Luciferian News Hour

January 13

Hello Luciferians. This is Jim and the Dragon coming to you with another report on world events that impact our lives. And believe us, stuff has been happening, a lot of it quietly and behind the scenes.

Sidney Environmental Meeting

We want to start our report tonight on a big environmental meeting that went on in Sydney, Australia. At least that is what they said it was.

Officials from the United States, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia met with executives from major mining and energy companies including Exxon Mobil, Rio Tinto and Peabody Energy following the launch of a six-nation climate pact.

The US and Australia are the only rich nations to reject the UN's Kyoto Protocol meant to limit global warming, but are seeking to promote technology like "clean coal" or ways to bury heat-trapping gases.

The gathering has attracted criticism. A group of around 80 protesters demonstrated outside the hotel in Sydney where the two-day conference was taking place. A load of coal was dumped on an effigy of the host and the prime minister of Australia, John Howard.

Oh, but these guys were not looking very serious about doing something about global warming. Listen to this:

Australia kick-started a climate change pact Thursday by committing $100 million for a clean-energy fund to tackle global warming.

The inaugural Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate meeting in Sydney aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions with the support of industry but without hindering economic growth. Oh really?

The partnership also sets no targets on members to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases released by burning fossil fuels. And there, to paraphrase Shakespeare, lies the rub. Critics say the partnership is short-sighted and doomed to fail because it imposes no targets on members the United States, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea and India.

Environmental groups have labeled the Asia-Pacific partnership meeting a farce. And they are right.

The climate summit has wrapped up, affirming the central role of fossil fuels in regional development and announcing a plan for simply reducing emissions.

That gang was just wasting everybody’s time flapping their gums in a pompous gathering that was carefully designed not to offend democratic capitalist ideals but give the impression that government leaders are trying to do something about greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. They should be ashamed of themselves, the damned hypocrites.

The Bush Administration took some heat

The administration last week defended its approach on global climate change in advance of the six-nation Asia-Pacific conference. Environmental groups allege the meeting is an effort to bypass the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming. The United States and Australia are not participating in Kyoto.

Senior Bush administration officials said the Sydney meeting was not an effort to circumvent the Kyoto Protocol, but rather to complement it with action that goes beyond the treaty, which focuses only on greenhouse gas emissions.

The question is how can you go beyond Kyoto unless you reduce greenhouse gas emissions even farther than the agreement calls for? And if the United States and the other industrial nations aren’t willing to consider cutting any emissions for fear it will paralyze industry, then they are going to kill us all. And they really had nothing to talk about in Sidney.

Ah, but the Washington gang said the six countries, which collectively represent about half the world's population, economic output and energy use, will aim to reduce air pollution and increase energy efficiency by sharing technology and promoting research.

That sounds good. But other than putting costly scrubbers on those stacks, there is no known technology that will reduce greenhouse gasses and stop global warming. And we don’t have time for more committee meetings and scientific mumbo-jumbo.

Time Running Out

A leading Australian scientist believes the world has no more than 20 years to turn the tide on global warming. Tim Flannery urged world economic leaders in Sydney to take concrete steps to tackle this problem now, before the Earth’s climate is irreversibly altered.

Flannery, who not only is a noted scientist but an author, says we are in a battle for climate stability that we must win. He projects that at current emissions levels the world’s cars and factories will spew enough additional carbon dioxide to warm the globe about two more degrees.

That will be enough, he said to produce a catastrophic climate change that cannot be reversed.

Some scientists in the world do not agree with Flannery. Some, including Psychic and Prophet Aaron C. Donahue, believe it is already too late and that what we have done is already beyond human control.

The View Problem

Scientists at the Grand Canyon plan to spend the next few years measuring air quality to see whether the closure of an aging coal-fired power plant improves the view for tourists.

The Mohave Generating Station in southern Nevada closed Dec. 31 rather than meet a court-ordered deadline to install pollution-control measures estimated to cost $1.1 billion.

The plant opened in 1971 and has been blamed for degrading views in the western Grand Canyon.

While it is good to have another dirty coal burning power plant shut down, I predict that it will not have much effect on that once grand view into the canyon. I don’t care where you are these days, even standing on the North Pole, you are going to find an ugly brown haze in the air. The earth is turning brown from it.

That is the soot and smog from all of the ugly coal and carbon fuel burning plants, cars, lawnmowers, snow blowers, weed trimmers, leaf blowers and other air pollution systems we have invented and can’t seem to turn off. Every car that travels the highways, every aircraft flying overhead and every rocket we send into space just adds to this problem. It has reached a point where most people can’t see the stars on a clear night.

Hermaphrodite Bears

Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets.

A team of scientists from Canada, Alaska, Denmark and Norway is sounding the alarm about the flame retardants, known as PBDEs, saying that significant deposits have recently been found in the fatty tissues of polar bears, especially in eastern Greenland and Norway's Svalbard islands.

Studies are still being carried out on what impact the chemicals might be having on the bears, but tests on laboratory animals such as mice indicate that their effects can be considerable, attacking the sex and thyroid glands, motor skills and brain function.

There is also evidence that compounds similar to the PBDEs have contributed to a surprisingly high rate of hermaphroditism in polar bears. About one in 50 female bears on Svalbard has both male and female sex organs, a phenomenon scientists link directly to the effects of pollution.

"The Arctic is now a chemical sink," declared Colin Butfield, a campaign leader for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, which last month indicated that killer whales in the Arctic were also suffering from elevated levels of contamination with fire retardants as well as other man-made compounds. "Chemicals from products that we use in our homes every day are contaminating Arctic wildlife."

Doomsday Vault

Norway wants to build a "doomsday vault" close to the North Pole housing a seed bank to ensure the continuation of global crop species, the magazine New Scientist reports..

The story said the vast seed bank, to be built inside a mountain, would house around two million seeds and is designed to safeguard food supplies in the event of nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, earthquakes or other major disasters

Deadly Snows

At least 71 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured in Japan from the country’s heaviest snowfall on record. Teams of troops tried to clear snow that piled up to more than three meters in some of the worst hit areas northwest of Tokyo. Roads are blocked. Many of the dead are elderly people who fell from their roofs while trying to clear snow, and others were crushed when their houses collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Freeze In India

The Indian capital of Deli Sunday saw its first winter frost in 70 years as a cold wave sweeping in from the Himalayas killed more people in northern India overnight, officials said. The capital city of 14 million people ordered schools shut for three days from Monday as the mercury for the first time since 1935 fell to 0.2 degrees Celsius (32.36 Fahrenheit), leaving mounds of ice on parked cars.

A bitter cold spell in northern India has claimed six more lives to take the countrywide toll to 160, officials said, as doctors warn that survivors of a Japanese encephalitis outbreak are particularly at risk.

The new deaths were reported from India's most populous Uttar Pradesh state where 124 people -- mostly homeless -- have died due to the freezing conditions, according to a tally based on figures released by police in the provincial capital Lucknow.

Bird Flu In Turkey

Preliminary tests showed as many as 18 people in Turkey have been infected with the deadly strain of bird flu that already killed three teenage siblings, officials said Monday. Also Indonesia and China each reported a new case.

A WHO official said Turkish patients appear to be catching the disease from infected domestic birds, the normal path of the disease, and not from each other.

Genetic tests of samples taken from Turkish victims of the bird flu virus show it has evolved, but the change is small and probably not enough to make it more dangerous, researchers said on Thursday.

The mutation is one that would be expected in a highly changeable virus, the experts said, and is one that would be predicted to eventually allow it to cause a pandemic.

H5N1 avian influenza has caused a burst of human infections in Turkey and has been found in flocks of poultry across the country.

Globally the virus has infected 147 people and killed 78 of them, according to the tally from the World Health Organization. That tally only includes four of the Turkish cases so we suspect the total number of real cases is larger.

Bird Flu In China

Two more people have died in China from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, taking the global toll to 78 and prompting the World Health Organisation, WHO,  to call for stepped-up measures to face a possible pandemic.

The latest two deaths in China - a 10-year-old girl in the south and a 35-year-old man in the east- followed confirmation by WHO of two bird flu fatalities in Turkey.

Dead Birds In Trinidad

Trinidad's health minister called for calm Tuesday after more than 2,000 chickens died at several farms on the Caribbean island in the past five days, insisting that he doubts bird flu was the cause.

Flu Shots

Some elderly and disabled people eager for a flu shot this winter are finding they can’t get it from their usual source: the family doctor.

Many physicians complain that much of this year's vaccine went to supermarket and discount chains instead of medical clinics. And that is a problem for some people who are most at risk of life-threatening flu complications but aren't always healthy enough to wait in store lines.

Inbreeding?

Down syndrome in the United States is more common than previously thought, a new study has revealed. The study shows that the syndrome occurs at a rate of one case for every 733 live births.

Previously, Down syndrome, a type of retardation caused by a genetic mutation, was estimated to occur in a range of one in every 800 live births to one in every 1,000.

We wonder if accidental inbreeding, caused by half brothers and sisters from the same neighborhood, marrying and having children, isn’t causing this increase in child retardation. Studies have shown that a lot of children born in American families aren’t necessarily sired by the male in that household.

Cheney’s Foot

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, was treated at a hospital on Monday for shortness of breath believed to have been triggered by his reaction to medication for a foot ailment, his office said. He also is seen these days hobbling around Washington with the help of a cane. Nobody is explaining why. I suppose it would be rude of us to ask.

New Health Care Plan

Watch out for this one. President Bush is going to propose ways to rein in the surging cost of U.S. health care this year as an important focus of his economic strategy.

Trent Duffy, traveling in the Gulf Coast region with Bush, told reporters that the president's initiative would include new tax breaks for Americans who buy health insurance on their own.

The goal was to level the playing field between individual health plans and insurance provided to workers by their companies, for which employees and firms get tax deductions, he said.

Everybody keep a hand on your pocketbooks. If this new Bush program looks anything like that whacky program for senior medical assistance, it will be too complicated for anybody to understand and in the end, offer no benefits for anyone except the insurance companies.

Medicare's new prescription-drug program is causing thousands of low-income seniors and disabled Americans to lose their drug benefits, prompting at least 14 states to pay for their prescriptions.

The problem affects thousands of the 6.2 million people whose drug coverage was automatically transferred from Medicaid to Medicare this month. At drugstores nationwide, pharmacists are telling beneficiaries that they're not enrolled, or their drugs aren't covered, or they must pay deductibles and larger co-payments than they can afford. Isn’t it great to live in America?

Plastic Morgue

A Toronto woman wants to donate her body for public display after she dies.

Stephanie Chapu, 30, says she wants to donate her body to the "Body Worlds" exhibition at the Ontario Science Center, which displays real human bodies in a preserved state.

"I wanted to donate my body to science, but do something a little bit different, so this was perfect," she said.

"Being buried or cremated -- why get rid of your body that way when you can do something else and be useful?"

Chapu said community reaction has been mixed, with friends and family mostly supportive, but some others raising religious or moral objections.

More than 16 million people worldwide have viewed the traveling exhibition, organized by the German Institute for Plastination, which houses more than 6,000 donated cadavers, a spokeswoman said.

The exhibits are preserved through plastination, a technique where water and fat in the soft tissue are replaced with plastic polymers.

Whole body specimens are displayed, which reveal bones, muscle, tendons, nerves, blood vessels and organs. Among the exhibits are embryos, fetuses and a pregnant woman who died with her fetus in her womb.

"I like that you can finally see what we look like on the inside in a very tasteful manner. I don't think it's disrespectful at all to the donors," said Chapu.

That is one way to avoid the high cost of burial, I suppose.

A Christian Agenda?

An academic panel investigating the work of South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk said this week that he fabricated data to support his claim that he cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them.

The latest revelation by the Seoul National University panel was another disappointment to scientists and patients alike. Hwang's claim of a cloning breakthrough had offered hope to millions suffering from paralysis and debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and AIDS.

The same panel concluded last month that Hwang falsely claimed in 2005 to have developed 11 stem cell lines tailored to specific patients.

As stated in a story filed in my website, I find it hard to believe that this team of scientists would go to such lengths to gain international fame when they would know that such fabrications would be quickly found out by other scientists. I have a feeling that we have a Christian agenda involved in this major condemnation of Hwang’s work.

Remember that the Christians consider using the embryos from human fetuses as if it were the killing of human life, even though the fetus is no more than a few days old. 

Bolivia’s Gas

Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales arrived in China on Sunday, his latest stop on a global tour to discuss exploiting the country's massive natural gas reserves and seek aid for South America's poorest economy. China has been courting resource-rich developing countries and Bolivia's gas and tin reserves are likely to appeal to the energy-hungry nation.

Energy Efficient House

A couple in Alberta, Canada, is in the process of converting a commercially built concrete “dome home” to be twice as energy efficient as conventional houses built to today’s standards.

Mike Forsyth and Lynn Cain of Red Deer are building the unusually shaped structure. The lifespan of a regular house is about 50 years, but the couple said they want a concrete home that will be around for centuries.

Sunlight will heat the floor. Solar panels mean no power bills. Since Forsyth and Cain are putting together the interior themselves, construction will cost about the same as a regular home.

The energy efficiency of the structures should eventually pay for itself, Cain said.

Once Cain and Forsyth complete their home, they plan to build a website to help others learn about building their own dome.

Iraq War

Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and holding security passes tried to attack National Police Day celebrations Monday, with police shooting one to death and the other exploding his vest, killing 29 people, authorities said. The U.S. ambassador and Iraq’s interior and defense ministers were present but far from the attacks. In the last few days, at least 183 Iraqis have been killed, including 148 civilians and 35 security officers. Also 28 Americans have been killed, including 24 troops.

Training Grounds

The conflict in Iraq is evolving into an ideal training ground for a new breed of seasoned urban terrorist capable of striking anywhere in the world, according to security and terrorism analysts.

The hard core of combatants in the anti-American jihad, whether foreign or Iraqi, are potentially more mobile and dangerous than the fearsome Muhajedeen fighters who drove the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan in the 1980s and who, not incidentally, gave rise to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda, they say.

"It is a perfect model of urban combat that did not exist in Afghanistan," said Michael Klare, a professor and security expert at the University of Amherst in the United States.

Foreign fighters "will come back from Iraq with an ability to do terrible things. The longer the war goes on, the more people will be trained in this fashion, and the more of a danger they will pose," he said.

Hunger Strike

The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in an ongoing hunger strike has fallen by more than half after a surge in participation that began on Christmas Day, the U.S. military said.

The military last week said participation in the protest by detainees, believed to be uniformly Muslim, had more than doubled starting on the Christian holiday on December 25, with 46 joining in, bringing the total to 84.

But 44 of those had since ended their participation.

The prison houses about 500 detainees, many of whom have been held for nearly four years, and all but nine without charges. The hunger strike has been going on since August 8, with fluctuating levels of participation, authorities said.

Lawyers for detainees call the strike a protest of jail conditions and the prisoners' lack of legal rights. The military says it treats the detainees humanely, and says the strike is intended to "elicit media attention and bring pressure on the United States government to release them."

A spokesman said 32 of the current 40 hunger strikers were being fed through tubes inserted through the nose into the stomach.

He declined to speculate on why so many had stopped taking part in the hunger strike. They may have gotten hungry.

Iran’s Nuclear Project

Iran removed seals on its nuclear facilities Tuesday, ending a two- year freeze on work there despite warnings from the United States and other countries concerned about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The United States rebuked Iran for the move, calling it a step toward creating the material for nuclear bombs. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said the international community was "running out of patience" with Tehran.

Both countries, along with France and Germany, have called on Tehran to cease nuclear activities until an agreement has been reached on the scope of its nuclear program.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain met Thursday in Berlin to determine how to move forward in the escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear program.

The purpose of the meeting was to determine whether there was still "political room to maneuver" between the so-called EU-3 and Tehran over Iran's controversial nuclear program.

In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined European powers on Thursday and said Iran must be referred to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program.

Rice also called for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Rumors have been circulating in the European press that the United States has a plan to attack Iran. That would be one very stupid move if we do, considering the way things have gone for us in Iraq.  

Mecca Stampede Disaster

At least 345 Moslem pilgrims were killed in a stampede at Mecca Thursday. More than a thousand people were injured. It happened as tens of thousands of pilgrims rushed to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj.

Reports say muslim pilgrims tripped over luggage while hurrying to ritually stone the devil, causing a crush that trampled people to death in the latest stampede to mar Islam's annual event.

Saudi authorities have sought for years to ease the flow of increasingly mammoth crowds, but the tragedy underlined the difficulty in managing one of the biggest religious events in the world, which this time drew more than 2.5 million.

The deaths on the final day of stoning came a week after another hajj disaster — the Jan. 5 collapse of a hotel that killed 76 people in Mecca.

In the stoning ritual, all the pilgrims must pass a series of three "pillars" that represent the devil and which the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.

The site in the desert of Mina outside the holy city of Mecca is a notorious bottleneck in the weeklong pilgrimage and has seen seven deadly incidents in the past 17 years, including a stampede in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and one in 2004 that killed 244.

Andrea Yates Again

Here is some evil stuff to help you sleep well tonight:

Christian child killer Andrea Yates pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning deaths of her children Monday as she made her first court appearance since her 2002 capital murder convictions were overturned.

State District Judge Belinda Hill set a March 20 trial date.

Yates, 41, will remain in the custody of the Harris County Sheriff's Department until she is retried for the deaths of three of her five children. Her attorney, George Parnham, had asked that Yates be sent to Rusk State Hospital until the new trial.

Body In The Road

A body found on Interstate 95 near Waterloo, Md. on Monday was struck several times by passing vehicles, and the drivers who hit it didn't stop, police said. State police were told about the body at about 5 a.m. They said it was unclear whether this person was struck while crossing the interstate on foot, was pushed from a vehicle, or was dumped on the highway. The drivers who struck the body didn’t bother to stop, police said.

Africa’s World War

The U.N.'s 17,000-strong Congo peacekeeping force -- its biggest in the world -- is trying to establish order across Africa's third largest country in the wake of a war that began in 1998 and officially ended in 2003.

In the west, we have only been hearing bits and pieces of news about the results of this great conflict. For all practical purposes, it was ignored by the American media.

In a sense, the bitterness still continues to this day, and without the UN force, some believe the war would resume again.

Bands of gunmen still intimidate civilians in large areas, particularly in the east whose mineral riches are believed to have fueled the conflict that at one point drew in six foreign armies and was dubbed Africa's first world war.

A recent study indicated that improved security is vital to lower the death toll and that aid must be dramatically increased if we hope to prevent additional bloodshed..

The survey showed that the death toll in the Congo conflict so far was higher than the numbers killed in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur. Surveys have shown that the mortality rate is so high that an estimated 1,200 people are still dying every day. Most of the deaths, especially among children, are from malnourishment and disease.

Some say the war left an estimated 4 million people dead.

The Cuban Problem

Cuban-American community activists and politicians lambasted the U.S. government's decision to repatriate 15 Cubans picked up from the base of an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys.

An attorney for the families of the migrants said he planned to file a suit Tuesday asking a federal judge to allow the group to return.

The migrants were sent back to Cuba Monday after U.S. officials concluded that the section of the partially collapsed bridge where they landed did not count as dry land under the government's policy because it was no longer connected to any of the Keys.

Under the U.S. government's "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans who reach dry land in the United States are usually allowed to remain in this country, while those caught at sea are sent back.

"Through a legal review, the migrants were determined to be feet-wet and processed in accordance with standard procedure," Coast Guard spokesman, Petty Officer Dana Warr, said in a statement.

Now this is about the silliest policy we have ever heard of. It is due time for the United States to open dialogue with Fidel Castro’s Socialist government of Cuba and allow their citizens and our people easier access to cross those borders. We also need to open trade agreements with Cuba and stop treating that country as an evil enemy.

Our government leadership should be well aware of a growing socialist movement that is developing in South America. With Venezuela and Bolivia now under socialist leadership, and those two countries in a partnership with Cuba, the United States needs to soften its position when it comes to dealing with these countries. The day may come when the world turns to a socialist system and our archaic capitalist policies will be treated as a criminal act. Which it should.

Kim Jong-il’s Travels

North Korean elusive leader Kim Jong-il is traveling this week through Asia. A story by Reuters News said Kim passed through China on Tuesday on the way to Russia. South Korean and Japanese media said Kim was making a secret visit to China. Can it be that this militant Communist leader is finally emerging from his political cocoon? This could be a very interesting and possibly important development.

The Drug War

Five Albanian villagers were jailed for two weeks for growing cannabis then set free after a court ruled the plant was actually industrial hemp, raised with the help of a British foundation for export to the United States.

"I never imagined I would be pictured in the newspapers as the head of an international drug ring. It's one of those things that makes you cry and laugh at the same time," said Martin Pellumbi of the area farmers' association.

At the time of the arrest, the Interior Minister appeared on a popular TV show to announce to the country that police had seized a ton of cannabis. The ministry had no comment this week.

It was the second time in five years that Albanian drug police mistook hemp for cannabis and arrested the growers.

And that is a really sad story.

Jail Overcrowding

This insane drug war has to stop. Listen to this next story:

With space scarce as the U.S. prison population grows, a top Idaho lawmaker is proposing that inmates share beds by sleeping in shifts, a practice sometimes used by the U.S. military.

"Why does every inmate need his or her own bed?" asked State Sen. Robert Geddes. "The military does it all the time."

The issue arises as Idaho and other states stiffen penalties for drug-related crimes, putting a premium on prison space. Idaho has nearly 7,000 inmates, and that number is growing by nearly 7 percent a year. America has more people in lock-up per capita than any other country in the world.

Bribery Ripples

The first ripples from the Jack Abramoff Congressional bribery case were felt this week when House Majority Leader Tom DeLay stepped down from his post under pressure from fellow Republicans. DeLay will remain on as an elected member of Congress.

The Alito Issue

After a show of 18 hours of sometimes dramatic bafoonery called testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito now seems headed for Senate confirmation. And that will move the high court to the right. And then look out. This guy could tip the scales on women’s rights, help overturn the controversial Roe Vs. Wade abortion decision, and he also has a terrible record on protecting the Earth. He is a Bush man through and through.

Dow’s Record

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 11,000 Monday for the first time since before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Analysts said the market was buoyed by a rally that sent stock prices soaring through the first five sessions of 2006.

Wall Street's best known stock indicator rose as high as 11,020.15 by mid-afternoon. It was the first time since June 13, 2001, that the index of 30 blue chip stocks traded above 11,000. It last closed above that milestone on June 7, 2001, when it stood at 11,090.74.

Geely Cars

The Geely Automobile Company of China announced this week at the Detroit Auto Show that Geely is ''... on track to enter the United States automobile market in the year 2008. Our goal is to present to the American people another choice for the family sedan, a vehicle that possesses the highest quality but is available at the lowest price.“ Now that ought to shake things up on the American car market.

Money Differences

The United States and China have to take swift steps to overcome their financial and investment problems before they spiral out of control and overwhelm mostly emerging economies, experts warn.

China is facing an unsustainable investment boom while the United States is running an unsustainable current account deficit, they said.

At a Washington conference Tuesday, American economist Morris Goldstein of the respected Institute for International Economics said if an emerging market financial crisis erupted now, it was likely to originate in the United States and China.

Lots Of Planes

State-run Air India signed a formal agreement to buy 68 Boeing airliners with a list price of 11 billion dollars in one of the biggest deals in Indian aviation history. The delivery will be completed over the next 10 years.

Lost American Dream

More than one in five Americans believe the best way to get rich is to win the lottery, while 11 percent say inheriting money is the way to go, a survey showed. We know the odds of having either event occur are stacked against us. Thus the survey reveals something sad. The American dream has been long lost. The only hope still left lies in that lottery, and it is stacked against us all. Except, perhaps, for the Luciferians who learn how to perceive numbers before they are drawn. If you go too the Psiomni website and sign up for Jennifer Sharpe’s PAN classes, you will have a better chance of financial return on your money.

Sky Show Ahead

When a NASA capsule hauling comet and interstellar dust plummets through the Earth's atmosphere this weekend, residents in large parts of the American west will witness a cosmic spectacle.

During the Stardust capsule's blazing re-entry at 1:57 a.m. PST Sunday, it will travel at 29,000 mph, making it the fastest man-made object to return to Earth.

The 100-pound cargo will arc over Northern California toward Utah's Dugway Proving Ground, a remote Army base southwest of Salt Lake City.

Residents in parts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah should see the Stardust capsule as it streaks across the pre-dawn sky. Prime viewing will be along Nevada's Interstate 80 where residents can view the capsule's front.

The capsule's glow is expected to shine as bright as Venus for 90 seconds. It will appear brightest over Carlin, a small mining city in northeast Nevada.

 Vampire For Governor

Minnesota voters, who eight years ago elected a former professional wrestler as their governor, may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot for the office this year.

"Politics is a cut-throat business," said Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor on Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

Like Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who was elected governor as an independent in 1998, the 41-year-old Sharkey once was a wrestler, although he spent his time "The Unholiest of Kings: Tarantula" on obscure professional circuits.

"I'm a Satanist who doesn't hate Jesus," Sharkey told Reuters. "I just hate God the Father."

However, he claims to respect all religions and if elected, will post "everything from the Ten Commandments to the Wicca Reed" in government buildings.

Sharkey also pledged to execute convicted murders and child molesters personally by impaling them on a wooden pole outside the state capitol.

The Tree Killer

A Vancouver woman pleaded guilty to poisoning several trees that border the city's downtown Stanley Park to improve the view of the ocean from her condominium.

June Matheson admitted in court that she purchase herbicide and applied it to five trees in the spring of 2004. Three trees later died, according to a court document.

A witness told police that Matheson, a well known interior designer, had complained that the city-owned trees, which ranged in height between 25 and 45 feet, had grown too tall and she wanted to "get rid of them."

Dark Dining

A French entrepreneur is opening a new restaurant in London where diners are served by blind waiters and eat their meal in pitch darkness. Edouard de Broglie is convinced he is on to a winner with "Dans Le Noir" (In The Dark) which opens next month. Exporting a formula he launched in Paris with his first dining-in-the-dark restaurant, de Broglie believes it is a perfect way to savor food by just using the taste buds. He is currently hiring 10 blind people as waiters who will lead diners into the darkened room for a blind tasting with a difference.

Fashion Statement

In his diplomatic debut in Europe this week, leftist Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales has made waves fashionably as well as politically. Morales, the first Indian elected president in Bolivia, unsettled many at home and abroad by breaking protocol and visiting Spanish King Juan Carlos wearing a striped, multicolored sweater, local media said on Friday.

Mouse Revenge

Luciano Mares, 81, caught a mouse in his house in Fort Sumner, New Mexico and threw it on a pile of leaves he was burning in his garden. But the cruel natured Mares attempted to burn the animal alive. The flaming mouse ran back into the house and set it ablaze. He obviously killed the mouse but the fire destroyed his home. Before he left this world, that mouse got its revenge.

Big Ear Mite

This story belongs in Ripley’s Believe it or Not:

A spider that nested in the ear of a Swedish woman was discovered and removed alive after 27 days.

The black spider, "the size of a thumbnail", crept into the woman's ear while she was sleeping and went undiscovered for almost a month, Swedish tabloid Expressen reported.

The woman, whose name was not disclosed, told the paper that she at first experienced "a slight loss of hearing" and assumed that she had a build-up of wax.

But when she heard "a scratching sound" in her ear she decided to go to the pharmacy to buy a cleanser to wash out her ear cavity.

When she did so, the spider was flushed out alive and crawled away.

She must have very large ears.

And that concludes our news for this week. Be sure to jump to 700 WLW’s web site at 10 p.m. tonight to hear Aaron C. Donahue’s interview with Scott Sloan. Also tune in to Voice of Lucifer every Sunday night for Aaron’s regular weekly broadcast with his psychic sister Jennifer Sharpe.

Goodnight. And thanks for listening.