selective mutism

The only way Virginia Tech officials would have known about Cho's anxiety and selective mutism would have been if Cho or his parents told them about it and asked for accommodations to help him, as he had received in Fairfax. Cho's disability was first reported in the Wall Street Journal and will be explored further when a panel appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) releases an investigative report about the shootings.

Although the only way college officials could have known about Cho's problem would have been from Cho, experts said that asking for help is an almost impossible task for someone with selective mutism.

"Children with selective mutism don't want to be the center of attention. They don't like to sit on Santa's lap. They don't like their photo taken on picture day. They don't want kids to sing to them at their birthday celebration. They just want to be left alone," Schum said. "So when you put the responsibility on them and ask them to draw attention to themselves by asking for help . . . that's really tough."

Cho's parents, although cooperative with Fairfax school officials, might not have fully understood what was wrong and that their son needed help in college as well. As recently as last summer, Cho's mother had sought out members of One Mind Church in Woodbridge to purge him of what the pastor there called the "demonic power" possessing him.



This is so sad. We need more research into mental health and we also need to de-stigmatize mental illness so that families do not hesitate to inform schools.

Lake Tawakoni visitors Giant spider web

Spidey (probably) had nothing to do with this giant expanse of spun-silk webbing now under scutiny at Lake Tawakoni State Park, about 45 miles east of Dallas.

Arachnid scholars from all over the country are slobbering over themselves to get more information out of Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist Mike Quinn, who would just like them to quit bugging him (ahem) and get their thoraxes on out to the nature trail, so they can see for themselves the 200-yard expanse of Hollywood-worthy spook-prop that nature's own denizens have constructed - entirely without human direction.

Creepiest detail: "There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs." Yikes.

Perhaps they should put a magnifying glass on some of those screeching the loudest...

El Debarge Arrested for domestic violence

I'm a little shocked over this news that El Debarge was arrested on Sunday for domestic violence. His best known hit was "Rhythm of the Night" from 1985. He always seemed like a gentle person to me. I guess no one ever really knows what goes on behind closed doors thoug

Linguist Chomsky Wages Wrong Jihad

Linguist Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th century.

Beginning with his critique of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Chomsky has become more widely known -- especially internationally -- for his media criticism and politics.

Noam Chomsky has previously been accused by David Horowitz of waging a "jihad" against the United States. Most of the ciricisms come because of some of his anti-authoritarian views.

Chomsky has stated that "My personal visions are fairly traditional anarchist ones, with origins in The Enlightenment and classical liberalism" and he has praised libertarian socialism.

Watch Erica Leerhsen, Henry Rollins in The Trailer For Wrong Turn 2

Wrong Turn 2 is the 2007 sequel of the 2003 horror Wrong Turn, starring Erica Leerhsen, Henry Rollins and Texas Battle. It’s first UK theatrical showing was on August the 25th on London’s Frightfest. It will be released on DVD in the US and Canada on October 9th 2007.

The film is set shortly after the events of the original Wrong Turn, and follows a group of six contestants are thrown together for six days in a simulated post-apocalyptic wasteland due to their participation in a reality television show called The Ultimate Survivalist: The Apocalypse. This winner of this competition will walk away with a prize of $100,000. It isn’t until the contestants are in the remote part of West Virginia they realise what they are really fighting for is for their survival against a family of horrifically deformed inbred cannibals who have plans to butcher each and every one of them.

Christina Ryan was bitten by a rattlesnake

Christina Ryan has always been most afraid of spiders, but now rattlesnakes top her list. The 28-year-old beauty queen from Franklin was bitten by a rattlesnake at 9 a.m. Sunday, while walking to a rehearsal for the Mrs. America pageant at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Ariz.

Ryan was rushed to the hospital and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Tucson Medical Center.

Quick treatment with antivenin, rest and prayer allowed her to be released by noon on Monday, Ryan said.

"I was on my way to rehearsal, and I'm scared of spiders, because I was bit by a brown recluse as a kid," Ryan said in a telephone call from Tucson Monday evening.

"I saw a spider, and it gave me the heebie jeebies. I ran, and by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, something bit my foot, and I knew it was a rattlesnake."

Ryan said "instinct" told her it was a rattlesnake, even before she looked down and saw the snake.

Ryan ran back up the stairs, hysterical. There, other Mrs. America contestants called 911 and tended to her.

"Mrs. Idaho pulled a fang out of my foot," Ryan said.

Emergency medical personnel responded within four minutes of the 911 call.

Ryan, the mother of an 18-month-old girl, Audrey, said the pain of the rattlesnake's bite was excruciating.

"It hurt worse than childbirth," she said. "It was bad. It was the worst thing I've experienced in my whole life. It felt like someone was taking a knife and continually stabbing my foot, then pushing on it."

Ryan's foot is still stiff and swollen, and she must have her blood rechecked by doctors later this week to make sure the antivenin is working properly. Delayna Bridges, executive director of the Mrs. Tennessee America Pageant, said the speed of Ryan's recovery will allow the beauty queen and event planner from Franklin to move forward in the Mrs. America pageant.

"She will be able to compete, as the first competition — interviews — is not until this Saturday," Bridges said. "She will then compete in preliminary evening gown and swimsuit on Sunday night."

Christina Ryan's husband, Mickey Ryan, who jokingly refers to himself as "Mr. Tennessee," wrote in an e-mail message to The Leaf-Chronicle Monday that his wife plans to bring the Mrs. America crown back to Tennessee, but "will gladly leave behind the fang that was left in her foot by the snake." The final competition, at which a new Mrs. America will be crowned, is Sept. 5.

Asked if she had a message for those in her home state, Christina Ryan was all gratitude.

"I miss everybody. I'm so thankful for everyone's prayers. That's literally the only way I've gotten through this," she said. "It's definitely a God thing. Most people who are bitten by snakes are in the hospital two or three days. I was out in 24 hours."

China special regulations for pension insurance business

The Shanghai Securities News has reported that China’s insurance regulator is working at constituting special regulations on managing the pension insurance business.

Liang Tao, director of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission personal insurance regulatory department has said the move will ensure insurance companies that handle corporate annuities are able to pay expired debts and future liabilities, avoiding risks during managing annuities and protecting the beneficiary’s legitimate rights and interests.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s (MLSS) statistics show that the corporate annuity fund, coving 9.64 million people, had 91 billion yuan in assets in 2006 with only 15.8 billion yuan of that (17%) being managed by professional investors.

30 financial institutions are currently designated as custodians, trustees and asset managers for corporate annuity management. Next month will see a new round of campaign for granting qualifications required for the annuity management will be launched next month.

Liang has suggested that those pension insurers and life insurance companies which plan a movie into pensions try to acquire the trustee, custodian and asset manager licenses from MLSS together, in a bid to improve the profit ratio and reduce risks and costs.

China’s enterprises annuity will add 50 billion yuan (US$6.62 billion) annually in five to ten years, a recent survey revealed.

For more, visit www.chinadaily.com.cn

Global spread of H5N1

The global spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 in birds is considered a significant pandemic threat.

While other H5N1 strains are known, they are significantly different from a current, highly pathogenic H5N1 strain on a genetic level, making the global spread of this new strain unprecedented. The H5N1 strain is a fast-mutating, highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) found in multiple bird species. It is both epizootic (an epidemic in non-humans) and panzootic (a disease affecting animals of many species especially over a wide area). Unless otherwise indicated, "H5N1" in this article refers to the recent highly pathogenic strain of H5N1.

"Since 1997, studies of H5N1 indicate that these viruses continue to evolve, with changes in antigenicity and internal gene constellations; an expanded host range in avian species and the ability to infect felids; enhanced pathogenicity in experimentally infected mice and ferrets, in which they cause systemic infections; and increased environmental stability."
Cumulate Human Cases of and Deaths from H5N1
As of April 11, 2007 Image:H5n1 spread (with regression).png

Notes:

* Source WHO Confirmed Human Cases of H5N1
* "[T]he incidence of human cases peaked, in each of the three years in which cases have occurred, during the period roughly corresponding to winter and spring in the northern hemisphere. If this pattern continues, an upsurge in cases could be anticipated starting in late 2006 or early 2007." Avian influenza – epidemiology of human H5N1 cases reported to WHO
* The regression curve for deaths is y = a + ek x, and is shown extended through the end of April, 2007.

Tens of millions of birds have died of H5N1 influenza and hundreds of millions of birds have been slaughtered and disposed of, to limit the spread of H5N1. Countries that have reported one or more major highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreaks in birds (causing at least thousands but in some cases millions of dead birds) are (in order of first outbreak occurrence): Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkey, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Iraq, Nigeria, Egypt, India, France, Niger, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Cameroon, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Israel, Pakistan, Jordan, Burkina Faso, Germany, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Hungary, United Kingdom, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Czech Republic, Togo.

Highly pathogenic H5N1 has been found in birds in the wild in numerous other countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Iran, Italy, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. Surveillance of H5N1 in humans, poultry, wild birds, cats and other animals remains very weak in many parts of Asia and Africa. Much remains unknown about the exact extent of its spread.

H5N1 has low pathogenic varieties endemic in birds in North America. H5N1 has a highly pathogenic variety that is endemic in dozens of species of birds throughout south Asia and is threatening to become endemic in birds in west Asia and Africa. So far, it is very difficult for humans to become infected with H5N1. The presence of highly pathogenic (deadly) H5N1 around the world in both birds in the wild (swans, magpies, ducks, geese, pigeons, eagles, etc.) and in chickens and turkeys on farms has been demonstrated in millions of cases with the virus isolate actually sequenced in hundreds of cases yielding definitive proof of the evolution of this strain of this subtype of the species Influenzavirus A (bird flu virus).
H5N1

* Influenza A virus subtype H5N1
* Genetic structure
* Infection
* Human mortality
* Global spread

* in 2006

* Social impact
* Pandemic

WHO pandemic phases

1. Low risk
2. New virus
3. Self limiting
4. Person to person
5. Epidemic exists
6. Pandemic exists

According to Robert Webster:

"The epicenters of both the Asian influenza pandemic of 1957 and the Hong Kong influenza pandemic of 1968 were in Southeast Asia, and it is in this region that multiple clades of H5N1 influenza virus have already emerged. The Asian H5N1 virus was first detected in Guangdong Province, China, in 1996, when it killed some geese, but it received little attention until it spread through live-poultry markets in Hong Kong to humans in May 1997, killing 6 of 18 infected persons. [...] From 1997 to May 2005, H5N1 viruses were largely confined to Southeast Asia, but after they had infected wild birds in Qinghai Lake, China, they rapidly spread westward. [...] The intermittent spread to humans will continue, and the virus will continue to evolve.

Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy

The dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy is an ongoing U.S. political dispute initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 7, 2006, and their replacement by interim appointees under provisions of the 2005 Patriot Act reauthorization.The dismissed U.S. Attorneys had all been appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate, more than four years earlier. At least two other attorneys were dismissed in 2005-2006 (which is why press accounts often cite nine dismissed attorneys). Twenty-six or more U.S. Attorneys had been under consideration for dismissal during this time period.The firings received attention via hearings in Congress in January 2007 and by March 2007 the controversy had national visibility. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stated that the U.S. Attorneys "serve at the pleasure of the president" and described the affair as "an overblown personnel matter."

Congressional investigations have focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White House were using the U.S. Attorney positions for political advantage. Allegations are that some of the attorneys were targeted for dismissal to impede investigations of Republican politicians or that some were targeted for their failure to initiate investigations that would damage Democratic politicians or hamper Democratic-leaning voters.Clear explanations for the dismissals remain elusive, however, with several administration officials providing contradictory testimony or testimony contradicted by documents subpoenaed by Congress.[14][15][16]

Critics argue that the scandal has undermined both the integrity of the Department of Justice and the nonpartisan tradition of U.S. Attorneys.[17][18][19][20] Others have gone so far as to liken the event to Watergate, referring to it as Gonzales-gate.[21]

By late-August 2007, seven senior staff of the Department of Justice had resigned, including:

* Deputy Attorney General;
* Acting Associate Attorney General (who also withdrew his nomination for the office);
* Chief of Staff for the Attorney General;
* Chief of Staff for the Deputy Attorney General;
* Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA),
* the subsequently appointed Director to the EOUSA who was also the former acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division;
* and the DOJ's White House Liaison.

Many members of Congress from both parties called for the Attorney General's resignation. On August 26, 2007 Alberto Gonzales submitted his letter of resignation to the president, and announced in a Department of Justice press conference on August 27, 2007 that he would resign effective September 17, 2007. Administration officials disclosed that Solicitor General Paul Clement is to become Acting Attorney General.

Chinese protein export scandal

The Chinese protein export scandal was first identified after the wide recall of many brands of cat and dog food starting in March 2007. Waves of recalls precipitated the 2007 pet food recalls and eventually involved the human food supply. The recalls in North America, Europe and South Africa came in response to reports of renal failure in pets. Initially the recalls were associated with the consumption of mostly wet pet foods made with wheat gluten from a single Chinese company. In the following weeks, several other companies who received the contaminated wheat gluten also voluntarily recalled dozens of pet food brands. One month after the initial recall, contaminated rice protein from a different source in China was also identified as being associated with kidney failure in pets in the United States, while contaminated corn gluten was associated with kidney failure with pets in South Africa.

The Chinese government has been slow to respond. Both government officials and manufacturers went so far as to deny that vegetable protein was even exported from China and refused for weeks to allow foreign food safety investigators to enter the country.Eventually, the Chinese government acknowledged that contamination had occurred and arrested the managers of two protein manufacturers identified so far. The Chinese government continues to deny that the contamination could have had adverse effects in pets or potentially humans.

The first and most easily identifed contaminant in the vegetable protein is melamine. However, melamine is not considered to be especially dangerous to animals or humans, and so investigators have continued to examine the role of other contaminants found to be present in the proteins, including cyanuric acid. Current research has focused on the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in causing renal failure. Reports that cyanuric acid may be an independently and potentially widely-used adulterant in China have heightened concerns for both pet and human health.

Both the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate were found to actually be wheat flour, which contains wheat gluten as a component and is less expensive than separated gluten. Melamine and cyanuric acid were most likely added to fraudulently increase the apparent protein content of the flour to allow them to pass as concentrated vegetable proteins.

Reports of widespead adulteration of Chinese animal feed with melamine have raised the issue of melamine contamination in the human food supply both in China and abroad.On April 27 US FDA subjected all vegetable proteins imported from China, intended for human or animal consumption, to detention without physical examination, including: Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn By-Products, Soy Protein, Soy Gluten, Proteins (includes amino acids and protein hydrosylates), and Mung Bean Protein.In a teleconference with reporters on May 1, officials from the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture said that between 2.5 and 3 million people in the United States had consumed chickens that had consumed feed containing contaminated vegetable protein from China.

There has been widespread public outrage and calls for government regulation of pet foods, which had previously been self-regulated by pet food manufacturers. The United States Senate held an oversight hearing on the matter by April 12. The economic impact on the pet food market has been extensive, with Menu Foods losing roughly $30 million alone from the recall.

As of May 7, United States food safety officials stated: "There is very low risk to human health from consuming meat from hogs and chickens known to have been fed animal feed supplemented with pet food scraps that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds"

Headlines

* The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah claims its militants have fired the missile into southern Israeli city of Sderot in response to Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip. Israeli sources said the rocket landed on a building and caused damages and panic. (xinhuanet)
* Scores of Italians are arrested in a crackdown on the 'ndrangheta organised crime clans active in Calabria. (AP via CNN)
* Cao Gangchuan, the Defense Minister of People's Republic of China and Masahiko Komura, the Defense Minister of Japan meet and agree to strengthen exchanges. (Xinhua)
* The Chinese Finance Minister, Jin Renqing, resigns due to "personal reasons". (BBC)
* A report into the Virginia Tech massacre criticises staff for not acting quickly enough after Seung-Hui Cho's first killings. (BBC) (Report)
* The Anglican Church of Kenya consecrates two bishops from the Episcopal Church in the United States of America after they left the Episcopal Church due to concerns that the Church was consecrating gay bishops. (BBC)
* More than 450 people have been arrested after protests in which police used tear gas and water cannons in Chile's capital, Santiago. (BBC)
* Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is all set to return back to Pakistan after seven years of exile. (AndhraNews.net)
* The Wyoming Republican Party votes to move its nominating convention to January 5, 2008, making it the first event in the nation for the Republicans in the United States presidential election, 2008. (MSNBC)
* The Red Cross reports that at least 17,000 are still missing from the former Yugoslavia including 13,400 from the Bosnian wars, 2,300 from the Croatian conflict and 2,047 from the Kosovo conflict. (AFP via NYT)
* Moqtada al-Sadr suspends the activities of his Mehdi Army militia in Iraq for six months. (BBC)
* Senator Tim Johnson announces that he will return to the United States Senate on September 5 after recovering from brain surgery since last December. (Reuters)
* The United States Department of Defense's inspector general launches an investigation into the United States military's inability to account for weapons sent to Iraq after reports that Kurdish militants were using US weapons to attack Turkey. (Reuters)
* Thousands of people protest in Chile against the economic policies of the President of Chile Michelle Bachelet with 350 arrests made when they attempt to enter the grounds of the presidential palace. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
* A California produce company recalls bagged fresh spinach after it tests positive to salmonella. (CNN)
* The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) claim to have captured a Sudanese army base in the Kordofan province of Sudan. (Reuters via ABC)
* A NASA internal investigation finds no evidence of heavy drinking or drunkenness amongst astronauts prior to missions. (NYT)
* The United States Senate Republican Party leadership requests that Senator Larry Craig of Idaho stand aside from his Senate committees until the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics makes a ruling on his situation. Senator Craig agrees. (WSJ)
* John Holmes, the United Nation's emergency relief coordinator, warns that refugees of the Darfur conflict are arming themselves and may soon be able to defend themselves if the Sudanese government renews its attacks. (BBC)
* Three Palestinian children are killed in an explosion between Beit Lahiya and the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip caused by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli Defence Forces later claim they were aiming for rocket launchers in the area directed towards Israel, but eyewitnesses and medical sources said that there were no gunmen or rocket launchers at the scene. (BBC) (YNet)
* A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the murder of British schoolboy Rhys Jones. (Sky News)
* Ten people are trapped alive in a collapsed apartment building in Baku, Azerbaijan with at least eight people having died. (Reuters via News Limited)
* The Taliban release twelve South Korean hostages of the 19 they have been holding. (BBC)
* A curfew is imposed in the Indian city of Agra after angry mobs clash with police resulting in one death and 50 police are injured. (BBC)
* Prison officers in the United Kingdom call a surprise 24-hour strike. (Daily Telegraph)
* The United States releases seven Iranians hours after detaining them in a Baghdad hotel. (AP via Fox News)
* Three people are killed - including a father and son - in a "targeted incident" involving firearms at a house in Bishop's Stortford. Two others are injured, but a 3 year-old girl is unharmed. Police are hunting "two Asian men" in connection with the attack. (BBC)
* The Supreme Court of Chile confirms a life sentence for Hugo Salas Wenzel, a Chilean general under former dictator Augusto Pinochet, for his role in the murder of 12 opponents of the regime. (BBC)
* The Sudanese Government and the United Nations launch a flood appeal to help victims of recent flooding which has killed 89 people and destroyed 73,000 homes. (BBC)
* South Korean hostage crisis: Officials in South Korea's Blue House claim that the Taliban has agreed to release 19 South Korean hostages. (Reuters)
* Battle of Karbala (2007): At least 52 people have been killed in fighting in Karbala, as thousands of Shia pilgrims gathered in the city for an annual festival. (Reuters)
* Scientists in Colombia discover new poisonous frog, dubbed the 'golden frog of Supatá,' in a remote mountainous region. (Fox News)
* A United States federal judge orders the extradition of former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega to France, where he has already been convicted in absentia on money-laundering charges. (CNN)
* Abdullah Gül of the Justice and Development Party is elected President of Turkey. (BBC)
* The Cockpit voice recorder is retrieved from the wreckage of Adam Air Flight 574, 24 hours after the recovery of the Flight data recorder. (ABC News Australia)
* The Ontario Court of Appeal acquits Steven Truscott of the 1959 murder of Lynne Harper, declaring the original trial that had sentenced the then-14-year-old to hang was a miscarriage of justice. The case has been a cause célèbre for almost fifty years. (CBC)
* A total lunar eclipse takes place in the early morning hours across most of North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean region. (Canwest via Ottawa Citizen)

Pilot's widow sue FAA, airport & chart manufacturer

The co-pilot and the widow of the pilot of Comair Flight 5191 have sued the United States Federal Aviation Administration, Blue Grass Airport where the crash occured, and Jeppesen Dataplan Inc, the manufacturer of the airport charts the pilots were using and a subsiduary of Boeing.

The co-pilot was the only survivor in the disaster, which killed 49 people one year ago on August 27, 2006. The aircraft crashed after attempting takeoff on the wrong runway, which was only for general aviation and therefore not long enough for use by commercial airliners.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined last month that the primary cause of the accident was most likely pilot error. However, First Officer James Polehinke and Amy Clay, widow of Captain Jeffrey Clay, alledge that all three organisations they are sueing were also negligent.

Despite this, one lead investigator has named other contributing factors, including staffing defincencies in the control tower, an air traffic controller suffering from fatigue, airport charts that were out of date and the fact that vital documents warning pilots of a route change due to construction work did not reach the aircraft's flight crew.

In adition to the other three companies, Polehinke is also sueing the company that designed the lighting system in use at the airport.

The NTSB's official probable cause for the disaster is as follows: "The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the flight crewmembers’ failure to use available cues and aids to identify the airplane’s location on the airport surface during taxi and their failure to cross‑check and verify that the airplane was on the correct runway before takeoff. Contributing to the accident were the flight crew’s nonpertinent conversations during taxi, which resulted in a loss of positional awareness and the Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to require that all runway crossings be authorized only by specific air traffic control clearances."

Nokia launches 'Nokia Music Store'

Nokia's chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said: "Looking into the future, we will deliver great devices, combined with compelling experiences and services, to make it easy for people to unlock the potential of the Internet."

The service, named the 'Nokia Music Store', will charge between 6 and 10 euros for a game while a single music track will cost 1 euro and 10 euros for a whole album. The service will initialy be availible on Nokia's N81 and N95 models, but the media is anticipating the service to become availible on more models soon after launch.

Fred Thompson campaign staffer leaves

Yesterday Linda Rozett, left Republican Fred Thompson's "exploratory committee" after serving as communications director for the past several weeks. Referring to Rozett's departure, Thompson said, "I don't know what the story is".

Whereas, the day before reporter Jo Becker explored Thompson's past, noting Thompson's past as a Republican counsel "sometimes straddled a fine line between investigating his targets and defending them.

" Becker explained that while "he famously asked the question" that revealed the Watergate/Nixon taping system, "Mr. Thompson was also an active participant in the White House’s efforts to deflect blame from the president and discredit his accusers, plotting strategy with Mr. Nixon’s lawyers and leaking them information."

The Politico reported that the staff troubles in recent weeks and "fundraising -- is likely to look a bit wan" caused "rumblings are raising questions more broadly among Republican insiders about whether Thompson has the discipline and zeal to wage a winning campaign."

Kevin Smith Has Revealed His New movie ‘Red State’

Kevin Smith has revealed that he has finished the first draft for his upcoming horror movie, Red State.

He also reveals that it’s the shortest script he has ever written, with the least amount of dialogue.

On his website, viewaskew.com, Smith wrote, “

Not to say there’s no dialogue; just that there’s about half as much as I normally write […] Unlike any other script I’ve ever authored, to say the least. Very fucked up. If I’d never said anything about it in the press and put it out under a pseudonym, I doubt anyone would ever connect me with it. Can’t wait to shoot it.” At this early stage Smith hasn’t revealed any plot details or confirmed any casting but reports have claimed that Jeff Anderson and Jay Mewes (Clerks) have signed on to the film.

Source

Kate Nash set for US market

Kate Nash, most famous for her recent single “Foundations”, is preparing to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Lilly Allen and Amy Winehouse by trying to break into the US music market.

Kate Nash is planning to release her Foundations EP, whereas her debut album Made of Bricks will be released in early 2008.

Alongside her releases she will be playing 2 concerts in October in New York.

CMA Nominations & Awards

This years CMA Awards will air November 7th on ABC and the CMA Nominations.

The entertainer of the year Nominations are

• Keith Urban,
• Brad Paisley,
• Kenny Chesney
• George Strait.

The Country Music Association awards also have nominations for male vocalist of the year. Nominations for male vocalist of the year Are

• Urban
• Strait
• Paisley
• Chesney
• Josh Turner

The nominations for female vocalist of the year are

• Carrie Underwood
• Alison Krauss
• Reba McEntire
• Martina McBride
• Miranda Lambert

bookmark the date Country Music fans (November 7th).

Spinach recall Again !!

after E coli in fresh spinach caused a massive recall comes this recall for Metz Fresh spinach because of possible salmonella contamination.

The spinach was distributed to 48 states and also Canada. The company says that 90 percent of the recall food involved hasn't been distributed, but consumers should watch out for the 10 percent that has been shipped to stores.

There have been no reports of illness as of yet.

Rio Rancho Officer Germaine Casey, Dies in Bush Motorcade Accident

Rio Rancho Officer Germaine Casey, 40, crashed at the Albuquerque airport at a point where a road enters an underground parking garage

A police officer died Monday, August 26, in a motorcycle accident that took place during President Bush's motorcade to the Albuquerque airport.Casey was pronounced dead at a local Albuquerque hospital.According to Trish Hoffman, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson, "Any time there is a presidential motorcade, the officers, that's part of their job, they drive at a high rate of speed."

Spectators told authorities that the motorcycle first hit a curb and then hit a tree. The motorcycle appeared to be nearly destroyed and the officer fell to the ground, where he was eventually helped by an emergency medical technician.

The motorcycle was near the front of the motorcade, and the president saw the wreck as he drove by on the way to the airport after attending a fundraiser for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Investigators are going to have a full investigation about the cause of the crash.

source

Deutsche Bank Fire Probe

NEW YORK — The city ordered fire inspectors to examine hundreds of buildings under construction or demolition after an investigation found numerous planning and safety failures at an abandoned ground zero skyscraper where two firefighters died.

Three senior fire officials said to be responsible for lapses at the former Deutsche Bank tower were also reassigned, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Monday that more action could follow.

Officials said the fire appeared to have been started by a cigarette, likely from workers who were dismantling the skyscraper and cleaning it of toxic debris floor by floor. The building, which once stood 41 stories, was heavily damaged in the Sept. 11 attacks.

When workers began taking it down earlier this year, the fire department failed to conduct the required regular inspections at the tower, Bloomberg said.........

read more
news source

DAVE MATTIO NAMED BEARS HIGH SCHOOL COACH OF THE WEEK

Dave Mattio of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights was named the Chicago Bears High School “Coach of the Week” today.

In his 32nd year as Marian Catholic Head Football, Dave Mattio has an overall record of 227-108. He has taken the Spartans to the playoffs 17 times and has sent hundreds of players to college football programs, including 3 to the NFL.

Wentworth Miller, Luke MacFarlane Take it to the Streets

Wentworth Miller and Luke MacFarlane (former companion of T.R. Knight) were recently spotted on an outing.

Austin Nichols 'John From Cincinnati' Star Busted for DUI

Austin Nichols driving the wrong way down a one-way street

The "John From Cincinnati" star was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving Friday (Aug. 24) morning in Jackson, Michigan, the Jackson Citizen Patriot first reported.

Nichols was reportedly stopped on N. Jackson Street at the Louis Glick Highway around 2:30 a.m. after he was spotted going the wrong way down a one-way street in a silver Mercury Mountaineer. He was administered a breath test, booked and then tossed in the Jackson County Jail.

This summer, the 27-year-old actor has been staying with extended family at nearby Clark Lake.

Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Aniston new love

Jennifer Aniston found a new love in another Brad. The movie siren is dating actor Bradley Cooper, it has been reported.

Cooper has just signed marriage dissolution paper with his soon to be ex-wife Jennifer Esposito Friday August 24th and they will have their divorce finalized by November 10th later this year. That means there's still a good chance for Cooper and Aniston to begin a new romantic relationship.

Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Esposito Dissolve Marriage

Jennifer Esposito and Bradley Cooper signed dissolution of marriage papers Friday, Aug. 24, reports "Extra." According to the court papers, the couple can't remarry "until the effective date of the termination ... November 10, 2007."

Cooper, 32, and Esposito, 34, were good about keeping their romance quiet. After dating under the radar for a little over a year, they announced their engagement last October and then tied the knot on Dec. 30 to very little fanfare. In May, Esposito filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

Top Headlines & Current events

* United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (pictured) announces his resignation, after several controversies over his actions.
* Twin bombings kill more than forty people in Hyderabad, India, and nineteen unexploded bombs are found throughout the city.
* Flooding: Ongoing floods in the Midwestern United States claim at least 26 lives, while the heaviest rainfall in 40 years causes massive flooding in North Korea that kills 200.
* Greece declares a state of emergency as forest fires kill more than 50 people.
* A ten-million-year-old fossil found in Ethiopia, Chororapithecus abyssinicus, may prove that the last common ancestor of gorillas and humans existed two million years earlier than previously thought.
* Tropical cyclones: Hurricane Dean makes a second landfall near Tecolutla, Mexico after moving across the Yucatán Peninsula, while Typhoon Sepat moves across Taiwan and makes a second landfall in Fujian.
* Senator Larry Craig R- Idaho pleads guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. (McClatchy Post Bulletin)
* Pakistan and Bangladesh refutes charges of India about terror outfits operating in their countries behind Hyderabad bomb blasts which killed 42 and injuring over 60. (AndhraNews.net)
* Indonesia's karate team has boycotted an Asian championship in Malaysia to protest the beating of one of its official referees by the local police. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
* United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced his resignation. (NYT)
* Ten people are arrested in Russia over the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. (BBC)
* Southeast Asian nations will seek $2 billion to build a rail link between Kunming in China to Singapore. (Reuters)
* Continuation of an Equine influenza outbreak in Australia could threaten security at next weeks APEC meeting (AP via IHT)
* A fire breaks out at the Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates triggering explosions at a chemical storage depot. (Reuters)
* The Vatican establishes a low cost charter flight service to Catholic shrines in France, Poland, Spain and the Middle East for pilgrims. (BBC)
* A report from the National People's Congress environment and resources protection committee finds that high levels of pollution in the Huai River and its tributaries poses a "threat to the water safety of one sixth of the country's 1.3 billion population". (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
* Former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Prescott announces he will retire as a Member of Parliament at the next election. (BBC)
* Gunmen raid a farm in Putumayo in Colombia killing 9 people with authorities blaming FARC. (Associated Press in International Herald Tribune)
* 2007 Midwest flooding: Tornadoes hit parts of central and southeast Ohio as hundreds of thousands of people in the Midwest are without power. (AP via Fox News)
* A series of explosions in Mogadishu, Somalia kills three people. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
* The Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam seeks to extract its wounded from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinean refugee camp. (Reuters Alertnet)
* An Antonov plane carrying tin ore crashes in Kongolo in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Wikinews)
* Iraqi Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders sign a reconciliation deal. (BBC)
* The equine influenza outbreak spreads in Australia threatening the Spring Carnival including the Melbourne Cup. (Reuters via the Washington Post)
* Bird flu breaks out at a German farm. (Washington Post)
* Ludwig Scotty's government wins a landslide victory in the Nauruan parliamentary election, 2007 with René Harris as the only member of the Opposition to win a seat. (ABC News Australia)
* 25 August 2007 Hyderabad bombings
o Seven more unexploded bombs are found in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India a day after the bombings. (Reuters via News Limited)
o The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy blames Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists for the bombings. (Bloomberg)
* 2007 Greek fires:
o European Union countries send firefighters and equipment to help fight hundreds of fires.(BBC and AFP via ABC News Australia)
o The fires threaten Olympia, the site of the Ancient Olympic Games. (Financial Times via MSNBC)
o Greek authorities arrest and charge two people in connection with the fires. (CNN)
o The Greek Government offers a reward of €1,000,000 to help catch arsonists. (BBC)

Source

Hot-air balloon fire kills two, 11 injures

A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in western Canada. Two people were killed and eleven were injured.

The disaster occured as the airship was preparing to take off from Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. An unkown source caused a fire in the basket of the tethered balloon, which then broke free and rose into the air.

Of the twelve passengers and one pilot on board at the time, eleven escaped the balloon with severe burns and other non-life-threatening injuries by jumping out in mid-air. The balloon then collapsed, crashing into a motorhome park with two people still trapped on board, who were killed in the subsequent fire. Four static caravans and two cars were also destroyed in the blaze.

The two deceased are believed to be a mother and daughter. Their family was on scene during the disaster and watched as the balloon burnt up and crashed.

Witness Don Randall, who photographed the accident, said the thing went up about 400 feet (122m) in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon it collapsed."The basket was basically a fireball. It just dropped like a stone. I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there."'

Bill Yearwood, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, told reporters what preliminary information was availible: "The crew loaded 12 passengers and was preparing to launch when a fire erupted. The pilot asked the passengers to get out of the basket. The balloon was tethered at the time, but then broke and came loose. The balloon climbed into the air before collapsing in a residential area in the park. They were all trying to get out. I can't tell you what exactly happened when the balloon was loosened from the tether."

Injured survivor Diana Rutledge questioned the pilot, Steve Pennock,'s actions after the fire broke out, pointing out that he was first off the balloon. "He was in perfect shape," she said. "I thought, what is this all about? Wouldn't he have stayed on to try to stop the fires?"

Joyce Genest, a resident at the park, also questioned procedure that day. "I stopped to watch the balloon get inflated," she said. "Normally it takes 25 minutes and it's quite gorgeous to watch. They are never in a big hurry. This time they took about 10 minutes." She said the passengers then got straight into the balloon, an unusual occurence. "Normally the pilot gets in and tests the gun twice and then everybody gets in." As soon as everybody was in, he hit the gun and the flame went sideways."

Off Festival 2007 in Poland

Between August 17 and August 19, 2007 in Słupna Park in Mysłowice, Poland, the second edition of Off Festival had place. Art director of the edition was Artur Rojek, the leader of Myslovitz band.

Beside concerts, the main attraction of the festival, Indie Label plants, hosted by Philippe Petit and Markus Detmer, took place along with Children's Happiness Feast (Święto Radości Dzieci) with 400 children playing and the Second International Volunteer Work Expo (II Międzynarodowe Targi Wolontariatu). At the event came around 8 thousand people. Along the VIPs there was former Prime Minister of Poland, Jerzy Buzek reading the storybooks for children. On the volunteer work expo came around 200 people from various organizations.

Concerts

Around 40 bands have performed on three stages. The largest scene was placed by the swimming pool. Following bands have performed their music on that stage:

* On Friday - Blue Raincoat, Lao Che, Dezerter, Ścianka, Low Freqency in Stereo and Architecture in Helsinki
* On Saturday - 19 Wiosen, O.S.T.R, Tymon & Transistors, Bassisters Orchestra, Pogodno, Nosowska i Electrelane. Kasia Nosowska had singing the tracks from her new album UniSexBlues.

On the forest scene, near the park entrance, following band have been performing:

* On Friday - Old Time Radio, Pink Freud, Generał Stillwell, Starzy Singers, Dick4Dick i Piano Magic
* On Saturday - Komety, The Complainer, Kobiety, Cool Kids Of Death, Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa, Radian and iLiKETRAiNS.

Concerts on the both scenes took place alternatingly.

On the smaller "Machina scene" following music groups have been performing:

* On Friday - Punk.Discorporation, Muariolanza, Phillipe Petit Dj set, Strings of Consciousness, PumaJaw and Port Royal
* On Saturday - Dj Hrd & Dj Chine vs. Jd Video, 100nka, The Syntetic, Mietall Waluś Magazine and Markus Detmer dj Set.

John Prescott to stand down as UK MP

John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to stand down as a Member of Parliament after the next general election.

Mr Prescott, 69, who has been MP for the constituency for Hull East for 37 years, made his announcement for at a weekend garden party. Stephen Brady, chairman of the local Labour association said, "John told us he would not be standing again. People paid tribute to his long service. It was an emotional event."

Prescott, recently took up the post of head of the Parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe. It is suspected he may enter the House of Lords and has been reported that he sold his memoirs for £300,000.

There has also been speculations over who will replace Prescott as an MP. Amongst the people who have been mentioned are Prescott's son David Prescott and Chris Leslie, an aide to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

General Alberto Gonzales resigns

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, after several months of controversy, today announced his resignation after 13 years of public service. He will leave office on September 17, 2007. While he did not elaborate on the circumstances of his departure, he referred to his tenure as a "remarkable journey" and said he had "lived the American dream."

Critics of the embattled Attorney General have called for his ousting for several months, largely over his conflicts with the US Congress over the Bush Administration's warrant-less wiretapping program, and his firing of nine US attorneys.

Observers have expressed surprise at the sudden announcement, as Gonzales had said as recently as the weekend of the 18th of August that he had planned to stay through the end of President Bush's second term.

Critics of the Attorney General, most notably Harry Reid, majority leader for the US Senate, have welcomed the announcement, as Gonzales had been one of the most controversial members of the Bush Administration.

President Bush spoke on his "close friend's" resignation saying that he has reluctantly accepted the resignation, but noted that Gonzales' name had been "dragged through the mud for political reasons." Throughout the recent controversy Bush has stood next to Gonzales. Paul Clement, the current Solicitor General, will serve as the acting Attorney General until a replacement has been confirmed by the Senate.

Phil Garner and GM Tim Purpura fired

The Houston Astros have fired manager Phil Garner and general manager Tim Purpura less than two years after leading the team to its first World Series appearance (2005).

Bench coach Cecil Cooper was appointed interim manager and team president Tal Smith will serve as interim general manager.

"I felt this was the time for a change," owner Drayton McLane said. "I just think we needed a fresh start."

Garner took over the Astros in the middle of the 2004 season after Jimy Williams was fired. The Astros went 48-26 in the second half and won 36 of their last 46 games to win the NL wild card, then defeated Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs before losing to St. Louis in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.

Garner managed Milwaukee from 1992-99 and Detroit from 2000-02. He has a 985-1,054 career record as a major league manager, including 277-252 with the Astros.

Purpura joined the organization in 1994 and directed player development and the Astros' six minor league affiliates before taking over from Gerry Hunsicker as GM before the 2005 season.

The Astros are currently in fifth place in the National League Central with a record of 58-73.

Nick Hogan, son of Hulk Hogan 'seriously injured' in vehicle accident

Nick Hogan In a Serious Car Accident, Nick Hogan, 17, the son of wrestling star Hulk Hogan has been "seriously injured" in a vehicle accident along with one other unnamed individual. Both are reported to have been flown via helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

TMZ.com reports that police and witnesses say the accident occurred in Clearwater, Florida around 7:30 p.m. (eastern time) on Sunday night while Hogan was driving his Toyota Supra at a "very high rate of speed." He lost control of his car and hit the center median, flipping which then slammed into a palm tree, resting on its back end.

The police said the two travelling in the car sustained "very very serious" injuries. They also said that the tree "destroyed the entire car".

A police officer was not far behind the car when it flipped over and radioed in for help. Firefighters had to use the 'jaws of life' to cut Hogan and the other individual free from the wreckage.

No call was made to 911 and the occupants conditions are not yet known.

Obesity rates rise in U.S : Americans Are Still Getting Fatter

According to the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) research group, obesity rates in 31 states in the United States continued to climb. Not one state showed a decline in obesity rates in the latest report released Monday.

Mississippi became the first state to have more than 30 percent of its' residents considered to be obese. West Virginia and Alabama, however, edged very close to the 30 percent marker.

Meanwhile, Colorado continued to hold the title as the leanest state in the U.S., with less than 18 percent of its' residents considered to be obese.

The report also examined childhood obesity rates for the first time. The District of Columbia came in at 22.8%, the highest, while Utah had the lowest ranking at 8.5%.

The TFAH's director Jeffrey Levi said the government needs to become more involved in preventing obesity. "It's one of those issues where everyone believes this is an epidemic, but it's not getting the level of political and policymaker attention that it ought to...As every candidate for president talks about health care reform and controlling health care cost costs, if we don't hone in on this issue, none of their proposals are going to be affordable."

However, Levi did acknowledge that many people believe obesity results from personal decision making and not societal policy. But Levi said the modern world can help promote good choices.

Larry Craig, Idaho senator pleads guilty after restroom incident

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June in an investigation into lewd conduct conducted by Minnesota police in a men’s restroom there. Craig pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct following a June 11 incident in a Minnesota airport men’s room where police said he was giving hand and foot signals to a man in the next stall who was an undercover officer according to a report published today in Roll Call, which broke the story.

Craig supported both the Federal Marriage Amendment and a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage in Idaho. He has stated previously that he doesn’t support non-discrimination and hate crimes legislation and would not pledge that his office would not discriminate against gays.

Some gay rights activists spoke out Monday against Craig. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force called Craig an “infuriating pathetic hypocrite.” Craig's arrest and guilty plea has already had repercussions for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer: "Suing to Expand Health Plan"

Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Monday that New York would consider suing federal health officials if the state was not granted a waiver to expand its federally subsidized health insurance program for children.

The announcement followed a decision by federal authorities to place new restrictions on such programs, which are partly financed under the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program and highly popular with state lawmakers..............

News source
www.nytimes.com

RARER: The moon is set to turn blood red tonight

The moon eclipse will be visible in Melbourne from 6.52pm tonight, with the total eclipse from 7.52pm to 9.22pm.

In the first such occurrence since 2000, the Earth will block the sun's light shining on the moon, allowing only scattered sunlight to illuminate the planet's biggest satellite.

Stargazers can expect the moon to shift between shades of red, orange and yellow, as the atmosphere filters out most of the blue light.

The colours will depend on the extent of volcanic gas and dust in the atmosphere filtering the light.
Senior weather forecaster James Taylor said today the best views of the astronomical event would be in Melbourne's northern and north-western suburbs.

"There is some moisture moving in so there is likely to be some low level cloud out tonight, but there's no need to throw in the towel, because there is reasonable chance that there will be breaks in the cover," Mr Taylor said.

The lunar eclipse is visible at full moon when the sun, Earth and moon are perfectly alignedAstrologers believe the full moon eclipse represent the time of endings, often in which we are forced to release attachments or relationships that are diverting us from our destiny.

The eclipse will be visible across the Pacific rim from Australia's east coast to the west coast of the American continent.

If you miss this one, the next total eclipse will not occur until 2011....................(Matthew Schulz and Dina Rosendorf - www.news.com.au)
photo by reuters

Actor Owen Wilson suicide attempt

Actor Owen Wilson, has been hospitalised following a suicide attempt.Wilson, 38, was transported to St John's hospital in Santa Monica, California on Sunday. Gossip magazines said that he had cut his left wrist and taken an indeterminate amount of pills.

"I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time," Wilson said in a statement. Regarded as a fun-loving bachelor, Wilson is nicknamed the Butterscotch Stallion and was last involved with actress Kate Hudson. The relationship ended in June and, according to celebrity reports, it plunged Wilson into depression.

Michael Vick Apologizes After Guilty Plea

Michael Vick apologized to fans, his team and National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday after pleading guilty to a federal charge he helped run an interstate dogfighting ring.

Vick's plea agreement, entered Aug. 24, said he was involved with Bad Newz Kennels, which bought, trained and fought dogs in Virginia, and other states. The agreement also said he funded gambling associated with the ring and agreed to the killing of poor-performing dogs.

Vick, 27, called dogfighting ``a terrible thing'' in a televised news conference and said he had used ``bad judgment,'' and now felt ``ashamed'' and ``disappointed'' in himself.`I accept the responsibility for my actions and what I did, and now I have to pay the consequences for it,'' Vick said yesterday in Richmond, Virginia.

Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement that he felt ``heartened'' that Vick accepted responsibility.``No one can feel good about seeing someone take this kind of fall,'' Pacelle said yesterday. ``It's tragic.''

Vick said he needed to grow up, and blamed himself for his predicament.

Red Bull is bringing Flugtag back to Austin this Saturday night

Red Bull is bringing Flugtag back to Austin this Saturday night. Enjoy yourself on Auditorium Shores as you watch some of the bravest and/or craziest people in town show off what they've been crafting for months. The evening will also include a visit from the Red Bull Air Force elite skydiving team and a musical performance by local artists The Jungle Rockers.

Photo Courtesy of Don

Flugtag Austin Video

Flugtag Austin 2003 Recap, Courtesy

Greece on fire, The Greek fires fire in Zaharo Greece

ZAHARO, Greece(MSNBC News Services) - Forest fires that have taken at least 44 lives rage uncontrolled across vast areas of southern Greece, the fire department says. The skies around Athens are red and ashes fall in the center of the capital as wind drives the flames across the parched landscape.

Since Friday morning, more than 170 blazes fires have burned from the western Ionian islands to Ioannina in northwest Greece, and down to the south. New fires broke out Saturday, and fears grew that the death toll could rise as rescue crews reached villages that had been cut off by walls of flames.

Arson was suspected in several cases, with 20 new fires starting during the night, said fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

Authorities evacuated nuns from a convent and closed off a major highway on Mount Ymittos near Athens as flames approached the capital’s eastern outskirts, causing extensive damage to a three-storey building in the Papagou suburb, the fire department said. Firemen assisted by water-dropping aircraft and hundreds of volunteers brought the blaze under partial control. No injuries were reported.

The fire department said it was likely the Mount Ymittos fire was caused by arson, and an investigation was under way.

‘Fighting against heavy odds’
As flags flew at half-staff over Parliament and other government buildings, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis led an emergency meeting of senior ministers in Athens.

“This is a day of national mourning,” Karamanlis said after visiting afflicted areas. “I wish to express my deep grief over the lost lives. ... We are fighting against heavy odds, on many fronts and under particularly tough conditions.”

Desperate residents and local mayors call television and radio stations to appeal for help from overstretched firefighters.

Several more villages were evacuated on Saturday.

Water-dropping helicopters and airplanes were redeployed to battle the fires, but some were hampered for a second day by strong winds.

Image: Greece fire
AP
A wildfire approaches homes in Taygetos, Greece, on Friday.

Following a Greek request to its European U n i o n partners for help, France said it was sending two fire-fighting aircraft Saturday, while Germany, Spain and non-EU member Norway offered aircraft, and Cyprus was to send firefighters and fire engines.

The deadliest fire was in the western Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where at least 38 people were killed in mountain villages near Zaharo, the fire department said. A massive fire in the area, fanned by strong winds, continued to burn out of control.

Firefighters searching through charred houses in the region after daybreak found 10 bodies in the village of Makistos, the department said. They were believed to include a mother and her four children reported missing during the night, it said.

Nine of those killed near Zaharo—including three firefighters—died after a car crashed into a fire truck and led to a pile up as residents tried to flee the area, the fire department said.

At dawn, the smoldering remains of the fire truck could be seen overturned in a gully, and the charred wreckage of cars and a motorbike lay strewn across the road.

Five of the dead were found to the southeast, near a hotel on the outskirts of the town of Areohoro, while a sixth—a firefighter—died of a heart attack while trying to battle the blaze.

‘If we don’t stop this now ...’
The blazes caused extensive electricity cuts in the Peloponnese, where officials said more than 230 villages were without power Saturday.

Image: Flames engulf the village of Xirohori
Giota Korbaki / EPA
Flames engulf the village of Xirohori, Greece, on Friday.
Hot, dry winds gusting to gale force throughout Friday were expected to continue Saturday before abating in the evening. The winds frequently prevented firefighting planes from taking off, leaving mainly ground forces to fight the flames in the southern Peloponnese, occasionally helped by helicopters.

A fire on the island of Evia north of the capital grew through the night, and the authorities declared a state of emergency in the area, said Sofia Moutsou, the mayor of the town of Styra. At least three villages were evacuated, the fire department’s Diamandis said.

“If we don’t stop this now there will be nothing left,” said Moutsou early Saturday. She was hoping ferries could transport fire trucks to the island to help tackle the blaze.

With firefighting services stretched to the limit, the military was also called in to help. Authorities said 500 soldiers, as well as several military helicopters, were to join the firefighting efforts.

Greece has suffered its worst summer for forest fires this year, with hundreds of blazes burning thousands of hectares of forest and brushland. With early elections just three weeks away, the devastating fires are certain to become a political issue. Karamanlis’ government has been criticized for its response to previous fires that ravaged Greece earlier this summer. Ten people, including five firefighters, died in those earlier fires.

Virtual dissection, the latest hi-tech gadget

virtual dissection is the latest hi-tech gadget to capture the imagination of students and the hearts of animal lovers. In biology, students now do a virtual frog dissection on their computer screen.

virtual dissections deliver an unparalleled learning experience, complete with scalpels, scissors, and labeled organs. Available simulated dissections include frogs, worms, cats, and even a fetal pig.While many students object to dissecting a cat or a frog in biology, these virtual simulations draw no complaints from the students. And another big plus for science teachers is that no one gets sick while doing the dissection lab work anymore.

check out the leading company for virtual dissection, Froguts.com

Fenton Tornado, damaged everything

Fenton Tornado damaged buildings and homes, uprooted trees and left most of the city without power Friday afternoon as a line of intense thunderstorms rolled through the area.

Police and fire crews were responding to numerous calls for downed electrical lines and property damage after the fast-moving storm sliced through the area beginning about 5:30 p.m.Officials ordered people off the streets Friday night, enacting a curfew at 8:30 p.m. Police in squad cars posted around the city were told not to let anyone in without proof they were residents.

"There's a good chance of four separate tornadoes in that system," Costello said.No injuries were reported.

The line of intense storms spawned possible tornadoes in northern Livingston and Oakland counties and southwest Lapeer County, the National Weather Service said.By late Friday night, only the Fenton tornado had been confirmed, meteorologist Danny Costello said. Another reported twister southeast of Hadley also looked like a tornado, he said.

Fenton Tornado Cause 130,000 people were left with no power or electricity

Over 130,000 people were left with no power or electricity after the fenton tornado caused extensive damage in the area.The exact number of people left without power after fenton tornado is roughly 131,000.

The power company, Consumers Energy, has said that 81,000 homes and businesses were left with out power due to the fenton tornado.Another power company, Detroit Edison has also said the fenton tornado has caused 50,000 of its customers to loose power.

Massachusetts State Lottery

Mega Millions multistate lottery jackpot has rose to an enormous $250 million because none of the tickets sold for last night’s draw matched all five numbers, the Associated Press reported, citing the lottery.

The second prize was divided between twelve tickets and a sum of $250,000 was divided between them. The next draw is due to take place on Tuesday.The Mega Millions tickets are sold in the states of California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Though all the odds are never exactly in your favour, there is still always a chance that you can win with the Massachusetts state lottery. From instant win games and Keno to Megabucks and Mega Millions, the Mass lottery has something to offer for just about everyone.

GOP Attacks John Warner

for Failing to Echo George Bush

The Nation -- Here is how things work today at the top levels of the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.
ADVERTISEMENT

One of the Republican party's most prominent senators, a former Secretary of the Navy and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, returns from Iraq with his assessment of the circumstance on the ground. That assessment is based on conversations with military commanders and intelligence personnel who seek him out as one of the truest friends the U.S. military has in Congress, as well as on his own experience as one of the savviest observers of international affairs in Washington.

On the same day, a magazine editor who has consistently been wrong about Iraq, has no formal or serious contact with military commanders on the ground and is broadly considered to be so biased with regard to developments in the region that his judgment cannot be trusted, pipes up with his latest theory about why the occupation is going great.

Which of the two statements does the Republican National Committee use all of its considerable communications resources to highlight: that of the party's respected senior senator or that of the discredited magazine editor?

For the ideological zombies running the RNC these days, the answer is easy: Go with the guy who always gets Iraq wrong........

source

Top Headlines

Top Headlines

* Voters in Nauru go to the polls for the Nauruan parliamentary election, 2007 and the Nauruan constitutional referendum, 2007 proposing the direct election of the President of Nauru. (ABC News Australia)
* Horse racing meetings throughout Australia are cancelled due to an outbreak of equine influenza in Centennial Park stables next to Sydney's Randwick Racecourse. (ABC News Australia)
* Former Ku Klux Klan member James Seale is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the murder of two black men Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi in 1964. (Reuters via News Limited)
* A Georgian official announces that Georgian forces have fired on a Russian aircraft claimed to have violated Georgian airspace, possibly shooting it down. (BBC)
* United States District Court judge William Hoeveler rules against former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega returning to Panama after he completes his sentence in a United States prison stating that there was no reason why he shouldn't be extradited to France to face a prison term there. (Reuters)
* Citing a "very reliable" source at the Miami University, the Swedish broad sheet newspaper Norra Skåne reports that Cuban leader Fidel Castro is dead. (Norra Skåne) (The Expressen)
* Quebec City mayor Andrée Boucher dies of a heart attack at 70. (CBC), (CANOE)
* Part of the Montreal Metro and the street above are closed off after the formation of cracks at McGill station, causing severe traffic problems in downtown. There is no indication as to when the road or station will be re-opened. (CBC)
* At least 20 people are killed in Peloponnese, Greece as a result of 150 wildfires burning out of control: two regions have been declared as disaster areas. (Athens News Agency)
* A Florida judge sentences John Couey to death for the rape and murder of a 9 year old girl Jessica Lunsford in Citrus County, Florida. (ABC News America)
* Russia sells Venezuela 98 Ilyushin Il-114 aircraft. (Reuters)
* Flood warnings are in place in 10 US states from Ohio to Texas with at least 25 people believed to have died in the past week. (BBC)
* Mexican oil platforms resume production following the end of the threat from Hurricane Dean. (Reuters)
* Three British Army soldiers die in Afghanistan in a suspected friendly fire incident. (BBC)
* Bangladesh eases curfew arrangements in place in its major cities following a reduction in street violence. (Reuters)
* Sixty suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq gunmen attack police facilities in Samarra, Iraq resulting in at least 3 deaths and 9 injuries. (AP via Fox News)
* Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations urges the Government of Myanmar to show restraint in its treatment of students and pro-democracy activists who have been protesting against the regime. (ABC News Australia)
* At least four Pakistan Army soldiers die in a suicide bomber attack on a military convoy near Miranshah, the main city of North Waziristan near the Afghan border. (BBC)
* The explosion of a car bomb outside a police station in the Basque city of Durango, Spain is believed to be the first attack by the separatist group ETA since it called off a ceasefire in June. (AP via CNN)
* Dozens of people are rescued from floods on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. (ABC News)
* The Governor General of Jamaica Kenneth Octavius Hall announces that the Jamaican general election, 2007 is postponed to September 3 due to the impact of Hurricane Dean. (Reuters)
* The Nigerian government extends a curfew in Port Harcourt after hundreds die in gang violence this month. (Reuters Alertnet)
* A storm in Chicago injures 40 people and disrupts the transport network. (AP via WSB)
* Top British tennis player Tim Henman has confirmed he will retire from the sport after this year's Davis Cup in Croatia. (Sky News)
* The Supreme Court of Pakistan issues a ruling allowing former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif to return to Pakistan. (AndhraNews.net)
* Officials in Ohio declare a state of emergency in nine counties as a result of flooding. (Reuters)
* Two people are killed in Ermera, East Timor in another outbreak of political violence. (ABC News)
* The South African Communist Party launches an investigation into what happened to a political donation of 500,000 rand allegedly made in 2002. (BBC)
* The European Union lifts a ban on the export of British livestock, meat and dairy products imposed after a recent foot and mouth disease outbreak in Surrey. (The Telegraph)
* MySpace and MTV join forces to let candidates in the 2008 United States presidential election hold online webcasts with young people. (AFP via the Melbourne Age)
* At least 25 people are killed, 22 arrested and five abducted as suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq militants attack a Sunni mosque in Baquba, Iraq. (BBC)
* Japanese political activist Yoshihiro Tanjo is charged with intimidation for cutting off his little finger and sending it to the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe over Shinzo's refusal to visit the Yasukuni shrine to commemorate Japan's World War II dead. (BBC) (Reuters)
* Hurricane Dean is downgraded to a tropical depression over Mexico after killing 20 people in the Caribbean. (AP via Fox News)
* Two youths aged 18 and 14 are arrested in Liverpool, England on suspicion of shooting dead an 11-year-old boy in Croxteth. (The Times and PA)
* More than 1200 Ford workers in Victoria, Australia are stood down due to an industrial dispute over unpaid entitlements owed to workers in a Ford supplier. (AAP via News Limited)
* Vendors selling puffer fish meat as salmon has led to 15 deaths and 115 people being sickened in Thailand over the past three years. (AP via IHT)
* U.S. Customs and U.S. Navy officials seized a submarine-like vessel filled with $352 million worth of cocaine off the Guatemalan coast. (prices given by CIA) (AP via Forbes)
* War in Afghanistan:
o Two Canadian Army soldiers are killed and a Radio Canada journalist injured in an explosion. (CNN)
o A German engineer kidnapped by the Taliban pleads for help on Afghan television. (CNN)
* The Revolutionary Congolese Movement (MRC), the Front for the Patriotic Resistance of Ituri (FRPI), and the Front of National Integration (FNI) rebel groups agree to disarm and cooperate with the MONUC peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Scoop)
* Pakistan's Supreme Court says Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is not a law-enforcement agency or a customs authority. (AndhraNews.net)
* Hurricane Dean makes its final landfall near Tecolutla, Veracruz, Mexico, 100 miles north of the city of Veracruz, as a Category 2 storm. The Red Cross reports only one injury and no deaths from Dean's first landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula. (CNN)
* War in Iraq
o An American UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashes in northern Iraq killing all 14 soldiers on board. (Wikinews)
o A suicide bomber kills at least 20 people and wounding 40 more in the town of Baiji. (RTÉ)
* Voters in Kiribati go to the polls for the Kiribatian parliamentary election, 2007. (AP via IHT)
* Three Pakistani soldiers are killed in an attack by suspected pro-Taliban militants on a checkpoint in Bannu in the North-West Frontier Province. (BBC)
* Typhoon Sepat has killed at least 36 people in southeast China in the past week. (CNN)
* The U.S. Campaign for Burma claims that Myanmar's military government has arrested at least nine leaders of the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students. (AP via the Guardian)
* UK government plans to spend £5.2bn in the next four years on Identity Card and related schemes. (The Register)
* Laura Richardson of the U.S. Democratic Party is elected in the special election for California's 37th congressional district, replacing Juanita Millender-McDonald who died last spring. (San Jose Mercury News)
* The Bank of Japan and Reserve Bank of Australia inject more funds into money markets to ensure stock market liquidity. (AP via Taipei Times)
* Ziad Fariz resigns as the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan following a government decision not to increase fuel taxes. The Cabinet also sets an election date on November 20. (AP via the IHT)
* The National Assembly of Venezuela gives initial unanimous approval to constitutional amendments that would remove term limits on the position of President of Venezuela currently held by Hugo Chávez. (CBS)
* Jailed Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari is released on bail after more than 100 days in detention. (NYT)
* The Central Intelligence Agency releases a report critical of the Agency's performance prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. (NYT)
* 2007 Lebanon conflict: Fatah al-Islam fighters battling the Lebanese army in a refugee camp have asked for a ceasefire to allow their families and remaining civilians to be evacuated. (Aljazeera)
* Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely at Kennedy Space Center at 12:32:29 EDT (16:32:29 UTC). (IHT)
* Five thousand Dhaka University students in Bangladesh riot, resulting in major disruption to the university with 150 students being injured. (USA Today)
* Sayf al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has called for independent institutions in Libya including a central bank, a high court and media. (Reuters)
* Hurricane Dean:
o Hurricane Dean makes landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, just north of Chetumal, near the Belize border, at Category 5 strength.(BBC)
o There are no reports of deaths but 11 people have died elsewhere as a result of the hurricane. (Reuters)
o Hurricane Dean has wiped out Dominica's banana crop and causes major damage to the Jamaican crop. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
* The governments of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are negotiating over a line demarcating each nation's respective rights to petroleum in the Atlantic Ocean. The DRC is expected to gain exploration rights to billions of untapped barrels worth of oil. (People's Daily)
* Dr Mohamed Haneef wins his bid in the Federal Court to have his Australian work visa reinstated after Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews canceled it after Dr Haneef was charged with "providing material support to a terrorist organization." (ABC News Australia) Andrews later says the Australian government would appeal against the court ruling. (AndhraNews.net)
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 hits the Indonesian province of Papua 101 kilometers from Tanahmerah. (The Philippine Star)
* Fifteen former associates of Saddam Hussein, including his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, face a trial in the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal for their alleged role in suppressing a Shiite uprising in 1991. (BBC)
* Winds equivalent to a Category 2 cyclone buffet the Byron Bay area of New South Wales before moving north to the Gold Coast area of Queensland. (ABC News Australia)
* Delegates from the Russian Communist Youth Union vote 98-1 to back the pro-Kremlin, center-left party A Just Russia in December's State Duma elections. (The Moscow Times)
* NASA clears the Space Shuttle Endeavour for an early landing tomorrow at Cape Canaveral. (Reuters)
* The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to extend the African Union Mission to Somalia. (BBC)
* At least 20 people have died as a result of flooding in the United States with further flooding likely in Minnesota and Wisconsin. (New York Times)
* A military judge dismisses two charges against Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, a United States Army officer in charge of the interrogation centre at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Jordan still faces several more charges including cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, disobeying a superior officer and failure to obey orders. (Reuters via News Limited)
* The thirteenth and final victim is recovered from the site of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge Collapse. (AP via CNN)
* An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude hits south of the Philippines. (The Gulf Times)
* The Grand National Assembly starts voting to select a new President of Turkey. The frontrunner Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül fails to achieve a necessary two-thirds majority in the first round with 341 out of 550 but is highly likely to be elected in later rounds when a simple majority of 50 per cent is required. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
* Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick agrees to a plea deal to charges of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and conspiracy to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture in Richmond, Virginia, USA. (ESPN.com)
* British police have released CCTV footage of a motorcyclist shortly before his murder on the M40 motorway near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. (Sky)
* Muslim groups occupy Sikh Bhai Taro Singh Jee temple in Lahore, Pakistan (AndhraNews.net)
* An official of Murray Energy Corp, the operators of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, say that six trapped miners "may never be found". (Wikinews)
* An earthquake of 5.2 magnitude hits northern Tanzania 85 kilometres north of Arusha. (Reuters)
* Mohammed Ali al-Hasani, the Shia governor of Iraq's southern Al Muthanna Governorate is killed by a roadside bomb at Samawa. (BBC)
* The Tasmanian Labor Party expels Harry Quick, the Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Franklin. (ABC News Australia)
* Hurricane Dean:
o The eye of Hurricane Dean rapidly moves westward, passing just south of Jamaica, bringing strong hurricane-force winds and storm surges to bear down on the island nation, though the strongest wind is believed to have been offshore. (CNN)
o Mexico evacuates tourists from the Yucatán Peninsula and anthropologists prepare Mayan heritage sites for the possible impact. (AP via Washington Post)
o Hurricane Dean strengthens to Category 5 status as it already claims the lives of 11 people on Caribbean islands. (Reuters)
o Petróleos Mexicanos evacuates 18,000 offshore workers from sites in the southern Gulf of Mexico. (AP via the Houston Chronicle)
* A summit between US president George W. Bush, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, and about 30 CEOs from the three countries begins in the resort town of Montebello, Quebec, near Ottawa. The talks will deal with the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Protesters representing a variety of issues hold demonstrations regarding the exclusion of civil society from the talks and the secrecy of the process; police respond with tear gas. (CBC News)
* A China Airlines Boeing 737 airplane explodes less than a minute after all passengers and crew are evacuated shortly after landing at Naha, Japan. (Wikinews)

all headlines on Wikinews

5,000 year old chewing gum found in Finland

Student from Scotland has discovered a 5,000 year old piece of chewing gum on a dig in Finland.

Sarah Pickin, a 23-year-old part-time barmaid studying archaeology with Derby University, discovered the gum during a dig in the north-west of the country. The gum is a lump of birch bark tar, and still has visible tooth marks. It has been sent away for analysis, and radio carbon dating is predicted to show the gum to be 5,000 years old.

Ms Pickin said of her discovery "I had heard of ancient chewing gum being found before on previous European digs so when I found it in the trench, it was the first thing that crossed my mind.

"However, it looks just like a dirty piece of modern chewing gum with no smell or taste and I was also worried it could have been a bit of fossilised poo, so I asked a few of the other students to make sure.

"Thankfully they agreed that it was birch-bark gum and it's now away to be carbon dated and have the teeth marks analysed before it goes on display."

It will be displayed in Finland’s Kierikki centre, which is devoted to finds from the area. Sarah Pickin also discovered a piece of an amber ring, a slate arrowhead and a hair needle. All the finds date to the Neolithic period.

Two arrests in Croxteth shooting

Two teenagers, aged 14 and 18, have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of an 11-year-old boy. The boy, identified by detectives as Rhys Jones, was shot last night in the Croxteth area of Liverpool, on his way home from playing football, by a hooded youth. The police are expecting to make further arrests during the week.

Merseyside Police have said the youths, both males, are also from the Croxteth area. They have since been bailed, and the police are now looking for a person aged 13 to 15-years-old. There is some speculation that a gang known as the "Croxteth Crew" may have been involved.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, Merseyside Police Chief Constable, has made it clear that the police are still considering other leads, saying: "There have been two arrests in this case, but that doesn't prove anything. The principal thing I need to get over to the public is we need your help, and we are not yet at all certain as to who committed this crime." He went on to state the police are looking for both the killer and the person who provided the weapon.

PM Gordon Brown has described the incident as a "heinous crime that shocked the whole of the country", while Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she is "shocked and saddened to hear about this tragic shooting". They both joined calls for the local community to cooperate fully with the police.

The leader of Liverpool City Council, Warren Bradley, has called for "a summit consisting of community leaders, police, emergency services and reformed criminals of all major cities to be held with the home secretary to find solutions to the issues we all face". He says gun crime "is an issue that all major cities face".

Aunt Charged With Hiring Prostitutes For 12-Year-Old Nephew

Donora, Pennsylvania a woman is being accused of hiring two prostitutes last November to have sex with her 12-year-old nephew. Police said details began to surface just this month.The boy's mother said, "My anger is out of control." The mother's name was not released to protect the boy's identity and privacy.However, police said the boy's 36-year-old aunt, Linda Van Pool, is being charged with soliciting prostitution, corruption of a minor, and endangering the welfare of a child.

The boy's mother reportedly is a bartender in Donora. She says Van Pool came to the bar asking for eighty dollars for the boy. The mother says she never thought the money would be used for prostitutes. She said,

"I just thought he would call his grandmother and wind up spending it at Wal-Mart or wherever...I didn't know that she would take him to those type of women. I didn't think they existed in this area. I thought you had to go to Pittsburgh for that."

Van Pool reportedly took the boy to two separate locations.

Police said the 12-year-old's father had passed away a short time ago and that the child was "acting up", so the sex was thought to be "a way to appease the boy."

Van Pool has been placed in the Washington County Correctional Facility on $5,000 bond.

Teenager arrested over Rhys death

A male aged 16, has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Rhys Jones two days ago in the Croxteth area of Liverpool. This most recent development follows the arrest and bailing of two teenagers on suspicion of murder yesterday. All those arrested so far have been local.

Merseyside Police have also today released more information about the killing. An abandoned bicycle has been found in an area "with a different postcode to the shooting", which is now being investigated. Officers also confirmed descriptions of the killer's firearm, with a police source saying: "The murder weapon is described variously by witnesses as a black handgun with a long barrel." The source went on to state that they "don't know what the motive was", stressing that "inquiries are ongoing and further arrests possible" and that the investigation is "at a very early stage".

Earlier in the day, there had been further calls for people with information surrounding the incident to come forward, including messages from Phil Neville and David Moyes, captain and manager of Everton F.C., the football club that Rhys supported. There will also be a minute's silence in memory of Rhys held ahead of Everton's game against Blackburn on Saturday, and players from both teams will wear black armbands.

The police have said they were disappointed with the current response from the public to appeals to identify the killer. Assistant Chief Constable Patricia Gallan said: "We need to get this killer off the street. Within this community people know who is responsible for this crime." She added, in a message aimed at the killer: "If you are responsible for this crime, come and tell us and hand yourself in

Motorist admits driving at 172mph

Timothy Brady has admitted to a charge of driving at 172 mph (276.8 kmph) on a British A road. The 33 year old was caught driving his Porshe 911 on the A420 during a routine speed check by Thames Valley Police near Oxford. Mr Brady admitted the charge at the hearing taking place at Oxford Crown Court.

Mr Brady was clocked by police on a bridge and was later arrested four miles down the road after police used a car to block the road.

The speed is thought to be the highest ever recorded on a British road and is 100mph over the legal limit of 70 mph. Campaigners from Brake, a road safety charity, told the BBC that the offence was "shocking".

He is likely to receive a jail term and be disqualified from driving. The previous record was set by Jason McAllister, a car dealer from Aberdeen who was clocked doing 156.7 mph in his BMW M3.

Rumors of Fidel Castro's death

Rumors of Castro's death began circulating today. PerezHilton.com was the first to "break" the news, saying that an official announcement would be coming at 4pm. No official announcements have been made. The Miami Herald acknowledged the flurry of rumors with a new article posted today, yet remained wary of the validity of the rumors. The Coast Guard and DHS and Border Patrol agencies are on high alert. First, South Florida Law Enforcement is on alert. An EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in Homestead.

Orchids' seduction tricks new research

Anne Gaskett, a PhD student from Macquarie University in Sydney, has been conducting new research into the nature of the relationship between five species of native Australian tongue orchids and the orchid dupe wasp (Lissopimpla excelsa).

The research builds on an original discovery in the 1920s that the orchids convince male wasps that they are females of the same species. The wasps then attempt to mate with the flowers, before moving on, often to another orchid, thus pollinating them. The discovery received worldwide attention at the time.

"I wanted to know what it was about the five orchids that could persuade the male that they were all a female [wasp]," she says, adding that the flowers all look very different to the human eye, and that usually only one species of insect pollinates one species of plant.

"I have accumulated the first compelling evidence of an ongoing and escalating arms race between orchids and their unwitting insect pollinators," Gaskett, says, "Over generations the insects learn to avoid having sex with orchids, and this means only the most persuasive orchids reproduce, which drives the acceleration of orchid subterfuge."

Gaskett has discovered that the wasp, however, quickly learns to avoid the orchid, meaning that "...only the most persuasive orchids will continue to reproduce," she says. She has also discovered that the flowers have various structures that feel like parts of a female wasp to a male, including mimic 'love handles', which the male would normaly hold on to during mating. Gaskett says of this particular discovery that the flowers have "curves in all the right places".

Gasket has also used a spectrometer to analyse the colours of four of the orchids and a female wasp, and found that, although they look very different to humans, they actually match almost exactly.

Gasket's research is important to the conservation of the orchids, and to developing sensitive control methods for use against agricultural pests. She says of the wasps "these insects might be fools for love, but their role as orchid pollinators makes them indispensable."

Gasket has currently turned her attentions to the role of scent in the process, and is testing the effect of the perfumes of the orchids on the antennae of the male wasps.