according to internal documents obtained under the Minnesota Data Practices Act. The documents also revealed NASCO had been reaching out to Coleman, seeking his support. Richard Arnebeck, a division director at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, told another highway department official in a January e-mail that real estate developer Bob Koens would be a good person to approach Coleman about his support. "Apparently, Bob has a lot of influential friends & contacts," Arnebeck wrote. "Bob's always looking out for NASCO and putting in a plug where he can." The project, according to NASCO, would connect the I-35 corridor, which now runs through Minnesota, to two Mexican ports on the Pacific Ocean. Arnebeck's later memo noted, "The Senator responded that he'd heard about our organization and this giant superhighway, loss of American jobs, basically the crazy conspiracy theories that are swilling around right now. Bob gave a brief synopsis of all the craziness & how it's untrue." His report said the senator was not opposed to becoming involved, but he wanted more facts.

Human hibernation breakthrough that could send us to sleep for months

It has been the fantasy of science-fiction writers for decades. Now researchers claim they are close to the breakthrough that will enable them to put astronauts into a state of suspended animation to make deep space voyages to faraway planets. Human trials are planned this year to chill volunteers so they go into 'induced hibernation' and sleep safely, possibly for months. Research teams in Boston, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh are racing to be first to successfully carry out the procedure. The American teams developed an injectable mix of salt and ice to cool the blood quickly. The plasma rapidly sends body temperature from 98.6f (37c) down to 50f (10c). The mixture puts the human body into hibernation by slowing the metabolism, delaying the onset of shock and limiting wound damage, said researcher Hasan Alam, a surgeon at Massachusetts general hospital and a consultant to the U.S. army. So far it has worked on pigs, sending them into a state of suspended animation for several hours. But other researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh, believe this could be stretched to days, then weeks, and months. The scientists say those in hibernation will need to be fed intravenously on a drip-feed. Hair and nails would still grow and hibernating people would still age, just like those who have fallen into a coma do.

TB on a plane? Sign of the times

SARS on a plane. Mumps on a plane. And now a rare and deadly form of tuberculosis, on at least two planes. Commercial air travel's potential for spreading infection continues to cause handwringing among public health officials, as news of a jet-setting man with a rare and deadly form of TB demonstrates. "We always think of planes as a vehicle for spreading disease," said Dr. Doug Hardy, an infectious disease specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. In the latest case, a 31-year-old Georgia attorney with extensively drug-resistant TB ignored doctors' advice and took two trans-Atlantic flights, leading to the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963. The man had been quarantined at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital until Thursday morning, when he was transferred to Denver's National Jewish Hospital for treatment, Jewish Hospital spokesman William Allstetter said. He walked into the building and said he felt fine, Allstetter said. The hospital has treated two other patients with what appears to be the same strain of tuberculosis since 2000 and both improved enough to be released, according to Dr. Charles Daley, head of the infectious disease division at National Jewish. "I think we're more optimistic than what we have been hearing in reports that we will be able to control this infection," Daley said recently, "We're aiming for cure. We know it's an uphill battle." The patient was not considered highly contagious, and there are no confirmed reports that his illness spread to other passengers. But the case illustrates ongoing concerns about the public health perils of plane travel, as well as the continuing problem of Typhoid Mary-like individuals who can almost be counted on to do the wrong thing. The case points out weaknesses in the system: He was able to re-enter the United States, even though he said he had been warned by federal officials that his passport was being flagged and he was being placed on a no-fly list.

At least 16 dead and 1,500 stranded as freak snow storm hits Nepal

Dozens of people were feared killed in remote parts of north-western Nepal after the areas were hit by a freak snow storm, officials said on May 29. The casualties were reported in the remote north-western mountainous district of Dolpa, about 450 kilometres north-west of the Nepalese capital, on May 28. "We have reports that at least 16 people died and about a hundred others were blinded by a freak snow storm and blizzard," Home Ministry spokesperson Baman Prasad Neupane told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The snow storm is said to have hit a mountainous area where hundreds of people had gathered to collect an herb locally known as Yarshagumba, which is thought to increase sex drive. Other reports in the Nepalese capital said up to 1,500 people were stranded in heavy snows. However, the Home Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report. "The area is very remote and we are still verifying information received from local government officers," Neupane said. "We have launched a rescue mission and helicopters are on their way and the full extent of the situation is expected to become clear later." The rescue mission is expected to proceed slowly due to continuing bad weather in the area and lack of road access in the district.

High-Tech Travel ID 'Inevitable'

Canadians will inevitably have to carry travel documents with their DNA, biometrics or other biological identifiers embedded into them in order to travel to the United States, according to a new white paper to be revealed to government officials in Ottawa today. While many travellers and governments are frantically trying to comply with current border regulations that require passports for air travel, the report warns that's just one step in the movement toward more secure borders. In order to adequately confirm an individual's identity and speed up the process of screening passengers, governments will surely move to enhanced identity documents that use biological information to identity travellers, the paper says. Already, some jurisdictions, including B.C., are considering imprinting driver's licences with fingerprints or other biometric features. "As the world becomes more complex, and as our expectations with respect to safety and security become greater, governments are going to have to invest in appropriate [measures] ... in order to make sure that people can move freely," said Michael Hawes, who will present the paper as executive director of the Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States of America. The Ottawa-based group administers the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program -- a binational organization funded by both countries that promotes cross-border research and understanding -- as well as the Network on North American Studies in Canada, which released the paper to CanWest News Service. Although some technology, such as DNA-enabled passports, might seem a long way off, terror threats and other looming risks mean governments must begin to seriously consider how they will introduce those measures in the future, Hawes said. He said the paper clearly directs governments to think about developing partnerships with the private sector to help implement new technologies, such as embedding radio frequency identification chips, electronic fingerprints or DNA into documents.

Moscow hit by record heat wave

The five hottest days in the city's recorded history could be summed up by a single image: an ice-cream truck stuck in melted asphalt on a Moscow street. Russians, well prepared for the winter, were caught by surprise by the unprecedented stretch of hot weather as the mercury climbed to the high 80s and 90s, triggering minor power failures, causing sunstrokes and leading to a spate of drownings. Muscovites flocked to the city's lakes, ponds and canals, not all of them considered safe for swimming. Fully-clothed people were seen jumping in fountains — a minor transgression by Russian law — but the police were told to ignore them until the weather cools down. At least 28 people drowned in Moscow in May, including 17 in the last week alone, said city emergency department spokesman Yevgeny Bobylyov. Another 104 people were rescued. Detentions for public drunkenness spiked as people consumed "copious" amounts of beer in an attempt to deal with the heat, said Moscow regional police spokesman Kirill Sharov. Heat strokes have also sickened 16 people, four of them children, the Moscow Health Department told Russian news agencies. "It feels like Arizona," said tourist Jeffrey McLain, a construction engineer from Flagstaff, Ariz. "I never thought I would swelter in Moscow." One group seemed to be suffering more than others: the Russian Orthodox clergy, with their compulsory beards, heavy robes and hats. But they were determined to withstand the heat. "We have to get used to it," said Father Artyomii, a bespectacled priest sporting a black woolen cassock and a high crowned hat. "The church allows no exceptions even for this weather."

FBI has bigger plans for biometrics

FBI technologists are planning for upgrades that will buttress the law enforcement community’s limited ability to use DNA as a forensic tool, according to a recent briefing the bureau offered on plans for its Next Generation Identification system. NGI is designed to incorporate improved technology into the bureau’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The bureau plans within the next few weeks to request proposals from vendors to build NGI. The agency already has described a phased plan to roll out the upgrades to its existing biometric repository during the next several years. “DNA has definitely proven its ability to be fabulously accurate,” said Jim Loudermilk, deputy assistant director at the bureau’s Information Technology Operations Division. He cited instances in which DNA evidence has exonerated prisoners, some of whom had been held for decades or faced possible execution. Many in the general public now believe that law enforcement agencies can routinely use DNA to investigate crimes, Loudermilk told an audience of vendor and government executives at an Industry Advisory Council briefing. But legal and policy barriers to widespread DNA biometric use work together with the process’ high cost to limit its usefulness, he said. Another barrier is that existing DNA biometric repositories, including IAFIS, simply don’t hold enough information to compete with the more familiar fingerprint data, he said. The costs for DNA sequencing now can range into the thousands of dollars for a single forensic sample, Loudermilk said. But FBI biometric experts estimate that the cost for collecting and sequencing a DNA sample could fall well below $20 in about 15 years, Loudermilk said. Increased use of DNA as a biometric identifier also raises privacy issues, the FBI official said. “We are adding a palm print system,” [as part of the NGI upgrade] Loudermilk said. He said the forensic community’s experience with crime scenes has shown that palm print evidence is frequently available. “The Japanese [police] have found palm prints very useful. “As for the other exotics, such as earlobe shape [and voice prints and gait analysis], the NGI will have the architecture to extend to them should the laws change,” Loudermilk said. The FBI wants its NGI project to forge faster and higher-quality links to biometric repositories other than those IAFIS now uses, Loudermilk said.

Medical experiments to be done without patients' consent

The federal government is undertaking the most ambitious set of studies ever mounted under a controversial arrangement that allows researchers to conduct some kinds of medical experiments without first getting the patients' permission. The $50 million, five-year project, which will involve more than 20,000 patients in 11 sites in the United States and Canada, is designed to improve treatment after car accidents, shootings, cardiac arrest and other emergencies. The three studies, organizers say, offer an unprecedented opportunity to find better ways to resuscitate people whose hearts suddenly stop, to stabilize patients who go into shock and to minimize damage from head injuries. Because such patients are usually unconscious at a time when every minute counts, it is often impossible to get consent from them or their families, the organizers say. The project has been endorsed by many trauma experts and some bioethicists, but others question it. The harshest critics say the research violates fundamental ethical principles.

UK Secret Squad Given Unprecedented Power To Forcibly Detain People Viewed As Having Religious Or Political "Pathological Fixations"

The Government has established a shadowy new national anti-terrorist unit to protect VIPs, with the power to detain suspects indefinitely using mental health laws. The revelation is set to reignite the row over the Government's use of draconian measures to deal with terror suspects amid accusations they are abusing human rights. The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) was quietly set up last year to identify individuals who pose a direct threat to VIPs including the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Royal Family. It was given sweeping powers to check more than 10,000 suspects' files to identify mentally unstable potential killers and stalkers with a fixation against public figures. The team's psychiatrists and psychologists then have the power to order treatment - including forcibly detaining suspects in secure psychiatric units. Using these powers, the unit can legally detain people for an indefinite period without trial, criminal charges or even evidence of a crime being committed and with very limited rights of appeal. Until now it has been the exclusive decision of doctors and mental health professionals to determine if someone should be forcibly detained. But the new unit uses the police to identify suspects - increasing fears the line is being blurred between criminal investigation and doctors' clinical decisions. It also raises questions about why thousands of mentally ill individuals have been allowed back into the community - including some who have attacked and killed members of the public - while VIPs are being given special protection. Scotland Yard, which runs the shadowy unit, refuses to discuss how many suspects have been forcibly hospitalised by the team because of "patient confidentiality". But at least one terror suspect - allegedly linked to the 7/7 bomb plot and a suicide bombing in Israel - has already been held under the Mental Health Act. The suspect, who was subject of a control order and cannot be named for legal reasons, later absconded from the hospital and his whereabouts are unknown. The existence of FTAC, part of the Metropolitan Police's specialist operations department which oversees anti-terrorist investigations and royal and diplomatic protection, slipped out in the fine print of a Home Office report. The report makes it clear FTAC is a counter-terrorism unit and says: "We aim to make the UK a harder target for terrorists by maintaining effective and efficient protective security for public figures."

Search For Life In Space To Go 24/7

The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute plans to have 42 radio astronomy dishes up and running in northern California by the end of 2007, which will enable it to scan the heavens for alien radio waves on a continuous basis. "There are a number of groups around the world doing SETI research. They are listening for radio signals out there, but it is not 24/7," said Scott Hubbard, who holds the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. "But it tends to be borrowed time where scientists sign up to use a facility for a few days or a few weeks at a time," he told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of a space development conference in Dallas. That will change when the 42 radio astronomy dishes of the Allen Telescope Array are up and running. It is named for Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen, who donated some of the $US12.5 million ($A15.3 million) construction costs. "When you put all these dishes together it makes a pretty large patch in the sky which you can listen to with great sensitivity - detecting signals which are either very far away or very faint," Hubbard said.

Is federal Real ID Act for your own good?

We are now less than a year away from the deadline for states to comply with the federal Real ID Act. By next May 12, all state-issued driver's licenses and ID cards must include your personal information, signature and a machine readable zone to contain all the data. That may be either a credit card type swipe strip or a Radio Frequency Identification tag, called an RFID chip, like those used to track products and identify lost pets via low-power radio waves. Though maintained by the individual states, the information will be mutually available among them, as well as to the federal government, effectively creating a national database accessible from tens of thousands of locations throughout the country. It is true that under the U.S. Constitution the federal government has no authority to impose a national identity card. The 10th Amendment explicitly declares that all powers not delegated to the federal government "are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." But Big Brother is not so easily frustrated in his determination to watch you (for your own good, you understand). So state-issued driver's licenses that are not Real ID compliant will not be accepted by the federal government as valid identification for any purpose including boarding a flight, receiving Social Security or opening an account at a federally chartered bank. In other words, the federal government has made it "so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark" of its national ID.

Syria Preparing for US-Israeli Attacks

Syria is now the subject of intense covert and overt diplomatic U.S. and E.U. pressure as the Anglo-American war machine is running out of time. Attempts are also underway to create a wedge between Iran and Syria. Military provisions are additionally underway on the immediate borders of Syria for a possible war in the Levant and a broader Middle Eastern war that would stretch from the borders of Egypt and Turkey to the frontier of Western China. Israel is also making preparations for yet another war, while the U.S. and British militaries continue to marshal their armed forces into Afghanistan, Iraq, and the broader Middle East.

Christianity Is Being Exterminated In Iraq

There is another tragedy taking in place in Iraq on a daily basis, far from the front pages and the TV news. It does not involve the kidnapping of U.S. troops, nor even the fire-bombing of Muslim shrines by other Muslims, both of which by now are familiar to most Americans. This is a tragedy taking place in a total media vacuum. Even our government has remained silent as it continues. Perhaps it’s because the victims are Christians. Indeed, members of the most ancient Christian communities in the world.
Over the past three years, Iraqi Muslim extremists have targeted Christians in systematic attacks, aimed at driving them from their homes, their work places, and their churches. Just last week, a group of armed Muslims set fire to St. George’s Assyrian Church in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, completely decimating what remained of a church already hit by a deadly fire-bombing in October 2004. It was the 27th church to have been destroyed by Muslim gangs since the liberation of Iraq from Saddam and his thugs. “The bombing of St. George’s Church should leave no doubt in any one’s mind that a process of ethnic cleansing has begun,” the Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International told me. “Unfortunately, the US has put very little pressure on the Iraqi government to establish, as guaranteed by provisions in the Iraqi constitution, an autonomous federal unit of self governance and security for these minorities,” he said. Father Roderick has been a tireless advocate for Iraq’s martyred Christians. Through Christian Solidarity International, he works closely with Christian communities throughout the Muslim world as they struggle against repression and persecution. The May 16 attack is only the latest in a series of measures by Islamic militants aimed at forcing Christians to leave Iraq. “There are estimates that nearly 50% of the Christians of Iraq have been forced to flee into exile,” Father Roderick said.

University OKs pagan festival, bans Christian event

Scotland's University of Edinburgh, after proposing a ban on Bibles and denying a Christian campus group the right to hold a conference on the immorality of homosexuality, has extended the welcome mat to the school's Pagan Society to hold its annual meeting on campus next month. The pagan conference will feature presentations on a variety of topics, including Magic and Witchcraft in the 21st Century, Pagan Parenting, Pagan Marriage, Pagan Symbolism and Practice and Ancient Greek magic. A workshop in tribal dance will be held at the university Student's Association. "It will be an opportunity for people to listen to talks on various aspects of modern paganism and socialize with like-minded people in a relaxed, tolerant atmosphere," said John Macintyre, presiding officer of Pagan Federation Scotland. "Most people now recognize that the old stereotypes about witches and witchcraft are way off the mark and there is nothing remotely sinister about it." In 2005, Edinburgh began banning Bibles from Edinburgh student halls of residence due to concern they are the source of discrimination against students of other faiths. The ban was a response to student association protests as well as an agenda to equally support all faiths, a university spokesman said. While a Gideon Bible had traditionally been placed in the room of all new students, officials decided they could be offensive to some. Removal, advocates said, was about "respecting diversity," not attacking Christianity. The previous year, Edinburgh removed prayer from graduation ceremonies. The decision to allow the Pagan Society to hold its meeting on campus comes a year after university officials denied the same privilege to the university's Christian Union. Officials banned a course on the dangers of homosexuality the group wanted to teach, saying it was in violation of the university's guidelines.