Sun Jul 7,2002
MONTREAL - Firefighters battled dozens of raging forest fires in Quebec as smoke and haze from the blazes blanketed the northeastern United States and stretched as far south as Washington, D.C.
At least 85 fires — 10 of them out of control — were burning Sunday, the Quebec forest fire protection service said. They have destroyed more than 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) of forest.
With no rain expected before Thursday, the fires will likely grow, the service's spokesman Eric Santerre said.
Lightning and dry conditions sparked the fires that have been burning since July 2 in two separate regions southeast of James Bay between 200 and 400 miles (320 and 640 kilometers) north of the U.S. border.
More than 500 firefighters — some in planes dropping water — worked to control 45 fires in a region above Lake St. Jean about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Quebec City, Santerre said.
"For part of them we are doing nothing for now because they are too big," he said. "These are really big fires. We are using firebreaks, sprinklers, hoses and motorized pumps."
In the Nemiscau region south of James Bay, about 40 fires were burning. Some 75 firefighters dug firebreaks and poured water on the flames, but dense smoke prevented use of aircraft to drop water.
The fires in Nemiscau have led to the evacuation of two Cree Indian villages, Nemaska and Chisasibi.
Rising to 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), the plume of smoke blanketed Montreal and reached New York City.
Propelled by strong winds from the north, the fires have created a plume of smoke and haze stretching from Michigan to Massachusetts visible as far south as Washington, D.C., U.S. meteorologists said Sunday.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental protection advised residents of 20 counties, especially those with respiratory conditions, to stay indoors until Monday afternoon.
Wally said the plume probably will shift north and east by Monday morning, moving off the New England coast.
7/8/2002
AMMAN, Jordan, July 8 (UPI) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is expected to step down in the coming weeks through an agreement between the United States, Israel and certain Palestinian and Arab parties, a Jordanian magazine said Monday.
The opposition periodical, Al-Majd, which is considered close to Syria, quoted unidentified high-ranking Palestinian sources as saying the president of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmad Qurai, known as Abu Alaa, is Arafat's most likely successor.
They said Abu Alaa has the upper hand over another favored candidate, Mahmud Abbas, who goes by the name of Abu Mazen and is secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
The sources said Arafat was almost acquiescent about stepping down willingly after being briefed about a U.S. and Israeli request to replace him as a condition for restarting peace negotiations and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
They said Arafat was granted a last chance to think about the best way to step down, and that if he did so, he would most likely choose to retire to a home in territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority, rather than go into exile in Egypt, Jordan or Tunisia.
The reports about Arafat's projected departure coincided with denials by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt that they were involved in contacts aimed at ousting him
(TheSUN via GulfDailyNews)
LONDON:
A white couple has given birth to black twins in an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) mix-up at a state-run British fertility clinic.
Health officials have not confirmed the report, but a legal injunction banning the naming of the parties involved suggests it is accurate.
The Sun newspaper said the white mother wanted to keep the children after forming a bond, and that a court battle to determine the "real" parents could lie ahead.
A spokeswoman for the National Health Service said: "We are not able to comment because the case is covered by a legal injunction which has been led by couple A."
It was unclear whether couple A was white or black. Neither the couple, the babies nor the clinic can be named for legal reasons.
A British Medical Association spokeswoman said the case, believed to be the first of its kind in Britain, was "a tragedy for all involved".
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/guides/weird/ufos/abduction.shtml)
One of the strangest cases reported to the Welsh Federation of Independent Ufologists is the multiple sighting of UFOs on the same night - except one family got too close for comfort and were apparently abducted.
The strange and disturbing events began to unfold when for several nights an elderly man living in Little Orme, Conwy, was troubled by what he called "frightening" beams of light over the Great Orme.
Unfortunately for one family travelling by car to the area at the same time on November 10 1997, that was the night they had an unexplained encounter.
They could not account for several 'lost' hours when they suddenly became aware of resuming their journey, according to investigator Margaret Fry.
She was told of their account by a friend of the family who were said to have been advised by officials not to come forward.
Margaret says the couple and their children where driving on the Bodfair/Landernog road when they found their car engulfed by a purple triangular craft.
The next thing they remember is that the purple craft had gone.
"But they could not account for considerable hours of time lost," said Margaret.
"The male was having trouble afterwards with a top molar tooth and he had to go to the denist's," she said.
"A black unknown object fell out while he was at the dentist's - but he had no fillings," she said.
Margaret says that the man reported the family's encounter to the authorities and he was said to have been visited twice by air force personnel and requested not to speak publicly about the matter.
Despite the sketchy details, Margaret is interested in the witness account because of the sightings in the same area and on the same night by the elderly man - and that of a local businessman who also had a close encounter with a craft described as an alien cruise ship.
The third sighting was by the businessman who says he saw a huge craft the shape of a "child's spinning top" while he was driving along the same road as the family who claim to have been abducted.
Margaret says the man, who sketched an outline of what he saw (seen here), told her he stopped his vehicle to look at the craft which he described as being as big a football pitch and hovering above buildings in the village of Llandernog.
The man says the craft had a "myriad of lit windows", almost making him believe it was a cruiser-craft capable of carrying hundreds of people - or beings...
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/guides/weird/ufos/tiny_ufo.shtml)
One of the most extraordinary experiences I have had related to me came in the form of a letter from a Mr and Mrs D, of Kinmel Bay, near Rhyl.
"A very strange thing happened to my wife and I in November 1987," wrote Mr D. "We had been visiting our daughter in Upper Colwyn Bay and were on our return journey home via the A55 Expressway. The time was approximately 5.50pm, the night was clear and dry but dark. We had only gone about a mile along the road when a very strange thing happened which made us stop the car on the hard shoulder.
A blue circle of light with a hollow centre about 2in across and tinged with white entered the car, believe it or not, via the closed passenger window. We both watched fascinated as the light proceeded to examine slowly the whole of the dashboard, even dropping down to circle and examine the radio, returning again to the top of the dashboard, proceeding slowly around the instruments and steering wheel, before disappearing straight through the windscreen. No glass was broken and, although shaken by the incident, we were unhurt.
When we returned home I telephoned the RAF at Anglesey and spoke to the duty officer to see if he had any thoughts on the matter. He had no explanation to offer... but he said he had heard of this happening before."
This sounds like some kind of UFO in miniature - one can almost imagine it piloted by a very little green man, examining our own archaic Earthling transport.
Quite independently, but in the same year, I received a letter from a lady living in Rhos-on-Sea who told me that many years ago, when she was living in Barmouth, her house was "invaded by a strange light".
The light, purple in hue, also entered through a closed window and floated like a balloon across her living room. After settling itself in an armchair for a few moments, it left the way it had come.
Such strange phenomena are called simply "balls of light" in the literature. Linked to "ball lightning", another rare phenomenon, they are believed by some to be made of plasma, a kind of sub-atomic matter. One day perhaps their presence will be explained...
(Ananova)
17th June 2002
Residents in Sri Lanka claim aliens are visiting sacred sites and tourist attractions in a UFO.
Authorities are investigating several sightings of a mysterious blue ball hovering in Dimbulagala.
A local UFO enthusiast says aliens are probably studying technology used to construct ancient buildings.
Sanjaya Bandara said: "They might have travelled to our ancient sites to find a key to the mysteries of the universe."
A TV reporter claims to have seen the object hovering over a sacred cliff for more than a week.
Gamini Obeysekara, who works for the government channel Rupavahini, said: "It took three days for me to get this strange blue light on video tape. It seemed to heading towards the sacred areas."
Dimbulagala, in north central Sri Lanka, houses historical ruins dating back to the first century AD.
A team of astrophysicists from the University of Colombo are investigating the reported sightings.
Dr Chandana Jayaratne said: "We cannot be sure until we completely verify the story. It could well turn out to be fabricated."
"And if you look out the pod bays to your left you will see where Duran Duran filmed the "Please,Please tell me now" video. One of MTV's finest."
4th July 2002
Sri Lankan scientists say UFOs reported by villagers are being confirmed by a team of observers.
Hundreds of people in north central Sri Lanka have reported seeing a blue-white light several times over the past few weeks.
A mysterious blue ball was first seen over the historical ruins of Dimbulagala which date to the first century AD.
Now a team which travelled to the area has seen the UFO on three days, reports Professor Chandana Jayaratne, an astrophysicist at the University of Colombo.
They say the V-shaped beam of light seemingly travels at high-speed between locations and makes a buzzing noise similar to a bee.
Professor Chandana told the Daily News: "These sightings have been confirmed by a group of keen observers."
An unnamed member of the observing party said: "More than 100 villagers have seen the UFO. In general we cannot consider these stories as being fabricated. The light beam unlike any other we have seen before ... rotated, suddenly disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later from a place 300 to 400 metres away from the place it was initially seen.
"We camped near the Parakrama Samudraya. Dense jungle stretched out to the far end and the light beam came from the jungle. Therefore, we could not go out to investigate. Out of our preliminary investigations it turned out to be an object capable of emitting 'V' shaped beam of light of intense illumination.
"The villagers including an Advanced Level student told us the flying object is capable of moving at a very high velocity and when it is travelling at a lower height it made a sound similar to a sound made by a bee. And it could change its direction to avoid colliding with trees. For three consecutive days we observed the same UFO."
Hmm, the year 2002 news article most likely to be a secret message to sleeper agents?
(TIMES OF INDIA (JUNE 18, 2002) via IndiaUFO.com)
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is abuzz over aliens after some villagers and a journalist spotted an unidentified flying object (UFO) in the north central town of Polonnaruwa, but visionary space scientist Sir Arthur C Clarke has played down the local X File episode.
The unusually glimmering flying object was first spotted by a farmer in Polonnaruwa, but its presence was also confirmed by several others in the area including a television journalist, local media reports said on Sunday.
The object had been seen over Sri Lankan skies for nearly a week and eventually prompted the Sri Lankan Air Force to investigate the matter, the reports added.
Polonnaruwa is an ancient Sri Lankan capital and is a popular tourist attraction because it houses many rare historical ruins dating back to the first century AD.
A team of astrophysicists -- led by Dr Chandana Jayaratne of the University of Colombo -- has also started studying the Sri Lankan sky to determine what the object is.
But for the internationally renowned author of several books on this subject, Arthur Clarke, all the hype appears to be largely unwarranted.
"I wish I would one day be able to meet a visiting alien, but I don't for a moment agree that aliens are visiting the Earth in UFOs making secret appearance of contacting a handful of human beings," Clarke said in a statement.
"We need to discern enthralling science fiction from science fact," he added.
According to Clarke, despite several investigations by NASA and the US Air Force, no credible evidence has been found anywhere in the world of aliens visiting the earth.
Clarke also warned that people were spending far too much attention on investigating UFOs rather than studying NEOs or Near Earth Objects like asteroids and comets that could crash on earth and destroy life.
7 July, 2002
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has disclosed that Star Wars helmsman George Lucas will not allow him make one of his hit sci-fi series.
Spielberg - whose latest film is the futuristic Minority Report - told Empire magazine that Lucas was too possessive of his blockbuster space saga to let anyone else have a try.
Lucas and Spielberg have worked together several times including on the Indiana Jones series of movies.
But, despite their friendship and Spielberg's Oscar-winning credentials, Lucas considers the Star Wars series his "baby".
"I've asked him. He won't
"I wanted to do one 15 years ago and he didn't want me to do it. I understand why - Star Wars is George's baby. "
Lucas's latest Star Wars instalment took box offices by storm around the world when it was released in May this year.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, the fifth instalment in the cult Star Wars series that began in 1977, was one of the most hotly-anticipated films of the year.
It opened to warmer reviews than Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which was widely seen as a disappointment when it was released in 1999.
Popular classics
Spielberg too is no stranger to producing box office hits.
His back catalogue includes some of the most popular movies of recent cinemas history, such as E.T and Jurassic Park.
Minority Report - released in the UK and US on 4 July - has also been well received.
It stars Tom Cruise in a bleak thriller set in 2054.
And Spielberg is soon to begin the fourth Indiana Jones adventure - again starring Harrison Ford - after a gap of more than a decade.
"The fun of it is I get to revisit a bit of my childhood again," Spielberg explained of his decision to do another Indiana Jones film.
"It's a chance for all of us to go back and feel young and act young. Harrison is going to be full of energy, as he always is."
He concluded: "It's going to be very exciting. Even though he will be 62 by the time this film comes out, Harrison hasn't lost the snap in his whip."
Remember less is more boys.
(thesun.co.uk)
NO it's not that cuddly toy off The Generation Game.
But this furry pet is definitely a man – and woman's – best friend.
Boffins from Japanese giant Panasonic popped into the Gizmo lab this week to show us this amazing development exclusively.
Called Tama, it's designed to help the elderly stay mentally stimulated when they live alone.
Voice-recognition technology makes sure it knows who its owner is while a vocabulary of 2000 phrases means it will hold a decent conversation and play word games.
Connected to the phone line 24 hours a day, it receives voice and text messages from friends and family then speaks them back.
And even the doctor can keep in touch with a reminder to "take your medicine".
Twenty different eye expressions and in-body motion sensors bring it to life and at Panasonic's futuristic care home in the Far East, it's been hailed a real success.
Especially as it doesn't get fed up hearing about the grandchildren or finding out its owner is "83 you know" for the 1000th time.
(INDIAN TIMES)
JULY 09, 2002
NEW DELHI: Several government agencies have launched investigations to unravel the mystery behind the abandoned merchant vessel ship Al-Murtada which was intercepted by the Coast Guard on the high seas off the west coast of India.
Two AK-47 rifles, with the words Allah and Yusuf inscribed on them, have been found aboard the ship. ‘‘It’s very suspicious and mysterious that a vessel be abandoned on the high seas...it could have been used for arms smuggling, drug trafficking or transporting terrorists,’’ said Coast Guard director-general Vice-Admiral O P Bansal on Monday.
Representatives from the Coast Guard, the Navy, the customs, the Intelligence Bureau, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the police are conducting ‘‘joint rummaging’’ of Al-Murtada, which is 68 metres long and 11 metres wide. The Coast Guard has also got in touch with the Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur and US authorities in Hawaii.
‘‘There have been lots of reports about ships carrying fleeing Al-Qaida operatives to Africa...it could be one of those,’’ Vice-Admiral Bansal said.
The drifting Al-Murtada, whose last known owner was a Lebanese named Assem Nidal Beaini, was first sighted 84 nautical miles (155 kms) west off Ratnagiri (Maharastra) on July 3. Coast Guard dorniers were subsequently deployed from the Daman air station to keep a close watch on the vessel.
As the ships’s identity was ‘‘suspect’’, and it could also have proved to be an ‘‘environmental hazard’’ or ‘‘a threat to safe navigation’’ of other ships, a Coast Guard ship Vijaya was despatched on July 5 from Mumbai to intercept and board the vessel.
‘‘Despite rough seas and unfavourable weather conditions, Coast Guard officials managed to board the vessel and successfully anchored it around eight kms off the Devgarh lighthouse,’’ an official said.
It was later found that the ship’s portable furniture and equipment had been removed before it was abandoned. Inquiries revealed the owners and agents of the ship, which made its last recorded port call in UAE last September, were based in Lebanon. On being contacted, the agent, Talal Abdul, expressed surprise over the incident.
I've done some joint rummaging in my day but not with the Coast Guard if you catch my drift.
July 8, 2002
ALMATY (Reuters) - A case of bubonic plague has been detected in southwestern Kazakhstan, and doctors have placed those in contact with the infected person in isolation, state television channel Khabar said on Monday.
Khabar said a nine-year-old boy from the village of Kulandy in the arid Kyzyl Orda region was brought to hospital with a high temperature last Friday. It said he could have been bitten by infected fleas carried by desert rodents.
The disease, which until recently has been fatal in 90 percent of cases, leads to swollen lymph nodes, high fever and delirium. It spreads by coughing, sneezing or simply talking. Three global epidemics in the sixth, 14th and 17th centuries killed over 100 million people.
Although largely eradicated worldwide, bubonic plague occurs from time to time in Kazakhstan. Last year one person died and several others were taken to hospital in the Central Asian state.
Khabar said the source of the infection was natural. It hastened to dispel concerns that it might have come from abandoned biological warfare laboratories developed on nearby Resurrection Island in Soviet times.
2002-07-08
(Pravda.ru)
It was the USSR that established one of the most sophisticated special services in the world, which trained female spies to seduce men. There has been a book put out recently about sex spying. A girl named Vera narrated the story about KGB and how they recruited pretty girls, promising them that they would have all kinds of welfare imaginable, if they would agree to fulfil their civil duty and become sex agents. They were trying to deliver them from any shyness or shame, teaching them sex techniques, showing perverted pornographic videos. Girls were supposed to be able to execute any task. A lesbian orgy was one of practical classes, teachers would join that orgy too, the whole event was filmed and then the tape was discussed in detail by the whole group of participants.
“We were told that we were soldiers and that our weapon was our bodies. When the training was finished, we became sexually sophisticated women, we were ready to sleep with any man, if there was such an order for that,” – Vera said.
The objects of sexual attack were examined thoroughly beforehand, it was requisite to learn their sexual preferences, in order not to miss anyone. The first contact with an object was supposed to be totally incidental, but it was all over with blackmail: they explained to a guy that he had no other way out, but to cooperate with the Soviet intelligence.
However, surprised happened sometimes too, like it was with the notorious case for seducing Indonesian President Ahmed Sukarno. He was known for his sexual passion. That is why KGB sent a group of young girls to him during his visit to Moscow. Those girls got acquainted with Ahmed Sukarno in a plane, under the disguise of air hostesses, then he invited them to his hotel room in Moscow and arranged a grand orgy. The orgy was filmed by two candid cameras that were fixed behind mirrors. It seemed that the operation was just perfect. Before starting the blackmail, KGB invited Sukarno in a small private movie theatre and showed him the pornographic video, in which he was playing the main part. KGB agents were expecting him to get really frightened, that he would agree to cooperate with them at once, but everything happened vice versa: Sukarno fondly decided that it was a gift from the Soviet government, so he asked for more copies to take them back to Indonesia and show them in movie theatres. Sukarno said to flabbergasted agents that the people of Indonesia would be very proud of him, if they could see him doing the nasty with Russian girls.
East-German intelligence progressed in the field of sex spying as well. They developed a plan for seducing lonely secretaries that worked in important state institutions of West Berlin. The first contact was supposed to happen on a bus stop, in a cafe, or during a lunch break. A guy would start making a conversation, and then there was a game of seduction. For example, a handsome, well-dressed man with a bouquet of flowers rings a bell of a lonely woman, and then he pretends that he knocked on a wrong door. He gallantly apologizes, gives her flowers, and the affair starts. Agents knew every little detail about those women before starting all those operations. However, a male sex spy was not supposed to look like a Hollywood actor, it would be suspicious that he evinced interest in an inexpressive woman. Male sex spies also had a course of education classes with seductive female teachers. It sometimes happened that an agent could fall in love with his object, and those two people could not be controlled any longer. The problem with lonely secretaries that worked in secret institutions of West Berlin was so serious that NATO authorities ordered to hang posters on the walls of their offices, telling them to keep their hearts closed.
Sometimes women were eager to fight themselves, especially even if their were gripped with patriotic feelings. More than a dozen of English soldiers were killed during the war in Northern Ireland – they were killed by pretty women, who met them in bars, offered them to have sex and killed them brutally in the end. The Irish used pretty girls for distracting soldiers’ attention at their posts or near police stations during army operations. The British were not sitting on their hands, they set up a sex squad in return too. The intelligence opened two brothels in Belfast for blackmailing the leaders of local political movements and for obtaining intelligence information. Those brothels were packed with best prostitutes from all over Europe - they executed the tasks of the English intelligence for very good money.
Kitty saloon entered the history of the Nazi intelligence, the brothel was in a very good demand for two years from 1940 to 1942. Secret agents were making up to three thousand records a month, every girl worked with five clients a day. However, the saloon stopped its existence in a second, when a British bomb fell down on it.
Israeli service Mossad is considered to be the leader in the field of sex espionage. It has Arab-speaking female agents , holding Canadian and American passports, women work in Palestine and in other neighboring Arab states. Sex spying is used in China too. Pretty Chinese girls work with foreign businessmen, politicians and journalists, representatives of South Korea and Taiwan are their main target. They say that the Chinese like to blackmail catholic priests, filming them as they have sex with prostitutes, forgetting their vows. Intelligence services of various countries also used homosexual agents, but it depends on a country, from which an object arrived – on their attitude to unconventional sex. There was an incident, when a KGB agent noticed that one of French diplomats had an eye on a guy from the governmental security. When KGB showed him kinky photographs of himself, the French delegate laughed out laud – it turned out that everybody in the embassy knew about his sexual orientation, and it was not a problem at all.
8th July 2002
(Ananova.com)
A suspected al-Qaida leader and his family are understood to be living in a safe house in England and being looked after by British intelligence.
Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, said to be Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe, was sentenced to death in his absence in Jordan.
He is accused by the US, Spain, France and Algeria of being a key influence in the September 11 attacks.
Mystery has surrounded his whereabouts since last December when he disappeared from his home in Acton, west London, after the Government introduced anti-terrorism laws that could have seen him interred.
European intelligence officials have told Time magazine that Abu Qatada and his family are being lodged, fed and clothed by British intelligence services somewhere in northern England.
The source said: "The deal is that Abu Qatada is deprived of contact with extremists in London and Europe but can't be arrested or expelled because no one officially knows where he is.
"The British win because the last thing they want is a hot potato they can't extradite for fear of al-Qaida reprisals but whose presence contradicts London's support of the war on terror."
The magazine says the claims have been corroborated by French authorities.
British security services officials declined to comment to Time, with the Home Office stating: "We do not comment on security issues."
In April the Sunday Times newspaper speculated that Abu Qatada had turned "supergrass" for MI5, a theory fuelled by the arrests of several Muslim extremists in Germany who had met the Palestinian refugee and were said to be on the brink of an attack.
What's the bet's he in Salman Rushdie's old house?
WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - A group angered at the lack of voting rights in the U.S. capital is to mark America's Independence Day by asking Queen Elizabeth to place Washington under British rule.
In a tongue-in-cheek gesture, the group plans to present a "Declaration of Reunification" to the British Embassy in Washington on Wednesday, the day before the holiday that celebrates American independence from Britain.
"Maybe we can get a better deal as part of the Commonwealth," said Paul Strauss, spokesman for DC Vote, which campaigns for residents in the federal capital to have the right to vote for members of Congress.
District of Columbia residents pay federal taxes and the city's population of about 600,000 is larger than that of some states. But their representation in the U.S. Congress consists of a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.
The reason is more than 200 years old.
The capital district was created in the late 18th century as a special seat for the federal government after the United States was formed.
In 1800, Congress claimed complete control over what was then a small federal enclave. But despite its growth into a major metropolis, its residents were not allowed to vote in presidential elections until the 1960s, and the District was not allowed to elect its own mayor and local government until the 1970s.
Congress in 1978 approved a constitutional amendment giving the District voting rights but it did not receive the necessary support of three-quarters of the states and failed.
Critics still fighting for ballot rights charge members of Congress are denying the District the vote for partisan reasons. They say Republicans fear the heavily Democratic capital would send more Democrats to Congress.
A TIME/CNN poll finds that more than one-third of Americans say they are paying more attention now to how the news might relate to the end of the world, and have talked about what the Bible has to say on the subject. Fully 59% say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true, and nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 attack
— TIME/CNN Poll
— TIME/CNN Poll
— TIME/CNN Poll
17% of Americans believe the end of the world will happen in their lifetime
— TIME/CNN Poll
"'When Christ returns, every eye shall see Him,'" are quotes from Revelation. Thanks to CNN and the Internet, "we're getting to a place where every eye could actually behold such an event."
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A message from God, or just bad plumbing?
A wet patch has appeared on the revered Western Wall of Jerusalem's Old City, interpreted by some as a sign the messiah is coming, and others as evidence of a leaky pipe.
Some religious leaders say the holy wall is shedding tears after 21 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
The Israel Antiquities Authority said it could be a leak but the authority has yet to discuss the patch with Islamic authorities who administer a mosque complex on a broad plaza supported by the wall holy to Judaism.
"Based on past experience we would suggest that this is caused by some physical problem with one of the pipes (on the other side of the wall)," Jon Seligman, an Antiquities Authority archaeologist, said on Thursday.
"It may well dry up this week...We've had bigger wet patches before caused by water pipe bursts," he told Reuters.
The Western Wall is a retaining wall of what Jews revere as the Temple Mount, the last vestige of a temple destroyed in the year 70. Jews have wailed over the lost temple there, ergo its alternative name -- the Wailing Wall.
The entire complex, including the mosques perched on what Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif, is at the heart of a dispute between Israel and the Palestinians over control of Jerusalem. Each side wants the city as its capital.
The damp spot, about 40 cm (16 inches) long and 10 cm (four inches) wide, appeared this week high up on the stone-block wall. It has stopped dripping but remains damp, and some religious Jews are rejoicing.
They said the moist spot had appeared on a white stone in the seventh row two weeks before the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av commemorating the destruction of that temple and its biblical predecessor.
"It is written that if there is a non-stop flow of water from the white stone in the seventh row before Tisha B'Av it is a sign that the messiah will come, that salvation will come to the world," said worshipper Avraham Fryberg.
KABBALISTIC PROPHECY
The black-bearded, ultra-Orthodox Jew said this was written in one of the books of the mystical kabbalah, but others who gathered at the Western Wall disputed his claim.
David Cohen, a Jew of Moroccan origin, said the white stone's only significance was that a Moroccan rabbi called Or Hayyim (Light of Life) had placed a note in a crack there several centuries ago and wrote a book about it.
"A pile of trash deposited by Muslims enabled him to reach the stone" some six metres (18 feet) above ground, Cohen said.
Yehoshua Yamaguchi, a member of a Japanese Christian Zionist group, was sure the stone was shedding tears.
Quoting from a Hebrew song, he sang, "Sometimes a stone can have the heart of a man," and added, "I believe God is present in the stones of this Wall and he is showing his love for the Jewish people who are not all here."
Western Wall rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch offered a similar interpretation.
"Some people see it as the symbol of destruction (of the temple), or that the wall is weeping with us in this difficult time, when children are being killed and we are dealing with hardship, suffering and death," he told Army Radio, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But Shmuel Sheinberg, elderly guardian of a small library next to the wall and someone many said would know about any prophecies, whispered hoarsely: "It's a bluff, its all a bluff. It is not written anywhere".
Tour guide Avraham Pragan offered a mundane explanation. "The seventh row is the level of the floor of Temple Mount. When Muslims above wash down the floor, water will find an outlet at that level if there is any crack in the wall."
The gruff resident of a socialist kibbutz collective farm, Pragan denied he was a born sceptic. "If water were to drip from the eighth row of stones, then I would believe in a miracle."
1-17-99
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell said the Antichrist is probably alive today and is a male Jew. He also believes the second coming of Christ probably will be within 10 years.
In a speech Thursday about the concern people have over the new millennium, Falwell told about 1,500 people at a conference on evangelism at Kingsport, Tenn., that the Antichrist is male and is a Jew.
``Who will the antichrist be? I don't know. Nobody else knows,'' said Falwell, whose Sunday morning services at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg are carried by television stations nationwide.
``Is he alive and here today? Probably. Because when he appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish. Of course he'll pretend to be Christ. And if in fact the Lord is coming soon, and he'll be an adult at the presentation of himself, he must be alive somewhere today.''
According to the Bible, the Antichrist will spread universal evil before the end of the world but will be finally conquered at the second coming of Christ.
Falwell, the chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg and founder of the now-defunct Moral Majority, said Friday in Williamsburg that he did not intend for his statement to be anti-Jewish. He said he meant only that the Antichrist must be Jewish because Jesus Christ was a Jew.
``If he's going to be the counterfeit of Christ, he has to be Jewish,'' Falwell said. ``The only thing we know is he must be male and Jewish.''
Rabbi James Rudin, the director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee in New York, said the comment surprised him because he knows Falwell is a strong supporter of Israel and is not anti-Jewish.
``This is part of what I call millennial madness,'' Rudin said. ``To single out any one man and particularly to identify him as Jewish plays into some latent and historical anti-Semitism from the past.
(The Guardian)
7-6-2
The Earth could be about to turn upside down. The planet's magnetic field is showing signs of wanting to make a gigantic somersault, so that magnetic north heads towards Antarctica, and magnetic south goes north. Compasses will point the wrong way, and migrating birds, fish and turtles are going to be very confused.
Just when this will happen, how long it will take and what the consequences will be, is difficult to fathom. What is not in doubt, though, is that it will happen. About every half a million years or so, the Earth's magnetic field flips upside down.
The story begins in 1600, when Sir William Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth I, suggested that the Earth was a giant magnet. At the magnetic poles, a compass needle would stand up and point straight down into the Earth. And he was right, up to a point. The magnetic poles are where all the lines of force of Earth's magnetic field are drawn together. It does not coincide with the geographic poles, the axis on which the Earth spins, but it is close.
Yet the Earth is not a solid magnet. For one thing, its magnetic poles are constantly drifting around. At present, magnetic north is heading out of Canadian territory into the Arctic Ocean at about 10 miles per year. Also, a bar magnet quickly loses its power, yet the Earth's magnetic field has been around for billions of years, so something is regenerating it. This is why Einstein remarked that the origin of the Earth's magnetic field was one of the greatest mysteries of physics.
Today, we think that magnetic power comes from the Earth's hot outer shell of molten iron sloshing around a solid inner core. As this subterranean ocean of liquid metal slowly whirls around, it behaves like a dynamo generating electrical currents and magnetic fields. Just like the flickering light on a bicycle powered by a dynamo, the Earth's currents are a little erratic, and so the magnetic field at the surface of the Earth fluctuates. We know the magnetic polarity goes topsy-turvy from rocks on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean.
Along the middle of the Atlantic runs a gigantic crack from which lava oozes. As the lava solidifies into rock, it records the Earth's magnetic polarity at the time. These records show that we are due for another flip about now. But the Earth does not keep a regular rhythm, so no one could make a prediction based on past performance alone. There is, however, more convincing proof that we are heading for a tumble. Each time the magnetic field heads for a reversal, it grows weaker over several thousand years until it almost disappears. Then it switches and starts up again with renewed vigour.
Magnetism trapped in ancient pottery shows that over the past 4,000 years, the magnetic field has weakened by more than 50%. This past century, the strength has dropped by 5%. At this rate, the field might disappear in the next few hundred or thousand years. Another warning sign of an imminent flip has come recently from satellite measurements of the Earth's magnetic field.
A team led by Gauthier Hulot, of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, has spotted patches of reversed magnetism concentrated in two places just underneath the Earth's outer mantle. In the largest patch, beneath the southern tip of Africa, the magnetic field is pointing towards the centre of the Earth, instead of outwards. The other patch is near the north pole.
Some experts have stuck their necks out to predict that we can expect the next reversal some time in the next 2,000 years. The process would probably then take anything between 100 and a few thousand years - not even a blink in the history of Earth. We can only guess what life would be like during that reversal. Anyone trying to navigate with a magnetic compass is going to have a tough time, but what is going to happen to all those birds, fish and other animals that migrate vast distances using their own internal magnetic compass? Will they have time to re-draw their magnetic maps and get new bearings?
Even more creatures such as bees and some bacteria use a sense of magnetism for finding their way around their local territories, for a north/south or up/down axis. The Earth's magnetic field also stretches several hundred miles into space and protects us from the sun's charged particles and cosmic rays by focusing them towards the poles. This is where they appear as the northern and southern lights as they excite gases in the atmosphere. As the magnetic poles migrate across the world, those night lights are going to light up some very strange places where they have never been seen before.
During a field reversal, this protective magnetic shield is going to be weak and might even disappear for a century or more. That might drastically affect the weather. There is a growing body of evidence that the sun's highly charged particles batter the upper atmosphere so hard that some of the assault filters down into the atmosphere around us, influencing the wind, atmospheric pressure and temperature.
Without our magnetic shield, those solar particles might create havoc with the weather. That cosmic radiation blasting the Earth's surface could cause genetic mutations and cancers. Yet when palaeontologists scoured the fossil records looking for signs of mass extinctions or bursts of evolution during previous magnetic field flips, they found nothing. Living organisms seem to have survived intact. But what will happen next time?
Mad Cow Morning News
7-6-2
VENICE, Fl - The owner of one of the two Venice, FL. flight schools at which Mohamed Atta and his terrorist cadre learned to fly barely survived the crash of a private plane last Wednesday when it nose-dived to earth after taking off from the Venice Airport.
The MadCowMorningNews has learned that subsequent events have left local aviation experts wondering if Arne Kruithof's near brush with death was just accident, or something more sinister.
Arne Kruithof, owner of Florida Flight Training, was one of three men who dragged themselves out of the mangled fuselage of a Twin Beech E18 and dashed to safety just moments before the plane's 300 gallons of fuel exploded in a fireball.
Onboard along with co-pilot Kruithof, whose school trained Siad Al Jarrah, the terrorist at the controls of the plane that went down in western Pennsylvania, were the pilot, Glenn Goodman, and passenger John Mills.
The men, who told investigators they were on their way for a pleasure trip to Cancun, were "shaken up, but essentially without injuries," according to a Venice Police spokesman.
"They were really lucky to walk away from this."
While 'mechanical failure' is believed to be responsible, the precise cause of the crash remains unknown.
"Did they check the fuel tanks for rubber balloons?"
The MadCowMorningNews has learned that Kruithof's near brush with death has local aviation experts wondering if the crash was just an accident.
Could someone now be attempting to ensure Kruithof's silence in the so-far anemic Congressional 9/11 investigation?
Does someone want Arne Kruithof dead?
This notion was bolstered late this week by the unseemly haste with which the plane's wreckage was destroyed... well before an FAA finding on the cause of the crash.
"The plane was almost immediately dragged off to be compacted even though the FAA hadn't yet determined the cause for the crash," one local aviation observer told us.
"That's not just irregular. It's highly irregular. So we're all kind of wondering just what the hell's going on. And besides... isn't it a little warm in Cancun in July?"
Magic Dutch Boys Two by Two
It was Dutch national Kruithof's purchase of one of the two Venice flight schools, at the same time fellow countryman Rudi Dekkers purchased the other, that led to them being dubbed the Venice 'Magic Dutch Boys.'
("Two damn Dutch boys training terrorist pilots is one damn Dutch boy too many," growled one famous Southern lawman to us last fall. "It's untidy.")
Even before the tragedy of September 11th, both men's dealings had lifted some eyebrows at the Venice Airport... And though both have gotten a free ride from the national press that has done nothing to lift the cloud of suspicion hanging over them locally among their aviation peers.
The two flight schools at Venice Municipal Airport cater almost exclusively to international students. Huffman President Rudi Dekkers has trained some 800 foreign students at his school during the past two years.
Venice residents said the city's other flight school, Florida Flight Training, also had numerous international students.
Kruithof is expected to testify at Congressional Hearings at some point both about his relationship with Rudi Dekkers--the other Dutch national flight school owner at the Venice Airport--and partner Pascal Schreier, a German national living in Munich.
"Say, didn't the terrorists come from Hamburg?"
Their company, Aviation Aspirations, (Kruithof is VP) provides both financial assistance and a "Mentor Programme."
Schreier recruited students in, among other places, Hamburg. The company's motto, somewhat ironically, is: "Better training because we care."
About their "mentoring programme," the company's literatures says: "The help is both financial and practical. We now provide one-to-one practical assistance from experienced Professional Pilots (our Mentors) whom we have established throughout the world.
Could 'mentor' be just a cute way to say 'handler?'
Do good recruitment prospects require special mentoring?
French newspaper Le Monde has reported that Osama Bin Laden's brother Yeslam sent student pilots to Venice for training.
Is Aviation Aspirations a front, being used as a vehicle to recruit and assess potential intel assets like terrorist pilots?
Birds of a Feather
The crash also threw a spotlight on some of Kruithof's curious associations.
Glen Goodman, the pilot of the downed Beech craft and Kruithof's partner in Florida Flight Maintenance, for example, incorporated a business in Florida in July of 2000, just after the terrorist pilots began training at the Venice Airport.
Named for the "N-Number" of the business's sole asset, an aging DC3, it never filed an annual report and was subsequently closed by the State of Florida--like many other companies related to the Venice 'Magic Dutch Boys--on September 21,2001.
When we ran the N number we discovered that the plane's colorful history includes long stints in exotic locales like Manuel Noriega's Panama, Costa Rica, and Fort Lauderdale, and is now resting in a military flight museum, exactly the same kind of venue from which the CIA has 'liberated' military planes in the past for use by foreign drug cartels.
Known as N90079, Inc., the company was set up as a "for profit" corporation, not as a "fund-raising sponsor or non-profit" that might otherwise associate with a program to raise money to restore planes for a museum.
In fact, the plane can be traced back to an infamous South Florida Customs airplane "boneyard," where "planes with checkered pasts" in a fenced storage yard... like the sister ship to the Fairchild C-123 shot down over Nicaragua in 1986 with Eugene Hasenfus aboard.
Goodman has apparently allowed a certain Christian missionary organization named Missionair to use the DC3 to ferry around the Caribbean something called the "Living Water Teaching Ministry."
Could the CIA be using Christian operations like Missionair, and Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing at the nearby Sarasota Airport, for cover in the Caribbean, just as Bin Laden's people use Muslim charities?
It is all probably just coincidence.
It is probably also just coincidence that the sister company to Magic Dutch Boy Rudi Dekkers' terrorist training school, a failed airline had in its brief lifespan just one celebrity endorser...
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:
"As one of Florida's top politicians, Katherine Harris doesn't have much time to do a lot of personal traveling. So she appreciates the convenience that Florida Air offers."
In the indifferently-motivated September 11th investigations so far, the one really burning question hasn't even come up. It is this:
"What's been going on in Florida?"
One Florida law-enforcement official involved in the probe of the Sept. 11 attacks shakes his head ruefully.
"First we couldn't count votes. Now we're training terrorists."
We think the state should post signs at all of its borders:
"Welcome to Terror-Land."
"Remain seated at all times."
July 8, 2002
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNN) -- The New Zealand government is not concerned about the U.S. detention of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's stepson, a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry said Monday, as American authorities prepare to deport Mohammad Nour al-Din Saffi.
The ministry spokesman said the government is satisfied with the conduct of the United States and with the time frame for Saffi's release -- which is still unclear -- as well as the way in which Saffi is being treated.
New Zealand also believes the United States is doing everything it can to expedite the process of Saffi's deportation, the spokesman said.
Hussein's 36-year-old stepson, a New Zealand citizen who lives and works in Auckland, was arrested last Wednesday on an immigration violation in Miami after entering the United States as a tourist.
Investigators with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Saffi did not have the required student visa for a four-day course he planned to take at a Miami flight school.
Saffi was being held late Sunday at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade County awaiting his deportation to New Zealand, a transfer expected to happen sometime this week, once his case is processed.
Under U.S. immigration laws, New Zealand citizens do not need a tourist visa to enter the United States, but like all foreign nationals, they must have student visas to enroll in school. Student visas cannot be obtained once in the United States.
An official at the flight school where Saffi intended to enroll, Aeroservice Aviation Center, said last week he was not aware the INS required student visas for the school. The owner of the Auckland-based Tiger Lines Cargo company, who had sent Saffi to take the four-day course, also denied knowing about the requirement.
Both men called the error a simple mistake and said no ulterior motives were at play.
Saffi holds a flight engineering license and is employed as a ground engineer for Air New Zealand.
CNN obtained copies last week of the paperwork Saffi filed to enter the United States. The documents included a copy of his FAA engineering license and exchanges between the flight school and the U.S. Department of Justice.
A Justice Department letter dated June 24, nine days before Saffi's arrest, cleared the way for him to take the course in Miami, as did a letter from the FBI.
Tiger Lines' owner, Jimmy Brooks, told CNN last week he wanted to hire Saffi to work on a Boeing 727 the company had just acquired and had sent Saffi to Miami to take the four-day recertification course for engineers.
The choice of the school raised eyebrows because Ziad Jarrah, one of the September 11 hijackers, trained there, and several others trained at schools elsewhere in Florida. But Brooks said he chose the school simply because it is well-known, FAA-certified, and because the four-day course is one of the quickest.
Saffi raised two other red flags upon his entry into the country, according to an INS source, the first being his relationship to the Iraqi leader. The second was the date of Saffi's last trip to the United States -- September 7, four days before the terrorist attacks -- when he passed through en route to London.
His wife and children in Auckland have refused to comment on his detention.
Saffi is the son of Samira Shabandar and her then-husband, Iraqi airline executive Nour al-Din al-Saffi. Hussein had an affair with Shabandar in the 1980s and persuaded her husband to divorce her so they could marry.
Saffi was then promoted to the head of the airline, the expert said.
Hussein did not divorce his first wife, but he married Shabandar, who is considered his second wife. Hussein, who has five children with his first wife, has one child with Shabandar.
Saffi left Iraq after the Persian Gulf War, traveling first to Jordan and then on to New Zealand.
(By Sherman H. Skolnick
www.skolnicksreport.com)
7-5-2
From time to time, details will be added to this series of stories, as they develop.
Two witnesses, useful for Israeli intelligence, were assassinated at Los Angeles International Airport. This occurred on America's Independence Day near the ticket counter of the State of Israel's airline, El Al.
Some background.
=== A serious, if not violent, split has occurred in The Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. Some want to continue the reality required to finance the tiny nation that perceives itself surrounded by mortal enemies who want to destroy Israel. In the early 1990s, when Israel, as persistently happens, was short of funds, they did what comes natural. They blackmailed Daddy Bush, at the time U.S. President. They knew about his treasonous arrangement to put the Reagan/Bush ticket, ahead of incumbent Jimmy Carter, into office in 1980. Called "The October Surprise", witnessed by Israeli intelligence in a Paris suburb, it involved Daddy Bush's treacherous dealings with Iran to delay release of the 52 U.S. Embassy hostages. Bush the Elder coughed up with a grant of 20 Billion Dollars for Israel.
Blackmailing Bush, Jr., currently the occupant and resident of the White House, installed by a "Gang of Five" on the U.S. Supreme Court, is another reality event for Israel. Because of the fighting with the Palestinians, Israel's once booming tourist trade has come to an end. Twisting the arm of both Daddy Bush and Junior is one way of coming up with the money for Israel's survival, including finances for their military defense.
=== Shortly after 9-11, Black Tuesday, we posted a controversial story, not at the time well understood or received, that Israeli intelligence supplied the Bush White House with accurate prior data of what was to become the attack on lower Manhattan and the Pentagon. Supported by a split off faction of the aristocracy and a Fascist element in the U.S. Military, Bushfraud, as we call him, did not want to know. Daddy Bush was in charge of the prior knowledge situation. Among other tell-tale happenings, thanks to Daddy Bush, there was a U.S. Military stand-down on that bloody morning. Military airplanes were grounded.
=== The Mossad, split by internal struggles, has documented details showing treason at the highest level of the U.S. Government. One Mossad faction wants to continue getting big funds from the White House by blackmail. An opposing faction, wants to expose, once and for all, Bushfraud as a traitor to the American Republic.
Some of these cross currents in Israeli viewpoints were evident in a public access Cable TV Program we did some years ago. We were interviewing an Israeli official, then stationed in Chicago. Deputy Consul-General of Israel. "Should Reagan as President have been impeached for high crimes, such as Iran-Contra?" He responded, "If I answer, your State Department will have me thrown out of the country tomorrow morning." I added, "Thank you Mr. Deputy Consul-General, YOU HAVE ANSWERED." He went on to point out, "Israel has no legal basis or wish to seek to enforce YOUR country's laws, within the United States. That is for YOUR Justice Department to seek to enforce YOUR country's laws within YOUR country."
=== Among the undisputed details compiled apparently by The Mossad. On Black Tuesday, Daddy Bush was at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel [(202) 835-0500, (800) 241-3333] in Washington, D.C. Present were other officials of the Elder Bush's business circle, Carlyle Group, including top honcho Frank Carlucci. They were negotiating a treasonous business deal, to the detriment of the American Republic, with one of Osama bin Laden's brothers. As also known, that hotel is a center for negotiations between Israel weapons merchants and the Red Chinese Secret Police. Remember: another one of Osama's brothers, who headed the bin Laden Business Family Fortune, was an oil firm partner with George W. Bush. That bin Laden was snuffed out by a weird airplane event, some contending it was foul play in Texas.
Daddy Bush falsely contended he and his wife were elsewhere in the U.S. and could not return to the capital because all air traffic was grounded after the 9-11 tragedies. The Mossad has compiled substantial data how the FBI favored some 24 bin Laden Family members resident in the U.S. who are in one form or another in business with the Bush Crime Family. While air traffic was stopped, the FBI nevertheless arranged after Black Tuesday by airplane to whisk the bin Ladens out of the U.S. That way, the bin Ladens, who are NOT on the outs with Osama, could not be questioned, for example, about their funding of joint projects of Harvard University with the American CIA, and how the bin Ladens are tied to U.S. defense contractors and the Pentagon. All this, thanks to Daddy Bush as the former head of America's secret political police.
So two witnesses, useful by The Mossad to expose the Bush Crime Family, have been assassinated right in a public place. "Mayor James Hahn [of Los Angeles] said there was no immediate indication that the shootings were connected to terrorism. 'It appears this was an isolated incident', Hahn said." New York Times, July 4, 2002. Similar statements were attributed to spokesmen for the FBI.
No, maybe it was not a terrorist attack. Just political assassinations carried out right in front of the public, like the U.S. military/industrial complex conducted a public execution of President Kennedy, blowing out his brains in an open car by military-style triangulating sniper fire.
If the July 4th incident were "merely" a "terrorist" event, the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press could not easily confirm that. It would damage the airlines and their stock ownership and their bankers at a vulnerable period.
Somehow the descriptions of the victims don't seem to meet this guy's beef
(Saturday July 6, 2002)
The Guardian
The gunman who opened fire at Los Angeles airport on Independence Day, killing two people, was an Egyptian-born limousine driver who had lived legally in the United States for the past 10 years.
He had had arguments with neighbours who flew American flags from the apartment building in which he lived, claiming that the flags were being "thrown in his face".
The man was identified as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, from Irvine, on the outskirts of LA. He was said to be married with two children who are all on holiday in Egypt. He was born in Cairo, studied commerce at Ain Shams University and worked as an accountant before leaving for the US.
Neighbours described him as a quiet man who had been angered by the proliferation of American flags near his home after September 11.
Hadayet ran his own limo company from his home. On his front door is a bumper sticker with the words "Read the Koran".
It now appears Hadayet went to the airport on Thursday with a .45 Glock pistol, a 9mm handgun and a 6in hunting knife. He also had additional ammunition on him.
He was carrying two driving licences with different identities, leading to initial confusion about who he was. One gave his date of birth as July 4.
Yesterday FBI agents removed a computer, books and other items from the gunman's home. His relatives in Cairo were reported to have been interviewed by Egyptian police.
Eyewitnesses said that at 11.30am on Thursday Hadayet appeared to get into an argument with the ticket agent at the El Al counter, drew a gun from his waistband and shot her in the chest.
Then he opened fire on others in the check-in queue before being overpowered by two El Al security guards and a passenger, Arie Golan, an Israeli army veteran. Hadayet was then shot dead at close range by El Al's security chief in Los Angeles, Haim Sapir, who had been stabbed by Hadayet during the fight.
FBI agent Richard Garcia, who is heading the investigation, said the gunman was not on any suspected terrorist list, either domestic or international, and had no criminal convictions. There was no evidence that Hadayet was part of any known group, he said.
Part of the confusion as to whether the shooting was a "terrorist act" comes from the way the FBI defines such an attack. Mr Garcia said that for the shooting to be a terrorist act the gunman would have to be shown to be the member of a terrorist group or planning to form one. If he was acting alone because he wanted to attack Israelis that would be classified as a "hate crime".
The ground staff member killed was identified as Victoria, or Vicki, Chen, 25, who emigrated to the US with her parents as a child 12 years ago from Be'er Sheva.
In Israel, an uncle of Chen was quoted yesterday as saying: "She was daddy's girl ... The first time her father wasn't next to her, she caught two bullets in the chest."
Her family believes the shooting was a politically motivated act of terror. "They will attack us any place. In Argentina, in Los Angeles, in Israel."
The male victim was Jacob, or Yaakov, Aminov, a 48-year-old Israeli-born diamond importer who had emigrated from Israel 14 years ago. He had given a lift to a friend who who was flying to Israel. He was a founding member of Yad Avraham, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in North Hollywood where he lived. His wife is expecting their sixth child and he had also had three other children by a previous marriage. His family said he would be buried in Israel.
Yesterday LA airport was almost back to normal although the El Al ticket counter was closed and a bullet hole could be seen in the airline's sign.
04-Jul-2002
Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country
The Spanish flu of 1918 killed millions of people. Scientists managed to stop the spread of the virulent 1997 Hong Kong virus, but a new report show that a similar virus reappeared in Hong Kong in 2001, just in time to make it over here in 2002.
"We don't want this in humans or the world will be in deep, deep trouble," says Dr. Robert G. Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. "What will you do if one of these gets away?...It is going to happen sooner or later, and authorities are not stockpiling effective drugs. We have had two years of very mild flu, and now these drugs are in very short supply. If one of these viruses gets away, we are in for trouble."
Genetic components of an avian flu strain that jumped the species to infect people in 1997 are still infecting chickens in Hong Kong. The 1997 virus killed six of every 18 people it infected. Authorities had all of the city's 3 million chickens slaughtered, in an attempt to wipe out the virus, and this stopped the outbreak before the virus could jump to humans. It was the first time a human action was able to prevent a worldwide epidemic.
A different flu strain infected chickens again in 2001, although no cases of human infection were reported. But a genetic analysis of the two strains reveals they are similar. Lab mice exposed to some of these viruses quickly developed brain infections and died. Webster says, "It replicates like crazy and goes straight to the brain."
Webster is director of the World Health Organization collaborating center on influenza viruses in lower animals and birds. "This time, this virus has picked up a whole set of new internal genes," Webster says. "…The key question is, 'What is the potential in humans?' Can you afford to let the experiment happen?…If this virus mates with a virus that allows it to spread from human to human, it would be of great worry to me."
Researchers think this new virus became especially virulent when it picked up genes from a virus that infects geese. Hong Kong authorities initiated measures to prevent the transfer of flu viruses between different species. Ducks, geese and quail are kept separate from chickens and all markets are emptied and cleaned on the same day of the month.
Mainland China is still denying they have a problem, according to David L. Saurez, of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory. He says, "It is there. So obviously they are unable or unwilling to control it. It is a huge risk."
"The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World" and got a Valentine's card threatening rape and murder after writing about Russian organized crime links to the NHL. This December
article about the Israel/Palestine situation, which may be the last piece he wrote, is detailed, balanced and yet pulls no punches -- a good example of his hard-hitting style. His death leaves a gaping hole in journalism. (from Metafilter)
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Britain is to tighten its control over security at its civil nuclear sites in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, according to a policy document.
The government will take over direct responsibility of the armed police force that guards the installations to make the body more independent of the industry, the Department of Trade and Industry White Paper published on Thursday said.
"The events of 11 September underlined the seriousness and unpredictability of the terrorist threat, and the consequent need for a specialist, armed police force familiar with the complex environment inside nuclear sites," the White Paper says.
Britain's seven civil nuclear sites are currently protected by the 570-strong Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary (AEAC), a broadly autonomous body run and funded by the nuclear industry.
But now the Department of Trade and Industry has said nuclear security can no longer be left up to Britain's Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) alone.
"The Government intends to separate AEAC from UKAEA and reconstitute it as a stand-alone force in order to make it independent of the nuclear industry," the document says.
"It also proposes to improve its governance arrangements through establishing a statutory Police Authority with an independent element, to strengthen accountability and transparency."
In addition, the paper says it will improve the security of nuclear material in transit by making transporters directly responsible for its safety.
The police force will continue to be funded by the nuclear industry and will ultimately be answerable to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
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