Luciferian News Hour

March 24

Good evening Luciferians. This is Steve-O and Chad bringing you another hour of news of world and national events that could be affecting your lives. We present stories that give you a broad perspective of the way the world is changing and how world leaders are inter-reacting with one another in both positive and negative ways. These are stories you may or may not hear on your nightly television news reports, or in your local newspapers. So as Paul Harvey always says: Stand by for News:

Public Relations Sweep

The war in Iraq was among the more important news events again this week. Last week we reported the start of what appeared to be a major US military sweep to root out insurgents believed responsible for the raids on Iraqi people in and around Baghdad.

During the three-day sweep of a rural area of Iraq near Samarra, north of Baghdad, the U.S. Military said 83 insurgent suspects were detained and 15 weapons caches seized.

Operation Swarmer, a heavily publicized offensive, involved troop-carrying helicopters and came just before the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Both U.S. and Iraqi leaders heralded the sweep as a demonstration of the growing capabilities of the U.S. trained new Iraqi army.

Reporters, who have seen such “sweeps” before, later called the whole thing a public relations stunt. They said similar sweeps had been carried out in past months with much less fanfare. In this campaign, after all the dust was settled, they said there had been no fighting and nobody even got hurt. It was just a big show.

War Protests

Anti-war protesters marched Saturday in Australia, Asia, Turkey and Europe in demonstrations that marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The marchers demanded that coalition troops pull out.

Around 500 protesters marched through central Sydney, chanting "End the war now" and "Troops out of Iraq." Many campaigners waved placards branding President Bush the "World's No. 1 Terrorist" or expressing concerns that Iran could be the next country to face invasion.

Bad News Bush

President Bush obviously had his ears shut to the protest movements. In a press conference on Tuesday, Mr. Bush said U.S. troops may be in Iraq after the end of his presidency in three years time. He also insisted there is no civil war occurring in Iraq.

The Iraqis just happen to be killing one another because of political, religious and ethnic differences. But that is not a civil war, according to President Bush.

While Washington has resisted setting a timetable for withdrawal, many U.S. officials have held out the prospect that it would start soon. In fact, many of Bush's Republican allies have suggested there would be progress before congressional elections in November.

Yet with Iraqi leaders and the U.S. ambassador warning of the imminent risk of civil war, the 133,000 heavily armed U.S. troops are seen by many as having a vital role in stemming violence.

So when he was asked when U.S. forces would finally pull out of Iraq, Bush said: "That will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

At least Mr. Bush is admitting he started something that somebody else is going to have to figure out how to fix.

Blood Letting

Events going on in Iraq were as bloody as ever this week. Here are the highlights:

About 100 masked gunmen stormed a prison near the Iranian border on Tuesday, cutting phone wires, freeing all the inmates and leaving behind a scene of devastation and carnage. When it was over there were 20 dead policemen, burned- out cars and a smoldering jailhouse.

At least 10 attackers were killed in the dawn assault on the jail on the eastern fringe of the Sunni Triangle. The raid proved that the mostly Sunni militants can still assemble a large force, capable of operating in the region virtually at will. U.S. and Iraqi military officials said last year that the area was no longer an insurgent stronghold.

In all, 33 prisoners were freed, including 18 insurgents who were detained Sunday during raids by security forces in the nearby villages of Sansal and Arab. It was the capture of those insurgents that apparently prompted Tuesday's attack. The 15 other inmates were a mix of suspected insurgents and common criminals.

After torching the police station, the insurgents detonated a string of roadside bombs as they fled, taking the bodies of many of their dead comrades with them.

The following day, U.S. and Iraqi forces trapped dozens of insurgents during a two-hour gun battle at a police station south of Baghdad.

In other incidents, five other police officers were wounded in two separate roadside bomb attacks targeting patrols in northern and southern Baghdad early Tuesday.

Tuesday's assaults came a day after 39 people were reported killed by insurgents and shadowy sectarian gangs in Iraq, continuing the wave of violence that has left more than 1,000 Iraqis dead since the bombing last month of a Shiite Muslim shrine.

Police found the bodies of at least 15 more people _ including that of a 13-year-old girl _ dumped in and near Baghdad. The discoveries marked the latest in a string of execution-style killings that have become an almost daily occurrence as Sunni and Shiite extremists settle scores.

As night fell on Monday, a bomb struck a coffee shop in northern Baghdad, killing at least three civilians and injuring 23 others.

At about the same time, gunmen killed two oil engineers leaving work at a refinery north of Baghdad. An electrical engineer and technician were gunned down at the nearby power station.

Also, the owner of a small grocery in downtown Baghdad was shot and killed.

The violence continued on Wednesday. Gunmen in Baghdad killed at least 15 Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded dozens, raking vehicles with machinegun fire.

Earlier two people were killed and dozens wounded when a bus and a truck carrying pilgrims were attacked in two incidents.

Police also reported the discovery of six more bodies on the streets of the capital, all apparent victims of the bloodshed between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis.

Rebels blasted a police station with grenade and mortar fire before dawn, killing four policemen in Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, in the second such attack in two days. Police said they detained about 70 people in raids on local homes afterwards.

Thursday two separate car bomb explosions killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 50 in the capital.

In downtown Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle at the entrance of a major crimes unit run by the Interior Ministry killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 30.

A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in Baghdad's central Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there, authorities said.

Another bomb outside a Shiite Muslim mosque in the mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood of Shurta in southwest Baghdad killed at least six people and wounded 20.

Roadside bombs targeting police patrols also killed four people in Baghdad and at least one in a nearby city. Dozens of others were wounded.

And the Bush Administration says it is not a civil war.

Saddam’s Frustration

Newly released transcripts from Saddam Hussein’s offices in Baghdad, captured during the early days of the assault, reveal that Saddam and his top aides were frantically searching for ways in the 1990’s to prove to the world they had given up banned weapons and were trying to comply with UN demands. But nobody believed them.

"We don't have anything hidden!" the frustrated Iraqi president interjected at one meeting, the transcripts show.

At another, in 1996, Saddam wondered whether U.N. inspectors would "roam Iraq for 50 years" in a pointless hunt for weapons of mass destruction. "When is this going to end?" he asked.

It ended in 2004, when U.S. experts, after an exhaustive investigation, confirmed what the men in those meetings were saying: that Iraq had eliminated its weapons of mass destruction long ago, a finding that discredited the Bush administration's stated rationale for invading Iraq in 2003 _ to locate WMD.

The newly released documents are among U.S. government translations of audiotapes or Arabic-language transcripts from top-level Iraqi meetings _ dating from about 1996-97 back to the period soon after the 1991 Gulf War, when the U.N. Security Council sent inspectors to disarm Iraq.

We had this stuff, but Mr. Bush attacked Iraq anyway, claiming Saddam was still harboring weapons of mass destruction. Either he was lying through his teeth, or the left hand of our government doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

Chemical Targets

The Bush administration called this week for federal regulation of security at chemical plants. The catch is that the administration is going to let the industry decide how stiff the protections should be and leave inspections to private auditors.

Critics quickly labeled the proposal, as outlined by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a toothless fix for safeguarding chemical plants from terrorist attacks.

Chertoff, speaking at a forum hosted by the chemical industry, called on Congress to give his department authority to approve or reject security plans for an estimated 15,000 facilities nationwide.

The Iran Issue

Russian President Vladmir Putin was in Beijing Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss a variety of issues, including the growing crisis in Iran. The next day, China issued a statement that Beijing and Moscow are in accord regarding Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also criticized a draft U.N. Security Council statement aimed at pressuring Iran to stop enriching uranium, despite a new offer of amendments by Western powers.

The next step is likely to be bilateral contacts among ministers of the council's five veto-wielding permanent members, the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia.

"China and Russia exchanged views and both sides agreed the Iran nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomatic means," a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry Qin Gang said.

Hu and Putin agreed that "all the related parties should display flexibility and patience," Qin said. "China supports Russia's active efforts to appropriately resolve the Iran nuclear issue."

Russia, backed by China, wants to delete large sections of the draft statement the Security Council has been studying for nearly two weeks as a first reaction to Iran's nuclear research. The US believes this is a cover for bomb-making. Iran insists it wants only to produce electric power.

Both nations fear that involvement by the 15-member council, which can impose sanctions, could escalate and lead to punitive measures including possibly military action.

Abbas Asked To Quit

Here is a new twist to the complicated political issues facing Israelis and the Palestinians all trying to share two and possibly three governments in the same territory.

Some top Fatah officials asked President Mahmoud Abbas, the successor to the late Arafat, to resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority. The idea was to return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel.

Senior Fatah officials said Friday the idea was debated for the first time by the Fatah Central Committee, which controls Abbah’s faction.

The discussion highlighted frustrations within Fatah, the arm of government defeated in January elections by the rebel group Hamas. The organization also is frustrated by Israel’s raid last week on a West Bank prison and the seizure of a radical Palestinian leader housed there.

Students Riot In Paris

Students, estimated at a quarter of a million in number, rioted in the streets of Paris, France, last week and again Thursday over a new job law that allows employers to dismiss workers under 26 during a two-year trial period without giving a reason. The new law was supposedly designed to encourage increased employment of youth, which is now running at 22.8 percent. But the students say the law will provide less job protection. French police used teargas against the rioting students, who fought back with stones and bottles.

At first Villepin stood firm on the First Job Contract law, but he called for dialogue with union leaders and workers to improve it.

After French unions and student bodies agreed to hold a general work stoppage and protest marches on March 28 to further pressure the government to withdraw the job law, Villepin agreed to allow flexibility in the trial period for young employees.

After rampaging youths returned to the streets again this week, smashing windows and overturning cars, Villepin agreed to meet senior trade union officials today to try to defuse the crisis and head off a national strike threat.

Basque Separatists Go Political

The militant Basque separatist group ETA, which has killed more than 800 people and terrorized Spain for nearly 40 years, announced a permanent ceasefire this week. The group said it would now turn its attention to achieving independence for the Basque region through politics.

A permanent ceasefire, which the group said would take effect on March 24, has been the paramount objective of successive Spanish governments since the establishment of democracy here in 1977.

Since Hammas got political, it is interesting to see that other terrorist groups are taking the same route.

Maoists Don’t Go Political

Another terrorist group, the Maoists seeking to topple Nepal’s Hindu monarchy, have stepped up attacks on security bases, towns and cities since January when they ended a unilateral cease-fire after the government refused to reciprocate.

At least 23 Maoist rebels and 10 policemen were killed Tuesday in the escalating violence.

King Gyanendra triggered the crisis 13 months ago when he seized power. He accused the government of failing to crush the Maoist revolt. Analysts fear the crisis could turn the nation into a dangerous zone of instability.

And In Taiwan

In an obvious effort to ease tensions with China, Taiwan's main opposition leader and potential presidential front-runner vowed Wednesday to uphold the status quo with China, rejecting both independence and early unification with the communist-ruled mainland.

Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of the Nationalist Party and mayor of Taipei, said if his party wins the presidency in the 2008 election, he would reopen talks with China on mutually accepted terms.

"This is a policy that really fits the needs of the United States, Japan, mainland China and the Taiwanese people," said the 55-year-old Ma, seen by many as the opposition's best bet for victory in the 2008 polls.

"We think we should maintain the status quo so that mainland China would have no excuse to use force against Taiwan and if they do, I think it would not be legitimate and the U.S. would have much more legitimacy to help us."

India – Bangladesh Meeting

The leaders of India and Bangladesh agreed Tuesday to wage a joint battle against terrorism and correct a trade imbalance. The agreement was made during a Delhi visit by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

This was an important decision for two neighboring South Asian neighbors that have been on the edge of war with one another for years. There are strong religious differences and both nations have nuclear capabilities.

India accuses Bangladesh of harboring separatists active in its restive northeast, which is denied by Bangladesh.

Hindu majority India also blames Muslim Bangladesh of pushing illegal Bangladeshis into India through their porous border. Dhaka rejects this charge, but the issue has caused frequent gun battles between the two border security forces.

The two countries agree, however, that they are facing Islamic militancy. Bangladesh was rocked by a series of blasts last year, while India still faces an Islamic revolt in Kashmir.

"Both sides agreed that India and Bangladesh are victims of terrorism and need to join hands in fighting this scourge," the Indian foreign ministry spokesman said after the talks.

Legalizing Coca?

Bolivia is leading a Latin American campaign to legalize coca plants. It is an up-hill battle because the plant has been vilified by the United States as the source of the world's cocaine industry.

Under the slogan "coca is not cocaine", politicians, consumers and growers across the Andes are promoting the leaf's qualities and calling for coca-based tea, yoghurt, bread, toothpaste, shampoo and soap to be mass produced and exported.

Its fans claim it helps digestion, provides more vital vitamins, nutrients and fiber than most vegetables and can even combat obesity. But the plant has been listed by the United Nations as a poisonous species since 1961 because it also contains the alkaloid needed to make cocaine.

Bolivia has this week been arguing the case for legalizing coca to the UN narcotics and crime agency in Vienna and hopes to change its status by 2008.

Mexico Going Socialist?

A new opinion poll this week shows that Mexico’s leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador extended his lead over his closest rival in the July presidential election despite.

The survey by a daily newspaper said 38 percent of those polled would vote for Lopez Obrador, the Party of the Democratic Revolution's candidate. If it happens, Mexico will go socialist. Psychic Aaron C. Donahue has been predicting a world socialist movement and he says it is an important step toward a one-world government.

Rioting In Dubai

In the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai, some 2,500 Asian workers angered by low salaries and mistreatment smashed cars and offices in a riot that interrupted construction Wednesday on the site of a building meant to be the world's tallest skyscraper.

The violence, which caused an estimated $1 million damage, illustrated the growing unrest among foreign workers who are the linchpin of Dubai's breathtaking building boom.

On Trial For Jesus

And believe it or not, a 41-year-old Afghan man is on trial this week in his country for daring to turn from his Islamic faith and convert to Christianity. If convicted, the man faces a possible death sentence for doing such a dastardly thing. But a state prosecutor said he is going to recommend a psychological examination to see if the man is mentally unfit to stand trial. They think he may be just nuts. If you ask us, they are all acting nuts over there. It is just the angels getting in their heads.

Foul City Air

New Yorkers and Californians breathe the dirtiest air in the nation and face higher cancer risks than the rest of the nation, according to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

New Yorkers' risk of developing cancer from air toxins is estimated to be 68 residents per million. In California, the risk is 66 residents per million.

The national average is 41.5 per million, according to the report, which was based on emissions of 177 chemicals in 1999, the most recent data available.

Oregon, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey had the third, fourth and fifth worst air in the nation, respectively, the EPA said. Rural residents of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana breathed the cleanest air.

The EPA assessment evaluated toxins including heavy metals, such as lead; volatile chemicals, such as benzene; combustion byproducts, such as acrolein; and solvents, including perchloroethylene and methylene chloride.

Prince Charles Goes Green

The Prince of Wales yesterday claimed that climate change is the world's greatest threat - ahead of terrorism - as he urged industry to become greener.

Prince Charles told 60 leaders of small British businesses that their companies should become more energy efficient and cut waste because it can help profits and protect their grandchildren's future.

The prince was speaking at a meeting at the Confederation of British Industry's London headquarters, where he quoted John Coomber, a main board director of Swiss Re, which assesses risk and looks to the future, as saying: "Climate change is the number one risk in the world, ahead of terrorism and demographic change."

Drought In The U.S.

Drought that has shriveled crops and sparked fires in bone-dry forests will persist and could even worsen across the Southwest and central and southern Plains through at least June, U.S. government forecasters said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its spring weather forecast that these regions, which have already seen thousands of acres go up in flames, should brace for a "significant" wildfire season in 2006 as conditions become more severe.

The return of La Nina, an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures which is the flip side of El Nino, could make the Atlantic tropical storm season especially dangerous.

Indeed, some forecasters have already warned that the number of storms may top the record set just last year.

La Nina developed during the winter and has contributed to the dryness plaguing much of the southern United States.

Mexican Water Protest

An estimated 10,000 protesters demonstrated late last week at an international Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City. The group is opposing a planned construction of a dam being built to supply water for the Pacific coastal resort of Acapulco because they say it is going to dry up the Papagayo River.

Marcher Marco Suastegui said the issue is so serious the people who depend on that water plan to fight to the death to stop the project. “We’ve been beaten, we’ve been jailed, some of us have even been killed, but we’re not going to give up,” he said. “We will defend the water of the Papagayo River with our lives if need be.”

World Water Forum

Wednesday was World Water Day and the final day of the Fourth World Water Forum sponsored by the United Nations in Mexico City. The forum, which opened March 16, concluded that trouble caused by the world's dwindling supply of fresh water goes far beyond perpetual thirst for billions around the globe.

The troublesome report, released Tuesday, gave a litany of problems extending to severe pollution, species loss, and even food insecurity.

"Freshwater shortages are likely to trigger increased environmental damage over the next 15 years," the report stated. The data used is based on the input of 1,500 experts worldwide.

Inadequate potable water is an immediate problem for billions of people, it said. Some 1.1 billion people go without safe drinking water and 2.6 billion, or 40 percent of the world's population, lack decent sanitation, according to UN figures.

But freshwater shortages caused by massive damming and depleted aquifers are provoking a chain reaction of environmental problems as well, beginning with falls in river flows, rising saltiness in biologically-rich estuaries, and the reduction in coastline sediment.

The knock-on impact of these changes, the study predicted, will be a serious loss of fish and aquatic plant life, shrinking farmland, damage to fisheries and food insecurity.

At the end of the chain of consequences, it said, are increases in malnutrition and disease.

Bug Plague Hits Canadian Trees

A bug plague blamed on climate change is sweeping through western Canada's pine forests, and other woodlands throughout North America are at risk, experts warn.

A tiny beetle and the fungus it spreads have already wiped out six billion Canadian dollars' worth of timber, and is predicted to eliminate thousands of jobs and push many rural towns into extinction.

"This is the first manifestation of pestilence as a result of climate change," said Avrim Lazar, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada.

The mountain pine beetle "takes out approximately 17 trillion cubic feet (of wood) a year, three times Canada's annual harvest," Lazar said.

So far, the pestilence has hit Canada's westernmost province of British Columbia hardest, with pockets of destruction in adjacent Alberta and the western United States.

Auklets Die In Oregon

Hundreds of dead seabirds known as auklets have washed up on the southern Oregon coast. Scientists haven't settled on an explanation for the die-off. The birds seem to be in good shape off California and Washington, a researcher said.

"The questions in my mind are: Is this something that's widespread in Oregon? Is it a freak event like a storm, or something that's going to last longer?" said seabird researcher Dr. Julia Parrish, an associate professor of biology at the University of Washington.

Explanations include a storm that killed lots of birds as they were gathering for breeding season and warming ocean waters that are inhospitable to the bird's food chain.

Glacier Meltdown

Many of the world's mountain glaciers are melting at a faster rate than at any time in the past 150 years, according to the latest assessment by glaciologists.

Scientists believe that the Alps, in particular, are experiencing a rapid disappearance of glaciers formed during the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago.

The scale of the phenomenon is revealed in photographs of dozens of glaciers, taken several decades apart.

Glaciers as far apart as Alaska and Austria, from Greenland in the north to the Andes in the south, are showing signs of an accelerating retreat that appears to be linked to climate change.

Michael Zemp and his colleagues from the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich in Switzerland believe that warmer air temperatures in Europe are behind the rapid loss of Alpine glaciers.

"Glaciers have been shrinking since 1850 but there has been a definite acceleration over the past two decades," he said.

Australian Super Cyclone Larry

Larry, a category 5 “super cyclone” smashed into northeastern Australia with winds hitting 180 miles an hour on Sunday. It was the strongest cyclone to strike Australia in over 30 years. Early reports said it was ripping up trees and toppling power lines in the far north as Queensland.

The last cyclone of this magnitude to strike Australia was Tracy, which happened three decades ago.

 Meteorologists said Larry was a monster in comparison. While the heart of Tracy was 47 kilometers wide, this one had a center measuring 100 kilometers with the front itself from 300 to 400 kilometers.

The damage from the storm is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Metal roots littered streets, wooden houses were torn into splinters and banana plantations were stripped bare by the powerful winds.

Hardest hit was a farming city of Innisfail, a community of about 8,500 people located 60 miles south of Cairns in Queensland state. “It looks like an atomic bomb hit the place,” the town’s mayor said. “This is more than a local disaster, this is a national disaster.”

Amazingly, there were no reported fatalities and only about 30 people suffered minor injuries. Ben Creagh, spokesman for the State Department of Emergency Services said the people remembered what Katrina did to New Orleans and Mississippi last August and either left town or went to shelters before the storm hit.

Midwest US Snow Storm

A storm system barreled across the Plains states Sunday, on the last day of winter, dumping more than a foot of snow that stalled highway travelers Monday in South Dakota and Nebraska and causing flooding as far south as Texas.

Hundreds of schools were closed Monday in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and South Dakota, and at least two deaths were blamed on the storm. Six-foot snowdrifts were reported in western South Dakota.

Spring officially began Monday.

A stretch of about 200 miles of Interstate 90 was closed Monday across South Dakota from Rapid City to Chamberlain because of the heavy snow and stuck trailer-trailer rigs.

Hawiian Flooding

Four back-to-back storms over the last three weeks have dumped more rain on parts of the Hawiian islands than they normally would have seen in months, and drenched Kauai with up to six times more rain than normal for all of March, the National Weather Service said yesterday.

The news comes as forecasters are expecting heavy rains to stick around through the weekend. The weather service also says the possibility of heavy showers will remain in the forecast for all islands for at least 10 more days.

The series of storms to hit the state has caused widespread flooding, rockfalls, sewage spills and road closures from Kauai to the Big Island.

Nevada Fights Yucca Dump Plan

The state of Nevada this week sued the Bush administration to compel it to publicize key documents on its plan to build a nuclear waste dump under Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Energy Department originally intended to file that application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2004 but the project has been plagued by scientific foul-ups and political stonewalling.

"Defendants have no legal basis for their actions in withholding the right of access to such documents," the state attorney general wrote in the complaint, filed in a Nevada federal court.

An Energy Department spokesman said the government has no legal obligation to share the draft license application until it files it officially at the NRC.

Congress has decided that Yucca Mountain should be the resting place for the waste from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants and "this lawsuit will not deter us from that commitment and our obligation under the law," department spokesman Craig Stevens said.

It seems that the State of Nevada does not agree with that assessment. We never thought burying all that nuclear waste in the heart of a volcano was a good idea either. It is one of those very stupid things that could come back to haunt us all someday.

Canadian Logging Issue

Environmentalists say a new survey of logging and other development in Canada's forests, released on Wednesday, shows the need for greater conservation and protection.

The study found that about 70 percent of Canada's forests have not been "fragmented" by logging or other human intrusions, but most of the undisturbed landscape is in the far northern boreal and taiga forests.

"It's kind a dual threat and opportunity message," said Peter Lee, executive director of Global Forest Watch Canada and one of the survey's authors.

Lee said the threat is in the south, where not enough has been done to protect the biodiverse forests. "Yet we have this global opportunity (in the north) to do things right if we choose to," he said.

Bird Flu Evolving

The H5N1 strain of bird flu in humans has evolved into two separate strains, U.S. researchers reported Monday, which could complicate developing a vaccine and preventing a pandemic.

One strain made people sick in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in 2003 and 2004 and a second, a cousin of the first, caused the disease in people in Indonesia in 2004.

"Back in 2003 we only had one genetically distinct population of H5N1 with the potential to cause a human pandemic. Now we have two," said the CDC's Rebecca Garten, who helped conduct the study.

Speaking to the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Garten said the pool of H5N1 candidates with the potential to cause a human influenza pandemic is getting more genetically diverse, which makes studying the virus more complex and heightens the need for increased surveillance.

"As the virus continues its geographic expansion, it is also undergoing genetic diversity expansion," Garten said in a statement.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia and killed about 100 people worldwide and infected about 180 since it re-emerged in 2003.

Bird Flu Spreads

Israel detected its first cases of H5N1 bird flu on Friday, saying the virus had killed thousands of turkeys and chicken on two farms, and hospitalized three people suspected of being infected.

Pakistan also confirmed that the virus was found in poultry flocks late last month. They said about 23,000 birds have since been culled.

Bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, stoking fears the virus could mutate into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

That Fluoride Issue

Fluoride in drinking water -- long controversial in the United States when it is deliberately added to strengthen teeth -- can damage bones and teeth, and federal standards fail to guard against this, the National Academy of Sciences reported on Wednesday.

The report said the vast majority of Americans -- including those whose water supply has fluoride added -- drink water that is well below the limit for fluoride levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But the academy's expert panel said some 200,000 people in the United States may consume water that is at or above the government's standard because of naturally occurring fluoride.

Children exposed to the government's current maximum fluoride limit "risk developing severe tooth enamel fluorosis, a condition characterized by discoloration, enamel loss and pitting of the teeth," the academy said.

Mad Cow In Japan

Officials in Japan this week confirmed the country's first case of mad cow disease in cattle specifically raised to provide meat.

An official of the Health Ministry said the 14-year-old female cow was found near Nagasaki. The official said all the body parts from the cow have been destroyed.

Japan previously confirmed 23 cases of the disease in cattle bred to produce milk. The country has been testing every domestically slaughtered cow entering the market since its first case of mad cow disease was discovered in 2001.

Chikungunya

A disabling mosquito-borne disease that has hit the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion has claimed 148 lives, and almost a third of the population has been affected.

The toll of 148 amounted to people whose death was directly or indirectly attributable to the disease, known as chikungunya, the national health monitoring institute said on Friday.

A total of 212,000 people have fallen sick with the disease in the course of the epidemic, it said. Reunion has a population of 777,000. The illness causes the joints to freeze and leaves its victims bent over and disabled. It originally was not considered to be a deadly disease, but this epidemic is beginning to kill.

Honk Kong Smog

Green activists warned that Hong Kong’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry is at risk after a survey found half the visitors to the city had complained of the worsening air pollution.

Friends of the Earth Hong Kong said the poll of tour guides also found that one in ten tourists suffered pollution-linked health problems while visiting the semi-autonomous southern Chinese territory.

Last week smog levels rose to such dangerously high levels that the government was forced to warn people with breathing or heart problems to stay indoor.

Miracle Fall

A 21-year-old Russian woman fell 114 feet from the eleventh floor of her apartment building and survived. The woman is in a hospital being treated for concussion, bruises and a displaced spine. Doctors say she should make a full recovery.

Doctors said a thick covering of snow broke the woman's fall, and her body was relaxed because she was not fully conscious at the moment of impact.

Ugly Train Accident

Seven people were killed and ten others severely hurt last week in a freak accident during a promotional stunt involving a train locomotive in Uruguay. The stunt, called Challenge of the Heart, involved a test of strength as people pulled a rope attached to the locomotive to get it to move on the rails.

About 200 participants were involved and as the huge iron locomotive was rolling, a woman slipped on the wet ground in front of it. Her fall caused others around her to fall. The engine, which was not running, had no brakes and it rolled right over everyone in its path. Several victims lost arms or legs.

About 3,000 school children witnessed the accident.

Ugly Bus Accident

A bus carrying cruise ship tourists plunged off a highway in northern Chile and tumbled 300 feet down a mountainside Wednesday, killing 12 Americans.

Two other U.S. tourists and two Chileans - the driver and the tour guide - were hospitalized in serious condition.

The tourists were returning to Celebrity Cruises' ship Millennium from an excursion to Lauca National Park when the driver swerved to avoid an approaching truck on a rugged highway near Arica, 1,250 miles north of Santiago.

The bus went off the narrow highway and tumbled down a steep mountainside.

Fire At Sea

Fire broke out on The Star Princess, yet another cruise ship in the Caribbean early Thursday, killing one person and injuring 11 others before the crew extinguished the flames, company officials said.

The vessel was en route from Grand Cayman to Jamaica when the blaze started in a cabin, according to a statement from Princess Cruises, which is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.

In Jamaica, emergency officials said late Thursday morning that the ship was coming into a port there with several people injured and one person dead on board.

The fire started in a cabin and spread to other cabins nearby, Princess Cruises said. The statement said the fire had been put out and officials were trying to account for all the passengers.

The ship is carrying 2,690 passengers and 1,123 crew members.

Ferry Disaster

The Queen of the North, a ferry carrying about 100 people, struck a rock and sank early Wednesday off Canada’s rugged Pacific Coast. Officials said they believe everyone was evacuated safely by lifeboat.

The accident happened near Gil Island, about 75 miles south of Prince Rupert as the ship sailed though the Inside Passage on the northwest coast of British Columbia.

Passengers described being jolted awake by a loud noise, followed by the ship's alarm. After taking to the lifeboats the passengers said they watched in rough water as the 410-foot vessel sank.

Officials said 99 passengers and crew are known to have escaped the stricken vessel but there was confusion about the fate of two people who may not have boarded. Authorities were conducting a search to determine their whereabouts.

GM Pays Off Workers

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers union cut a deal that would offer incentives to thousands of factory workers to take an early retirement. Some long-time workers will be offered $35,000 in cash if they accept early retirement.

Representatives of GM, its bankrupt former subsidiary Delphi Corp. and the UAW met through the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday in Detroit before reaching the agreement.

Tom’s Toothpaste Sold

Colgate-Palmolive Co. announced it's buying Tom's of Maine, the leading maker of natural toothpaste, which used to tweak big toothpaste makers for putting artificial additives like saccharin and fluoride in their products.

The $100 million cash deal for privately owned Tom's of Maine, which got its start in 1970 by producing a phosphate-free laundry detergent, reflects Colgate's strategy of focusing on the higher-margin oral and personal care businesses.

But founder Tom Chappell said that neither the company's business philosophy nor its quirky toothpaste flavors like fennel, apricot and orange-mango will change.

Chappell said Tom's of Maine, with annual sales of about $50 million, will maintain its product formulas and be managed as a stand-alone subsidiary, much as Colgate's Science Diet pet food line has been. But he said Colgate's financial clout and distribution network will enable his brands to make inroads into national chain stores and grow to their full potential.

Wal-Mart In China

Wal-Mart plans to open 20 new stores in China and hire up to 150,000 employees over the next five years. This will be five times the company’s current work force there. Wal-Mart has targeted China, which has long been a major supplier of its products, as a key region for its international store growth. It now has 56 stores in China with about 30,000 employees.

Dell Expands In India

Dell, the Texas-based computer manufacturer, says it plans to double the number of its employees in India to 20,000 in the next three years. Although most of the new hiring will be made at the company’s call centers, there also will be hiring at the product testing center and a possible new manufacturing plant. That is why you Dell computer owners have trouble understanding the technical support guys when you call. They also don’t know much about problem solving we find. But people in India work cheap and that is what counts for companies like Dell.

Russian Gas Sale To China

Russia will build two large-scale gas pipelines to China within five years, the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom said after signing a deal with China's biggest energy firm.

Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller told reporters that the price and other financial details had not yet been agreed in the deal that was inked with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

The deal was one of 15 agreements signed between Russia and China on the first of a two-day visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing.

Miller, who was part of Putin's delegation, said one of the pipelines would deliver gas from west Siberia and the other from Russia's far-east. He said the aim was for the gas to go online within five years.

Each of the pipelines would be capable of delivering 30 to 40 billion cubic meters (1.05 to 1.4 trillion cubic feet) of gas each year, Miller said.

Class Action Suits Blocked

The Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday for investors to join forces to file high-stakes fraud lawsuits against big corporations.

The 8-0 decision blocks state class-action lawsuits by stockholders who contend they were tricked into holding onto declining shares.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the court, said that to rule otherwise would allow "wasteful, duplicative litigation."

The decision does not shut the door to lawsuits filed by individual stockholders, but only to suits brought on behalf of large groups.

If you have the money to pay the bank of lawyers needed to stand up to the lawyers for a big corporation, then you are free to file suit. But nobody gets to band together anymore to collectively pay the cost of hiring the legal counsel needed to go up against the big boys. Isn’t that an interesting legal decision?

The light side of the news:

Strippers Get Respect

Australian strippers have won the right to take time off after taking their clothes off.

The country's Industrial Relations Commission on Friday approved new workplace rules for members of the strippers' union, the Striptease Artists Australia.

"We've got rights to have public holiday pay now, which we've never had in our career before," said a union spokeswoman called Mystical Melody. "We've got rosters and set hours. We can't work more than 10 hours a shift."

The award also entitles unionized strippers to overtime, rest periods, meal breaks and maternity leave, she added.

Humphrey The Cat Is Dead

Humphrey, the stray cat that wandered into No. 10 Downing St., and lived with two British prime ministers before being evicted by Tony Blair, has died. He was about 18 years old. Blair's office said late Sunday that Humphrey died last week at the home of a civil servant who had adopted him.

The black-and-white stray wandered into Downing Street in 1989 when it was occupied by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was named in honor of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Machiavellian civil servant in the sitcom "Yes, Minister."

The cat remained under Thatcher's successor, John Major, but moved shortly after Blair took office in 1997, prompting a Conservative lawmaker to ask in the House of Commons for assurances that Humphrey was still alive.

Blair's wife, Cherie, denied reports that her dislike of cats was responsible for Humphrey's eviction. Officials said Humphrey was suffering from a kidney problem and needed a quieter home in the suburbs.

Now there was one cool cat.

New Route To Heaven

Turkmenistan's president-for-life (Saparmurat Niyazov) announced on state television that anyone reading his philosophical work three times would be assured a place in heaven.

"Anyone who reads the Rukhnama three times will find spiritual wealth, will become more intelligent, will recognize the divine being and will go straight to heaven," he said Monday.

The Turkmen leader said he had "called on Allah" while working on the two-volume book to ensure that enthusiastic readers would be given quicker access to heaven.

Snake Kissing

A former Malaysian snake farm worker may have set a new world record after kissing a poisonous snake 51 times in three minutes, a report said.

Shahimi Abdul Hamid's feat in kissing the 14-foot-long, 22 pound King Cobra 51 times in three minutes and one second was a record waiting to be verified, a local newspaper said.

Penis Enlargement Scam

An Israeli court sentenced a man to two years in prison for operating a fake clinic that offered penis enhancements and so-called medical treatments to make people taller, which failed to work.

Simon Sofer told dozens of clients he was a doctor and said he could add up to 3.9 inches to their height or 2.4 inches to their genitals, the Tel Aviv court said. Apparently some people were gullible enough to try it.

Pantyhose Gave Him Away

A man's pantyhose led to his arrest, authorities said. An unshaven man wearing a black evening gown, fishnet stockings, calf-high boots and a black wig robbed a USA Gas station Monday morning, authorities alleged.

The armed man stuffed $290 in cash into an ensemble-matching black purse.

"I've been with the department for 22 years, and this is the first time I've heard of this happening anywhere here," police Lt. Phil Penko said.

About 35 minutes after the robbery, police Officer Chad Ventimiglia spotted a black Saab with fishnet pantyhose hanging from the front driver's side door, dragging on the ground, investigators said.

The car was pulled over and Michael Leslie Clouse, 26, was arrested and booked for investigation of armed robbery.

Donald Duck Comic Fight

And finally, a first edition of a Donald Duck comic book from 1948, valued at $16,200, has been held behind bars in Sweden for a year-and-a-half amid a divorcing couple's drawn-out custody battle.

The 58-year-old comic book was part of a collection at a museum in Koeinge, in southern Sweden, run by the couple.

When they split up, they both claimed to be the rightful owner of the comic book. But in 2004, one of the couple decided to shut down the museum and sold the comic book to a third party. As a result, the other spouse reported the comic as stolen to police, and it was confiscated pending a ruling.

And that is our news for the week. We hope we have entertained and enlightened you and that you will return next week at this same time for yet another hour of Luciferian News.

Be sure to listen tomorrow night to Infinite Chaos with Zurx, and Sunday night to Psychic and Prophet Aaron C. Donahue and his Psychic sister Jennifer Sharpe for Voice of Lucifer. Both programs begin at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Good night.