:::::~News from around the World~:::::

[ElusiveFugitive]

NZ whale probe on US TV
08.05.06

An Auckland researcher who has warned that collapsing squid stocks may imperil some whale species is probing the cause of whale deaths in what he says is an exceptional number of recent strandings.

Steve O'Shea, the director of the Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute at the Auckland University of Technology, is currently investigating the death of a young calf, a Haast's beaked whale, which measured only 2m when it died at Mussel Point at Jackson Bay, south of Haast.

The species, also known as the Gray's beaked whale (Mesoplodon grayi), strands relatively often around New Zealand.

Dr O'Shea's investigation, in collaboration with other experts, will be televised on the Discovery Channel in the United States on July 14.

Before the filming, Dr O'Shea said five species of squid and octopus in New Zealand seas were classified as critically endangered, and it was important for greater knowledge to be gained about their place in ocean ecosystems.

Part of the reason this was important was the role of some species in the diet of toothed whales, such as the largest species, sperm whales and the smaller Haast's species. Forty years ago, 37 per cent of the diet of sperm whales in New Zealand waters was fish species now taken by trawlers as commercial catch, such as orange roughy, hoki, ling, rig, and southern kingfish.

By the 1990s, sperm whales were reduced to eating 100 per cent squid, with the males consuming 350 squid a day and females 750 squid.

He said 16 recent strandings on west coast Auckland beaches in recent years had involved whales which had been malnourished and disoriented, apparently because of food shortages.

Dr O'Shea said 78 of the 85 species of squid in New Zealand waters released egg masses to breed but the fragile, gelatinous eggs were being cut to ribbons by trawlers' nets.

"We are seeing the collapse of squid stocks, which are staple in the diet of the sperm whale.

"These whales are not eating anything ... there is nothing left".

This made it important to raise public awareness of squid and the impact of fishing on wider ecosystems, and the potential for marine protected areas or reserves.

[MASTER PAI MEI]

Minuteman trip starts loud
By Peter Prengaman, Associated Press

(Hector Mata, Getty Images) LOS ANGELES — Leaders of the Minuteman Project began a cross-country trek Wednesday amid screaming matches about whether illegal immigrants are taking jobs from blacks or should be embraced as fellow minorities looking for a better life.

The caravan to Capitol Hill departed from a park in a heavily black Los Angeles neighborhood as part of a push by the civilian border patrol group to attract more blacks as members.

"If we are going to be giving preference to anybody … preference should go to the American-African community that has suffered more than anybody," Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist told a crowd of 40 supporters that included about 10 blacks.

Gilchrist had to yell the remarks over a dozen mostly black protesters who chanted "Minutemen go home!" and "KKK go home!"
Gilchrist repeatedly stopped his speech to address the protesters, telling them "Ours is not a racial cause. It's a rule of law cause."

As Gilchrist spoke, supporters and opponents engaged in a heated debate.
"Hispanics are taking away our jobs," said Angela Broussard, 38, a black playwright. "They are moving into our neighborhoods, so now where are we going to go?"

Morris Griffin held a sign rejecting a measure passed by the House that would make it a felony to be in this country illegally and penalize people who aid undocumented immigrants.
"Don't pit the blacks against the browns, like they do in the jails and schools," Griffin told

When the chants and arguments persisted, Gilchrist stepped up his rhetoric toward someone urging the group to go home.

"Minutemen, stand your ground," he said. "Do not fire unless fired upon. And if it's a war he wants, then let it begin here."
Gilchrist then boarded an RV with "Minnie" written across the side in small blue letters that was followed from the park by two other RVs and a few cars.

Organizers hoped the Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., trip will help counter marches staged Monday around the nation by more than 1 million people demanding amnesty for some 11 million illegal immigrants.

The Minuteman Project wants to garner support for its get-tough border stance and pressure federal lawmakers considering immigration reform. Members also intend to mobilize voters and recruit members along the way. The caravan is scheduled to stop in President Bush's vacation haven of Crawford, Texas, as well as Phoenix, Albuquerque, N.M.; Abilene, Texas; Little Rock, Ark.; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Montgomery, Ala.; Atlanta; and Richmond, Va.

^^^ This crap pissed me off - I can't believe some Blacks are falling for this Minute Man bullshit

FUCK THE MINUTEMEN BASTARDS, A HUMAN BEING IS A HUMAN BING REGARDLESS OF NATIONALITY...They are really trying to start a CIVIL WAR

[MASTER PAI MEI]

When will we learn elusive?? Every animal is becoming extinct!! This is Taxation to our childrens children

[ElusiveFugitive]

Concern over Maori womens' diet during pregnancy
1.00pm Thursday May 4, 2006

The diet of Maori women who are pregnant or breastfeeding is causing serious concern, according to research for new nutrition guidelines released yesterday.
Maori women have inadequate iron, calcium and folate in their diet for carrying or breastfeeding babies, according to the guidelines.
Teenagers, young adults and women from lower socioeconomic groups are particularly at risk.
The research attributed some of the problem to impacts of colonisation on Maori, including the adoption of a European diet and the loss of traditional food-gathering areas, but also said genetic factors may predispose some Maori women to diabetes, asthma and respiratory diseases.
Factors contributing to poor nutrition included the fact that first-time pregnancies may be extremely difficult for young Maori mothers.
These pregnancies could be characterised by a lack of emotional support from partners and sometimes family, according to the report.
Poverty, higher unemployment rates and lower full-time employment rates, and higher levels of "food insecurity" meant the diet for pregnant and breastfeeding Maori women might change little from their normal diet, apart from an overall increase in intake.
And this was a particular worry in the case of Maori teenagers and their children who might already be at a nutritional, educational, emotional or social disadvantage.
"Health practitioners should be aware that food security is likely to be a significant barrier to the health and accessibility or variety of foods able to be eaten by a large number of Maori women," the paper said.
Almost half of Maori reported that the variety of foods they were able to eat was limited by lack of money, and 31 per cent of women living in Maori households were more likely to experience stress because of not having enough money for food, compared with 12 per cent of New Zealand European women.
In addition to diets low in calcium, iron and folate and high in fat and sugar, Maori women could also be lacking adequate intakes of thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin A, selenium and zinc.
Healthcare workers should consider the positive effects of using traditional Maori foods in the diet, with reduced use of fatty cuts of meat, salt, saturated fats, cream and sugar, the report said.
Women living in the most deprived regions of New Zealand were most likely to have an inadequate diet, and there were highly significant negative impacts on growth of their children during the first year of life.
A nutrition survey showed that compared with New Zealand European women, Maori women aged 25 to 44 years were more likely to have a higher consumption of takeaway foods, such as fish and chips, burgers, meat pies/sausage rolls and pizza with higher intakes of cholesterol, fat and sugar.

[galt john galt]

France remembers slavery victims

Campaigners have been pushing for a commemoration for years
A French envoy has said her country did profit from slavery as it officially commemorates the victims of the trade for the first time.
"It profited from the commerce in human beings... ripped from the African homeland," Junior Co-operation Minister Brigitte Girardin said in Senegal.

She was visiting a notorious slave island off the coast of Senegal.

In Paris, President Jacques Chirac said facing up to the colonial past was a "key to national cohesion".

He opened an art exhibition in Paris's Luxembourg Gardens while other cities and venues around France held their own ceremonies for Slavery Remembrance Day - the first such event in an EU state.

Wednesday's day of commemoration was ordered by Mr Chirac, on the fifth anniversary of the passing of a law by the French Senate recognising slavery as a crime against humanity.

Hundreds of thousands of slaves were taken by French ships from Africa to plantations in the Caribbean before France banned the practice in 1848.

It was, Mr Chirac said, an "indelible stain on history".

Paying homage

Ms Girardin visited Goree Island along with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

FRENCH SLAVE TRADE
France mainly used slaves, taken from Africa, in its Caribbean colonies
France estimated to have shipped 1,250,000 slaves
France was Europe's first country to abolish slavery, in 1794
But it was revived by Napoleon in 1802, and only banned for good in 1848

African slaves were shipped to the Caribbean from Senegal, a former French colony.

"Coming to Goree Island is paying homage to the long succession of anonymous victims who, over the centuries, suffered slavery and struggled for its abolition," said Ms Girardin.

"The greatness of a nation resides in its capacity to bear full responsibility for the darkest periods of its history," she added.

President Wade rejected the idea of compensation for victims of slavery.

"There are some things that have no price," he said.

"You could give me the Bank of France and contents of the United States' Fort Knox but that would not undo what we have endured."

'Marginalised'

President Chirac said he was committed to fighting modern forms of slavery, allowing companies that knowingly use forced labour anywhere in the world to be prosecuted in French courts.


Jacques Chirac and actor Jacques Martial toured a new exhibition

"This first commemoration isn't the end, it's a beginning," he said.

"It's the necessary affirmation of the memory of slavery shared by all French people, whatever their origin."

The city of Nantes on the Atlantic coast, where many of France's slave ships originated, held a minute's silence.

Museums and libraries in Paris opened special events showing off contemporary manuscripts and artefacts.

"It was imperative that slavery be given a place in our collective memory," said Marcel Dorigny, a history professor who helped institute Slavery Remembrance Day.

"French people who are the descendants of slaves have felt marginalised - forgotten by history."

But some critics said the commemoration was not enough, and that the government's current policies were still alienating racial minorities.

French MPs were on Wednesday examining tough new immigration legislation limiting entry to foreigners.

[444trumpets]

Divine vegetation in tutor’s garden
By Samantha Payne
The mysterious roots BE3926-02
A GARDENER had a revelation when he dug up his asparagus plant and saw the face of Jesus.
Martin Gregory was enjoying his Sunday morning gardening when he noticed something quite different about one of his asparagus ferns he removed from a pot.
As the 52-year-old laid the 30-inch plant on the grass the sun shone down on the roots and revealed the face of Jesus to him.
The part-time mosaic tutor said: "I thought Good gracious! It's the face of Jesus.

"It's the most weird thing I have ever seen.
"The roots are fantastic. You can actually make out a thorn crown around his head, his eyes and nose.
"I've heard about Mother Theresa's face being seen in a bagel but I thought this was much better."
Belvedere resident Mr Gregory removed the plant from his pot, which had been in the garden for 10 years, because he thought it was dying.
He believed the Christ-like image was caused by the roots being pressed against the stones in the plant pot causing the unusual indentations.
He added: "It looked so much like His face it took my breath away.
"It has not made me religious. But it could be something supernatural linked to the abbey ruins opposite.
"We don't know what's in the ground."
Father David Sherratt, of St Michael and All Angels Church, Abbey Wood Road, Abbey Wood, said: "I have often heard of people seeing things. God may want Mr Gregory to interpret what he saw in the plant as a sign."

[soul controller]

every animal wont be extinct
as all their dna's are kept and stored

their just waiting for an event to wipe us all off
sothey can start again

[soul controller]

http://news.independent.co.uk/enviro...icle362557.ece

Electronic smog

The curse of the mobile phone age: around your home there are countless gadgets whose electrical fields, scientists now warn, are linked to depression, miscarriage and cancer

[soul controller]

'Hi babe' is terror message, Australia court hears

'Nine Muslim men arrested in Australia's biggest security swoop, and charged with planning a terrorist act, pretended to be women texting girlfriends to secretly communicate, a prosecutor told a court on Friday.
"Hi babes, I'm missing you," one message read, while another said: "How you going love, did Sue want to meet me."
During a bail application for one of the men, Khaled Cheikho, 32, in the New South Wales Supreme Court, a prosecutor said the men used "covert phones" under false names and code to communicate, Australian Associated Press reported from the court.'
Read more ...

Catholic priest convicted over satanic ritual murder of nun


'A U.S. jury yesterday found a Roman Catholic priest guilty of the satanic ritual-style murder of a 71-year-old nun which went unsolved for more than 25 years. Father Gerald Robinson, above, was sentenced to a mandatory jail term of between 15 years and life.
There were gasps in the court after the verdict, but the 68-year-old priest remained impassive. Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found murdered on a chapel floor in April, 1980. She had been strangled, covered in an altar cloth and stabbed 31 times in the shape of an upturned holy cross.'
Read more ...

[soul controller]

US Has been preparing to turn America into a military dictatorship

'Military spokespeople, "judge advocates" (lawyers) and their congressional supporters aggressively take the position that legal obstacles to military involvement in domestic law enforcement civil disturbance operations, such as the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, have been nullified. Legislated "exceptions" and private commercialization of various aspects of U.S. military-law enforcement efforts have supposedly removed their activities from the legal reach of the "public domain".
Possibly illegal, ostensible "training" scenarios like the recent "Operation Urban Warrior" no-notice "urban terrain" war games, which took place in dozens of American cities, are thinly disguised "civil disturbance suppression" exercises. Meanwhile, President Clinton recently appointed a "domestic military czar", a sort of national chief of police. You can bet that he is well versed in Garden Plot requirements involved in "homeland defense".'
Read more ...

[maestro wooz]

By Laura McCandlish
Sun reporter
Originally published May 15, 2006
Four Anne Arundel County police officers shot and killed an 18-year-old Glen Burnie man who police said ran toward them with a 9-inch pair of scissors early yesterday - the third shooting incident this month involving county officers.

Justin James Fisher was shot multiple times by the four Eastern District officers just after 5 a.m. in Riviera Beach after he refused to drop the scissors and rushed toward the officers, according to Lt. David D. Waltemeyer Jr., an Anne Arundel police spokesman.




Fisher had stabbed himself and threatened his girlfriend in the 8400 block of Arbutus Road, according to a call police received from Fisher's mother just before 4:30 a.m.

In front of a home there, an officer stopped Fisher in his silver-colored Honda Accord, and he stepped from the vehicle with the scissors, Waltemeyer said. The officer and a patrol sergeant ordered Fisher to drop the scissors, but he refused throughout a 35-minute confrontation, Waltemeyer said. Other officers arrived as the still-armed Fisher walked down the street. He stopped near Park and Roland roads, Waltemeyer said.

At 5:06 a.m., Fisher turned away from the sergeant, charging toward the four uniformed police officers, Waltemeyer said. When Fisher still refused to drop the scissors, all four officers simultaneously shot him, Waltemeyer said.

Fisher, whose address was not released, was pronounced dead at Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

Brittany Rihtaric, 17, who lives across the street from the Arbutus Road home, said she awoke during the incident to the sound of screaming. "He was yelling, 'Kill me!' He was yelling for some girl, or something," Rihtaric said.

Rihtaric said police chased the young man down the block and she heard them shout, "Put the scissors down." She said the next thing she heard was a single gunshot, and after a few minutes there were seven more loud booms.

"His mom was yelling, 'Why'd you ... shoot him?' Rihtaric said. "She was screaming."

While police officers are individually trained on how to use deadly force, they have less experience dealing as a group with a threatening subject, said Arnett Gaston, a clinical psychologist at the University of Maryland, College Park who specializes in criminal behavior.

"Most police academies teach that you are supposed to use lethal force as a last means," Gaston said yesterday. "But the problem here is most training teaches what they should do as an individual but not as a collective unit. When several officers are involved, should they have been trained to act in a collective action?"

Anne Arundel police officers are learning how to use less-lethal beanbag rounds fired by shotguns, Waltemeyer said. The County Council also approved a bill last month allowing officers to carry electronic weapons - the most commonly known being the Taser - though Waltemeyer said the department had yet to complete its research on them.

The four police officers, whose names were withheld, will be on administrative leave pending an internal inquiry and an investigation by homicide detectives - both routine procedures, Waltemeyer said.

Two of the officers have five years of experience with the county Police Department, one has two years and the other 1 1/2 , Waltemeyer said.

The other two shootings involving Anne Arundel officers were not fatal.

On May 2, a 49-year-old man described as suicidal was wounded after he allegedly threatened county officers with a rifle outside his Herald Harbor home.

On May 4, an Anne Arundel police detective, accompanied by county and city police, shot a man he was trying to arrest on a warrant in South Baltimore after the wanted man got into a vehicle and allegedly attempted to run down the officers, police said.

In a May 5 incident, an Annapolis city police officer fatally shot 34-year-old Roger Alan Trott as the man was pointing a gun at a state trooper. The officer remains on administrative leave until that investigation is complete, an Annapolis police spokesman said yesterday.

[email protected]
Sun reporter Nicole Fuller contributed to this article.




i met the kid like once or maybe twice, but he was real close with alot of my friends. This is like the third person in my extended group of friends whos been killed in the last year, the world is going crazy.

[$inista]

May 16, 2006 -- Accusing federal officials of shirking their duty to halt illegal weapon sales, Mayor Bloomberg filed the city's own lawsuit yesterday against 15 gun dealers nationwide that have "New Yorkers' blood on their hands."
"These dealers are the worst of the worst," declared Bloomberg in announcing the suit, which will use evidence from an undercover video sting operation.
He said more than 500 guns recovered at crime scenes here between 1994 and 2001 were traced back to the "rogue" dealers.
John Feinblatt, the mayor's criminal-justice coordinator, didn't hold back as he explained why the city was taking matters into its own hands.
"Plain and simple, these dealers have New Yorkers' blood on their hands," he charged.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the body count exacted by the out-of-state arms bazaar is clearly evident.
"The price that New Yorkers pay for illegal guns on the street was captured last week by the front-page picture of the New York Post," he said. "It showed a New York City police sergeant desperately trying to save the life of a dying 3-year-old."

Kelly said the gun used to kill that Brooklyn toddler, Tajmere Clark, was made in Germany, transported to Florida and then shipped to a gun dealer in South Carolina. Authorities are investigating how it wound up in New York.
And the mayor came armed with a litany of grief, too - an extensive list of crimes linked to guns sold by each dealer - as proof of the damage suffered by New Yorkers at the hands of the out-of-state dealers.
Guns tracked from one dealer, Woody's Pawnshop in Orangeburg, S.C., were tied to 98 separate crimes, including the November 2001 murder of a 31-year-old Brooklyn man found with multiple gunshot wounds.
In another instance, a gun from A-1 Jewelry & Pawn of Augusta, Ga., was linked to the attempted murder of two cops on Aug. 17, 2001 in Queens. The suspect, a 28-year-old Bronx man, fired at the uniformed officers and was charged with attempted murder.
A gun that was sold at the Mickalis Pawn Shop in Summerville, S.C. wound up in the hands of a 12-year-old boy, who accidentally shot someone in the chest on Jan. 7, 2001 in Manhattan.
Kelly said he and the mayor had visited too many shot cops at hospitals.
"We've seen uniforms totally drenched in blood to the point where they're unrecognizable," Kelly said.
The city's lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn federal court, also cited seven gun-related incidents published in The Post's Police Blotter between April 1 and April 5.
City officials hired teams of private investigators from the James Mintz Group to pose as gun buyers in five states - Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia - that supply half the illegal weapons grabbed here.
With a hidden video camera rolling, the male investigator would ask about a gun, ply the dealer with questions and when it came time to make the purchase ask his female partner to fill out the paperwork.
Bloomberg said that constitutes a "straw purchase," which is illegal because federal law prohibits the sale of firearms to people the dealer has a "reasonable belief" aren't the intended end user.
The targeted dealers insisted they abide by the law.
Gun dealers argue that they shouldn't be held to account for weapons after they leave their shops, in the same way that auto dealers aren't blamed when vehicles they sell get into accidents.
Eric Wallace of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Ga. - cited as the source of 21 guns used in crimes here - said he's sold about 70,000 guns in the last 10 years.
"The mayor is painting a picture with a very broad brush," he said. "It's a shame. I don't think the mayor has done his homework."
The city is asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages that Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo said would easily runs into the millions of dollars.
To prevent further illegal sales, the city also wants a monitor named to oversee each of the 15 shops.
The data released by the city came from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, an agency the mayor accused of falling down on the job.

[email protected]

The NYPD remove the revolver used in a shooting in which a male shot five family members killing a 3-year-old girl.
(Photo by Charles Eckert)
May. 7, 2006

[ØDESSA]

http://www.space.com/

[JulioCortazar]

I'd post it in Portugese, but this was the one I've read most recently.

Throw in a little "revolution" seed, and I say that when college students and teachers are ready get this kind of wild - the US will be ready for a revolution.

"Yo tambien soy hijo de Pedro Paramo"

[444trumpets]

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
First baby in Britain designed cancer-free



A WOMAN is pregnant with Britain’s first designer baby selected to prevent an inherited cancer, can reveal.
Her decision to use controversial genetic-screening technology will ensure that she does not pass on to her child the hereditary form of eye cancer from which she suffers.
NI_MPU('middle');Although they did not have fertility problems, the woman and her partner created embryos by IVF. This allowed doctors to remove a cell and test it for the cancer gene, so only unaffected embryos were transferred to her womb.
The couple are the first to take advantage of a relaxation in the rules governing embryo screening.
When the technique was developed in 1989 it was allowed only for genes that always cause disease, such as those for cystic fibrosis. However, it was approved last year for the eye cancer, which affects only 90 per cent of those who inherit a mutated gene.
The pregnancy will increase controversy over the procedure, which the Government’s fertility watchdog authorised on Wednesday for genes that confer an 80 per cent lifetime risk of breast and bowel cancer.
Critics argue that the action is unethical because it involves the destruction of some embryos that would never contract these illnesses if they were allowed to develop into children. Even those that would potentially become ill could expect many years of healthy life first, and some of the disorders involved are treatable or preventable.
The mother-to-be, who wishes to remain anonymous, conceived after receiving treatment from Paul Serhal, of University College Hospital, London. Mr Serhal has pioneered the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to detect heritable cancers in Britain, though it has been used successfully before in the United States. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) decision to award him licences to screen for retinoblastoma and a form of bowel cancer were reported exclusively Mr Serhal is treating several couples with the disorder.

“We are all elated,” he said yesterday. “We are talking about annihilating this abnormal gene from the whole family line. We do this often, but it is always extraordinary when it comes off.”
Mr Serhal’s clinic is planning to apply to screen a patient’s embryos for the BRCA1 gene that raises the lifetime risk of breast cancer to 80 per cent.
Though the HFEA has now agreed in principle that such screening will be allowed, clinics must still obtain a separate licence for every patient.
Retinoblastoma accounts for 11 per cent of all cancers that develop in the first year of life. In almost half of cases, it is caused by an inherited mutation in a gene called RB1. Parents with this defective gene have a 50 per cent chance of passing it on to a child, and it causes tumours in 90 per cent of those who inherit it. The mutation also raises the lifetime risk of suffering other cancers from a third to more than half.
Libby Halford, chief executive of the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust, a retinoblastoma charity, welcomed the news. “This gives families a choice,” she said. “We know now that there is an effective test.” Josephine Quintavalle, of the embryo rights group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: “We mustn’t forget the embryos that were not given a chance to live. This is a worrying application because we are looking at a condition that is treatable.”

Beating eye cancer
The eye cancer retinoblastoma, seen above in a young boy, affects about 1 in 15,000 children. About half the cases are hereditary, and those who inherit the defective gene have a 90 per cent chance of developing cancer. Up to 95 per cent of tumours detected early can be treated, but this requires chemotherapy and surgery that can cause blindness. A scan in early pregnancy, the stage that the embryo pictured at the top of this article has reached, has confirmed that a woman is carrying Britain’s first child to have been screened for an inherited cancer