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

[ElusiveFugitive]

A bus torched by gangsters in a wave of violence to hit Sao Paulo. Picture / Reuters
Inequality in Brazil 'tearing nation apart'
Saturday May 20, 2006

Gang violence that has rocked Brazil's business capital Sao Paulo in the past week should serve as a warning to the nation's richer classes that the country's deep social inequalities were tearing it apart, the Sao Paulo State Governor said.
In a full-page interview in leading newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Governor Claudio Lembo also denied police were carrying out massacres to quell the violence, in which about 140 people have been killed since last Friday.
"All this has been a big wake-up for Brazil. The social situation is the cancer for crime and it is bigger than we imagined," he said.
Brazil's most powerful criminal gang, the First Command of the Capital (PCC), unleashed a wave of bloodshed in Sao Paulo city and state at the weekend in retaliation for the transfer of jailed gang leaders and members to a remote high-security prison.
Dozens of policeman were killed in attacks on police posts, vehicles and off-duty officers. Dozens of buses were also set ablaze. Related uprisings broke out in dozens of prisons across the state to demand better conditions.
The attacks caused panic and chaos in Sao Paulo, the world's third-largest metropolis with a population of 20 million. It had largely subsided by midweek after police killed around 100 suspected gangsters in operations through poor districts of the city.
While condemning the gangsters, human rights groups have expressed concern the police are resorting to extra-judicial executions to stamp out the violence.
Asked if the police were carrying out revenge attacks in which innocent people may be killed, Lembo said the police were under control.
"There are clashes every night in the streets.
"The police are acting to avoid the worst for society."
While crime and lawlessness is rampant in Brazil's cities, the scale of the Sao Paulo gang offensive was unprecedented.
Lembo had candid words for Brazil's upper classes, saying the crime problem was rooted in the desperate poverty and wide gap between rich and poor in the nation of 185 million people.
"We have a white minority that is very perverse. The bourgeoisie will have to open their pockets to lift the misery so there are more jobs, more education," he said.
While leftist politicians and humanitarian organisations have long linked crime to deprivation, Lembo's comments were notable as he is a member of the right-wing Liberal Front Party and comes from a banking background.
Many of Brazil's upper classes endorse repressive police tactics and show little concern for social problems. "Brazil is disintegrating and losing its civic values," Lembo said.

[Wamukota X]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2006
CONTACT: EWG Public Affairs Staff, (202) 667-6982
FDA Finds High Benzene Levels in Limited Test of Drinks

Today FDA announced it found high levels of benzene in several samples in a test of a small number of sodas and juice drinks.
"FDA's test results confirm that there is a serious problem with benzene in soda and juices," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president at Environmental Working Group.
In a very limited sample of products, FDA found two popular drinks—Safeway Diet Orange and Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange—with up to 17 times more benzene than allowed in tap water, and three other products with benzene levels up to four times the drinking water limit. Many other products had detectable levels of the carcinogen.
"There is no excuse for deliberately putting chemicals that form high levels of potent cancer-causing benzene in popular drinks," Wiles said. "This is a wake-up call for the beverage industry. It is time to get benzene-forming ingredients out of sodas and juices."

FDA Found the Potent Carcinogen Benzene in 10 Soft Drinks at Levels Up to 17 Times The EPA Drinking Water Standard

Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange (lot 1)87.9-76.6 ppb

Safeway Select Diet Orange (lot 1)79.2 ppb

Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange (lot 3)73.9 ppb

AquaCal Strawberry Flavored Water Beverage (lot 1)23.4 ppb

Safeway Select Diet Orange (lot 2)15.2-10.7 ppb

Safeway Select Diet Orange (lot 3)13.2-11.4 ppb

Giant Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail (lot 1)10.7-9.1 ppb

AquaCal Strawberry Flavored Water Beverage (lot 2)10.4-9.2 ppb

Crush Pineapple9.2 ppb

Giant Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail (lot 2)5.4 ppb

Note: EPA drinking water standard for benzene is 5 parts per billion (ppb)
Source: FDA Data on Benzene in Soft Drinks



Dear Friend,
I wanted to share with you an important food safety update that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and our online community helped bring about.
Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the names of five beverages that it found had high levels of cancer-causing benzene. Two brands -- Safeway Diet Orange soda and Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange -- had 17 times the level of benzene that is allowed in tap water. As a result of EWG's pressure and publicity, the FDA committed to testing more products, and several major manufacturers, including Kraft and Schweppes, agreed to reformulate their beverages.
To see a list of the most-contaminated beverages, and EWG's media statement, click here.
EWG first sounded the warning in late February that consumers should scan their soda labels for the presence of both sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid, two chemicals that combine to form benzene, a potent carcinogen. We did so after uncovering evidence that the FDA's own tests, going back as far as 1995, had found disturbing levels of benzene in soft drinks.
In spite of our efforts, the FDA continued to proclaim that consumers had nothing to worry about. Only after an EWG petition drive and public awareness campaign did the agency back down and agree to release testing information on some beverages.
But they didn't go far enough. These test results, which cover only a small fraction of the beverages on the market today, show that there's a serious problem with benzene in soda and juices. The very least FDA can do is disclose test results for all soft drinks containing benzene-forming chemicals.
There should be a zero tolerance policy for benzene in any consumer product. There's simply no excuse for this potent carcinogen to be in any drink.
This drama has been playing out since 1990, when the FDA first learned of the benzene problem and, rather than informing the public about it, decided to allow the beverage industry to address it on its own. The industry, by all accounts, did nothing. But the FDA kept the lid on information that could have helped consumers avoid benzene-laden drinks.
A government agency siding with industry and against the health of our children -- that's the kind of behavior that motivates us to action. At EWG, we believe in the power of information to protect people's health, and we'll continue to fight for your right to know about dangerous chemicals in the products you buy.
Thanks for being part of our community,
Ken
President

[MaShPG]

Police: Fatal fight began over chicken

FW: Man took piece from brother, stabbed him, officers say

10:19 AM CDT on Sunday, May 21, 2006


By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH – An argument between two brothers over a piece of chicken ended when one of them was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife, Fort Worth police said Saturday.
Michael Williams, 17, brought the chicken home Friday evening, and his brother Marcus Williams, 21, swiped a piece. A brawl ensued, and Marcus Williams grabbed a knife from the kitchen, police said.
Police said three family members witnessed Marcus Williams stab his brother in the chest and left temple.
Fort Worth police and paramedics were called at 6:19 p.m. Friday. Michael Williams died at John Peter Smith Hospital.
The Tarrant County medical examiner said the chest wound killed Michael Williams.
Police arrested Marcus Williams on a murder charge, Fort Worth police Lt. Gene Jones said. He was taken to the Mansfield Jail.
Lt. Jones said Saturday he did not know whether the brothers had a history of fighting.
The stabbing occurred on Andrew Street in East Fort Worth, just east of Loop 820 and south of Rosedale Street.
No one answered the door Saturday afternoon at the home.
Several neighbors said they had seen the Williams brothers but had never spoken to them.

[denaturat]

Enron's Lay found guilty on all counts, Skilling on 19

Last Updated Thu, 25 May 2006 16:02:47 EDT CBC News
A jury has convicted Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling in their criminal trial related to the demise of the once high-flying company.
Jeffrey Skilling speaks to reporters after being convicted on 19 of the 28 charges he faced.



Lay, 64, was convicted on six counts of fraud and conspiracy linked to the downfall of the company he helped build into the seventh-largest company in the United States.
Skilling, 52, was found guilty on 19 of the 28 charges he faced. He was convicted on one count of conspiracy, one count of insider trading, five counts of making false statements and 12 counts of securities fraud. He was acquitted on nine counts of insider trading.

• RELATED: The rise and fall of Enron: a brief history

The jury of eight women and four men reached their verdict on their sixth day of deliberations.
Sentencing for the two men is set for Sept. 11. Lay faces up to 45 years in prison, while Skilling faces a sentence of up to 185 years.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake set a $5-million US bond for Lay, who was ordered to surrender his passport before he left the Houston courthouse where the trial was held.
Lay was also convicted on a count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements to banks in a separate trial heard by Judge Lake on Lay's personal banking. Lay faces a sentence of up to 120 years related to those convictions.
Lay "shocked" at verdict
Following a bond hearing, Lay emerged from the courthouse to tell reporters he was surprised and shocked at his conviction.
"Certainly, this was not the outcome we expected," said Lay, who was flanked by his wife Linda.
"I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges against me, as I have said from day one," he said.
For his part Skilling said he was disappointed.
"But that's the way the system works," he said.
Skilling's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, said they will mount a "full and vigorous" appeal.
Sean Berkowitz, the director of the U.S. government's Enron task force, also commented on the verdict. "The jury has spoken, and they have sent an unmistakable message to board rooms across the country: you can't lie to shareholders, you can't put yourselves in front of your employees' interests," he told reporters.
"No matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules," he added.
In Washington, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said the message of today's trial is that criminal law will be enforced just as vigorously against corporate criminals as against street criminals.
"No one, including the head of Fortune 500 companies, is above the law," he said.
Massive failure
Enron went bankrupt in December 2001 following revelations that it had hidden huge losses by using fraudulent partnership deals. The losses were kept off the company's balance sheet.
After the losses were revealed, the company's stock plunged, wiping out billions of dollars of investors' money.
Enron's collapse was the biggest case of bankruptcy in the United States up to that point. (WorldCom's collapse would later steal that dubious honour.) Roughly 5,600 Enron employees subsequently lost their jobs.

[444trumpets]

All in the head?


Imagine one day you see strange fibres, usually clear but sometimes blue, red or black, protruding from your skin, like a piece of spaghetti, or a hair where none is supposed to be.
You itch all over, lesions appear and you have an unnerving, infuriating feeling that bugs are crawling under and on your skin.
NI_MPU('middle');"Brain fog" and short term memory loss set in. You are plagued by chronic fatigue. You can't work or go outside much because you don't know if you're infectious and anyway, you're too tired.
Doctor after doctor sees the evidence you bring to your visit - the fibres and the scabs - as the "matchbox" sign that you are imaging things because sufferers of delusional parasitosis traditionally bring their "proof" in a matchbox.
Still the lesions appear, and the fibres. Sometimes you see things that can only be called "fuzzballs," or sometimes grains of sand, or other times, black granules. It hurts. You try to pull the fibres out when you can see them but it doesn't help. Years later, you're still searching for a cure. You might get temporary relief from powerful, long-term antibiotics but as soon as you stop taking them, the symptoms return.
It may sound like a scene from Alien, an elaborate hoax or a biblical parable you forgot. But for an estimated 3,500 self-reported cases, many of them in California, Florida or Texas, it is 21st century reality. These sufferers have registered at a website that seeks support for clinical studies into a mystery disease they have named "Morgellons." Cases have been reported in all 50 states here but also all over Europe, including Britain, many of them by nurses and teachers, according to the Morgellons Foundation. Some doctors have been reported to take it seriously, and one says he has had success treating it with antibiotics. Another physician who specialized in treating Morgellons was in the news a lot lately after he had his license revoked.
But most doctors believe Morgellons is not in the skin, but in the head.
"This is not a mysterious disease," says Dr Norman Levine, a Professor of Dermatology at the University of Arizona. "If you polled 10,000 dermatologists, everyone would agree with me." He says he has seen 100 patients suffering from such symptoms, and they responded well to treatment, including a drug called Pimozide, which is used for chronic schizophrenia. According to Dr Levine, they are suffering from a monosymptomatic disorder in which they are absolutely convinced something is in their skin, a delusional parasitosis. He says he has studied the fibres his patients bring in by the bag-load and they are textile in nature.


Yet the case displayed most prominently by the foundation set up by sufferers is that of a child. Magnified 60 times, this was reportedly extracted from a lesion on the face of a three-year-old boy. Children are not known to suffer from delusional parasitosis. But I suppose organized medicine would say their parents are.
So I talked to Mary Leitao, who set up the foundation after she says her son Drew, now seven, first started complaining about the bugs in his skin at the age of two. She put a plastercast on his arm to make sure the fibres she kept finding really weren't coming from the carpet or some other external source. They weren't, she said. A trained biologist, she works from home full-time now, trying to draw attention to Morgellons, which she said also afflicts her two teenage children. Her story is tragic. Her husband, a physician, passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack in his sleep two years ago.

A Dr. C.E. Kellett of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1935, wrote an account of references to this or similar conditions through the ages in 1935.



Mothers of infants who typically suffered from the ailment resorted to honey or heat treatments that forced the "worms" to come to the surface and were then shaved off or pulled out with a tweezer or fingernails, or so Dr Kellett wrote.
NI_MPU('middle');Ms Leitao described her son's experience like this. "One day he was taking a bubble bath and scratching and he just looked at me and said wickety whack, I hate this disease," she said. "Last night he had just taken a shower and I dried him off and he said Mom, is it normal for black hairs to come out of your skin when you scratch it? He scratched where his skin was very inflamed and blueish grey fibers rolled out of clean skin. He had just gotten out of the shower," she said.
My next port of call was Dr Randy Wymore, an assistant professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University who is studying the disease as a non-delusional phenomenon.
At his laboratory, he has been studying skin samples taken from sufferers. He emailed me these images and said he has compared them to microscopic images of many samples of textiles and animal hairs and that they are incomparable.
"At the moment I'm leaning towards the possibility that some kind of neurotoxin may be involved in this," he said. "There's clearly something going on. These people are not imagining this."
But for Dr Levine, people who believe the condition is not delusional are "part of the problem." Me, I'm baffled, itchy, feeling terrible for these patients, and hoping that if they are indeed suffering from a delusion, that I have not fed it by writing about it. Shouldn't someone just run a proper clinical study, so it can be established once and for all whether these poor people are indeed suffering from a new disease? Or does that make me delusional too?

[MASTER PAI MEI]

SAN FRANCISCO
Family's tragic story told on police video
Oakland woman details drowning 3 sons, tape shows

John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, May 25, 2006

• Printable Version
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Lashuan Harris' children did not go quietly to their deaths.
Trayshaun, the oldest at 6, was the first to go over the railing at San Francisco's Pier 7. He fought her as she took off his clothes, his mother told police afterward. He said, "No, Mama. What are you doing?"
The second child, 2-year-old Taronta, struggled, too, as she wrestled him out of his clothes, and then screamed as he went over the side.
The little one, 16-month-old Joshua, had gotten out of his stroller and was playing around, she said. Harris said she took off Joshua's clothing, too. He clung to her tightly, she said, before she tossed him into the water.
Those heartbreaking stories came from a videotaped interview conducted by San Francisco homicide investigators the evening of Oct. 19, hours after the Oakland woman allegedly killed her three children. The interview was shown Wednesday in court, where San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson is conducting a preliminary hearing to determine whether Harris should stand trial.
She is charged with three counts of murder and three counts of child abuse.
Harris' attorney, Assistant Public Defender Teresa Caffese, said her client is mentally ill, that she committed the acts because she heard voices in her head. She believed, Caffese said, that God was telling her to kill her children.
The hearing began Tuesday. Later that day and most of Wednesday morning, the court watched the videotape of the detectives questioning Harris the night the children died.
Harris sat impassively at the defense table. Family and friends who came to court cried quietly as they listened to her describe in the taped interview how she killed her children.
"He didn't know what I was doing," Harris said of Trayshaun.
"Did he try to get away?" a homicide inspector asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Then what did you do?"
"I picked him up.''
The detectives continued to ask questions about Trayshaun, but Harris had a hard time answering. She seemed detached in the video, almost comatose. The officers had to repeat questions several times, and her answers were brief: "yes," "no" or "I don't know."
Taronta, Harris said, knew what she was doing after having watched Trayshaun go into the water.
"What was he saying?" a homicide detective asked Harris.
"Mama," she replied.
Taronta was the only child whose body was recovered. The others are still missing.
Inspectors Daniel Everson and Dennis Maffei treated Harris gently during the interview, never raising their voices but persistent in their questions. Harris showed little emotion during most of the interview, but later, after the officers had left the room with the camera running, she burst into tears and wailed uncontrollably.
As Harris talked about dropping her children into the bay, they asked her several times if she knew right from wrong, and whether it was wrong to do what she did.
"When Taronta was fighting you, did that make you think what you were doing was wrong?" one asked.
"Yeah," Harris responded.
But more often, she referred to "the voices." One of the inspectors asked if she was hearing voices right then, during the interview. "A little bit," she said. When asked to describe the voices, she could not. The voices told her to make "a living sacrifice" to God, she said.
Earlier Wednesday, a psychiatrist testified that Harris suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and thought that heaven was an actual place where she could send her sons.
Dr. Gil Villela, an attending psychiatrist at San Francisco General Hospital, said he met with 24-year-old Harris the day after the incident on Pier 7.
He said Harris was cooperative, very sedate and open to answering questions during the session. He said she suffered from "command auditory hallucinations," that is, voices telling her what to do. His immediate diagnosis was that she suffered from psychosis. Over time, he said, he came to the determination that she was a paranoid schizophrenic.
"She had a delusional thought disorder of a religious nature," he testified. "She had been told by God to put her children into the bay."
During the time he saw Harris, she gave him a letter she had written to her children and asked him to put it on an airplane to be taken to heaven, he said. The outside of the envelope was addressed, in crayon, "To Heaven."
"Dear God," the letter began. "I did what you told me. Now I'm in lock up and in a crazy house." In words written to her children, Harris had written, "I just wanted to tell you I love you. How is heaven holding up? Kiss my boys for me."
E-mail John Koopman at [email protected].

[ARRCIMEDES]

wigz d to the icky in driveby flashing happened sometime eralier this year somebody needs to get on him right away he uses a tall black 4 by 4 and a clapped out blue hatchback. Watch out for him he is a phoney car painter and decorator who is believed to be armed and dangerous. You'll know him if you get near him he talks shit, all the time, shit just coming out of his mouth and he has got really woffin aftershave and he smells like kentucky fried chicken and brylcreem.

[ElusiveFugitive]

Herald inquiries revealed Rakon had knowingly provided a key component of smart bombs for the past 10 years. Picture / Paul Estcourt
The Rakon files: Parts don't need export okay, says PM
Monday May 29, 2006
By Phil Taylor

Star technology firm Rakon's crystals and oscillators which are used in smart weapons' navigation systems do not require export permits "at the moment", says the Prime Minister.
"As far as we can ascertain, Rakon's oscillators and crystals are not on the internationally agreed list of controlled goods and therefore do not require export permits," a spokesman for Helen Clark said yesterday.
"This is a list that is compiled by member countries signed up to the export control regimes of which New Zealand is a member.
"These lists aren't static, they are added and deleted as technology changes and things develop, but as far as we can ascertain these oscillators and crystals have a wide range of potential uses in communication and navigation technology and they are not on any list of controlled goods. "That's where the Government's position is at the moment."
The Weekend Herald reported that despite claiming last August not to know the end use of its products, Rakon has knowingly provided a key component of smart bombs for the past 10 years, is developing a component of a product for the US nuclear defence programme, and one which turns dumb shells into smart shells.
The report disclosed that Rakon, which last year won the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise supreme award for exports, had not been upfront at times in the past with clients over complaints of faults with products.
JDAM smart bombs used in the war in Iraq have almost certainly contained key Rakon components.
The Government is opposed to the war, which the Prime Minister has described as "wrong".
Although export regulations don't specifically identify crystals and oscillators as products that must be vetted before being sent overseas, there are sections which appear to deal with goods for guidance systems.
These mention goods that can be used in "the handling, control ... of bombs, torpedoes, rockets [and] missiles ... target acquisition, designation, range-finding, surveillance or tracking systems ... guidance and navigation for [naval] military use" as exports that may be restricted.
Green MP Keith Locke said the issue could have been sorted out when it arose last August if the Ministries of Economic Development and Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Security Intelligence Service, which talks about its "role in stopping New Zealanders being involved in anything connected with nuclear weapons", had investigated.
"It seems all these agencies were so bedazzled by Rakon's export success they were reluctant to investigate properly then and ask hard questions."

RAKON REPLIES
Statement issued by Rakon Limited, May 27, 2006:
In response to coverage in the New Zealand Herald, May 27:
There is no hidden story. Rakon has fully disclosed the use of its products for military and aerospace applications in its recently published offer document.
We are disappointed and surprised that the Herald did not contact Rakon to verify any of the details in its article.
Rakon is proud of the quality of its products and the consistently superior quality ratings achieved across its broad customer base.
None of our products are being designed or manufactured for use in nuclear weapons.
Rakon has not invented technology specifically for US smart bombs. Although the military and aerospace industry is an important market for Rakon, it comprises less than 4% of Rakon's output by unit volume.
We are disappointed that the Herald has taken internal emails and distorted them out of context to sensationalise them.
- Brent Robinson, managing director, Rakon Ltd

[ElusiveFugitive]

Afghan women work in a poppy field. Picture / Reuters
'Perfect storm' set to create record opium harvest
11.05.06 1.00pm
By Tom Coghlan

GRISHK, Helmand Province - Two hours drive from the Afghan city of Kandahar, 'the perfect storm' is about to break in the fields of Helmand province, according to a western official.

Here, in the place where British troops are to spend the next three years, a combination of factors have conspired to produce what is probably the biggest opium harvest in the history of a province that last year produced more than 20 per cent of the world's heroin on its own.

A law and order vacuum has allowed an increasingly well organised drugs mafia, a corrupt local government and resurgent Taleban to structure the poppy cultivation of the province as never before.

That has combined with fine growing conditions this year to produce what, if these were wine producers, might be considered a memorable vintage. And country wide it is now clear that the poppy harvest will be close to record levels again.

It is a dispiriting blow for the international counter-narcotics effort as 86 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan.

Amongst a gently swaying sea of poppy heads near the town of Grishk, Haji Shadi Khan, 50, squatted wearily on his haunches and drained a proffered bottle of water at a single draught.

The harvest began last week and it is brutally labour intensive and skilled work. Every one of thousands of poppy heads must be lightly scored with a four bladed razor and then the opium 'milk' that oozes forth scrapped off and collected. Depending on the quality of the crop, the operation must be repeated three to seven times.

Behind him in the field his sons Gul Ahmed, 10 and Juma Jan, 7, were hard at work. Small boys have the advantage of working at the same height as the poppy heads.

Though he is only a paid labourer and doesn't own the land he is working Haji Shadi expects to make around $1,800. That represents one third of the value of the crop on a plot that is four fifths of a hectare large.

In April a UN rapid assessment which sought only to estimate broad trends in poppy cultivation offered an alarming picture of likely production when it suggested that cultivation was down in only three of Afghanistan's thirty-six provinces and was increasing or strongly increasing in thirteen.

This then left the British led counter-narcotics effort relying on a massive eradication effort to make an inroad into the Afghan poppy crop.

However, in the south at least efforts at eradication appear to have largely failed.

Haji Shadi chuckled merrily as he described how the provincial governor's eradication team arrived at his fields, enjoyed a convivial cup of tea and then left again with a wink, $50 the richer. $50 is equivalent to a month's wages for most government employees.

An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 hectares of poppy are being cultivated in Helmand this year, at least a 50 per cent increase on last year.

The governor of Helmand Engineer Mohammed Daoud claims to have eradicated 7,000 hectares of poppy this year.

But even this modest claim is disputed.

"The real figure is around 1,000 hectares," one Western source said.

"The district elders just followed the eradication teams around handing out wads of money. Sometimes the teams just drove a single tractor through the field and announced they had eradicated it."

Another Western source described the shambolic progress of a central government eradication team also sent to Helmand.

Backed by American mercenaries from the Dyncorp corporation, the force suffered endless delays as Afghan drivers refused to travel to dangerous areas of the province; a problem compounded when a number of Afghan police were killed by a roadside bomb clearly intended to send a warning to the force.

The forces' eventual impact was negligible.

The central eradication force is said to cost US$175m this year.

Such is the glut of opium that is about to flow onto the market that the price has plummeted to less than US$100 a kilo, 50 per cent lower than it was a year ago.

The relationship between price and availability is not exact, but the drop is broadly indicative of anticipated market forces.

Western officials admit to intense frustration in a war where so many Afghan officials are a part of the narco-criminal problem.

Engineer Daoud, the Helmand governor, is widely respected as an honest man.

But last summer almost 9 tonnes of opium was discovered in the offices of his predecessor Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, who claimed he had seized them and was on the point of handing them in.

After intense British and American pressure to have him ousted, Akhundzada was given a seat in the new upper house of the Afghan parliament.

In his office in Kandahar the province's director of drugs control, Gul Mohammad Shukran, shifted uncomfortably as the Independent ran through a list of well known millionaire drug smugglers in the province.

"If I answer your questions I will be dead within three days," he said, showing us to the door.

Meanwhile, a campaign of Taleban intimidation and assassination is targeting government officials working across the south.

In Helmand it has been what one Western source called "a methodical slaughter".

Four out of twelve district police chiefs have been killed in six months, further undermining the effort to establish some sort of order.

The smugglers and the Taleban were increasingly close, with the Islamic fighters suspending their operations during the poppy harvest to ensure it is safely out of the way before the Taleban's promised campaign of summer violence.

The Taleban have a vested interest as they take a tax on opium produced in the region, which could be worth tens of millions of dollars this year.

In the face of so much bad news the authorities point to some small beacons of hope.

In Kandahar province there was some effective eradication under the new governor, Asadullah Khalid.

In Nangahar province where a remarkable and many thought unsustainable 96 per cent drop in poppy cultivation was achieved last year, opium production was expected to bounce back this year after farmers complained that promised foreign aid to help them grow alternative crops never materialised.

The ounce has occurred, but not as much as many officials had feared.

[444trumpets]

Baby With 3 Arms May Have Surgery











(05-31) 05:51 PDT SHANGHAI, China (AP) --
Doctors in Shanghai are considering surgery options for a two-month old boy born with an unusually well-formed third arm.

Neither of the boy's two left arms is fully functional and tests have so far been unable to determine which was more developed, said Dr. Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

"His case is quite peculiar. We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm," Chen said in a telephone interview. "It's quite difficult to decide how to do the operation on him."

The boy, identified only as "Jie-jie," also was born with just one kidney and may have problems that could lead to curvature of the spine, according to local media reports.

Jie-jie cried when either of his left arms was touched, but smiled and responded normally to other stimuli, the reports said.

Chen said doctors hoped to work out a plan for surgery, but the boy's small size made it impossible to perform certain tests that would help them prepare.

"We are meeting with several experts now. We hope we could work the plan out soon," Chen said.

Media reports said other children have been reported born with additional arms and legs, but in all those cases it was clear what limb was more developed.

Chen's hospital is one of China's most experienced in dealing with unusual birth defects, including separating conjoined twins. Like Jie-jie, many of the children are sent to relatively wealthy Shanghai from the poor inland province of Anhui.

[mashqauck]

a lot of good stuff, THANKS BEN!

[ElusiveFugitive]

Student's Maori cloak ruffles a few feathers in USA
1.00pm Saturday June 3, 2006

Northlander Sarah Smith, 32, has become the first Maori to take a degree from the City University of New York.
With 208,000 students enrolled in degree programmes and another 200,000 enrolled in continuing education courses at campuses in all five NY boroughs, it is America's third-largest university.
Ms Smith graduated from Hunter College wearing a handmade cloak of feathers and shells that had travelled more than 14,162km but almost could not get past inspection at Kennedy International Airport, the New York Times reports.
Fifty people in Ngati Kuri made the cloak to celebrate her achievements, and her parents carried it from New Zealand to New York, so that at Radio City Music Hall, where Hunter held its graduation ceremony, she stood out among the about-to-be graduates in Hunter-purple robes.
She said the tribe had sought permission from the New Zealand Government to use the feathers of three protected species, each of them figuring in the story of the cloak.
There are feathers from the kiwi to symbolise stability, she said -- their feet are planted firmly on the ground because they do not fly.
There are the feathers from the kuaka, also known as the bar-tailed godwit, a migratory bird that goes from the southern hemisphere to the northern, as she has already done. Then the kuaka returns to the southern hemisphere, as she intends to do. And there are feathers from the wood pigeon.
When the undergraduates left the dressing room -- normally used by the Radio City Rockettes chorus line -- Ms Smith's assigned seat was on the main stage, to let the audience see the cloak.
President of Hunter Jennifer J Raab even had her stand up and turn around.
The cloak was blessed before it left New Zealand, but that did not ward off what Ms Smith diplomatically called a "complication with customs".
When her parents, Graham and Nettie Smith, arrived at Kennedy Airport last week, they told customs officials about the cloak and handed over a sheaf of documents, including a fumigation certificate.
Hunter officials said Ms Smith had been assured by the US Fish and Wildlife Service last month that the cloak could be brought into the country. The inspectors at Kennedy, however, refused to release it. It turned out that the kiwi is an endangered species and the kuaka is covered by an international treaty.
It took calls from the likes of Senator Charles E Schumer to get the cloak to graduation, Ms Raab told the crowd.
Ms Smith enrolled at Hunter after visiting New York and tracking down a friend who was dancing with a Maori group represented by a Hunter graduate, Bess Pruitt.
Ms Pruitt, two sisters and a brother all graduated from Hunter, and in 2002, after Bess Pruitt's 50th reunion, Ms Smith decided to enrol.
On Thursday, her mother, who had never visited New York before, marvelled at Radio City and the excitement of her daughter's graduation, so far from home.
"I didn't expect anything like this," Mrs Smith said. "This is just magic. I never thought it would end up like this."

[ElusiveFugitive]

US says data on 2.2 million troops may have been stolen
1.20pm Wednesday June 7, 2006

WASHINGTON - Personal information on about 2.2 million active-duty, National Guard and Reserve troops may have been stolen in a burglary at a government employee's house in January, US officials have revealed.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said the information, including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth, may have been stored in the same stolen electronic equipment that contained similar personal data on 26.5 million US military veterans.
In the wrong hands, such data can be used in credit-card fraud and other crimes.
The government disclosed on May 22 that unidentified burglars on May 3 had broken into the Maryland residence of a Veterans Affairs employee who was not authorized to take the data home, and stole equipment containing the veterans' data.
Later, the government said personal information on about 50,000 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve personnel may have been involved.
But now Veterans Affairs said that as it and the Pentagon compared electronic files, officials discovered that personal information on as many as 1.1 million military members on active duty, 430,000 National Guard troops and 645,000 members of the Reserves may have been included in the data theft.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said it receives records for all military troops because they become eligible to receive certain benefits, such as GI Bill educational assistance and a home-loan guaranty programme.
Law enforcement agencies investigating the incident have no indication that the stolen information has been used to commit identity theft, the department said in a statement.

[444trumpets]

Cave face 'the oldest portrait on record'

A DRAWING discovered by a potholer on the wall of a cave in the west of France appears to be the oldest known portrait of a human face.
The 27,000-year-old work was found by a local pensioner, Gérard Jourdy, in the Vilhonneur grotto near Angoulême.
Drawn with calcium carbonate, and using the bumps in the wall to give form to the face, it features two horizontal lines for the eyes, another for the mouth and a vertical line for the nose. “The portrait of this face is unique,” said Jean Airvaux, a researcher at the French Directorate of Cultural Affairs. “We have other drawings, but they are more recent. Here, it could be the oldest representation of a human face.”
NI_MPU('middle');Archaeologists are particularly interested in the Vilhonneur cave because there are several drawings, including one of a hand in cobalt blue, along with animal and human remains.
Jean-François Baratin, the regional director of archaeology in western France, said that there were only two known examples of prehistoric caves from this era containing both bones and drawings. The other is at Cussac in the Dordogne.
The discovery was made by M Jourdy in November, but kept secret until February while the site was sealed. The results of a scientific analysis were made public on Friday.
M Baratin said ribs, a thigh bone and a tibia taken from the floor of the cave had been dated by scientists in Miami, as were the drawings. These turned out to be about 11,000 years older than the renowned paintings at Lascaux in the nearby Dordogne.Michel Boutant, chairman of the local Charente department council, said: ‘The face reminded me of a Modigliani portrait.”

[Aqueous Moon]

NEW YORK Syndicated columnist and author Ann Coulter appeared on the Today show on Tuesday, promoting a new book. Host Matt Lauer asked her to explain certain remarks in the book aimed at activist 9/11 widows, including her charge that they were nothing but "self obsessed" and celebrity-seeking "broads" who are "enjoying" their husbands' deaths "so much."

After she defended these statements, he closed by saying, "always fun to have you here."

Elsewhere in the book, Coulter refers to the widows as "witches" and asks, "how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies"?

In response, a group of five 9/11 widows, who may have been the prime targets of Coulter's remarks, issued a statement denouncing Coulter's views. The New York Daily News on Wednesday featured a smiling Coulter and this headline on its front page: COULTER THE CRUEL. One story inside was topped with "Massive Chip on Her Coulter " and another called her a "a model of meanness."

The Star-Ledger in Newark, meanwhile, carried a story today with the headline "For 9/11 widows, book adds insult to injury." It featured interviews with some of the widows. The New York Post headlined a story: "RIGHTY WRITER COULTER HURLS NASTY GIBES AT 9/11 GALS."

The Post interviewed one of the widows, Mindy Kleinberg of East Brunswick, N.J. -- part of a group Coulter dubbed "The Witches of East Brunswick." Kleinberg said, "We are trying to make sure that nobody else walks in our footsteps. And if she [Coulter] thinks that's wrong, so be it." Newsday (Melville, N.Y.) carried an Associated Press story.

Universal syndicates Coulter's column. A spokesman there told E&P it had no response to the latest firestorm.

The five widows' statement is reprinted below (it first appeared at crooksandliars.com).

***

We did not choose to become widowed on September 11, 2001. The attack, which tore our families apart and destroyed our former lives, caused us to ask some serious questions regarding the systems that our country has in place to protect its citizens.

Through our constant research, we came to learn how the protocols were supposed to have worked. Thus, we asked for an independent commission to investigate the loopholes which obviously existed and allowed us to be so utterly vulnerable to terrorists. Our only motivation ever was to make our Nation safer. Could we learn from this tragedy so that it would not be repeated?

We are forced to respond to Ms. Coulter’s accusations to set the record straight because we have been slandered.

Contrary to Ms. Coulter’s statements, there was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again. We adored these men and miss them every day.

It is in their honor and memory, that we will once again refocus the Nation’s attention to the real issues at hand: our lack of security, leadership and progress in the five years since 9/11.

We are continuously reminded that we are still a nation at risk. Therefore, the following is a partial list of areas still desperately in need of attention and public outcry. We should continuously be holding the feet of our elected officials to the fire to fix these shortcomings.

1. Homeland Security Funding based on risk. Inattention to this area causes police officers, firefighters and other emergency/first responder personnel to be ill equipped in emergencies. Fixing this will save lives on the day of the next attack.

2. Intelligence Community Oversight. Without proper oversight, there exists no one joint, bicameral intelligence panel with power to both authorize and appropriate funding for intelligence activities. Without such funding we are unable to capitalize on all intelligence community resources and abilities to thwart potential terrorist attacks. Fixing this will save lives on the day of the next attack.

3. Transportation Security. There has been no concerted effort to harden mass transportation security. Our planes, buses, subways, and railways remain under-protected and highly vulnerable. These are all identifiable soft targets of potential terrorist attack. The terror attacks in Spain and London attest to this fact. Fixing our transportation systems may save lives on the day of the next attack.

4. Information Sharing among Intelligence Agencies. Information sharing among intelligence agencies has not improved since 9/11. The attacks on 9/11 could have been prevented had information been shared among intelligence agencies. On the day of the next attack, more lives may be saved if our intelligence agencies work together.

5. Loose Nukes. A concerted effort has not been made to secure the thousands of loose nukes scattered around the world – particularly in the former Soviet Union. Securing these loose nukes could make it less likely for a terrorist group to use this method in an attack, thereby saving lives.

6. Security at Chemical Plants, Nuclear Plants, Ports. We must, as a nation, secure these known and identifiable soft targets of Terrorism. Doing so will save many lives.

7. Border Security. We continue to have porous borders and INS and Customs systems in shambles. We need a concerted effort to integrate our border security into the larger national security apparatus.

8. Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Given the President’s NSA Surveillance Program and the re-instatement of the Patriot Act, this Nation is in dire need of a Civil Liberties Oversight Board to insure that a proper balance is found between national security versus the protection of our constitutional rights.

-- September 11th Advocates

Kristen Breitweiser
Patty Casazza
Monica Gabrielle
Mindy Kleinberg
Lorie Van Auken

*I'M FROM THE WEST COAST BUT, I FEEL THAT THESE 9-11 WIDOWS ARE JUST REALLY HAPPY TO HAVE MONEY.... I DON'T THINK THAT THEY HAVE EVEN BEGUN TO REALIZE THE HEAVINESS OF 9-11.