Luciferian
News Hour
March 3
Good evening Luciferians.
This is Jim and The Dragon coming to you live again this Friday night with the news of the week. We have lots of blood and
gore to tell you about so if you have little children in the room, it might be best to tuck them in bed now.
Civil War Looming?
The bombing of that Shiite
mosque in Baghdad
last week has exploded in an outright civil war that has left hundreds of people dead all over Iraq this week. Bombs are exploding everywhere and gunfire is being heard. This
has been one of the bloodiest weeks since the war began, but now the fighting is between the civilians.
A series of bombings, including a car bomb attack in the Shiite holy city
of Karabala, and shootings across Iraq Saturday killed at least 24 people and left dozens wounded. Rebels attempted to keep
sectarian tensions burning in Iraq when they blew up a car bomb on a busy
shopping street in Karbala killing five people and wounding
52.
Violence killed at least 29 people Sunday, including three American soldiers,
and mortar fire rumbled through the heart of Baghdad after
sundown
Four explosions rocked Baghdad
on Tuesday, killing at least 36 people.
In northern Iraq,
a blast badly damaged a Sunni mosque where the father of Saddam Hussein is buried.
In the Baghdad
violence, a man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up at a gas station in the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood, killing
23 people and injuring 51.
A car bomb targeting a police patrol in the same neighborhood killed
nine people and injured 17 _ all civilians.
Another car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in the crowded southeastern
Karada neighborhood, killing four people and injuring 16.
Sunnis and Shiites traded bombings and mortar fire against mainly
religious targets in Baghdad well into the night Tuesday,
killing at least 68 people.
Today gunmen raided a small town near Baghdad and shot dead at least 19 people in what police
said on Friday was another sectarian attack by Sunnis on Shi'ites.
Among the dead were Shi'ite migrant laborers shot down at a brick factory in a dusk raid on Thursday
by a suspected al Qaeda-linked group. One local politician said at least 25 died, among them three children.
Al-Qaida Threat
Al-Qaida on Saturday vowed more attacks a day after an attempt to bomb the
world's biggest oil processing complex showed the group still can strike inside Saudi
Arabia despite the arrests of hundreds of suspects. A strike on the complex, near Saudi Arabia's eastern Persian Gulf coast, could have been
devastating. Nearly two-thirds of the country's oil flows through the facility for processing before export.
Mabus Defends Himself
In the Mabus trial, prosecutors presented documents Tuesday they
said show Saddam Hussein approved executions of more than 140 Shiites in the 1980s. It was the most direct evidence yet against
the former Iraqi leader in his four-month trial. Among those sentenced to hang was an 11-year-old boy.
The most significant document featured a signature said to be Saddam's
on a court list of people to be executed, though it was not clear he was aware of their ages. The list on that particular
document only had names.
Saddam said in a defiant courtroom confession on Wednesday that he
ordered the trial of 148 Shiites who were eventually executed. He insisted he had the right to do so because they were suspected
of trying to kill him.
"Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" Saddam asked. "If trying
a suspect accused of shooting at a head of state _ no matter what his name is _ is considered a crime, then you have the head
of state in your hands. Try him."
Saddam did not admit or deny approving their executions, but stated
outright that he was solely responsible for their prosecution. He said his seven co-defendants should be released.
"If the chief figure makes thing easy for you by saying he was the
one responsible, then why are you going after these people?" he asked.
More Ports Involved
We now learn this week that the United Arab Emirates government-owned company is poised to
take over port terminal operations in 21 American ports, far more than the six widely reported.
The Bush administration has approved
the takeover of British-owned Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to DP World, a deal set to go forward March 2
unless Congress intervenes.
P&O is the parent company of P&O
Ports North America, which leases terminals for the import and export and loading and unloading and security of cargo in 21
ports, 11 on the East Coast, ranging from Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida, and 10 on the Gulf Coast, from Gulfport, Miss.,
to Corpus Christi, Texas, according to the company's Web site.
President George W. Bush on Tuesday
threatened to veto any legislation designed to stall the handover.
Bush In India
On his first visit to India
President Bush secured a landmark nuclear energy agreement that he says could help ease energy prices in the United States.
Bush and the Indian Prime Minister announced the deal, which will
open most Indian reactors to international inspections and provide the growing nation with U.S. nuclear technology.
Under the accord, the United States
will share its nuclear know-how and fuel with India
to help power its fast-growing economy. It represents a major shift in policy for the United
States, which imposed temporary sanctions on India
in 1998 after it conducted nuclear tests.
Bush opened his three-day visit to India on Wednesday to warm relations with the world’s largest democracy.
He said he wanted to share US nuclear know-how and fuel with India even though India
has not agreed to sign the international nonproliferation treaty.
Before leaving the United States,
Bush said he also wanted to use his visit to India and Pakistan this week to urge both sides to resolve the lingering dispute over Kashmir.
Kashmir is divided between the South Asian rivals, yet both claim the Himalayan region in full and have fought two wars over
it.
"I will use my trip to urge the leadership to continue solving this issue
with the idea that it can be solved," Bush told state-owned Pakistan Television in an interview Sunday prior to the trip.
Pakistan Bombing
A suicide bomber was blocked from driving into the U.S. Consulate
in Karachi, Pakistan.
He slammed instead into an American diplomat's car Thursday, killing the envoy. The force of the blast on the eve of President
Bush's trip to Pakistan blew the U.S. vehicle into the grounds of a hotel.
The attack killed three other people, wounded 52, and shattered windows
in the consulate and on all 10 floors of the Marriott Hotel. Ten cars were destroyed, and charred wreckage was flung as far
as 600 feet away in one of the most heavily guarded areas of the volatile southern city.
Bush, in neighboring India,
vowed to stick with his plan to fly to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, today.
Maoist Attack
At least 20 people died when Maoist rebels in central India blew up a truck packed with anti-Maoist activists, police
said, adding the toll was expected to rise.
"Until now, we know that 20 people have died. Around 35 to 40 people are injured.
It was a landmine attack," one police spokesman said. They said the death toll will probably be much higher.
Sharon’s Birthday
Bash
In case
you are wondering what has happened to Israel's
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he is still alive and still in a coma following a brutal stroke last month. This week his family
and friends marked his 78th birthday but without pomp and ceremony. We suspect he is being kept alive by machines and that
this stalemate to an impending death could continue for a very long time.
Iran Problem Resolved?
Iran's nuclear chief said an agreement was reached with Moscow Sunday to set up a joint uranium enrichment facility on Russian soil. It is a deal,
proposed by Russia all along, that could assuage global concerns that Tehran wants to build atomic bombs. The plan is backed by the United States and European Union. Thus we seem to have a resolution
to what looked for a while like a prelude to a new military attack by US and perhaps Israeli forces against Iran.
But wait: President George W. Bush is still rattling
sabers. On the very day the deal with Russia
was announced, Bush accused Iran of being the world's "premier state sponsor
of terror" and warned the United States would not let Tehran develop nuclear weapons. We need to keep a close eye on this situation.
Iran's president said Monday that his country supports calls for making the Middle East
a nuclear arms-free zone, but he also urged the United States and Russia to give up all their atomic weapons. He called both
nations a threat to the region's stability.
Taiwan Pushes Its Luck
A top Chinese Communist Party leader vowed today that Beijing would
block any moves toward Taiwan independence
but would work for a peaceful solution to the stand-off.
Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island and its 23 million people and has threatened to use force if it formally
declares independence.
On Monday independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian scrapped Taiwan's
National Unification Council and its 15-year-old unification guidelines, defying warnings from Beijing
and Washington.
The council had been established to reassure China
that the island would not go its own way.
Earlier in the week, China urged the United States to take firmer action against
Taiwan, following a muted response by Washington
to the island's scrapping of the guidelines.
"We are urging the United States...
to take concrete actions to oppose Taiwan's
secessionist activities for independence," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.
China also wants the United States to avoid sending "any wrong signals
to the secessionist forces for Taiwan
independence," he said.
Chen announced the decision to scrap the advisory council on Monday and formally
signed the papers to endorse it on Tuesday, despite repeated warnings from Beijing
not to do so.
The United States, Taiwan's main military supplier, expressed deep concern at
Chen's plans to abolish the advisory council but refrained from criticizing the move.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan reiterated Washington's
longstanding position that there was "one China".
"There should be no unilateral change in the status quo by either side," McClellan
said.
Lady Prime Minister
The Caribbean island of Jamaica
is to have a female prime minister for the first time, ever.
Portia Simpson Miller, 60, was elected president of the governing People's
National Party in an internal vote.
She will automatically become prime minister when the incumbent, PJ Patterson,
steps down in the next few weeks after 14 years in the post.
Mrs Simpson Miller, currently local government minister, narrowly beat the national
security minister to the job.
That Mardi Gras
Six months after being laid low by the most destructive storm in
U.S. history, the people of New
Orleans still found reason to celebrate Mardi Gras, the last days before the Roman Catholic celebration
of Lent.
Jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain, 75, lead his Half Fast Marching Club
through the streets of New Orleans on Fat Tuesday for the
46th time.
"There was no question about doing it," Fountain said. "We had a
meeting and everybody wanted to march."
Monk Boudreaux, 64, is part of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition that
historians say dates back more than a century: Dressed in elaborately feathered and beaded costumes, he and other black New
Orleanians paraded, danced and sang through their neighborhoods.
"This is more than tossing beads and having a party. This is something
that runs deep inside us," said Boudreaux, the Big Chief of the Golden Eagles tribe. "It's in our blood."
The Half Fast marchers and Mardi Gras Indian processions are two
small parts of the city's annual Mardi Gras bash that climaxes on Fat Tuesday with family-friendly parades uptown and raucous
misbehavior in the French Quarter.
"Mardi Gras is part of our tradition," Mayor Ray Nagin told NBC's
"Today" show. "We're celebrating our 150-year anniversary. It's part of our DNA, if you will. And it's a bittersweet occasion
because there's lots of people who still aren't here, but it's turned into a reunion of sorts."
Bush Sinking Low
More Americans disapprove of how President George W. Bush is handling his
job and they are more pessimistic about the Iraqi situation than ever, according to a new poll.
Bush's approval rating in the survey fell to 34 percent, the lowest it has
been since he took office in 2001 and six percent lower than last month.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents disapproved of the job Bush was doing.
Even in his war on terrorism, usually his strongest suit in opinion surveys,
Bush's approval rating dropped to an all-time low of 43 percent, with 50 percent disapproving of his actions. Last month those
ratings were reversed with 52 approving, and 43 percent disapproving, Bush's terrorism-fighting credentials.
Venezuelan Oil To Connecticut
Connecticut has given social service agencies permission to supply low-income residents with discounted heating oil from Venezuela, whose energy aid program for the needy
has rankled the Bush administration.
The state Department of Social Services began notifying the nonprofit agencies
Monday after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ruled that the Venezuelan oil program is legal.
Venezuela, the fifth-largest foreign supplier of oil to the U.S.,
has been supplying millions of gallons of heating oil at a 40 percent discount to poor Americans and free heating fuel to
homeless shelters.
Patriot Act Gets Senate
OK
The Senate yesterday gave its blessing to renewing the Patriot Act
after adding new privacy protections designed to strike a better balance between civil liberties and the government's power
to root out terrorists.
The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush's troubled
second term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq
and his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Renewing the act, Bush and congressional Republicans said, was key
to preventing more terror attacks in the United States.
The measure restricts somewhat the government's ability to access
records in terrorism investigations by allowing court challenges to some demands.
That Yates Case
Andrea Yates' attorney rejected a plea offer Monday that would have sent her
to prison for 35 years for drowning her children. The plea agreement would have avoided a retrial.
Defense attorney George Parnham said he rejected the plea offer because it
doesn't guarantee Yates would receive mental health treatment.
The prosecution said the offer would remain on the table until March 10 _
10 days before Yates' capital murder retrial is set to begin. She is charged in the deaths of three of her five children.
The children were all drowned in 2001 in the family's bathtub.
Yates has again pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. The plea offer would
require her to plead guilty or no contest to the lesser charge of murder.
Yates was convicted of capital murder in 2002, but the conviction was overturned
because a forensic psychiatrist gave false testimony. Park Dietz said an episode of television's "Law & Order" about a
woman with postpartum depression drowning her children was aired shortly before the Yates children died. The episode didn't
exist.
Narrow Minded In Utah
Utah public schools will continue to teach evolution after the House on Monday gutted, and then killed,
a bill that would have required science courses to mention alternative theories.
Senate Bill 96 failed in the House on a 28-46 vote, after a lengthy debate
that saw the bill changed twice.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, had said it was time
to rein in teachers who were teaching that man had descended from apes, and rattling the faith of students. The Senate passed
the measure 16-12.
Sounds like Mormon kids are growing up thinking that the Mother Earth had
nothing to do with putting us here. That is religion for you.
Remember NASA?
Have you been wondering
when NASA is going to try to launch its space shuttle Discovery? A top NASA official said a flight may be slated for sometime
in May or July, if bugs with the external fuel tank and other details can be resolved.
"I remain optimistic that if we fly by this summer, we will be able to get
three flights off," the NASA official said. "But time will tell. This is not like the railroad."
In a best case scenario, shuttles would fly in May, July and November.
Cyprus Sandstorm
Cyprus was engulfed
in an unusually severe sandstorm Saturday. The storm was so severe it sent people to hospitals with breathing problems and
canceled flights from the Mediterranean island.
A thick blanket of gritty
dust settled over the capital Nicosia, blotting out the sun
and giving the capital a beige tinge from sand brought in gusts from the African Sahara.
Cyprus, in the north east Mediterranean, occasionally gets the tail-end of sandstorms afflicting
countries like Egypt or Lebanon
in February and March, but they are not usually severe.
Weird Fish Jubilee
At Jacksonville, North
Carolina, state and local wildlife experts are trying to figure out what led more than a thousand flounder, spot
and pin fish to beach themselves at the Marine Corps' New River air base _ and then swim
away.
They believe it may be related to a popular phenomenon known in coastal Alabama as "jubilee."
The fish surfaced in shallow water Friday morning. They were lethargic, but
alive.
"It's kind of strange," said Mike Sanderford, New River Riverkeeper. "It's
a bunch of fish up here, but they're not dead. They're almost docile."
When he arrived, Sanderford said, the fish were lying in shallow water and
allowed him to touch them before they swam away.
Representatives of the Division of Water Quality, N.C. Marine Fisheries and
N.C. Marine Patrol checked on the fish along the air station's shoreline Friday morning. One expert estimated about 1,000
to 1,500 were crowded in the waterline.
But by afternoon, they were gone. The timing matched another oddity: the water's
oxygen level, which veered from one extreme to the other.
"We measured the oxygen levels in the water this morning and they were very
low," said Stephanie Garrett, environmental technician with DWQ. "Then two and a half hours later, they were high."
Antarctica Is Melting
Antarctica's mammoth ice sheet, which holds 90 percent of the Earth's ice, is showing "significant decline" as world temperatures
heat up, according to a new study.
As Earth's fifth largest continent, Antarctica is twice the size of Australia and contains 70 percent of Earth's fresh water resources.
British research suggests the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet alone would raise global sea levels by over 20 feet
(six meters).
And now a team of US researchers at the University
of Boulder in Colorado
say they have discovered that the Antarctic ice sheet is losing up to 36 cubic miles of ice annually.
Europe In For Severe Winters
Northern European countries will be more exposed to severe winter storms unless
power plants in particular drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, the environmental group WWF warned.
"A dangerous wind of change is blowing across Europe,"
said Jennifer Morgan, director of WWF International's global climate change program.
In a report analyzing recent weather patterns in seven European countries
and research on global warming, the WWF concluded that storms on the North Atlantic Ocean and North Sea
are increasing.
Saving Oil Palm Trees
Margarine, lipstick, ice cream, shampoo, chocolate -- all use palm oil as
a crucial ingredient. There is a booming demand and consequently, it is swallowing up forests of oil palm trees mostly located
in Malaysia.
How to balance profit with preserving the environment and limiting deforestation
provided the cut and thrust at a two-day meeting on Sumatra island, where huge swathes of
forest have been among the casualties of the palm oil boom.
In recent years, Jakarta has delivered huge
concessions to palm oil producers, with many firms employing tens of thousands of people in Southeast
Asia's largest economy.
The Poop Speaks
Pope Benedict this week reaffirmed Catholic
teaching that life begins at the moment of conception. Addressing an international congress on scientific aspects and bioethical
considerations of the Human Embryo Before Implantation, the pope said that embryos are "sacred and inviolable" even before
they become implanted in a mother's uterus. Thus he reasons that aborting life, even by taking a morning after pill is the
same as murder. Remember this pope recently told his illiterate flock all over this overpopulated and dying world to get busy
and have lots of babies. Aaron C. Donahue is right. This pope even looks like Darth Vader in the Starwars films.
Buzzzzzzzz
A neighborhood in South Florida is asking for help after a swarm of more than
2 million bees was found at a nearby vacant house.
An elderly man who lived inside the South Miami home died last year. And since
his death, the house has deteriorated and become overrun with bees.
One neighbor
said every time her family leaves their home in the morning, they're greeted by a swarm of bees.
Suez Oil Spill
An oil spill caused by a leaking tanker in the Suez Canal
has caused at least 12 million dollars in environmental damage.
The Liberian-flagged Grigoroussa 1 leaked 3,000 tons of heavy fuel into the
canal, also affecting nearby tourist resorts and residents.
While it is too early to assess the overall impact on local residents and
businesses, canal authorities have already received 1,320 complaints relating to the spill.
Officials said on Tuesday that the slick spread some 18 miles.
The tanker, which was headed south from the Mediterranean
late on Sunday, broke down and drifted into a quay. About 3,000 of the 58,000 tons of its heavy fuel cargo leaked into the
canal, while the rest was safely pumped out.
Alaska Oil Spill
An unknown quantity of crude oil spilled yesterday
from a pipeline on Alaska's North Slope, and fumes stalled
inspection and cleanup efforts for hours. Crews began using a vacuum truck to recover some of the oil, which had pooled on
the frozen ground. The cause of the spill, at Prudhoe Bay operations, was unknown.
Another Sweat Shop Disaster
At least 16 people were killed
and 50 injured when a four-story textile factory collapsed in Bangladesh's
capital on Saturday.
The Phoenix mill came down at around 11 a.m. with about 150 workers inside.
It was the third textile
factory disaster occurring in Bangladesh
in recent months. A high-rise garment factory located 18 miles from Dhaka collapsed in April,
2005, killing 74 workers and injuring hundreds. And the K.T.S. Textile Mill in Chittagong
burned last week, killing 54 and injuring at least 60.
Authorities said the Phoenix mill was among more than 100 poorly maintained industrial buildings
in the area listed for demolition. Obviously many are still being used for sweat shops, hiring hundreds of low wage earners,
mostly women.
Army, police and fire brigade
rescuers said many could still be trapped under tons of concrete. Some of the injured were in a critical condition.
The Lost Mexican Miners
There is no chance of survival for 65 miners trapped underground in northern Mexico for a week, the mine owners said.
It had been hoped some miners, most trapped at least 1.25 miles inside the
mine, might have survived if air pockets were present.
But now the mine company has told relatives there is no further hope.
Authorities said tests of air in the mine showed there was not enough oxygen
for anyone to survive.
The men were trapped early last Sunday, when a methane explosion brought down
debris and cut them off.
Church Gunman
Two parishioners at Zion
Hope Missionary Baptist
Church in Detroit
were shot dead Sunday by a man that walked into the church and opened fire during Sunday morning services. The shooting sent
frightened parishioners ducking under the pews for safety. The gunman later killed himself. Police said one person in the
church died and a young girl seated beside her was injured. A second victim was killed in front of the church.
From Under Volcanic Ash
Scientists have found what they believe are traces of the lost Indonesian
civilization of Tambora, which was wiped out in 1815 by the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history.
Mount Tambora's cataclysmic eruption on April 10, 1815, buried the inhabitants
of Sumbawa Island
under searing ash, gas and rock and is blamed for an estimated 88,000 deaths. The eruption was at least four times more powerful
than Mount Krakatoa's
in 1883.
Guided by ground-penetrating radar, U.S. and Indonesian researchers recently dug in a gully where locals found ceramics
and bones. They unearthed the remains of a thatch house, pottery, bronze and the carbonized bones of two people, all in a
layer of sediment dating to the eruption.
Volcanologists say an estimated 10,000 people lived in the town when the volcano
erupted in a blast that dwarfed the one that buried the Roman town of Pompeii.
The eruption shot 400 million tons of sulfuric gases into the atmosphere,
causing global cooling and creating what historians call "The Year Without a Summer." Farms in Maine suffered crop-killing frosts in June, July and August. In France
and Germany, grape and corn crops died,
or the harvests were delayed.
Italian Avalanche
Around 20 people were buried after an avalanche swept down a mountainside
near Italy's border with France.
Rescue workers said a wall of snow swallowed up athletes and officials taking
part in a ski competition in near Cuneo, in the northern region of Piedmont.
Dozens of workers were trying to dig through the snow in a frantic search
for survivors and helicopters had been called in to help get the injured to hospitals.
Bird Flu Fears
Of all the panicky ways that people worldwide have sought protection
from bird flu, perhaps the most striking took root among Egyptians last week. Via e-mail and through advice dispensed on crowded
city streets, word went out: Don't drink the water.
Farmers, including the rooftop poultry breeders that are a Cairo fixture, had begun to dump stricken, dead chickens into the Nile River, the source of drinking water for
millions of Egyptians. When the word got out, taps were suddenly turned off and people rushed to stores to buy bottled water.
And in France, President Jacques Chirac urged consumers not to panic Saturday, hours after
the government announced the European Union's first outbreak of deadly bird flu in commercial poultry.
Chirac said chickens and eggs remained safe to
eat as he munched a piece of the famously succulent chicken from the Ain region, where the lethal virus was confirmed in turkeys.
Panic among consumers is "totally unjustified,"
Chirac said during a visit to open the annual Paris Agriculture Fair. "The virus in question ... is automatically destroyed
by cooking. So there is absolutely no danger."
Yet fear already was setting in, raising worries
for a multibillion-dollar industry that makes France
the premier poultry producer among the EU's 25 nations.
Health experts also were dispatched to the southern Bahamas island of Inagua to find out if an unexplained spate of bird deaths is linked to the deadly bird
flu virus.
Over the past two days, 15 of the island's famed flamingos, five roseate spoonbills and one cormorant have
been found dead with no external injuries on the island just north of Haiti,
officials said. It was found only today that the birds did not die of the bird flu, however. If the H5N1 virus had been found
there, it would only have been a skip and a hop from the Bahamas to the
United States.
Bird Flu is coming at us like a freight train.
Bird Flu Updates
A
9-year-old Chinese girl diagnosed with bird flu was still listed in critical condition Sunday as health authorities there
tried to prevent the disease from spreading.
China warned of the threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country
as it reported two new human cases -- the girl in eastern Zhejiang
province and a woman farmer in a neighboring province.
Also the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was confirmed Monday in birds in a
third African country, deepening experts' fears that the disease may be far more widespread than reported on the continent.
The disease was found in domestic ducks in Niger
and one researcher said she fears the new cases are "just the prelude to the virus becoming endemic in Africa."
Poor veterinary services, a shortage of laboratories, farmers' lack of knowledge
and their fear that they will not be compensated if they report sick birds could be masking the extent of H5N1's spread in
Africa, according to experts gathered in Paris.
In Germany, a cat found dead on the northern
island of Ruegen, where most of an estimated 100 wild birds infected by the virus were found, was tested and found to have
died of H5N1. It is the first time the virus has been identified in a mammal in Europe.
Chikungunya Fever
The number of people in Mauritius infected with a mosquito-borne disease which is ravaging through the Indian
Ocean region has risen to 962 from 341 the previous week, the government said. "Chik-un-gunya" fever, for which
there is no known cure or vaccine, has been spreading through islands off the southeast coast of Africa
since January, affecting more than 150,000 people. The disease rarely kills, but it leaves its victim humped over and crippled.
Evil Christians
The financial future of California's
$3 billion human embryonic stem cell research institute went on trial Monday as Christian taxpayer groups tried to block the
state-funded research.
Two lawsuits seek to invalidate the law that created the California Institute
of Regenerative Medicine, which is authorized to hand out an average of $300 million in research grants annually. The lawsuits
claim the agency violates a constitutional mandate that the state control spending of taxpayer dollars.
Mineral Suppliments
Last week Jennifer Sharpe gave her RV class some
pointers on natural food supplements that assist in keeping the brain healthy and young. She also said that the big drug companies
are working hard to take them away from us, however, because people are discovering that the supplements work, and they are
no longer going to the doctor to get prescriptions for medicines that they can’t pay for and that are damaging to the
body.
And right on cue, a government study was released
that told us that the supplements are totally useless. A story said this major government-funded research study indicates
that two popular arthritis pills, glucosamine and chondroitin, does no better than dummy pills at relieving arthritis pain.
The story said an earlier study revealed negative
results for saw palmetto to treat prostate problems in men, and eshinacea has no effect on the common cold. Also St. John’s wort does not treat minor depression and powdered shark
cartilage has no effect on certain cancers.
Sharpe, who studied the business and personally
tested various supplements while working at a California vitamin store, argues that they are necessary because we no longer
get the natural nutrients the body needs in the food from our soil.
Burst Housing Bubble
A backlog of unsold new homes reached a record level last month, as sales
in the United States slipped despite the
warmest January in more than 100 years.
The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single- family homes dropped
by 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million units last month.
That was the slowest pace since January 2005. It left the number of unsold
homes at a record high of 528,000.
Analysts viewed the new data as further evidence that the nation's red-hot
housing market, which hit record sales levels for five straight years, has definitely started to cool.
OPEC Fights Back
The OPEC oil cartel this week hit
back at President George W. Bush, criticizing the US
and other consuming countries for pursuing energy policies that threatened energy security and the global economy.
Moving away from oil will
make it more difficult for producing countries to invest the billions of dollars needed to ensure enough output to meet future
demand, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries argued in the commentary of its monthly Bulletin magazine.
The group’s comments came in direct response to Bush’s
repeated calls for the US to reduce by 75 per cent its “addiction” to oil from the Middle East by 2020.
Norway Car Company Crash
Think Nordic AS, the electric-car maker once owned by Ford, was declared bankrupt
Tuesday after failing to meet wage and other payment obligations.
Think Nordic, based near Oslo,
Norway, is now expected to go into liquidation.
"This is a sad day," Think Nordic CEO Christopher Neal said. "I hope and believe
in a future for the electric car."
Store Shut-Down
Winn-Dixie Stores announced that it will sell or close another 35 stores,
bringing the total to 361 since the regional supermarket operator filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
Winn-Dixie said it plans to close 28 stores in Florida, three in Georgia,
two in Alabama and two in Louisiana because they are not meeting the company's financial goals.
Winn-Dixie currently operates 585 stores in Florida,
Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia,
Mississippi and the Bahamas.
The cuts will reduce the number of stores to 550. Ten stores remain temporarily closed because of Hurricane Katrina.
CBS Sues Stern
CBS Corp.'s radio division sued Howard Stern Tuesday, claiming its
former star shock jock breached his contract with them when he moved to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
The lawsuit, which also names Sirius and Stern's agent as defendants,
claims Stern improperly used CBS radio's air time to promote his new show with Sirius, which began last month. CBS also claims
Stern discussed his plans with Sirius without disclosing them to CBS as required under his contract.
Even before the lawsuit was filed in New York State Supreme Court,
Stern tried to upstage the action with a hastily arranged news conference in Manhattan
Tuesday to strike first at his former employer.
Stern said the lawsuit was meritless, and said CBS was trying to
"bully" him. He called the lawsuit a "personal vendetta" against him by CBS Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, whom Stern
said held a grudge against him.
Stern said CBS officials knew of his plans to leave for Sirius and
also condoned his references to satellite radio on the air and did nothing to stop him when he spoke about it on his show.
Stern moved his popular and bawdy morning show to satellite
radio last month after years of railing against decency restrictions imposed on terrestrial radio by the Federal Communications
Commission.
Now for the light side of the news:
Farfrompoopen Road, the only road to Constipation Ridge, lost to Divorce Court and Psycho Path topped an online poll of the nation's wildest, weirdest
and wackiest street names.
Mitsubishi Motors sponsored the poll that brought more than 2,500 participants.
In first place was Psycho Path in Traverse City,
Mich., followed by Heather Highlands,
Pa.'s, Divorce Court
in second and Tennessee's Farfrompoopen Road in third. Eisenstein said all the roads were verified, although some
are private and hard to find.
The complete top 10 list included:
10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Tenn.
9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond,
Va.
8. Shades of Death Road in Warren
County, N.J.
7. Unexpected Road in Buena,
N.J.
6. Bucket of Blood Street
in Holbrook, Ariz.
5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity
in Houston
4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.
3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee
(the only road up to Constipation Ridge)
2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands,
Pa.
1. Psycho Path in Traverse City,
Mich.
Risky Whiskey
A Scottish distillery said is reviving a centuries-old recipe for whisky that
is so strong that one 17th-century writer feared more than two spoonfuls could be lethal.
Risk-taking whisky connoisseurs will have to wait, however _ the spirit will
not be ready for at least 10 years.
The distillery on the Isle of Islay, off Scotland's west coast, is producing the quadruple-distilled 184-proof _ or 92 percent
alcohol _ spirit "purely for fun," the managing director said.
Whisky usually is distilled twice and has an alcohol content of between 40
and 63.5 per cent.
This distillery is using a recipe for a spirit known in the Gaelic language
as "perilous water of life."
In 1695, travel writer Martin Martin described it as powerful enough to affect
"all members of the body."
Expensive Wad
A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of gum
to a $1.5 million painting, leaving a stain the size of a quarter.
The boy was part of a school group from Holly that visited the museum, officials
say. They say he took a piece of Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's "The
Bay," an abstract painting from 1963.
The museum acquired the work in 1965 and says it is worth about $1.5 million.
A Real Screw-Up
A woman pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder charges for trying to hire
a hit man to rob and kill four men for what she thought was cocaine, but turned out to be cheese.
Jessice Sandy Booth, 18, hatched the plot after she visited the home of the
men, and mistook queso fresco _ a white, crumbly cheese common in Mexican cuisine.
But the hit man she hired turned out to be an undercover police officer.
Ultimate Food Fight
A massive middle school food fight left several students suspended and the
eighth-grade class footing the cleaning bill that included the cost of scraping mashed potatoes off the ceiling.
Last week's fight at Chesterton Middle School near Gary, Indiana,
left ceiling tiles damaged and could cost the students as much as $1,000 to pay for overtime, maintenance and repairs, school
officials said.
"It wasn't just one or two kids throwing grapes," the superintendent said.
"There were mashed potatoes sticking to the ceiling." An estimated 50 students were captured on security cameras throwing
chicken friend steak, mashed potatoes and milk.
How Did He See Over The Wheel?
A Turkish policeman who stopped a car speeding in the streets at night was
bewildered to discover an 11-year-old boy in the driver's seat, with his five-year-old brother at his side.
The boy told the police that he had taken the opportunity while his father
was sleeping to treat his brother to a ride in downtown Konya, central Turkey.
Weird Book Title Awards
Bookseller magazine of London
this week gave a top award to a self-help book on being haunted entitled "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach
Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It."
In a close fight, the runner-up was "Rhino Horn Stockpile Management: Minimum Standards and Best
Practices from East and Southern Africa."
Previous winners have been "Bombproof Your Horse" and "Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation
Numbers."
And that is our news report
for another week. We hope we have left you a little more informed about world events than you were an hour ago.
Be sure to tune in this
station tomorrow at 10 p.m. Eastern for Infinate Chaos with Zurx, followed by another remote viewing instructional class with
Jennifer. The class is for registered subscribers only.
On Sunday night, don’t
forget to listen to Voice of Lucifer with Psychic Aaron C. Donahue and his psychic sister, Jennifer Sharpe. The show starts
at 10 p.m. Eastern.