A song proclaiming that United States president-elect Barack Obama is Irish has got more than 600,000 views on video sharing site YouTube, with many of those views coming after he was elected on November 4. "O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara, There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama," states the song. "You don't believe me, I hear you say. But Barack's as Irish, as was JFK. His granddaddy's daddy came from Moneygall, a small Irish village, well known to you all".

According to a song, Barack Obama is Irish.


On Wednesday night people in the Bahçelievler district of Yenibosna in Istanbul, Turkey, claimed that they had seen a UFO flying in the sky, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reports. They said that the UFO was glowing with white lights and that it revolved around itself. Istanbul has had previous UFO incidents in the past, and in 2002, the Istanbul UFO Museum was opened to the public.


A massive polio immunization drive is under way in more than 20 nations of West and Central Africa, but in Cote d'Ivoire violence has forced a postponement of the vaccination campaign, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced November 18.


BEIJING — In the decade since the Chinese government began repressing Falun Gong, a crusade that human rights groups say has led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of practitioners and claimed at least 2,000 lives, the world's attention has shifted elsewhere. The drive against the spiritual group has eliminated its leadership, decimated the ranks of faithful and convinced many Chinese that the group is an "evil cult," as the government contends. But 10 years on, the war on Falun Gong remains unfinished.


A four-day state of emergency has been declared in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar after violent protests occurred after allegations of vote rigging and fraud in Sunday's elections. Reports state that 5 people have been killed, and over 300 injured. The injured were police and protesters alike, suffering from smoke poisoning, rubber bullets, and stoning. Among the injured was a Japanese citizen, who was reportedly flown to Japan in the morning.


Ecuador has received short shrift in U.S. policy debates. Yet in recent years, significant public debate has taken place in Ecuador on the joint U.S./Colombian initiative and its effects on Ecuador and its citizens.

Peru debates border region with Ecuador.


Reagan was seriously wounded by a bullet fired by John Hinckley Jr. in an attempted assassination, but made a remarkably speedy recovery.

Reagan survived an attempted assassin's bullets.


With more than 223,000 refugees already in Texas, Perry said officials at relief centers, around the state, say they are running out of room.

With more than 220,000 refugees in Texas, Perry warned that his state was running out of room.


The prize is named after Alfred Nobel, a pacifist and entrepreneur who invented dynamite in 1866. Nobel left much of his wealth to establish the award, which has honoured achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and efforts to promote peace since 1901.


Ostriches put their heads into the sand to avoid the wind.


Hugh Jackman has done it all - almost. He's hosted the Oscars, danced on Broadway, flashed his winning grin and flexed his acting muscles, but Friday is the first time the Australian actor will claw his way into movie theaters as the main attraction. In "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," there's no Halle Berry or Nicole Kidman by his side to buoy the box office. This time it's just Jackman, his claws and a heap of Hollywood expectations to the tune of $150 million.

Hugh Jackman will play the magician Harry Houdini.


"The rapidly mixed brigades of former enemies have been sent to the front lines with no salaries, rations, or any formal training, increasing the likelihood of future human rights violations," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. Among the former rebels integrated into the regular army are Bosco Ntaganda, who was recently promoted to the position of general. He is wanted on an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for enlisting child soldiers and is accused of commanding the rebel troops that massacred 150 villagers in the town of Kiwanja last November.


The 84-year-old pope was wheeled to a hospital window, and blessed the crowd by making the sign of the cross in clear gestures, as a Vatican photographer snapped pictures.


Janet Elaine Adkins, 54, used a controversial machine to commit suicide in Michigan.

An Alzheimer patient was in Michigan for an assisted suicide.


The bet, which won him dinner for four, was regarding the existence and mass of the top quark, an elementary particle discovered in 1995.

The Top Quark is the last of six flavors of quarks predicted by the standard model theory of particle physics.


The drive towards this new law was driven in part from a string of transport-related disasters in the late 1980s, such as the sinking of cross-Channel ferry the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987, the oil platform Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, and the Marchioness Thames river boat collision in 1989. More than 400 people lost their lives in these three disasters, but no one individual or organisation was brought to account.

100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.


Brent Frei, the co-founder of midmarket CRM vendor Onyx Software Corp., plans to step down as chief executive and chairman.


As leaders gather in Argentina ahead of this weekends regional talks, Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's populist president is using an energy windfall to win friends and promote his vision of 21st-century socialism.

Hugo Chávez acts as Venezuela's president.


Al-Qaida-linked militants have carried out a series of suicide bombings targeting Western interests in Indonesia since 2002.

Since 2002 Al-Qaida militants have tried to hit Western interests in Indonesia.


France is to compensate people who suffered health problems as a result of three decades of nuclear weapons tests, its government says.  It was time to investigate health complaints reported by staff who took part in tests, Defence Minister Herve Morin said.  Mr Morin told Le Figaro France should be "true to its conscience".  France carried out more than 200 tests, firstly in Algeria and later in French Polynesia, between 1966 and 1996.  Mr Morin said about 150,000 civil and military workers were "theoretically affected" by the tests.  Mr Morin said an independent commission would examine claims on a case-by-case basis.  He added that 10m euros ($13.6m; £9.3m) had already been earmarked to compensate victims.

France carried out more than 200 nuclear tests during 30 years.


Although he won with the lowest majority ever tallied by the ruling party , 48.7% of the votes , his ballots almost doubled those of outsider Diego Fernandez de Cevallos , the rightist runner-up . And insiders are now favored to win other Latin American elections in the coming months : In Brazil , Fernando Henrique Cardoso , a former Senate leader and Cabinet minister , is expected to finish ahead of outsider Luis Inacio (Lula) da Silva , a leftist former labor leader , in the first round of president.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso is a Brazilian former Senate leader and Cabinet minister.


Gold mining operations in California and Nevada use cyanide to extract the precious metal.


Hakimi also claimed that the rebels killed Mawlavi Waqifi, a religious leader in the southeastern province of Khost.

Mawlavi Waqifi lived in the southeastern province of Khost.


"The aftershocks were less in the past two months, but they seem to be starting again. We are really worried about the fate of these islands," Smriti Kana Saha of Ranjat village, in the Middle Andaman Island, told Reuters by phone.

Smriti Kana Saha is a resident of Ranjat village.


Budapest consists of two parts, Buda and Pest, which are situated on opposite sides of the river and connected by a series of bridges.

Budapest consists of two principal parts that were merged in 1873.


The ship, owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and flagged in the Cayman Islands, came under attack at around 4 p.m. Somali time (UTC+3) as gunfire came from two small priate boats. The vessel, with a crew of eighteen from the Philippines, suffered light damage to its front and windows were broken. The Jasmine Ace was en-route from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates to Mombasa, Kenya. The 126.75m car carrier had loaded with 377 used cars in Sharjah on March 17.

Mitsui O.S.K is the owner of the Cayman Islands.


Consumers continued buying fewer lattes and coffees at Starbucks in its second quarter and restructuring charges led to a 77 percent in net income, but the drop in sales was something of an improvement. Starbucks Corp. - hurt in recent quarters by the perception that its drinks are too pricey - said Wednesday that sales at established locations fell 8 percent both worldwide and in the U.S. the first three months of 2009 compared with a year earlier. In the last three months of last year, Starbucks' global same-store sales fell 9 percent and U.S. same-store sales declined 10 percent.


Israel controls an area of about 850 square kilometres in the south of the Lebanese Republic, while Syria has about 30 thousand soldiers over two thirds of the Lebanese territory.

Syria has 30,000 soldiers in 60% of Lebanon, and Israel controls an area in the south of 850 square kms.


Ashley Olsen has decided to remain with her twin sister, Mary-Kate, instead of going on a planned trip to Australia to promote the opening of the siblings' latest movie adventure "New York Minute," reports the AP.

Ashley Olsen plans a trip to Australia with Mary-Kate.


The privately owned spacecraft only got about 400 feet into space, according to radar measurements, but it was enough to confirm that it no longer takes a well-heeled government project to organize space travel.


Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was elected March 28 with a mandate to reform Italy's business regulations and pull the economy out of recession.

The Italian Prime Minister is Silvio Berlusconi.


Although the number of the confirmed Ebola cases has risen slightly to 26 in Gabon and to 16 in Congo Brazzaville, new infections are now so low that it seems the epidemic is "burning out".


According to research done by an anti-spam research company Sophos, the United States is the point of origin of over 42% of all spam. Trailing are South Korea with 13% and China with 8% of the world's spam. The security firm performed an audit of its honeypots to come up with the figures ―a honeypot is a special system set up to attract spam or spammers in order to gauge spammer activity. Such activity is not entirely unexpected. The United States accounts for slightly over 25% of all Internet usage, whereas South Korea and China have about 4% and 11% of the world's Internet users, respectively. Yet these percentages still point to the U.S. as being a disproportionate source for spam.


"Glue sniffing" is most common among teenagers. They generally grow out of it once other drugs such as alcohol and cannabis become available to them. Seven-year-olds have been known to start "glue sniffing". Because of the social stigma attached to "glue sniffing" most snifters stop around 16 or 17 years, unless they are seriously addicted.

Glue-sniffing is common among youngsters.


Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London on Tuesday, reassuring his host that Pakistan will hold a fair election next month and is ready to continue a sustained fight against terrorism and extremism. The visit has been widely called President Musharraf's "charm offensive." The Pakistani leader has held talks in Brussels, Paris, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and now in London in an effort which has been seen as an attempt to shore up European support for his government.


The city is twinned with Glasgow, Dortmund, Pleven, and Le Mans.


This year, however, the contest has taken on a new urgency as the Clinton Administration, moving to block the Pyongyang government's bid to build a nuclear arsenal, has rekindled some of the passion in North Korea's defiance of the West.

Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea.


Sondhi Limthongkul, the founder of the political movement which overran Bangkok's airport last year, is in hospital after a gunman wielding an AK-47 ambushed his car at a petrol station and sprayed it with bullets early this morning. The unknown number of gunmen shot out the tyres of the car owned by Mr Sondhi, the head of the People's Alliance for Democracy 'yellow shirt' movement, and riddled the vehicle with bullets. Stray bullets also hit a nearby public bus.

Sondhi Limthongkul has been hit by more than 100 bullets.


The Yankees split Hollywood with something to feel OK about after last night's 5-4 loss to the Dodgers.


The Yemeni Islamic Jihad group emerged in 1992, and it is comprised of old warriors from Afghanistan.

Yemen's Islamic Jihad group was set up by old Afgan warriors in 1992.


Ms. Miers' whole life was based in Dallas and revolved around her legal work, her family and an attachment to an evangelical church that led her to what her former pastor described as a flowering of faith late in life.

Ms. Miers was a leader of an evangelical church.


RJ Reynolds Tobacco announced yesterday that it plans to build a factory in Turkey to produce cigarettes by late 1993.


Yes, water is a critical area of dispute in the Arab-Israeli conflict; but given the current climate of peacemaking, and given the general war-weariness among states and populations, such predictions are excitable pieces of subjectivism.


The organizers of the 15th International AIDS Conference, scheduled for next month in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday responded to press reports that a prominent hotel in Bangkok discriminated against HIV-positive visitors attending a different conference this month.

HIV-positive visitors take part in the 15th International AIDS Conference.


A collection of real-life testimonies by Klaus Pohl, one of Germany's most performed dramatists, its power resides less in the conventional meaning of the word drama than in what it reveals - a country still deeply at odds with itself, a kaleidoscope of events that flatters neither side, neither Western capitalism nor the former communist regime.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), one of the main stock indices in the United States, has broken an all-time closing record, to close at 14,000.41 points which is up 82.19 points (0.59%) from its last close. Just 59 days before, the Dow hit an all-time high when it passed 13,000. This is the first time the DJIA has ever closed above 14,000 since its debut on May 26, 1896.


It is the country's aging nuclear facility that currently concerns Armenian environmental groups as well as those in neighboring countries. Twenty miles west of the capital Yerevan, Armenia's Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant was built in 1970s and houses two VVER-440 Model V230 nuclear reactors. Metsamor, which currently produces about 40 percent of the country's electricity, is located in a seismically active zone and was closed even before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union because of the devastating Dec. 7, 1988, earthquake in Spitak.

Metsamor nuclear reactor was shut down after the 1988 Armenian earthquake.


Pratibha Patil has won the 12th Presidential Elections of the Republic of India, becoming the first woman president of the second most populous country in the world. Patil, 72, previously governor of the state of Rajasthan, had support from the governing coalition. She won approximately two thirds of the vote, almost double the number of votes of her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who resigned as Vice-President after losing the poll.


In documents they filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, government lawyers argued that three inmates who committed suicide last month by hanging themselves coordinated their actions by using attorney-client confidentiality to communicate with each other. Government officials said that among papers marked "Attorney Client Privilege" were instructions on how to tie knots and a classified memo on camp activities and inmate locations.


The world's fast-growing thirst for water can only be met by purifying sea water as rivers and reservoirs become unable to meet demand, Spain said last week unveiling a major program to fight its own chronic shortages.


The Marriott is a popular place for foreigners to stay and a prominent enterprise in the city, despite a wave of violence the country suffers. The hotel had been victim of another attack in January 2007 where a security guard was killed and several people injured after the guard blocked a bomber from getting at the hotel, forcing him to detonate his explosives where he was.


This case is one of the first to be prosecuted under a new U.S. law regulating unwanted e-mail.

There is a new U. S. law that bans e-mail.


Cage is a big fan of "Superman" (who was born on the fictional planet Krypton) and was to play the role in a film planned for the 1990s that never came to be.


The German-based team say their study is the only report of prolonged hibernation in a tropical mammal.

The team studies hibernating mammals in Germany.


Nine soldiers and two police officers were killed in the ensuing gun battle, and two police officers were wounded, the officials said.

Six policemen and two soldiers were killed in a gunbattle, officials said.


Iran will hold the first runoff presidential election in its history, between President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Tehran's hard-line mayor, election officials said Saturday.

Hashemi Rafsanjani will face Tehran's hard-line mayor in Iran's first runoff presidential election ever, officials said Saturday.


Edwin Hubble is recongized as having been one of the foremost astronomers of the modern era.


"The Herald is now pleased that Kennedy can vigorously pursue a re-examination of the Iraq war and how to extricate our nation from it. Speaking seriously, I'll take this change of heart as a sobering indication that all of us, wherever we stand on the liberal-conservative continuum, are deeply concerned about the damaging impacts of the Iraq war and are looking for ways to work together to resolve it as soon as possible."

All are deeply concerned about the damage of the Iraq war and are looking for ways to resolve it.


To the south of Castle Hill rises the higher Gellert Hill ( 771 feet ), a steep limestone escarpment overlooking the Danube, which provides a panoramic view of the whole city.

To the south is Gellert Hill, which features the 19th-century Citadel.


Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation,  Loman in 'Death of a Salesman' came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died.

Playwright Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Death of a Salesman', has died.


Coal company stocks got a lift Monday morning after an article in Barron's said the industry was benefiting from soaring natural gas prices and the advent of new power plants that emit less pollution.


Discovery of the top quark, if confirmed, completes one set of subatomic building blocks whose existence is predicted by the prevailing theory, called the Standard Model, of the particles and forces that determine the fundamental nature of matter and energy. In the whimsical lexicon of modern physics, the elementary particles are called quarks, leptons and bosons.

Quarks, leptons, and bosons are the three elementary particles of physics according to the Standard Model.


Beijing's hard-line stance on the Dalai Lama has grown considerably tougher in recent years. Ties with Germany nose-dived after Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the Dalai Lama in September 2007, recovering only after Berlin offered a pledge similar to that made by France on Wednesday. Companies alleged to have supported the exiles' activities have been subjected to smear campaigns and boycott calls in China, and an appearance in mainland China by the British rock group Oasis was axed by Beijing last month because guitarist and chief songwriter Noel Gallagher once took part in a free Tibet concert — in 1997.


Kabul - A roadside bomb that injured six U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, was followed by a blast near a Kabul police station, Monday, that hurt two police officers and a civilian.

The six U.S. soldiers were residents in Afghanistan.


Hurricane Isabel was a tropical storm when she entered Virginia, but caused damage to 75% of the state, making it one of the costliest disasters in Virginia's history.

A tropical storm has caused significant property damage or loss of life.


It has become increasingly clear that Iran is making rapid progress toward attaining a nuclear weapons capability as U.S. officials have confirmed the presence of various nuclear sites that Tehran has failed to disclose

Iranian chemical weapons threaten United States.


Kuwait becomes the fourth Gulf country where women as well as men can vote in elections. Saudi Arabia holds strictly limited, male-only elections.

Women can vote in elections in Saudi Arabia.


In Seoul, Han confirmed that all North Korean media on Monday had started referring to Kim Jong Il as "His Excellency" or by the term previously reserved for his father, "the Great Leader." Until now, the younger Kim has been called "the Dear Leader."

Kim Il Sung's son is called Kim Jong Il.


The Daily Mail has confirmed it has pulled out of the bidding for rival newspaper the Daily Telegraph.


In a game ripe with controversy, Manchester United walked away with a crucial away win after a Ryan Giggs free kick gave them the lead. Lille protested the goal, saying the team was setting up its wall at the time Giggs took the kick, and the team nearly left the pitch. After goading by officials, the game was resumed, but Lille said it would be making a stake for a replay with UEFA. UEFA has rejected the claim and declared the goal valid, as well as deciding to "instigate proceedings against Lille for the improper behaviour of their players immediately after the goal."


According to Nelson Beavers, who is a co-owner of the current company, Carolina Analytical Laboratories, LLC. and has ownership/employment history with Woodson-Tenent and Eurofins, the septic system was installed in the early 1990s.


On the eve of a widely anticipated retaliation against Russian forces in Grozny, military commanders withdrew key units from the city, leaving it vulnerable to guerrilla infiltration.

Russian forces vulnerable to guerrilla fighters


The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) provides funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis treatment in 15 focus countries among the world's poorest, mainly in Africa. As of September 30, PEPFAR supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for over 2.1 million men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS around the world, including more than two million people in Sub Saharan Africa, Perino said. Nearly 9.7 million people affected by HIV/AIDS in PEPFAR countries, including nearly four million orphans and other children, had received "compassionate care" by that date, she said. "Nearly 240,000 babies have been born HIV-free due to the support of the American people for programs to prevent mothers from passing the virus on to their children," Perino added.


David Marshall, responsible for customer training at ABB Robotics in Milton Keynes, fervently hopes that the food, drinks and confectionery industry will become the next big market for robots.

Robots are used in the food industry, in general.


The Dayton Peace Accords for Bosnia and Herzegovina was the first major peace agreement adopted after the Beijing conference, in December 1995.

The Dayton Peace Treaty was formulated to end the war in Bosnia.


A jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique, crashed Tuesday, in Venezuela.

A plane carrying vacationers home to the island of Martinique crashed, Tuesday, in Venezuela.


"The capacity people have to adjust and make peace with a new situation, even if they feel vulnerable, is really remarkable," said Randy Quevillon, chair of the psychology department and the Disaster Mental Health Institute at the University of South Dakota.

Randy Quevillon is employed at the University of South Dakota.


Eddeh reasserted his opinion that President Al-Hrawi ought to be reinstated for another 3 years, claiming that the he "has considerable experience in the running of the state, but his resignation would be appropriate after the withdrawal of Israeli and Syrian forces."

Eddeh calls for an extension to Al-Hrawi's presidency, saying that he should resign after the withdrawal of the Israeli and Syrian forces."


The first dinosaur remains in south-east Asia were found in Laos as early as 1936, but little else eventuated until the 1980s. Much of the area is heavily vegetated, and although difficult to explore, promises many significant finds in the future. Thailand has provided the best finds, particularly from the Khorat Group, which covers the period from the late Triassic to the early Cretaceous .


Friday, June 9, 2006 Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry signed SB 1800 that allows the death penalty or life without parole for those convicted of sexually abusing a child under the age of 14. Additionally, the bill also establishes a Child Abuse Response Team within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Oklahoma has now joined Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina to have similar measures for repeat child molestation.

SB 1800 is a law that protects children.


The Pharos, a monumental lighthouse built around 280 BC and standing 330 ft high, lit the entrance to Alexandria harbour for centuries, but archeologists have never been able to identify positively any remains.

The Pharos Lighthouse was built around 280 BC.


United States astronaut Sunita Williams, currently on board the International Space Station, has today broken the record for the longest unbroken space flight by a woman. At 5:47 a.m. UTC Williams passed the previous record of 188 days and four hours set by Shannon Lucid in 1996. This is not the only record Williams has broken. Earlier this year she set a record of 29 hours and 17 minutes for time spent by a woman on space walks.


Like the United States, U.N. officials are also dismayed that Aristide killed a conference called by Prime Minister Robert Malval in Port-au-Prince in hopes of bringing all the feuding parties together.

Aristide kills Prime Minister Robert Malval


Michael Jordan, coach Phil Jackson and the star cast, including Scottie Pippen, took the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association championships.

The Bulls basketball team is based in Chicago.


A Miami International Airport concourse was evacuated for three hours Wednesday, after a pepper spray can discharged, causing 43 people to suffer respiratory distress.

An Airport concourse was evacuated Wednesday, after people began having trouble breathing.


Hinostroza's children told police that four hooded individuals broke into the house and shot their mother after having insulted her.

Hinostroza's children attaked their mother with a gun.


Food and Drug Administration, which regulates human experiments, says its regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission, and it has launched an investigation into whether Clonaid illegally performed any work on U.S. soil.

Food and Drug Administration forbids human cloning without prior permission.


Three major bombings in less than a week will be causing some anxiety among political leaders in Baghdad and Washington.  Last Thursday 10 people were killed by a car bomb at a crowded cattle market in Babel province, south of Baghdad.  On Sunday more than 30 died when a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up at a police academy in the capital. Tuesday's bombing in Abu Ghraib also killed and wounded a large number of people - including journalists and local officials.

Some journalists and local officials were killed in one of the three bombings in the Baghdad area.


In an interview this week, the president said that Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be a valued part of his administration until his presidency comes to an end.

Dick Cheney is Vice President of the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.


Estimates vary widely, but it is believed there are up to 100 million children toiling in homes, factories, shops, fields, brothels and on the streets of rural and urban India.


The group, along with a broad coalition of disarmament, environmental, peace, and religious organizations, expects the boycott to put pressure on French companies to exert their economic influence and encourage Chirac to end all nuclear weapons testing.

International pressure is exerted to end French nuclear tests.


The answer to the number one question, "how many continents are there?", is seven.


Dr. David Nabarro, of the World Health Organization, said a pandemic could come at any time and claim anywhere between 5 million and 150 million lives, depending on the world's response to bird flu.

The World Health Organization moved Friday, to revise alarming predictions that a pandemic stemming from the bird flu virus ravaging parts of Asia, could kill as many as 150 million people.


Bountiful arrived after war's end, sailing into San Francisco Bay 21 August 1945. Bountiful was then assigned as hospital ship at Yokosuka, Japan, departing San Francisco 1 November 1945.

Bountiful reached San Francisco on 1 November 1945.


After two years, the aspirin subjects experienced a reduced risk of fatal and nonfatal stroke.

People experienced adverse effects while taking aspirin.


A teenager, belonging to the anti-scientology group Anonymous, has admitted that he launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the official website of the Church of Scientology, scientology.org. Dmitriy Guzner, aged 18, will admit to the charges related to carrying out the DDoS attack. He now faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment. In response to incidents such as these, Scientology have called Anonymous "cyber-terrorists." A DDoS attack occurs when multiple computers are used to attack a certain website with so much traffic that it is not accessible. The hackers attack the servers taking up all the available space, preventing the legitimate user from accessing.

The 18 year-old D. Guzner is a member of the Anonymous group which attacked Scientology website.


It is an independence movement among the Tamil peoples of northern Sri Lanka -- the ancient land of Ceylon independent from Britain in 1948 and took the name Sri Lanka, a Sinhalese word, in 1972.

The current name of Ceylon is Sri Lanka.


The biopic of wannabe actor, Johnny Stompanato, may be directed by Adrian Lyne of "Fatal Attraction" and "Indecent Proposal" fame.

Johnny Stomponato starred in Fatal Attraction.


The Sea-Viewing wide Field-of-View Sensor, SeaWiFS, has brought to oceanographers a welcomed and improved renewal of the ocean color remote sensing data.


20 million years ago there were apes, and by 5 million years ago our closest ancestors and cousins, early ape-humans, had split from the other apes.


The American Defense Department reported today, that the bombing runs against Iraq are being especially carried out via cruise missiles launched from American aircraft carriers and B52 bombers.

The Pentagon reported today, that the bombing runs against Iraq are being especially carried out via cruise missiles launched from American aircrafts.


During that time, Wilson received the best-play Tony Award for "Fences," plus best-play Tony nominations for six of his other plays, the Pulitzer Prize for both "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson," and (a record) seven New York Drama Critics' Circle prizes.


Canada is officially a bilingual country but, with nearly 60% of the population speaking English as their mother-tongue, and only 24% speaking French as their first language, some people are questioning whether Canada is truly a bilingual nation or rather, a bilingual nation on paper only. French is not the only linguistic minority in Canada, and some of the languages spoken, in order of popularity, are Chinese, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Ukrainian, Arabic, Dutch, Tagalog, Greek, Vietnamese, Cree and Inuktitut.

French is the most widely spoken language in Québec.


Anglo/Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, Total, of France, and Spain's Repsol were all named as examples of established oil companies involved in the oil-for-food programme before surcharges began in 2001.

Total participated in the oil-for-food programme.


Alzheimer's disease is successfully treated, and controlled by drugs which inhibit the synthesis of beta-amyloid protein.

Alzheimer's disease is treated using drugs.


Glue-sniffing and other forms of solvent abuse are being overlooked in the fight against drugs, according to a new report.

Glue-sniffing is common among youngsters.


A gunman has killed at least nine people in a series of shootings across two towns in the southern US state of Alabama before killing himself. Officials say there were at least four separate shooting incidents. The gunman fired on homes, a petrol station, shops and vehicles in Samson and Geneva near the Florida border.  Five people - including a child - were killed in one home. Several of the victims are believed to have been members of the gunman's family.  The gunman has not been formally identified, but was named in the local press as Michael McLendon.

Michael McLendon has killed his child in Samson.


China's announcement of a rival Panchen Lama to the boy already recognized by the Dalai Lama are indications that its Communist regime is desperate in using any means possible to strengthen control over Tibet and Tibetan affairs.

Dalai Lama and the government of the People's Republic of China are in dispute over Panchen Lama's reincarnation.


Although Eurodisney is a great family day out, visit also the chateaux in the area and the various parks and pretty small villages.

EuroDisney is located in the various parks.


Vodafone's share of net new subscribers in Japan has dwindled in recent months.

There have been many new subscribers to Vodafone in Japan in the past few months.


The loss offered a minor moral victory for Liverpool, as they scored only the second goal this season against Chelsea in league play.


However, witnesses said some of the black-clad gunmen who attacked a police station and government buildings in Baquba, 60 km (40 miles) northwest of Baghdad, proclaimed loyalty to Zarqawi and wore yellow headbands linking them to his group.

Some of the gunmen showed loyalty to Baquba's group.


About 10 million people live in the Paris metropolitan area, more than 15 percent of the country's total population. France's second largest city is Marseille (795,600) on the Mediterranean coast.


The Scots pioneered the idea of a single currency, when they shared the Ecu with France during the Auld Alliance, and therefore they are certain to join in the monetary union process again when the EU states amalgamate their currencies under Maastricht.

France still maintains Ecu is the best denomination for the Maastricht single-currency..


A.C. Milan is in second place with 13 points, after two first-half goals from captain Paolo Maldini earned them a 2-1 victory over Reggina.


The plane involved in the incident was a Bombardier Dash 8, which crashed into a home located at 6038 Long Street in Clarence Center, a suburb of Buffalo. It went down at approximately 10:17 p.m. EST (03:20 UTC), February 12. 44 passengers, an off-duty pilot, and four crew members died in the accident, as well as one person on the ground.

A plane crashed while flying on autopilot.


The surge in violence has occurred while U.S. Marines and Iraqi troops battle insurgents near Karabilah on the Syrian border. British and American warplanes pounded targets to support a 1,000 Marine force. A Marine statement also said patrols in the devastated city of Fallujah came under attack Sunday. According to the statement, 15 insurgents were killed while the attack was repulsed.


O.J. Simpson has been arrested at the Palms Hotel and Casino on charges related to an alleged armed robbery on Thursday. Simpson is accused of taking items from memorabilia dealers at the Palace Station casino-hotel in Las Vegas. Simpson claims that the items belonged to him and were "things he hadn't seen in years or that had been stolen." Simpson denies guns were involved and that the incident was a robbery. The exact charges are currently unknown.


According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a cholera epidemic in the African country of Zimbabwe has now infected over 80,200 people. The epidemic is the worst cholera outbreak in Africa for fifteen years. The United Nations agency stated that approximately half of all the patients that died of the disease did not reach any of the 365 cholera treatment centers located in the country.


"Unlike the three subtypes, Zaire, Sudan and Ivory Coast, which can cause hemorrhagic symptoms, Reston does not. There has been no evidence that Reston can cause significant illness in humans. When Reston was previously found in monkeys, few animal handlers were infected but only one had very mild symptoms," the DOH's official website announced. In January 1997, the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources ordered the immediate slaughter of some 600 monkeys in Ferlite, a breeding farm in Laguna, to prevent an outbreak of Reston ebolavirus.

DOH stands for Department of Hurricanes.


In 1969, more than 500 million people around the world sat in front of television sets, watching grainy images of two men in white bulky spacesuits planting a U.S. flag on the lunar landscape with its black horizon.

The Apollo astronauts waved the American flag on the moon in 1969.


Manuel Rosales, who ran against Mr Chavez in the 2006 presidential election, faces corruption charges he says are baseless. He had been in hiding since the charges were filed last month. Venezuela's Interior Minister Tareck el-Aissami said Mr Rosales was a criminal on the run. "If he doesn't appear before the appropriate courts, he would be a fugitive from justice, and as a result the court will activate mechanisms for his international capture," said Mr Aissami, denying that the charges were political.


Vivid spokesperson Jackie Markham has said the footage was created earlier this year and was purchased by the company two months ago from an unidentified third party. Markham said Jessica's attorney has not contacted them and she is unsure if any proceeds will reach Sierra. The tape also shows her making abusive comments about other contestants, such as Carrie Underwood, who has gone on to have some success.

Jessica Sierra once reached the finals of "American Idol".


20th Century spokesman Rick Dinon said that between the time it applied for the rate increase and changed its mind, the estimated quake losses had ballooned by several hundred million dollars.

Rick Dinon is the senior vice president of 20th Century Insurance Co.


Two British soldiers have been arrested in the southern Iraq city of Basra, sparking clashes outside a police station where they are being held.

Two British soldiers' imprisonment prompted UK troops to storm a police station.


A Colombian airliner has crashed in a remote area of Venezuela killing all 160 people on board.

A Colombian plane crashed in a remote region of Venezuela.


The World Bank has also been criticized for its role in financing projects that have been detrimental to human rights and the natural environment.

The World Bank is criticized for its activities.


Qatar and Oman are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, which also groups Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council are: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain.


Oracle had fought to keep the forms from being released


The ivory ban was imposed by CITES in 1989 after a wave of poaching across Africa saw elephant numbers fall from an estimated 1.3 million to a few hundred thousand.

The ban on ivory trade has been effective in protecting the elephant from extinction.


A run by Mr. Feinblatt would complicate what is already a three-person race because he most likely would have the support of the powerful mayor, who is running for a third term. Such a move could also irritate the outgoing district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, because it could hurt the chances of his preferred candidate, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. The relationship between Mr. Morgenthau and Mr. Bloomberg has been strained, in part because of the district attorney's investigation into the fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, which found that lapses by the city had contributed to the deaths of two firefighters.


Ashley Olsen has decided to remain with her twin sister, Mary-Kate, instead of going on a planned trip to Australia to promote the opening of the siblings' latest movie adventure "New York Minute," reports the AP.

The Olsen twins star in "New York Minute."


Still, the storm surge was both stronger and earlier than expected, apparently coming through waterways southeast of the city, said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the Army Corps of Engineers' district chief in New Orleans.

Col. Richard Wagenaar said the problems would set back repairs at least three weeks, but June was still the target for having the levees back to pre-Katrina strength.


On Thursday, Syria said that it supports Iran's nuclear stance and said it "has a right to atomic technology," and said Western objections to Tehran's nuclear ambitions were "not persuasive." It comes in the wake of demands by US and European countries for Iran to halt its nuclear fuel enrichment activities. Iran notes that its nuclear program is civilian and consistent with Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which establishes the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and that it in line with Article IV, it will not abandon its enrichment efforts.


Guggenheim Museum, officially Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, was founded in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Art.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was opened in 1939.


State Police issued bulletins via teletype requesting patrols to be on the lookout for Robert Senacal, 35, of Cortlandt Manor.


Neil Armstrong was an aviator in the Navy and was chosen with the second group of astronauts in 1962. Made seven flights in the X-15 program (1960 photo), reaching an altitude of 207,500 feet. Was backup command pilot for Gemini 5, command pilot for Gemini 8, backup command pilot for Gemini 11, backup commander for Apollo 8, and commander for Apollo 11: successfully completing the first moonwalk.

Neil Armstrong was the first man who landed on the Moon.


So far Sony BMG has not released a list of how many of its CDs are protected or how many have been sold.


At the time, neither "USA Today" nor "The Observer" was able to verify which of the sixty-plus candidates it was.

"USA Today" is a subsidiary of "The Observer."


Every year, about a quarter of all children sustain an injury serious enough to require medical attention, school absences, and/or bed rest.


Pop star Madonna has suffered "minor injuries" and bruises after falling from a startled horse on New York's Long Island on Saturday. According to her spokeswoman, the 50-year-old singer fell when her horse was "startled by paparazzi who jumped out of the bushes" to photograph her. Madonna was treated at a hospital in Southampton and was later released. A previous horse-riding accident in 2005 left her with three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a broken hand. She got back on a horse a couple of months later for an appearance on David Letterman's US talk show.


King Tut Tomb Fetuses May Reveal Pharaoh's Mother - Egypt Mummies Moved for DNA Tests; Pharaoh Among Them? - March 30, 2009—Researchers may have finally come face-to-face with the real—and wrinkled—Nefertiti, thanks to sophisticated CT scanning technology. A carefully carved limestone face in the inner core of the Egyptian queen's famous bust (above, right) has emerged in new images, a new study says. The object, currently on display in Berlin's Altes Museum, was discovered in 1912 during an excavation of the studio of Egyptian royal sculptor Thutmose. The artist had sculpted Nefertiti—wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten—more than 3,300 years ago.

Nefertiti was the stepmother of King Tutankhamen.


Orhan Pamuk, a prominent, post-modern writer whose work is translated into more than 40 languages, received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. Pamuk was an admired writer in Turkey until the events in 2005, when lawyers of two Turkish professional associations brought criminal charges against him for "insulting Turkishness" after the author's controversial statements regarding the disputed Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917. He claimed, and repeated his claim, that  ... one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey.


Based on a worldwide study of smoking-related fire and disaster data, UC Davis epidemiologists show smoking is a leading cause of fires and death from fires globally.

Domestic fires are the major cause of fire death.


"Cooper has never lost sight of these goals," Redford continued. "He brings to the position an infectious enthusiasm as well as a deep understanding of the Sundance brand and culture... He is a natural choice of succession to lead the festival into the 21st century." Among his other accomplishments for Sundance are helping foster the development of New Frontier on Main program, a multimedia conjunction of film, music and other art forms, and helping boost the festival's Internet presence — through its official Web site (www.sundance.org/festival), an online version of the festival, as well as the Sundance Institute's agreements with iTunes and Netflix to showcase and distribute short films.

Robert Redford is the founder of Sundance Film Festival.


Two new Les Paul books arrive in stores this year: The Les Paul Legacy by Rob Lawrence is due from Hal Leonard Publishing on October 27.

Rob Lawrence works for The Les Paul Legacy.


The New-York based company said, Tuesday, that profits totaled a record $946 million, or 75 cents a share, in the January-March period, up from $794 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier.

Net income grew to $369 million, or 83 cents per share, in the January-March period from $291 million, or 65 cents per share, a year ago.


The Santa Barbara Airlines plane took off just before dusk from the city of Mérida en route to Simón Bolívar International Airport outside the capital city of Caracas. Noel Marquez, director of Venezuela's emergency management agency in Mérida, said the plane has failed to contact control towers. Civil Defense chief General Antonio Rivero told reporters that it is unknown whether or not the plane crashed or is simply missing.

A plane with 46 passengers has not contacted control towers.


In an interview on a television show called the No Drug Show, hosted by Larry Byrnes, the Church of Scientology blamed both the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the attack on Pearl Harbor on psychiatrists and the drugs they prescribe their patients. Scientology considers psychiatry to be barbaric and a violation of human rights. The video was posted on the video sharing website YouTube, but was later removed "due to a copyright claim by Axiom 10 Productions, Inc." Mark Bunker of XenuTV questioned why Axiom 10 would utilize the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to remove the video from YouTube, as it was promoting their ideology about psychiatrists. It was later re-added to another site called Vimeo.com.


George H.W. Bush served this country not only as President but also as Vice President, Member of Congress, United Nations Ambassador, chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and also, as a naval aviator in World War II. Coming back from the war, he married his sweetheart, Barbara Pierce of Rye, New York, and later that year made his first civilian adult decision when he made the appropriate choice of moving to Texas, where he lived the rest of his life.

The name of George H.W. Bush's wife is Barbara.


He had been hand-picked by John Sculley to take over Steve Jobs' position as head of the Macintosh group.

John Sculley was an executive of the Macintosh group.


In a statement to reporters, Parker called the spilt with Gap a mutual decision, and walks away $38 million richer and recently signed a 2-year deal with former employer HBO to develop future programming for the network. Parker is also scheduled to appear in two upcoming comedy films, a movie adaptation of the Comedy Central series, Strangers with Candy, as well as The Family Stone, costarring Diane Keaton and Claire Danes.

Claire Danes is an actress who played in "Stardust".


The 500,000 eligible, Muslim voters are likely to reward Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) in the September 18 parliamentary election, for its anti-Iraq war position and pro-Muslim policies.

The parliamentary election takes place on September 18.


"Bless Me, Ultima" has survived a challenge in New York without being banned, or indeed, burned. It came in 75th on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. By comparison, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh positions are occupied by Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, respectively.

J.K. Rowling is the author of "Harry Potter".


But these are only first hazards. "If the rain continues at the same magnitude and according to the forecast, then some of the rivers could reach flood stage either later [Tuesday] or Wednesday morning," said Allan Chapman, a hydrologist with the River Forecast Centre in Victoria.

Allan Chapman is employed at the River Forecast Centre.


Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has left the Church of England and joined the Roman Catholic Church. Blair, currently the special envoy for Quartet on the Middle East, has long been attending mass with his wife and four children, who are all Catholic. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor received Blair into full communion with the Catholic Church during Mass at Archbishop's House, Westminster, on Friday.


Vegetables help to preserve your bones, and help fight the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

Fruits and vegetables prevent osteoporosis.


A brain-dead teenager was removed from life-support equipment after giving birth to a premature daughter.

Pregnant women are allowed to die after they deliver their babies.


Both of these attacks, attributed to the drug trafficking cartels, took place after 10 bombs, placed in nine political offices of the Liberal and Social Conservative parties and in another bank office, exploded early this morning in downtown Bogota.

Nine political offices of the Liberal and Social Conservative parties were attacked by the drug trafficking cartels.


The media always talk about the Dow being up or down a certain number of points.


Cyanide is also used by Muru-ami fishermen in the Philippines to drive fish from the coral reefs.

Philippine fishermen use cyanide in fishing.


Camacho is a Mexican version of Japan's Morihiro Hosokawa -- a pragmatic tactician using a crisis and the attendant outcry for reform to further his political standing.

The Japanese Prime Minister is Morihiro Hosokawa.


In a move reminiscent for some of another actor, Ronald Reagan, who was twice elected governor of California, Schwarzenegger said he would be putting his movie career on hold so he can devote his time to running for governor.

Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California.


Ramadan told reporters at the opening ceremony of the Baghdad International Exposition, "No cooperation and no inspection or monitoring by the American Zionist espionage commission (the Special Commission for disarming Iraq's banned weapons - UNSCOM) before Iraq's demands are met."

Ramadan announced that Iraq will not cooperate with the inspectors.


The latest file-sharing service trying to go legit in a bid to avoid an expensive and dragged-out court battle is Grokster Ltd., according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

File-sharing service, Grokster, is in talks to be acquired by Mashboxx, which is attempting to establish a legal peer-to-peer music company.


The main race track in Qatar is located in Shahaniya, on the Dukhan Road.


The university server containing the information relating to Mason's ID cards was illegally entered by computer hackers.

Non-authorized personnel illegally entered into computer networks.


Following the assassination attempt in 1981, Reagan said he felt God had spared him for a purpose, and he intended to devote the rest of his life in dedication to his God and to that purpose.


According to Professor Matthias Egger, from the University of Berne, and Swiss colleagues from Zurich University and a UK team at the University of Bristol, homeopathy has no such evidence.

Matthias Egger, MD, director of the department of social and preventive medicine (ISPM) at the University of Berne, Switzerland, led the study.


The dam covering what used to be its football pitch fill up with millions of tons of poisonous mining waste.

Mine waste-water poses an environmental hazard.


Kevin Vincent, 44, of Arlington, Va., said his wife buys store brand acetaminophen and he wanted to find out more about the problem.

Kevin Vincent buys store brand acetaminophen.


Joe Friday wore badge No. 714-in honor of the number of home runs Ruth hit in his career.


Nevertheless, 58 percent of Americans expressed their satisfaction with the President's job performance. 44 percent supported Nixon at the very beginning of the investigation into Watergate.

58% of Americans are unsatisfied with Clinton's job performance.


Valero Energy Corp., on Monday, said it found "extensive" additional damage at its 250,000-barrel-per-day Port Arthur refinery.

Valero Energy Corp. caused damages to Port Arthur refinery.


Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., on Monday, threw their weight behind the next-generation, HD DVD format being promoted by Toshiba Corp., in a blow to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray format.

Microsoft Corp. is a partner of Intel Corp.


Mr Carstens left his job as IMF's deputy managing director last month to work with Mr Calderon, and will now lead efforts to push through market reforms and create more jobs.

Mr Carstens lost his job as IMF's deputy managing director last month.


G & H Restaurant Specialties has not released a statement regarding the violations, but the corporate offices in Louisville, Kentucky for KFC said, "our franchisee has finalized a plan for some structural repairs... The units will be temporarily closed while these building maintenance issues are addressed. [They will be] re-opened as soon as the repairs are complete." The health department also gave violations out to the East Delevan store for failing to maintain a clean floor throughout the restaurant and for not stopping food from becoming contaminated. Several rat traps were also found inside the storage cooler and around the kitchen area, but the establishment was "not free of rodents," said Commissioner of the Erie County Health Department, Dr. Anthony Billittier.


A team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control boarded the ship when it docked in St. Maarten to oversee the cleaning operation and try to determine what caused the outbreak, Carnival said.

The causes of the outbreak were searched for by a team from the U.S. CDC.


The Russian government announced the termination of its "counterterrorism operation" in Chechnya effective April 16. According to the leader of the Russian secret service, Alexander Bortnikov, 20,000 soldiers will leave Chechnya in order to normalise the situation in the autonomous republic of Russia. This happened on behalf of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who had already announced a possible withdrawal of the Russian troops at the G20 summit in the beginning of April this year. But some forces, the special forces of Moscow's ministry of the interior, will still stay in Chechnya.  Human rights activist Lew Ponomarjov welcomed the situation, saying that the counterterrorism situation in Chechnya had been a severe violation of human rights.


An American journalist of Russian descent, Klebnikov was shot four times by at least one assassin in a passing car as he stepped outside his office that evening in Moscow. He died shortly after arriving at City Hospital No. 20 in Moscow.

Vladislav Listyev was murdered in Moscow.


Today in the city of Sao Paulo (from May 1 to May 30) we have a display on Ayrton Senna.


A decision to allow the exiled Italian royal family to return to Italy may be granted amid the discovery that the head of the family, Prince Vittorio Emmanuele, addressed the president of Italy properly. He has called President Ciampi "our president, the president of all Italians".


While the House has been extremely active in passing bills addressing the key priorities of entrepreneurs, most of the legislation has hit a brick wall over in the Senate.

The House quickly passes bills addressing the priorities of entrepreneurs.


There can be no doubt that the Administration already is weary of Aristide, a populist Roman Catholic priest who in December, 1990, won an overwhelming victory in Haiti's only democratic presidential election

Haiti's only democratic presidential election took place in 1990.


The controversy became more desperate, this summer, when astronomers discovered a new object, larger than Pluto, orbiting in the Kuiper Belt at a distance of nine billion miles from the Sun.

The Kuiper Belt is nine billion miles from the Sun.


For one, Israel can comfortably subtract Gaza's 1.5m inhabitants from its demographic nightmare, maintaining, for a while longer perhaps, the Jewish majority.


Basque separatist party Batasuna is widely regarded as the political wing of the Basque paramilitary group, ETA - a linkage it denies.

Batasuna denies it is the political wing of ETA.


IBM is now at the top of my list of where I want to work. Ivy alone had nine interviews when the team visited the company's headquarters in Armonk last week.


Samantha Orobator was arrested at Wattay Airport in Laos in August last year after she was allegedly caught with 680g of heroin. In Laos, smuggling more than 500g carries a mandatory death sentence. Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris flew into the country today fearing the trial would start before they were allowed to meet on Tuesday. According to the charity, Orobator was able to make contact with their office in London today and said she had been told the trial would start tomorrow morning. Reprieve said the Laotian authorities brought the trial forward in an apparent attempt to stop lawyers from intervening. Up until now the 20-year-old from south London has had no legal representation.


About 50 percent of all British party members are female (in contrast to only about 25 percent in Germany) but only 9.2 percent are represented in parliament.

Women are poorly represented in parliament.


Two women from two counties are dead and police have some clues as to who murdered them.

Police gather clues in double assassination.


Tom Online revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2005 were US$42.78 mn, an increase of 38.5% over the same period in 2004.

Tom Online earned US$42.78 mn in three months.


Prosecutors, who stated their intent on Sunday to seize bonds and cash from Madoff, filed another notice on Tuesday listing assets that they intend to seize, among them "various pieces of jewelry owned or held in the name of Ruth Madoff valued at approximately $2,624,340," and "approximately 35 sets of watches and cufflinks owned by Bernard Madoff," as well as $31.5 million in loans made to Madoff's sons.

Ruth Madoff is Bernard Madoff's daughter.


Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the Olympic Range, rises to a height of 7,965 feet (2,428 meters) and is less than 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


UNSCOM employs about 120 persons in Iraq, including 40 inspectors.

Wilson uses some 120 persons in Iraq, 40 of whom are inspectors.


That prompted Clinton, wife Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea to spend a cold and dreary Saturday in Minsk.

Clinton's wife is called Hillary Rodham Clinton.


Traditionally, 60 percent of the tickets sold for a stop on the Vans Warped Tour, for example, occur six days prior to the show.

Most tours only sell 60 percent of the tickets.


Public health and animal health officials from the Departments of Health and Community Services and Forest Resources and Agrifoods today confirmed a rabies case involving a red fox in western Newfoundland.


While preliminary work goes on at the Geneva headquarters of the WTO, with members providing input, key decisions are taken at the ministerial meetings.

The WTO headquarters are located in Geneva.


The disappearance of York University chef Claudia Lawrence is now being treated as suspected murder, North Yorkshire Police said. However detectives said they had not found any proof that the 35-year-old, who went missing on 18 March, was dead. Her father Peter Lawrence made a direct appeal to his daughter to contact him five weeks after she disappeared. His plea came at a news conference held shortly after a £10,000 reward was offered to help find Miss Lawrence. Crimestoppers said the sum they were offering was "significantly higher" than usual because of public interest in the case.


Hurricane Katrina petroleum-supply outlook improved somewhat, yesterday, as U.S. and European governments agreed to release 2 million barrels a day, of oil and refined products, from their reserves.

Offers by individual European governments, involved supplies of crude or refined oil products.


According to the 2002 census Slovenia has 1,964,036 inhabitants.


Pfizer has reached a broad agreement to pay millions of dollars to Nigeria's Kano state to settle a criminal case alleging that the drug company illegally tested an experimental drug on gravely ill children during a 1996 meningitis epidemic. The details remain private, but sources close to the negotiations said the total payments -- including those to the children, their families, the government and the government's attorneys -- would be about $75 million under the current settlement terms. Other details, including how the money will be distributed, are to be worked out within weeks.

Pfizer is the world's largest drug company.


"Mayday! Here is Estonia! Outside Uto lighthouse. We have listed 20 to 30 degrees," the Finnish Coast Guard quoted the distress signal.


Fishermen using the poison sodium cyanide have helped to destroy an estimated 70% of the reefs.

Cyanide fishing is linked to the destruction of area reefs.


On May 17, 2005, the National Assembly of Kuwait passed, by a majority of 35 to 23 (with 1 abstention), an amendment to its electoral law that would allow women to vote and to stand as parliamentary candidates.

A pro-women amendment was rejected by the National Assembly of Kuwait.


Mars is considered the red planet because of its bright red color.


The third, and most remote possibility, was considered to be a so-called Jamaican coalition, again based on the party colours, between the Christian Democrats, the FDP and the Greens.

It seems unlikely that there will be a coalition between Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.


Verizon Communications Inc. said on Monday it would buy long-distance telephone company MCI Communications Inc. in a deal worth $6.75 billion, giving Verizon a foothold in the market for serving large corporations.

Verizon Communications Inc.'s $6.7 billion takeover of long-distance provider MCI Inc. transformed the telephone industry.


Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was born in London on April, 21 1926, first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, subsequently King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Five weeks later she was christened in the chapel of Buckingham Palace and was given the names Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor. The Queen ascended the throne on February 6, 1952 upon the death of her father, King George VI. Her Coronation followed on June 2, 1953.

Elizabeth the Second's father was George VI.


A jet, carrying French Caribbean islanders home from a Panama vacation, crashed in rural Venezuela early Tuesday, after the pilot reported trouble with the engines.

A plane carrying vacationers home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed, Tuesday, in western Venezuela after reporting engine problems, killing all 160 people on board, officials said.


The most surprising news story of the past week must be the 'wonderful' story that the AIDS epidemic in India is under control.


We believe that, with the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, visitors from Taiwan will be encouraged to stay longer in Hong Kong, to experience the magic of our theme park and of our city.


Mr Ferdinand Piech said that the German company did not have any confidential plans or documents about GM's ultra-low-cost factory project.

Documents included secret plans for a new factory.


That request is at odds with the law signed early yesterday, by Bush, directing the federal courts to consider the case de novo without taking into account the state court's findings.

President Bush authorized the federal courts to review the case.


New Zealand film director Peter Jackson is to make a 264-million-New Zealand-dollar (133 million U.S. dollars) trilogy based on Tolkien's fantasy classic "Lord of The Rings," the local TV station reported Tuesday evening.

Tolkien wrote the fantasy epic called "Lord of the Rings".


Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines announced plans to cut 7,000 to 9,000 jobs by the end of 2007, approximately 17% of its employees. CEO Gerald Grinstein will take a 25% pay cut. Executives have their pay cut by 15%. Other employees will have their pay reduced by 7 to 10%. Employees that make less than $25,000 a year will not be affected by these pay cuts. Delta has already cancelled leases on 40 aircraft and they plan to reduce its fleet by at least 80 more. They plan to reduce domestic capacity by 15 to 20 percent and increase international capacity by 25 percent.


It uses the first day of the first month of the Lunar Year as the start of the Chinese New Year.

The Chinese New Year's Day falls on the first day of the first month of the Lunar Year.


2001 Nobel economics prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, meanwhile, said the new currency could come about quickly if it was based on an expansion of the IMF's already established system of Special Drawing Rights, units of exchange used by the IMF which already have some of the features of currency. Stiglitz argued that, as the US dollar has become the standard global reserve currency, it has inadvertently created a system which hurts the world economy. "It's a net transfer, in a sense, to the United States of foreign aid," he argued, reasoning that when other countries purchase US dollars in order to use them on international markets (such as for the buying and selling of petroleum), they effectively give the US a zero-interest loan — sometimes at times when they can least afford it. Stiglitz made his comments as head of a United Nations panel of economists giving recommendations to address the global financial crisis.

Joseph Stiglitz is the winner of a Nobel prize in economics.


For example, if you want to find out what the weather in your area will be like for the next five days, select the weather channel from the main multiscreen and you will find detailed forecasts and other weather news. Or if your team has been in action, you can read the top headlines for your chosen sport by keying in 300 on your handset - just as you would on Ceefax.

The weather channel gives you information about the weather in the next few days.


Washington Scientists have identified a hormone that significantly extends the lifespan of mice, a discovery that could mark a crucial step toward developing drugs that boost longevity in people.

Texas researchers have found a naturally occurring hormone that can extend the lifespan of mice by as much as 30%, a discovery that opens a new avenue of research into human longevity.


DENVER —  Angie Zapata was a tall woman with striking black hair and eyes who would attract the attention of men, even those who knew she was biologically male. But prosecutors say when Allen Andrade found out, he beat her to death with a fire extinguisher. Her sister discovered her battered body under a blanket in her Greeley apartment last July. Andrade, 32, of Thorton, is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday on charges including first-degree murder and a bias-motivated crime, which could add three years to his prison sentence if convicted.

Angie Zapata has been killed with a fire extinguisher.


A wooden steamer of 293 ft sank on 10/13/1902, 13.5 miles North by Northwest of Fairport Harbor, Ohio. The lives of ten of the 19 persons on board were lost in the wreck.

100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.


Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Dr. Barham Salih was unharmed after an assassination attempt.

prime minister targeted for assassination


The murders of Galan, a high-ranking police officer, and a judge last week, were probably carried out by an Israeli mercenary paid by the Medellin cartel - the world's most powerful drug-trafficking mafia - which has set up paramilitary squads accused of hundreds of individual murders and massacres against political and labor leaders, as well as peasants and patriotic union leftist militants in different parts of the country.

Galan was killed by patriotic union leftist militants.


Hovind, self-styled as "Dr. Dino" (whose Ph.D, from a non-accredited correspondence university, is in Christian education) believes in Biblical literalism claimed that he is not liable for taxes and his "ministry" does not have to "render unto Caesar" because, as he claimed, his workers are "missionaries" not "employees". Hovind's tax troubles date back to at least 1996, when a judge at Hovind's bankruptcy trial wrote, Hovind "failed to acknowledge his obligations as a citizen and taxpayer of the United States, seeks to utilize this taxpayer supported court in order to thwart the lawful collection efforts of the Internal Revenue Service." The judge concluded, Hovind filed for bankruptcy in "bad faith," and lied about his possessions and income.

Hovind  was found guilty on 59 federal counts.


The Socialist Party was formerly part of the Labour Party, which has ruled the United Kingdom since 1997 and remains a member of the Socialist International. On the bus, Saunders and some of his cohorts — they occasionally, especially the older members, address each other as "comrade" — explains their view on how the split with Labour came about. As the Third Way became the dominant voice in the Labour Party, culminating with the replacement of Neil Kinnock with Tony Blair as party leader, the Socialist cadre became increasingly disaffected. "There used to be democratic structures, political meetings" within the party, they say. The branch meetings still exist but "now, they passed a resolution calling for renationalisation of the railways, and they [the party leadership] just ignored it." They claim that the disaffection with New Labour has caused the party to lose "half its membership" and that people are seeking alternatives.

The Socialist Party was founded in the United Kingdom.


The man known as just the "Piano Man" has left the hospital and has returned home to his native Germany. According to British tabloids, the man, after losing his job in Paris, travelled to the UK through the Channel Tunnel.

The "Piano Man" worked for a British tabloid.


Three police officers have been killed by a gunman in Pittsburgh - the second mass shooting in the US in 24 hours. The officers were responding to an emergency call from the house of the gunman, named as Richard Poplawski, 23. Police said he was waiting, armed with rifles and a bulletproof vest. He shot two officers as they entered the house, and a third who tried to help them. He then traded gunfire with police for four hours before being injured and giving himself up. His friends said he had recently lost his job, and was worried that US President Barack Obama was about to ban guns.

In Pittsburgh the police killed a gunman.


Under the headline "Greed instead of quality", Germany's Die Tageszeitung says no good will come of the acquisition of the publisher Berliner Verlag by two British and US-based investment funds.

British and US-based investment funds acquire Berliner Verlag.


Organic fertilizers like vermi compost are used for increasing the quality, fertility and mineral content of the soil.

Organic fertilizers are used as soil enhancers.


(CNN) -- Malawians are rallying behind Madonna as she awaits a ruling Friday on whether she can adopt a girl from the southern African nation. The pop star, who has three children, adopted a son from Malawi in 2006. She is seeking to adopt Chifundo "Mercy" James, 4. "Ninety-nine percent of the people calling in are saying, 'let her take the baby,' " said Marilyn Segula, a presenter at Capital FM, which broadcasts in at least five cities, including the capital, Lilongwe.


Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, an individual web developer looking to make friends at Harvard University. Although Facebook has been sued by ConnectU.com for allegedly copying its concept and data, Facebook is actually the first worldwide college network on the Internet. As one of the most popular college websites, Facebook is notable for its lack of prominent advertising. It quickly accumulated $50,000 in debt in 2004, and it took nearly a year for it to begin turning a profit, so clearly it needed a large amount of venture capital.


In the meantime, she said, the act of applying for European Union membership would create new confidence in Iceland abroad, helping to speed economic recovery. Commentators in Iceland have given high ratings to Ms. Sigurdardottir's performance in her 80 days in office, and in the election campaign, saying she has steadied the country's faltering self-confidence in the wake of the banking collapse and turbulent January street protests, the first political violence in Iceland since protests over the country's decision to join NATO in 1949.


The two-day postal delivery suspension placed on three streets in Hamilton, New Zealand has been lifted by New Zealand Post and the posties are back to work delivering mail. The suspension of deliveries applied to Tennyson Road, Dryden Road, and Emerson Place, which are located in Fairfield. New Zealand Post came to the decision on Friday to put the ban in place because of recent gang violence/conflict. Along with the New Zealand Police, New Zealand Post reviewed the current situation, and also drove along the streets, they came to the conclusion that the situation has now "cooled down," according to New Zealand Post spokesperson, Fiona Mayo and postal delivery general manger, Matthew Nant. The residents on those streets came out to greet the postie, who was accompanied by business leader Brendon Coker, as she delivered the residents mail. Martha Rollo, Tennyson Road resident for 13-years, said that she was thrilled that her mail was once again being delivered after the "senseless" gang violence had temporarily stopped post.


The black Muslim activist said that he had relieved Muhammad of his duties "until he demonstrates that he is willing to conform to the manner of representing Allah and the honorable Elijah Muhammad (founder of the Nation of Islam)".

Elijah Muhammad founded the Nation of Islam.


She flew to Los Angeles last week, after her 74-year-old mother had a stroke, but is expected to return to Texas in a few days.

She recently left her camp, vowing to come back, to visit her mother who has just had a stroke.


The terror attacks, it was clear, had blasted a hole in the dam holding back Mumbai's reservoir of woes. While the protesters seemed to be reacting to a tragedy that had left at least 164 people dead and 308 injured, they were really venting the frustrations of having to cope with life in a city with an infrastructure so stretched that simply getting to work and back is an ordeal. At peak hour, the commuter trains - which carry six million people each day - are packed with up to 5,000 commuters, even though they're built for 1,800. Every day, an average of 11 people die on the railway system, either because they fall off the trains or because they're hit by passing locomotives as they cross the tracks.

11 people died in the terror attacks in Mumbai.


The prosecutor told the court that the incident had caused "distress" to one of the children.

The prosecutor told the court that "distress" in one of the children is associated with the incident.


Green cards are becoming more difficult to obtain.


As much as 200 mm of rain have been recorded in portions of British Columbia , on the west coast of Canada since Monday.


A zoo spokesman said the endangered lizards, believed to number less than 4,000 in the wild, all hatched in the last two weeks and 14 eggs are still under observation. He calls it the Komodo's most successful breeding year ever at the zoo. The giant reptiles first arrived in the early 1980s, but the new births brought their total from 34 to 66. The Komodo dragon can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 150 pounds. They have a bite that can be deadly and can only be found in the wild on the eastern Indonesian islands of Komodo, Padar and Rinca.


About 2,200 Americans and 27,000 Filipinos died from disease and starvation at Camp O'Donnell before the camp was closed in July 1942, just three months after the beginning of the Death March. Ortega -- now the lone surviving member of the 192nd tank battalion - spent 3 ½ years in captivity in the Philippines and Japan before being liberated in August 1945 following the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing a reluctant Japan to surrender. Ortega eventually returned to the United States in October 1945, the first of five brothers to return home from the war. A sixth died in action.

Americans used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.


Trade between China and India is expected to touch $20 bn this year and Chinese investors are now rushing into India - lured by the country's growing wealth.

There is a profitable trade between China and India.


Mexico City (Mexico), 12 Jan 90 (DPA) - Salvadoran Social Democratic politician Hector Oqueli Colindres was kidnapped today, in Guatemala city, along with Guatemalan Social Democratic leader Gilda Flores, his party, in Mexico City, reported.

Hector Oqueli Colindres comes from El Salvador.


The organisation reports that it has recently seen a significant rise in the number of complaints and some of these involve modem connections being redirected, unbeknown to the users.

Complaints arose in the organisation about users who redirect their modem connections.


Violence over the last week killed 23 people, two worshippers dragged from a mosque and shot, underlining the challenges of bringing stability and strengthening Afghanistan's fledgling democracy.

Two worshippers were killed in Afghanistan.


President Bush returned to the Mountain State to celebrate Independence Day, telling a spirited crowd yesterday that on its 228th birthday the nation is "moving forward with confidence and strength."


Linda Johnson, who lives with her husband, Charles, and two cats in a rented one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco's Mission District, said Katrina has made her realize she needs to gather together, in one accessible place, her scattered disaster supplies.


Environment Minister David Anderson today announced his decision regarding the environmental assessment of the proposed Toulnustouc Hydroelectric Project.

A hydroelectric project is proposed or is under construction.


French justice minister Rachida Dati is trying to stop her convicted drug-trafficker brother from publishing a no-holds-barred book which she fears will reveal the identity of her baby's father. Jamal Dati intends to lift the lid on his famous sister's private life in the revealing family biography to go on sale later this year. The glamorous politician triggered a frenzy of media speculation after refusing to reveal who fathered baby Zohra, who was born last January.


Rumsfeld said the Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military capabilities shows China is spending more than its leaders acknowledge, expanding its missile capabilities and developing advanced military technology.

China was increasing its military spending and buying large amounts of sophisticated weapons.


On April 27th, Pavolini went on, ahead of his troops, and reached Mussolini. Accompanying him were Angela Curti, the former mistress of Mussolini.


But an O2 insider said there had been problems with a companies trying to sell the pass codes. Some people were "bound to have been turned away" because of fraudulent tickets. Led Zeppelin, formed in 1968, were one of the most influential bands of the 1970s with songs such as Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven. They split in 1980 after the death of the drummer John Bonham. Kenneth Donnell, 25, who was not born in 1980, spent £83,000 on two tickets in a BBC Children in Need auction.

The band Led Zeppelin was formed in 1980.


US President George W. Bush has indicated he will invite Abbas to the United States for talks, something he never did with Abbas's predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat .


It could mean to leave in the street to thousands of workers.

It could lead to thousands of job losses.


The first kibbutz, Deganya, near the Sea of Galilee, was founded in 1910.

The first kibbutz was founded near the Sea of Galilee.


The so-called "grandmother hypothesis", based on studies of African hunter-gatherer groups, suggests that infertile women are vital for successful child-rearing despite being unable to produce children themselves.

Infertile women are vital for successful child-rearing, according to the "grandmother hypothesis".


The job gains mean that President Bush can celebrate - albeit by a very fine margin - a net growth in jobs in the US economy in his first term in office.

President Bush's first term in office showed a net gain in payroll jobs.


The New Zealand Maori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu died on Tuesday at 5.32 p.m. (NZST) following a long illness. She was 75 years old. The Maori Queen holds no constitutional function in New Zealand, but Dame Te Atairangikaahu was an avid supporter of cultural and sporting events; the 40th anniversary of her coronation was celebrated in May. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Waikato University in 1973, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Victoria University in 1999. She was one of the first inductees of the Order of New Zealand when it was established in 1987.

Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaah was a student at Victoria University in 1999.


On Tuesday, December 23, the menswear retailer The Officers Club's administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers decided to close 32 of the 150 stores immediately. PricewaterhouseCoopers also announced that TimeC 1215 limited had bought 118 of the stores for an undisclosed fee. TimeC 1215 is backed by David Charlton, chief executive of The Officers Club. This deal saves around 900 jobs. The Officers Club began in the early 1990s in Sunderland and has headquarters at Cramlington, Northumberland.

The UK retailer Zavvi has called in administrators during Christmas.


Because of Reagan's economic strategy, the federal budget deficit ballooned.

Reagan's economic strategy led to huge federal budget deficits.


Abu Eisa al-Hindi was said to have been involved in a plot to attack Heathrow airport, details of which were allegedly discovered on the computer of Abu Eisa al-Hindi, 25, an al-Qa'ida suspect recently arrested in Pakistan.

Abu Eisa al-Hindi is the father of Abu Eisa al-Hindi.


A briefcase containing magnets, batteries and a cell phone sitting in the bushes outside a Charleston, South Carolina coffee shop drew the local bomb squad's attention, before it was determined that it contained no explosives. Police had earlier closed down Calhoun Street in downtown, where the coffee shop is located, but reopened the street and let local residents and business owners that the situation was over after performing an investigation.

A briefcase was found outside Starbucks in Charleston.


Queen Victoria died in 1901, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.


Carl Smith collided with a concrete lamp-post while skating and suffered a skull fracture that caused a coma. When he failed to regain consciousness, his parents on August 8 consented to his life support machine being turned off.


Today Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone with access to the Internet can edit, was the victim of an onslaught of practical jokes, as April Fool's Day kicked in various timezones around the world, at least those parts which follow the Gregorian calendar. It is believed that Wikipedia contributors were kept busy tidying up and removing prank articles and changes made by other Wikipedia contributors, and were expecting to be cleaning up the aftermath for days afterwards.

Readers of online encyclopedias can edit the contents.


The trial court may allow the prevailing party reasonable attorney fees as part of costs.

The prevailing party may not recover attorney fees.


Contrary to what is happening in some other parts of the Amazon, where the forest is being slashed and burned at an alarming rate, those who want to save Acre's forest seem to be winning.

Slash and burn cycle of clearing causes many problems in the rainforest.


Assailants also ambushed two civilian sport utility vehicles, favoured by Western civilian contractors, on the road to Baghdad's international airport

Assailants also ambushed two civilian sport utility vehicles on the road to Baghdad's international airport.


The memo, written by Marc Allen Connelly (who was general counsel to the funeral services commission at the time) and sent to Dick McNeil (the Bush-appointed chairman of the funeral commission) stated that Connelly "received information" from Texas state officials that two of the funeral commissioners worked for SCI.


A recent study found no evidence of seasonal affective disorder in Iceland where the sun does not appear for a long time in the winter.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a worldwide disorder.


The beginning of March 2009 marked one year since the election of Dmitry Medvedev as president of Russia. Although he announced from the outset that the fight against corruption would be one of his main priorities, his first year in office has shown that these words—as in the years of presidents Yeltsin and Putin—were nothing more than propaganda. Medvedev occupies the highest post in a state in which corruption is neither a secondary feature nor an aberration, but rather its essence. From top to bottom, corruption in post-Soviet Russia permeates the bureaucratic apparatus, the security structures and big business. Like a virus in the blood of a diseased organism, it is present in all commercial and government relations. For the "system" it is everything—its foundation and true ideology, which can be summarized with the banal formulas: "Everything is for sale" and "Get rich."


President Vladimir Putin vowed Monday to track down the killers of Anna Politkovskaya, while her colleagues at Novaya Gazeta pledged to continue her work despite dangers.


Aziz confirmed that Iraq's demands include "the lifting of the blockade and the restructuring of the espionage commission, including its Chairman, (Richard) Butler.

Iraq demands the lifting of the embargo and changes in the committee.


Sentiment is growing in the Bush administration and global energy circles to place Iraqi professionals in charge of their country's oil production after any war, despite a push by some officials for the United States to seize control of the lucrative oil fields.

The United States threatened the "severest consequences" if Iraq were to use chemical or biological weapons against the United States, destroy Kuwaiti oil fields or participate in terrorism.


For example, the fields of Western farmers feed the United States and many other parts of the world, and India's irrigation systems have enabled that country to be self-sufficient in food production since 1974. In addition, in many parts of the world dams have helped to remedy life-threatening problems such as poverty from lack of economic development, famine as a result of drought, devastation from floods, and continued disease from lack of potable water supplies.

Dam building prevents life-threatening situations.


[Episcopal News Service]  Several parishes and villages in Sudan's Episcopal Diocese of Mundri have fallen victim to a fresh wave of attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel organization whose soldiers are prolonging a two-decades-long terrorist campaign gruesomely marked by widespread massacres and child abductions. At least four people have been confirmed dead and insecurity in the region is forcing residents to flee the villages of Tore Wandi, Moba, Bangolo, Ledinwa and Garia for the relative safety of Mundri. One of the slain is Wilson, a lay reader at a parish in Moba, wrote the Rt. Rev. Bismark Monday, bishop of Mundri, in a January 15 email to church partners. Monday explained that one of Wilson's sons and grandsons -- both about 10 years old -- were abducted.

The Lord's Resistance Army is a rebel organization.


Valero Energy Corp., on Monday, said it found "extensive" additional damage at its 250,000-barrel-per-day Port Arthur refinery.

Valero Energy Corp. is the owner of Port Arthur refinery.


Jill Pilgrim, general counsel of USA Track and Field, brought up the issue during a panel on women's sports at the sports lawyers conference. Pilgrim said the law regarding who is legally considered a woman is changing as sex-change operations become more common.

Sex-change operations become more common.


One year on from the Indian Ocean tsunami, the world's grief and compassion returned to the tsunami-battered coastlines of the Indian Ocean, where at least 216,000 people lost their lives. Under a clear sky and before a gentle sea, the world commemorated those who lost their lives, in one of the worst natural disasters that the modern world has experienced.

Earthquakes have the potential to generate a tsunami.


Last week, LTTE leader Vilupillai Prabhakaran stated that the rebels are running out of patience and are prepared to go back to war.


Second-half goals, from Danny Mills and Darius Vassell, lifted Manchester City to a 2-0 victory over Everton.


A Continental Connection flight from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a house about four to six miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, killing 50 people, officials said. Continental Airlines Flight 3407 is a daily commuter flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York, operated under the Continental Connection brand by Virginia-based regional airline Colgan Air.


The Internet group Anonymous today held protests critical of the Church of Scientology. The protests marked what would have been the 49th birthday of Lisa McPherson, who is claimed to be a victim of the Church of Scientology's practices. Lisa died in 1995 during a running of what Scientologists refer to as an Introspection Rundown, a procedure intended to help Church members deal with a psychotic or deeply traumatic event.

The Church of Scientology murdered Lisa McPherson.


Co-producing the film is Happy Madison, the company owned by Sandler, who has been a compatriot of Schneider's since they met early in their careers, as mutually struggling stand-up comedians in Los Angeles.

Happy Madison works for the company owned by Sandler.


US President George W. Bush has refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the 138,000 US troops in Iraq, but has said that US forces will stand down as Iraqi forces gradually take over.


The iF awards are presented in Hanover, Germany, at the International Forum Design Hannover GMBH. There are a number of fields and disciplines which have their own awards.TAG Heuer's Monaco Calibre 360 LS Concept Chronograph has won the award in the Leisure/Lifestyle category. The timepiece was chosen from over 2,200 watches from 35 countries. This prestigious award was given to the company for the second time in two years. Last year the winner in the same category was TAG Heuer's Professional Golf Watch, designed together with Tiger Woods. This year's winning timepiece from TAG Heuer has a mechanical movement, which represents the first in the history of watchmaking to reach a precision of 1/100th of a second. The watch itself is to be seen at the iF design exhibition 2007, held in Hanover, from March 15 till August.

Tiger Woods attends the iF design exhibition 2007.


You rifle through your visual memory and there it is: Vermeer, the 17th-Century Dutch artist who painted extraordinary portraits of women engaged in the ordinary -- writing a letter, making lace or putting on a necklace of pearls.


The automobile industry, led by General Motors and Ford, offered price discounts from June-August that temporarily boosted sales, but these discounts may have masked underlying weakness.

Ford is part of the automobile industry.


White supported Gough Whitlam's Labor government of 1972 to 1975, and after Whitlam was ousted in the 1975 constitutional crisis, became particularly anti-royalist.

White assisted the Labor government from 1972 to 1975.


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The uneasy truce between the Pakistani government and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley appeared increasingly fragile on Monday as government forces attacked militants in a neighboring district for a second day, causing the main negotiator for the Taliban to break off talks. Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the pro-Taliban cleric who has been negotiating peace talks between the government and the Taliban in Swat, halted talks on Monday to protest the military operation in the Lower Dir district west of Swat, his spokesman said.

Maulana Sufi Muhammad is the chief of Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi.


A United States Air Force F-22A Raptor fighter jet crashed in the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States on Wednesday, according to officials. The airplane, which seats one person, crashed at approximately 10:30 am local time about 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base in California. The cause of the accident has not yet been ascertained, and the fate of the pilot is unknown. The jet was on a test mission when it crashed.


WASHINGTON - On the mornings he is in town, Dick Cheney wakes up at 6, climbs into his black sport utility vehicle and drives himself to a Starbucks near his McLean, Va., home. He returns with a pair of grande skim lattes — decaf for him, regular for his wife, Lynne — and settles into work in the sun-drenched office above his garage, penning his memoir in longhand on yellow legal pads. It is the kind of scene that Americans have come to expect from their elder statesmen: a quiet, unassuming return to private life after giving up power. Except, that is, for the quiet and unassuming part.

Dick Cheney is the former Vice President.


State Police issued bulletins via teletype requesting patrols to be on the lookout for Robert Senacal, 35, of Cortlandt Manor.


Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman of Satyam Computer Services, and his brother, B. Rama Raju, the company's managing director, were arrested late Friday by Andhra Pradesh police. The brothers were placed under judicial custody in a Hyderabad, India jail and will remain there until January 23. Facing charges of criminal breach of trust (Section 406 of IPC), criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B), cheating (Section 420), falsification of records and forgery (Section 468), and fraudulent cancellation of securities (Section 477-a), they face up to ten years imprisonment if convicted.


In 1983 Turkish Cypriots proclaimed a separate state, naming it the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Peace talks have been held sporadically, but Cyprus remains divided.

Cyprus was divided into two parts in 1983.


If a Mexican approaches the border, he's assumed to be trying to illegally cross.

Mexicans continue to illegally cross border


South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Thursday asked the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) to investigate questions arising about the Foreign Ministry's response to the kidnapping of a South Korean in Iraq who was later killed by Muslim militants, according to Yonhap.

A South Korean in Iraq was killed by Muslim militants.


The number of Gulf War veterans who suffer from Gulf War illness is difficult to grasp. Robinson and other advocates say they believe that many of the 330,000 Gulf War veterans who have sought medical treatment from the VA since the war, and 179,000 who are collecting some level of disability benefits, are suffering from one or more of the symptoms.

Many US soldiers developed Gulf War illness after the Gulf War.


Mozambique's Maria Mutola and Israel's Alex Averbukh produced the best performances of the year, in the women's 800 metres and men's pole vault, at the Super Grand Prix in Madrid on Saturday.

The women's ten thousand metres champion is from Mozambique.


Moog built his first electronic instrument - a theremin - at the age of 14 and made the MiniMoog, 'the first compact, easy-to-use synthesiser', in 1970.

Aged just 14, Moog built his first electronic instrument, a theremin.


A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil-tanker in the Straits of Hormuz late last night. Only minor damage to the tanker and no serious injuries were reported. The USS Newport News submarine collided with the stern of the Japanese oil-tanker, causing minor damage to the tanker. No personnel on either vessel were seriously injured, US Navy and Japanese government officials said. The straits of Hormuz connect the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and is a major waterway for oil tankers.


Cool, humid weather Sunday helped slow the advance of a fire that caused the evacuation of hundreds of homes and businesses in Alaska's Interior.