# News is getting better and better every day



## lili (2005 Október 14)

[attachmentid=22120]
"now when you talk about New York take a breath there"

how much more scripted can you get !
How can they even show themselves in public....this is hilarious and I almost can't believe they think someone out here in wonderland would not be laughing their asses off at this bozo... <_< 

Remember Soviet Russia  ...scripted...

video:
http://dailydissent.org/video/olbermann101305.rm


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## Spanky (2005 Október 14)

speaking of "good news"  

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto.../International/

mar sokszor jobb kise nyitni az ujsagot :angry:


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## Gabizita (2005 Október 24)

Par percre van tolem a park ahol a kigyot fogtak .






Girl May Lose Arm After School Snake Bite
By Associated Press
Sun Oct 23, 12:52 AM

POTTSTOWN, Pa. - A 14-year-old girl may lose her arm after being bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake at school, authorities said.

The snake was caught in Valley Forge by a 17-year-old male student, who took it in a shoebox to a drama club gathering at St. Pius X High School on Friday, Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Ray Bechtel said. No regular classes were held that day, which was designated for staff development.

The boy was showing the reptile to other students when it bit the girl's finger, Bechtel said.

The girl, whose name was not released by police, apparently threw the snake across the room and the boy threw it outside. The snake was not found, but authorities were able to identify it because the boy photographed it with his camera cellphone, said Bechtel.

The victim was treated at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center about 45 minutes after being bitten, he said.

"The doctors said if it had been a half-hour longer she would likely have been dead," said Bechtel.

However, police said she could still lose her arm.

Police did not have an update on the girl's condition Sunday. She had been in very serious condition at Hershey Medical Center.

No charges were filed but police said they were investigating.

Copperhead snake bites are typically not fatal but are extremely painful and may cause extensive scarring and loss of limb use, according to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension of North Carolina State University.

___


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## lili (2005 Október 27)

The Harriet debacle shows Bush to be incredibly weak. That doesn't help him at all, in anything. It will only further the public perception of him as a failing president of a failing presidency. And the weaker Bush is, the less trouble he can stir up.
The religious right and "conservatives" in the GOP have shown their cards. They're nasty, vindictive, extremists who want the entire pie or nothing, and *they're willing to destroy their own president* if he doesn't give them 110% of everything they want. They've burned their bridges with this president, and this president is going to be around for 3 years. This should be fun






Bush was defeated on the Miers nomination by his own people. That makes the loss more devastating. And, it verifies that there is *no room for compromise with the theocrats*.


Bush's statement from AP:
_"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said. "Harriet Miers' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers -- and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her." _


He is the lamest of lame ducks now.

<span style="color:#CC0000">###########################</span>


Via Associated Press:
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald huddled with his legal team Thursday as two key White House aides awaited their fate in the CIA leak probe.

A spokesman for the prosecutor said there would be no public announcements Thursday. The term of the grand jury that could bring indictments expires Friday.

The White House braced for the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, could become a criminal defendant by week's end. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, remained in jeopardy of being charged with false statements.

Libby and Rove arrived for work at the White House Thursday as usual. Rove attended the daily meeting of the senior staff, but Libby did not and was said to be in a security briefing. Libby misses senior staff about half the time because of intelligence briefings and other issues on Cheney's schedule, an official said.

Separately, Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, said there would be no announcements in the probe on Thursday.

Rove's legal team made contingency plans, consulting with former Justice Department official Mark Corallo about what defenses could be mounted in court and in public.


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## lili (2005 Október 28)

Text of indictments are online here :

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/04ms407-I.pdf


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## Egon (2005 Október 28)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lili @ Oct 14 2005, 10:14 AM) [post=250275]Quoted post[/post]</div><div class='quotemain'>
[attachmentid=22120]
"now when you talk about New York take a breath there"

how much more scripted can you get !
How can they even show themselves in public....this is hilarious and I almost can't believe they think someone out here in wonderland would not be laughing their asses off at this bozo...





Remember Soviet Russia



...scripted...
[/b][/quote]

Most people don't give a damn so they have a free ride. Free world ? Joke !


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## Spanky (2005 Október 29)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto.../International/


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## csocsike (2006 Június 18)

*Richard Foot, The Ottawa Citizen*

Published: Sunday, June 18, 2006 *Article tools*


MONCTON, N.B. - One man dominated yesterday's second Liberal leadership debate, yet he wasn't anywhere near the event, nor is he even a Liberal.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- attacked repeatedly by the 11 candidates vying to lead the federal Liberals -- loomed like a bogeyman over the two-hour discussions in a stiflingly hot University of Moncton gymnasium.
"We know who we are, and we know who Stephen Harper is," said Liberal MP Maurizio Bevilacqua, opening the gang assault on Mr. Harper, whom he condemned for a list of alleged sins, from raising taxes on the poor to ignoring native people, to picking fights with the Ottawa press gallery.
"He spreads democracy abroad while shutting out the press at home," said Mr. Bevilacqua.
Toronto-area MP Michael Ignatieff, fast becoming the high-profile front-runner in the leadership race, said the choice facing the party comes down to "who among us has the best chance of defeating Stephen Harper?
"Beating Mr. Harper means defeating his narrative. The storyline: He loves power, but he dislikes government. He wants to make it impossible for future Liberal governments to do what they have done since Wilfrid Laurier: building the infrastructure, the health services, the income security, the transfers and equalization payments, the environmental policies that hold us together as Canadians.
"Mr. Harper's narrative is a bad story for Canada."
MP Scott Brison, the only Atlantic Canadian in the race, resurrected Mr. Harper's old and infamous comments about the "defeatist" economic culture of the East Coast.
"I want to say this to Stephen Harper: We are not defeatist," Mr. Brison said to wild cheers from the crowd of 500.
All the candidates, including Ken Dryden, Carolyn Bennett, Stephane Dion, Hedy Fry, Joe Volpe, Gerard Kennedy and Bob Rae took swipes at the Conservatives in front of the partisan audience.
Yesterday's event was hampered by a string of technical glitches. Candidates frequently couldn't be heard when their microphones failed. And at one point, Mr. Dryden was left standing in the dark, when an overhead spotlight cut out during his speech.
Leadership hopeful Martha Hall Findlay, a Toronto lawyer and businesswoman, summed up the mood of many when she declared to the room: "The Liberal leadership debate needs a little more pizzazz."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006​


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## csocsike (2006 Június 30)

*Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press*

Published: Thursday, June 29, 2006 *Article toolOTTAWA -- Canada's chief electoral officer wants the federal Conservative party to open its books following a revelation by the Harper government's accountability quarterback that the party failed to report delegate fees to its 2005 convention. *

Liberal and NDP MPs say the omission, which came to light when Treasury Board President John Baird was speaking to a Senate committee, means the Tories broke political financing laws and potentially collected millions of dollars in unreported donations. 
"The public has a right to know exactly what happened in this case,'' chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley said in a release late Thursday. 
"The chief electoral officer requests the Conservative Party of Canada to provide him with the necessary documents and supporting information to allow the public to know the law has been respected.'' 
The Conservatives, who rode to power on a wave of outrage against perceived Liberal corruption, initially reacted with fury to questions about the apparent fee omission. 
After Kingsley's statement, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper would only say they were "puzzled'' by the Elections Canada statement. 
Baird told a Senate committee examining the Federal Accountability Act that the Conservatives had not counted $600 fees from the 2,900 delegates to their 2005 policy convention as political donations, nor had the party issued tax receipts. 
Political opponents said that appeared to contravene Canada's political financing laws. 
The Tories said there is no such rule and claimed that Elections Canada had already audited the 2005 convention in Montreal. 
"Elections Canada has not audited the books of the Conservative Party regarding this convention,'' said the release from Kingsley, adding Elections Canada has no legal authority to compel such an audit. 
On the critical point of whether failure to report convention fees breaches any law, Kingsley was ambiguous. 
"The rules respecting the determination of contributions in the context of political events are clear and have been applied consistently,'' he wrote, without further clarification. 
But an Elections Canada spokeswoman told The Canadian Press earlier this month that the law stipulates that a fee paid to attend a political convention does constitute a donation "to the extent that the person paying the fee is not receiving a good or service that has any commercial value beyond its political value.'' 
Valerie Hache said that any portion of a convention fee that covers lodging, meals or travel does not count as a contribution.


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## csocsike (2006 Június 30)

*Stewart Bell, National Post*

Published: Friday, June 30, 2006 *Article tools*


His name used to be Daniel Sonier, but that was when he was a troubled Scarborough teenager with dreams of becoming a rap star.
Now he is Shaheed.
In Arabic, it means martyr. It is the name the 22-year-old of Acadian and aboriginal ancestry adopted when he became a Muslim five years ago.
Since his conversion, he has shed his baggy hip hop garb for a white turban and gown, married a woman from Djibouti and fathered two children.
"Those who were around me, who knew me from the past, they see me now, they don't even recognize me," he said.
"They call me Daniel, but really, in my heart, I'm Shaheed."
An estimated 3,000 people are, like Shaheed, converting to Islam each year in Canada, according to a Canadian Security Intelligence Service report.
From a security perspective, that is not a concern. What troubles counterterrorism officials is the "small number" of converts who are being recruited into the Islam faith's radical fringe.
At least two of the 17 suspects arrested in Toronto on terror charges on June 2 were converts, and Canadian intelligence reports declassified under the Access to Information Act reveal links between conversion and terrorism.
Conversion to the extremist brand of Islam is "a phenomenon of increasing concern to Western governments," one CSIS intelligence study says.
"In the 19th and 20th centuries, disillusioned individuals were known to have channelled their grievances and energies through various ideological movements," says another Canadian intelligence report. "Today, some individuals of this nature have chosen extreme Islam."
Richard Reid the shoe bomber, the American Taliban John Walker Lindh, the Australian Taliban David Hicks, Andrew Rowe of Britain and Christophe Caze of France are cited in reports as examples of converts run amok.
One of the four suicide bombers who killed more than 50 people in London last July 7, Germaine Lindsay, was a Jamaican-born British citizen who had converted to Islam.
Recruiters are deliberately seeking converts, who are sometimes referred to as "white skins," because of their strategic value, intelligence reports say.
"The attraction of converts for extremist Islamic groups is clear," CSIS says in a "secret" report titled Canadian Converts to Radical Islam.
"These individuals have a solid knowledge of Western society, can move with relative ease internationally because of their countries of birth, and exhibit a religious zeal typical of new adherents."
Shaheed was once one of them.
"The first time I saw an al-Qaeda video, I was ready to go," he said in a recent interview. "I wanted to kill the disbelievers."
His long-time friend Chris Jakubowski, a convert who has adopted the Muslim name Yacub, said Shaheed was so extreme he once said he would go to war against his own father. Friends started calling him Osama bin Daniel.
"He was definitely really hardcore," Yacub said.
Shaheed often spoke about going overseas to fight those he considered the enemies of Islam, said Yacub, who has known him since the third grade.


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## csocsike (2006 Július 4)

<!-- wrapper01 end --> 
*Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press*

Published: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 *Pull out the bug spray: West Nile virus is beginning its summertime assault.*

Infected mosquitoes are known to be buzzing in 16 states so far, and five people nationwide are already battling the illness' most severe form. Scientists fear the rubble-strewn Gulf Coast in particular is ripe for a bad outbreak.
How bad this year will be depends on the weather. Anywhere that's especially hot and dry should watch out.



* Back to Body & Health* 
It also depends on birds — robins and house sparrows, to be exact. Forget the dying crows that became notorious in West Nile's early days. How mosquitoes feed on these smaller backyard birds seems more important in determining how much virus circulates in communities — especially in July and August, the disease's worst months.
West Nile has infected a surprising 1.2 million to 1.3 million people in the United States in just the seven years since it first struck the nation, estimates Dr. Lyle Petersen of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country's leading West Nile specialist.
Most people didn't know it: About one in five people develop symptoms, and fewer get the life-threatening disease. Still, West Nile has killed almost 800 people in the U.S. in that brief period, and caused severe neurologic illness, meningitis or encephalitis, in more than 8,300. Others are left with polio-like paralysis.
Even the less severe West Nile fever is "really quite a horrible kind of illness," says Petersen. He caught the disease himself in 2003 — spending a week in bed and a month afterward battling bone-deep fatigue — and he worries that people don't take the threat seriously enough.
"I guarantee it'll ruin your summer."
Scientists can't predict where the virus will strike each year, but recent research shows:
_West Nile virus grows faster and more plentifully inside a mosquito's body when it's really hot.



_Just about any mosquito can carry West Nile, but the biggest carrier, the Culex breed, thrives in small amounts of nutrient-rich water, like the muddy puddles left when ponds dry out in a hot, dry summer. Even drops left under dense leaves in irrigated fields or in the bottoms of flower pots can be enough.
_Hurricanes don't spur West Nile. Instead, heavy rains temporarily flush out the tiny pools where mosquitoes have laid eggs. Yet the CDC fears that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are ripe for a surge in West Nile this summer because of the rubble left by Hurricane Katrina last year, full of water-collecting crevices that make perfect mosquito breeding grounds.
_Birds are the incubators key to West Nile's spread. Some, like crows, die quickly when bitten by an infected mosquito. Others, particularly robins and house sparrows, build up high levels of the virus without dying off, able to then infect more mosquitoes. When it's hot and dry, those birds compete with mosquitoes for the same scarce water supplies — close contact that spurs more bug bites.
_And scientists who checked the stomach contents of live mosquitoes found that one big West Nile carrier tends to mostly bite robins until June, when those birds finish nesting and start migrating. Then, rather than filling the gap with just other birds, the bugs bite more people in late summer.
Since it emerged in New York City in 1999, West Nile virus has spread from coast to coast. Only Maine and Washington have diagnosed no ill people yet, despite finding the virus in mosquitoes and other animals in summers past.
Already this year, doctors are reporting the neurologic form of West Nile in five people in California, Colorado, Mississippi and Texas. All donated blood is tested for West Nile, to prevent transfusions from symptom-free but infected people, and the CDC hopes those tests will also act as an early warning signal of impending outbreaks — in addition to mosquito testing that has uncovered infection in 16 states and counting.
Older people and organ transplant recipients are most at risk of life-threatening disease, while, mysteriously, the polio-like muscle weakness tends to strike people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
But the sad truth is that West Nile can strike anyone, and there's no vaccine yet. Hence the CDC wants people to use mosquito repellents as routinely as they do seat belts, so they'll be covered wherever and whenever the virus pops up. The best advice: 
_Spray on a good repellent whenever you go outdoors, either that old standby DEET or two recently proven alternatives, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. 
_Make it harder for mosquitoes to breed in your neighborhood. Don't let water collect in flower pots, buckets, old tires or wading pools. Clean out birdbaths weekly, and clean clogged gutters. 
_Make sure window screens have no holes. 
_And consult a doctor for such symptoms as high fever, severe headache, confusion or difficulty thinking, stiff neck, severe muscle weakness or tremors. 
&copy; Associated Press 2006​


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## csocsike (2006 Július 5)

*Grania Litwin, Times Colonist*

Published: Sunday, July 02, 2006 *In the case of the brain, however, it isn't money that needs to be put into the account, but high-value fats.*

"The brain is 60 per cent fat and come retirement age or sooner, if you haven't deposited enough, there is a greater risk of mental disease," says the New York-based naturopath, who visited Victoria recently to give a talk and promote his new book The Brain Diet.
He explains North Americans are consuming far too many saturated fats, *trans fats* and omega-6 rich oils such as corn and safflower. "These oils are changing our brain chemistry -- and not for the better."



* Back to Body & Health* 


* Gallery: Nuggets from the Brain Diet* 
A diet rich in brain-enhancing fats consumed over many years can help people avoid *Alzheimer's*, *Parkinson's*, MS, fibromyalgia, *attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder* -- and can even help alleviate *depression* and anxiety.
"We have a mental health crisis on our hands because too little attention has been given to the brain nutrition," he says, adding one in every two Americans will be diagnosed with a mental health condition sometime in their life, and more than 1.5 million adults now take drugs for ADHD.
Logan became interested in nutrition at age 26, after being referred to a New York naturopath for treatment of migraines. "The guy worked wonders for me, and opened my eyes to the profession," said the Belfast-born expert, who then decided to study naturopathy at the Canadian College of Natural Medicine in Toronto.
Now 39-years-old and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School's Mind-Body Institute, Logan is also nutrition editor of the International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, and has had papers published in the American Journal of Hypertension and in Nutrition, Arthritis and Rheymatology.
He says the average person's brain is starved for the omega-3 fats found in fish and seafood, fibre-rich whole grains and grass-fed beef, flax seeds, walnut oils, and dark greens.
"Of the average person's total cereal intake today, only 3.5 per cent is in the form of whole grains."
Even our vegetable intake is pathetic, he says.
Recent research shows only five veggies -- canned tomatoes, fresh and frozen potatoes, iceberg lettuce and onion -- account for 50 per cent of our total vegetable consumption.
"This is no joke. We're talking about the trimmings on a burger and a side of fries."
While it's possible to change brain function through diet, he stresses it won't happen overnight. The turnaround can take up to 12 months and sadly, a lifetime of fat abuse cannot be undone.
The key is to start early, or at the very least -- now.
Logan adds that intensely coloured fruits and veggies, particularly purple ones such as grapes, plums, blueberries, eggplant -- "They're the gold standard" -- are excellent health choices. But his core message focuses on omega-3s in lowing the risk of long term cognitive decline.
He is quick to add that people require both omega-6 and omega-3, but in a ratio of about 2 to 1, respectively. The problem is today's "skewed" ratio is as high as 10 or 20 to one, and that's leading to severe neural and psychiatric consequences.


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## csocsike (2006 Július 6)

*John Kennedy, canada.com*

Published: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 *The single biggest issue facing the music industry these days is downloading and file-sharing. But consumers – armed with MP3 players, iPods and computers that can copy CDs in a matter of minutes – are being left to make moral decisions because of mixed messages from the people who make and market music.

According to the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), music sales fell four per cent between 2004 and 2005, a drop it attributes directly to the practice of file-sharing. The CRIA estimates the Canadian music industry has lost in excess of $250 million since 2003.



 Back to Entertainment


 Forum: Should music be free?


 Russian site angers U.S. music industry


 Visit our download store

The problem, according to the major record companies, is that it’s not against the law to download music for free in Canada. Over the last two years, courts here have ruled that downloading a song for personal use or sharing music with other computer users is not illegal.

A Liberal bill that would have updated and toughened copyright laws died when the government was defeated in the last federal election, although the country’s new Heritage Minister, Beverley Oda, has said she favours copyright reforms.

During Canadian Music Week earlier this year, the head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry called on the government to create tougher copyright laws.

London-based John Kennedy pointed out that in Germany and the UK, where new copyright laws are in place, more people are buying music online legally than downloading for free.

At the same time the so-called “suits” rage against consumers who aren’t paying for music, artists continue to weigh the pros and cons of letting fans steal their songs.

Earlier this year, a number of them – including Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Sum 41, Billy Talent and the Barenaked Ladies – banded together to create the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. The group is opposed to suing fans for stealing digital music and using piracy protection software.



 More on the Canadian Music Creators Coalition

“I don’t agree with taking your fans to court,” singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith told canada.com in May. “I mean, that’s just ridiculous.”

Sexsmith admits he’s not sure how he feels about the theft of his music.

“Well, it’s kind of troubling. I think with the new generation it’s an educational problem. I don’t think they realize what goes in to making the music and how much it costs and everything like that,” he says. 

But Sexsmith is not sure there’s anything wrong with fans sharing his music with their friends if it brings new fans.

“I think there’s some good that comes out of it,” he says.

Like many, Sexsmith recalls making mixed cassette tapes from vinyl records and passing them on to friends, “which is kind of like file-sharing.”



 More on Ron Sexsmith

Other performers questioned about the issue over the last few years offered similarly mixed feelings.

Scottish singer KT Tunstall, whose debut CD Eye to the Telescope is currently on the charts, insists she’s not worried about file-sharing.

“No, not at all,” she says. “I have to be totally honest… when I heard about all the downloading problems and when I really thought about it, the only people who suffer ultimately – you know, if everything falls to its knees – are people who can’t sing or perform.”

“It’s the people who actually can’t do their job who suffer because if you can’t make your money from record sales… I mean, I just know now that no matter what happens – if I lose all my friends and family and the record company spontaneously combusts – I can go out there and take my guitar out and make enough money to have dinner. It’s something you feel really grateful to be able to do.”



 More on KT Tunstall

Damhnait Doyle of the Canadian pop group Shaye explains most artists don’t make money from record sales but from live performances and merchandise.

“I can see how artists like Metallica and Bryan Adams are resentful because they are literally being stolen from but new and kind of beginning artists who don’t have that wide of a fan base can only benefit,” says Doyle. “I personally don’t download music that I won’t go out and buy. I don’t think it’s anything to get up in arms about.”

John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls believes since music stores like iTunes came online, people are more willing to pay for songs they download.

“More and more people actually spend a buck. I do it every day,” he says. “It’s a buck. Please, just give us a buck!” 

Rzeznik is firmly against swapping music. “It’s wrong. I did this work and I deserve to get paid for it. What people have got to remember is it’s really fun to take down The Man but The Man will always be there. It’s the artists that are the last ones to get paid and we get paid the least of anybody in the chain.

“Our last record sold maybe 800,000 copies – we didn’t make any money. None. Not one penny from record sales. Imagine if we weren’t able to go out and tour and make money on tour. What would we have done? We would have had a gold record and go out and get jobs.”

Rzeznik admits he toyed with putting copy-protection software on the band’s latest CD, Let Love In.

Goo Goo Dolls guitarist Robby Takac is more sympathetic to fans. “I think I can look at the situation and say I can’t blame the f--king kids,” he says. “I have to blame the industry for looking at a wall full of writing for many, many years and just going, ‘Meh! The government will work it out.’ You know what, they don’t do that anymore.”



 More on Goo Goo Dolls

Longineu Parsons of rock group Yellowcard also feels for the fans.

“The typical college kid is not going to have $20 to spend on a record, especially a record that he or she hasn't heard yet,” he says.

Band mate Sean Mackin says file-sharing hurts record sales but breeds loyalty and helps sells concert tickets and merchandise. “I think eventually for the more hard-working bands – the more sort of grassroots bands – it comes around in the back end. We're not really stressed out about it because we feel our true fans will come and support us.”

“I think we wouldn't be here if kids didn't stumble across our songs on the Internet,” Mackin adds. “We feel that any fan that would download our music is (doing so) to get it to attain how accessible it is and to familiarize themselves with the songs and to kind of take it on a test drive like you would with a car.”



 More on Yellowcard

New Zealand-born Daniel Bedingfield, who topped the charts with “Gotta Get Thru This,” understands the concerns of his fellow songwriters – but he’s singing a different tune.

“I want to make music and I want people to get it. I don’t friggin’ care how they get it,” admits Bedingfield. “The likelihood is that I’ll be able to make money somehow, even if it’s Starbucks, but as long as people get my music I’m fine."

But, he adds, “songwriters who do this for a living are in terrible trouble. They may write a hit song and not even be able to pay for the food on their table. So they’re in big trouble.”

Bedingfield says the public shouldn’t feel pity for the record labels. “Music companies are always going to find a way to make money,” he says. “I don’t think the record industry is in trouble at all. They’ll just adapt like they always do.”

Singer Rob Thomas, who has enjoyed global success both as a solo artist and with the band matchbox twenty, concedes it’s hard to take a firm stand against downloading.

“You’re talking about kids here. You’re talking about your fans. They want to download your music which means they’re fans so you can’t come out and go, ‘You’re a friggin’ thief.’ What, are you going to sue the kids?”

Thomas says artists and record companies need to work together to make music more accessible and affordable. Offering free streaming songs online, for example, allows consumers to listen to songs before buying them.

Still, the Grammy-winning songwriter believes it’s important the public understands the effects of file-sharing.

“Think about your favourite new bands,” says Thomas. “People like Rhett Miller – great artist, great singer/songwriter. Maybe a million people download his record but 300,000 people buy his record. The label’s only going to look at those 300,000 copies and go, ‘Sorry you can’t make another record.’ So all these people who want to support Rhett Miller, all of a sudden he doesn’t have another record now. You need to put your vote in for your favourite artists.”

Thomas says up-and-coming artists and bands are the biggest victims. “Labels have a bottom line and it’s harder and harder to hold bands if they’re not selling records,” he explains. “As much as bands like us can support ourselves touring – we make a really good living and we have our fan base – it’s a scary thing for these newer bands and for these bands that are just trying to get a leg up. I think for them, most of all, there needs to be awareness.”

Just ask People in Planes, a band from Wales with plenty of buzz that hasn’t really taken off. 

“I think it definitely causes concern for bands,” singer Gareth Jones says of file-sharing.

Adds guitarist Peter Roberts: “We’re pretty worried. I hope the bigwigs get around the table and sort it out somehow and invent some way of stopping it.”



 More on People in Planes

Thomas says fans need to think about the kind of music they want to hear.

“The quality of music is going to be affected,” he says. “The music that you’re going to wind up getting is all going to be whatever formula worked until it stops working and then they’re going to find a new formula and you’re going to miss the Wilcos of the world, the Jayhawks of the world and you’re not going to find these new bands because they didn’t have time to grow.”

Adam Gaynor, bassist for matchbox twenty, echoes Thomas.

“I mean, I’m not going to cry because 50,000 kids have downloaded our album because we are fortunate,” he says, “but there are people who aren’t as fortunate. And then you have legal issues which you really need to define and you really need to decipher.”

Gaynor points out that music is no different than other forms of art.

“If you’re a painter and you painted this beautiful image and you left it on your porch and somebody took it – ok, he can paint another one. He can paint five of them,” says Gaynor. “But this guy is pouring his heart and soul into something that might have cost him money for paint and for canvas. People have to understand that this is a business. It costs money to go and record.”

Adam Duritz, lead singer of Counting Crows, blames the file-sharing problem on record companies.

“They want the public to understand that they’re ripping us off but no one sympathizes with them because (the record labels) keep trying to rip off the artists too, and it’s so public,” he says. “The artists were the only people the fans were ever going to possibly sympathize with and when the artists hate the record companies, you know the public’s not going to sympathize with them.

“So we’re all going to go online and we’re going to take it even though the fact is when you do that you’re just saying art has no value. Tires have value, TVs have value, rubber bands have value and Pop Tarts have value – but art has no value. And I think that’s wrong.”

*

&copy; canada.com 2006​


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## csocsike (2006 Július 8)

*Robert Russo, The Canadian Press*

Published: Friday, July 07, 2006 OTTAWA -- Authorities believe a Canadian co-conspirator was involved in the alleged plot to blow up New York tunnels and submerge lower Manhattan under a torrent of flood waters. The Canadian Press has learned that Canadian police questioned a man they suspect of active involvement in the conspiracy, but he was released because there wasn't enough evidence to hold him beyond the period of interrogation. 
The questioning took place in Canada. 
Canadian police are involved in a six-country investigation into the alleged plot and are actively pursuing leads, sources with knowledge of the investigation said Friday. Other suspects were scattered over three continents. 
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day refused to comment on any police work being done in Canada on the case. 
"At this point ... I'll refrain from comment on that not to impair any of the investigation,'' Day said in Toronto, where he was announcing Canada's role in stopping terrorism financing and money laundering. 
Day said the suspects could be from anywhere because terrorists don't respect borders. 
"One thing that we know is that people who plan these despicable deeds, they know no boundaries,'' he said. "They can come from any part of the globe.'' 
Al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden has put Canada on a list of countries marked for terrorist attack. 
Canada was recently thrust into the counterterrorism spotlight when 12 men and five youths, all from the Toronto area, were charged last month in an alleged plot to attack targets in southern Ontario. 
The arrests have been billed as Canada's largest counterterrorism operation since 9-11. 
The Associated Press reported that an unidentified U.S. law enforcement official said one of the suspects is believed to be Canadian, but had no apparent links to the 17 people arrested last month. 
New Yorkers were steadying themselves to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks when word of the alleged tunnel plot was made public by the New York Daily News. 
The FBI took action after monitoring Internet chat rooms frequented by extremists. Lebanese authorities were asked by the FBI to arrest Assem Hammoud, 31, as part of their investigation. 
FBI assistant director Mark Mershon said Hammoud had sworn allegiance to al-Qaida. Mershon said there were eight key figures in the plot and that two others were taken into custody outside the United States, but added that none had yet been charged. 
Mershon refused to say if one of those key figures was in Canada. 
"We're not prepared without charges to discuss the level of co-operation or identify those countries,'' he said at a news conference in New York. 
The FBI said the alleged conspirators planned to use tunnels connecting Manhattan to New Jersey as giant funnels that would cascade water from the Hudson River into New York's financial district. Investigators believe such an attack on certain tunnels could have achieved that goal. 
"This is a plot that involved martyrdom and explosives'' and focused on the "tubes that connect Jersey and lower Manhattan,'' Mershon said. 
He said the scheme was discovered before any of the alleged plotters had a chance to buy explosives or begin the surveillance leading to more detailed planning. 
"The plot had matured to the point where the individuals were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attacks and acquisition of the resources needed to effectuate the attacks,'' Mershon said. 
The Daily News said the terrorists wanted to turn lower Manhattan into a mirror image of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 
The newspaper reported that dialogue from the chat rooms suggested the plotters spoke of swamping the U.S. economy. 
The Holland Tunnel is protected not just by bedrock, but also by concrete and cast-iron steel. 
U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said the uncovering of the alleged plot is a testimony to the level of international intelligence-sharing in the face of the threat from al-Qaida and its allies. 
"As we get better intelligence coverage, we are able to detect more things that are going on. And it is true that we try to intervene as early as possible,'' Chertoff said. 
"Once there's a basis to determine that someone has violated the law and poses a potential threat, we don't wait until they actually get to the final stages of a plan; we move very quickly.'' 
&copy; The Canadian Press​


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## csocsike (2006 Július 15)

*Hezbollah cripples Israeli missile ship with unmanned aircraft*

*Leader threatens "open war" with Israel*
Israeli soldiers stand on the bridge of the Israeli Navy ship Keshet as it patrols off the southern Lebanese coast next to the Lebanese town of Necore, in Lebanese territorial waters, Friday. Israel tightened its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time Friday in order to punish Hezbollah, and with it, the country, for the capture of two Israeli soldiers. 
Photograph by : AP Photo/Baz Ratner 

*Canadian Press, Associated Press*​ 
Published: Friday, July 14, 2006 *Article tools*


BEIRUT -- Hezbollah rammed an Israeli missile ship with an unmanned aircraft rigged with explosives Friday, setting it ablaze after Israeli planes smashed Lebanon's links to the world one by one and destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic guerrilla group's leader. 
The attack on the ship off Beirut's Mediterranean coast was the most dramatic incident on a violent day in the conflict that erupted suddenly Wednesday and appeared to be out of control, despite pleas from world leaders for restraint on both sides. 
Israel again bombarded Lebanon's airport and main roads in the most intensive offensive against the country in 24 years. For the first time, it struck the crowded Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of South Beirut around Hezbollah's headquarters, toppling overpasses and sheering facades off apartment buildings. Concrete from balconies smashed into parked cars and car alarms set off by the blasts blared for hours. 
The toll in three days of clashes rose to 73 killed in Lebanon and at least 12 Israelis, as international alarm grew over the fighting and oil prices rose to above $78 US a barrel. The UN Security Council held an emergency session on the violence, and Lebanon accused Israel of launching "a widespread barbaric aggression.'' 
In addition to the fighting in Lebanon, Israel pressed ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, striking the Palestinian Economy Ministry offices early Saturday. 
The ramming of the Israeli ship indicated Hezbollah has added a new weapon to the arsenal of rockets and mortars it has used against Israel. The Israeli army said the ship suffered severe damage and was on fire hours later as it headed home. There were no details on the ship's crew, though Al-Jazeera TV said the Israeli military was searching for four missing sailors. 
"You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war,'' Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a taped statement. 
He threatened to strike even deeper into Israel with rockets. 
Despite fears the assault could bring down the western-backed, anti-Syrian government of Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign would continue until Hezbollah guerrillas, who are backed by Syria and Iran, lose their near-control of southern Lebanon bordering Israel. 
Olmert agreed in a phone call with UN chief Kofi Annan to allow UN mediation for a ceasefire -- but only if the terms include the disarming of Hezbollah and the return of two Israeli soldiers whose capture by the Muslim guerrillas Wednesday triggered the fighting. 
Hezbollah rained dozens of rockets on towns in northern Israel. One rocket hit a home in Meron, killing a woman and her grandson. Some 220,000 people in northern towns hunkered down in bomb shelters. 
Nasrallah was not hurt after the Israeli missiles demolished his headquarters among two buildings in Beirut's southern neighbourhoods, the militant group said. Three people died in the air strikes. 
"If they kill us all, we will still not give them back the prisoners,'' said one resident, Nasser Ali Nasser, as palls of smoke rose from fuel depots hit farther south. 
"We have nothing left to lose except our dignity. We sacrifice ourselves for Sheik Nasrallah,'' he said. 
President George W. Bush, who has backed Israel's right to defend itself, spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora from a G8 summit in Russia and "reiterated his position'' the Israeli attacks should limit any impact on civilians, White House spokesman Tony Snow said. 
But the promise fell short of the Lebanese leader's request for pressure for a ceasefire. 
Israel's campaign appeared to have a two-pronged goal. One was to batter Hezbollah and end its near control of the south on Israel's borders. 
"We know it's going to be a long and continuous campaign and operation, but it's very clear. We need to put Hezbollah out of business,'' Brig.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan said. 
Israel's army chief, Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, said Hezbollah has rockets that can reach as far as 70 kilometres or more, which would bring more Israeli cities, such as Hadera, within range. 
The other goal is to seal off Lebanon by repeatedly striking its airport and main roads -- including the coastal highway from north to south and the Beirut-Damascus highway, Lebanon's main land link to the outside world. At the same time, Israel is gradually escalating the damage to the country's infrastructure, painstakingly rebuilt since the civil war ended in 1990. 
Israel holds Lebanon responsible for the capture of its two soldiers in a surprise Hezbollah raid; the Lebanese government insists it had nothing to do with the attack. However, Israel wants it to rein in the guerrillas, a move Lebanon has long resisted. 
Throughout the morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut's airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure its closure after the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, managed to evacuate its last five planes to Jordan. One bomb hit close to the terminal building. 
Civilian casualties were mounting faster than during Israel's last major offensive in Lebanon, in 1996, an assault also sparked by Hezbollah attacks. In that campaign, 165 people were killed over 17 days, including 100 in the shelling of a UN base. 
"We are on the right and we shall avenge every attack we endure,'' said Fadi Haidar, a Lebanese-American who swept up the shattered glass outside his store in South Beirut. 
"I have huge debts and now my store is damaged...But as time goes by, they will all realize that Sayyed Nasrallah is right and is working in the interest of Muslims.'' 
There was some resentment that Hezbollah had dragged the Lebanese into another bloody fight with Israel. 
"As long as Hezbollah has its weapons and acts according to its leader's whims, there is pretext for Israel to keep on destroying Lebanon,'' said Ibrahim al-Hajj, a Christian shop owner in the southern village Qleia. 
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Amber Dickey said in Ottawa about 10,000 Canadians in Lebanon are registered with the embassy in Beirut. 
The department is urging them to stay indoors until further notice. 
© The Canadian Press, Associated Press 2006​


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## csocsike (2006 Július 15)

*Associated Press*

Published: Thursday, July 13, 2006 *VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican posted a surplus of $12.4 million US in 2005, its best financial showing in eight years despite heavy costs for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor.

Earlier this week, Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, who heads the Vatican's office for economic affairs, hailed "the good news" as he presented the Holy See's annual financial statement.
*


The Vatican has been struggling to contain spending for years, with much of its money going for labor costs and diplomatic missions worldwide.
Sebastiani disclosed that the costs of the transition period following the death of John Paul in April 2005 and the election of Pope Benedict XVI amounted to $8.9 million.
However, much of the expense was covered by the huge influx into the Vatican museums when millions of pilgrims came to Rome for the ceremonies, Vatican officials said.
The Vatican also confirmed that Roman Catholic dioceses and individuals in the United States remain the No. 1 donors to the Holy See, providing a third of Peter's Pence, as donations to the pope are known. Next come Italy and Germany.


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## csocsike (2006 Július 15)

*Sam F. Ghattas, Associated Press*

Published: Saturday, July 15, 2006 BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called for a cease-fire under U.N. auspices Saturday, as Israeli warplanes hit central Beirut for the first time and smashed the Hezbollah leadership's main strongholds. Strikes killed at least 18 Lebanese fleeing the onslaught, and Hezbollah rockets continued to pour into Israel, where officials warned citizens that Tel Aviv could be hit. The deadly barrages came as Israel charged that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have 100 troops in Lebanon providing Hezbollah key support -- including helping fire a missile Friday that badly damaged an Israeli warship. Hezbollah denied it.
Neither side showed signs of backing down from the conflict, which erupted Wednesday when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. As civilian deaths mounted, diplomatic efforts to end the crisis had yet to get off the ground.
President Bush, on a trip to Russia, said it was up to Hezbollah "to lay down its arms and to stop attacking." Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo but fell into squabbling after moderate states, led by Saudi Arabia, denounced Hezbollah for starting the fight.
In a sign the West expects a drawn-out battle, the U.S. Embassy said it was looking into ways to get Americans in Lebanon to Cyprus. France said it had already decided to send a ferry from Cyprus to evacuate thousands of its nationals.
Police said a 106 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the four-day Israeli offensive. On the Israeli side, at least 15 have been killed, four civilians and 11 soldiers.
Israeli warplanes demolished the last bridge on the main Beirut-Damascus highway -- over the Litani River, six miles from the Syrian border -- trying to complete their seal on Lebanon. The strike killed three civilians driving on the bridge.
In the afternoon, Israeli forces hit central Beirut, striking the port and a lighthouse on a posh seafront boulevard, where people stroll in the evening or jog in the early mornings. It is a few hundred yards from the campus of the American University of Beirut. The seaport is adjacent to downtown Beirut, a disctrict rebuilt at a cost of billions of dollars after the 1975-1990 civil war.
But the brunt of the onslaught focused more and more on Hezbollah's top leadership in south Beirut and the eastern city of Baalbek. Ambulances raced to a Baalbak residential neighborhood where black smoke rose from airstrikes.
Hezbollah in turn has unleashed rockets on northern Israel with increasing sophistication. Rockets hit Tiberias twice on Saturday, the first such attack on the Israeli city, 22 miles south of the border, since the 1973 Mideast War. The rockets caused no injuries.
An Israeli intelligence official said Hezbollah has missiles with ranges of 60 to 120 miles that could reach Tel Aviv, Israel's largest metropolitan area. The Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The strike on the warship off Beirut's coast Friday night was the first direct Hezbollah hit on Israel's military since Wednesday's raid. Israel said the strike was carried out with an Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102, missile. Earlier, the military said the ship was hit by an unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft loaded with explosives. One Israeli soldier was killed and three were missing from the attack, which set the ship ablaze.
An Egyptian merchant ship carrying concrete to Syria was also hit by a Hezbollah rocket at about the same time, injuring a crew member, Egyptian officials said.
Iran is one of Hezbollah's principle backers along with Syria; many believe they are fueling the battle to show their strength in the region. There has been no sign in Lebanon of Iranian Revolutionary Guards -- a force that answers directly to Iran's supreme clerical leader -- for 15 years, since the end of the country's civil war.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned Israel on Friday against retaliating against Syria and taunted that Iran itself could not be hit, though both countries deny any involvement.
At a G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the worsening situation but appeared divided on how to restore calm.
Bush blamed Hezbollah and Syria for the escalating violence in the Middle East.
"In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place," Bush said. "And that's because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel and because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers." 
Putin said it was unacceptable to try to reach political goals through abductions and strikes against an independent state. "In this context we consider Israel's concerns to be justified," he said. At the same time, he said, "the use of force should be balanced." 
In successive early morning raids Saturday that continued through the afternoon, Israeli warplanes pounded gas stations, fuel tanks and roads, destroying one bridge after another, splitting large parts of the country. 
Fleeing refugees, including women and children, were hit on a road adjacent to the Lebanese-Israeli border in an apparent Israeli airstrike as they left the village of Marwaheen, which abuts the border. Two cars were aflame, and bodies were blown into an adjacent ravine. 
Police said 15 were killed in the afternoon attack. An Associated Press photographer counted 12 bodies in the vehicles. 
"They're peaceful people who were displaced. They were just fleeing the shelling. They were hit on the road, in their cars," Abdel-Mohsen Hussein, the local mayor, told Al-Arabiya television. 
Israel also targeted the headquarters compound of Hezbollah's leadership in a crowded Shiite neighborhood of south Beirut for the second straight day. Strikes Friday night hit the home and residence of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah inside the compound, though Nasrallah was not hurt. 
Smoke billowed from the Haret Hreik neighborhood after four loud impacts reverberated in the latest hits. Witnesses said the planes were attacking the same compound, where Hezbollah's Shura Council political decision-making body is located. Black-clad Hezbollah fighters carrying assault rifles blocked journalists from the area and questioned civilians. 
In the southern village of Kfar Sir, the empty house of a local guerrilla official was destroyed by a missile. 
In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokesman said Saturday that it attacked 44 Hezbollah targets in the past 24 hours, including its headquarters, its Al-Manar television's broadcasting offices and several bridges in Lebanon, including on the Beirut-Damascus road. 
Meanwhile, Lebanon sought support from fellow Arabs at an emergency session of foreign ministers in Cairo on Saturday. But sharp rifts erupted over as moderate Arab states denounced Hezbollah for starting the conflict. 
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal called the group's actions "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible," telling his counterparts: "These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them." 
Supporting his stance were representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, delegates said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. 
Another camp, led by Syria, defended Hezbollah as carrying out "legitimate acts in line with international resolutions and the U.N. charter, as acts of resistance," delegates said.


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## csocsike (2006 Július 17)

*CanWest News Service*

Published: Sunday, July 16, 2006 *OTTAWA -- Eight Canadians, including several children, are dead after an Israeli air raid on a Lebanese town near the Israel border, CanWest News Service has confirmed. Six others are said to be in critical condition. *


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## csocsike (2006 Július 20)

*Juliet O'Neill and Aileen McCabe, CanWest News Service*

Published: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 *LARNACA, Cyprus — Only 261 of about 2,000 Canadians who were supposed to have escaped Lebanon on Wednesday appeared to have made it out as the first wave of a government organized mass evacuation plan got off to a slow, chaotic start.*

The situation left hundreds of disappointed Canadians, who had been summoned by the Canadian Embassy to the port of Beirut, expressing frustration, anger and worry as they waited from dawn to late night for boats that never showed up. Eight Canadians in Lebanon have been killed in the conflict so far.
Some of those at the scene said they were told by diplomats the one vessel that had collected 261 Canadians and taken them to Cyprus — where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was to take about half of them home on his official aircraft — would return early today to collect some more of them.
None of the six other vessels chartered by Canada in Turkey managed to collect any Canadians.
The single ship was due to arrive in Larnaca, Cyprus, early this morning local time, about six or seven hours after Harper arrived on the island on the Canadian Forces jet. An official in the Prime Minister's Office said Harper decided to stay on the Airbus 310 rather than go to the port to greet the passengers.
The decision was made to reinforce a message Harper made earlier in the day in Paris when he unveiled his surprise plan to travel to Cyprus instead of going back to Canada at the end of a foreign trip. He said the reason he was going was simply to provide passage aboard the plane, not a photo opportunity for political gain.
In Paris, Harper said it was "more than a symbolic trip," attempting to undercut suggestions it was designed to shore up support in the face of heavy criticism that his government did not do enough initially to help the 40,000 Canadians trapped in Lebanon since last week’s Israeli attacks began.
"There is a need … for air support in Cyprus. We will have a significant number of seats to help the situation. I think criticism in this kind of situation, given all the complexities, is inevitable," Harper said before leaving for Cyprus.
"We believe it’s the right thing to do, and that’s why we’re going to do it."
To date, five ships carrying more than 3,000 foreigners fleeing from the fighting have landed in Cyprus.
After a two-hour drive and four hours waiting outside in the blazing sun, Nicole Khoury and her two young children of Beaconsfield, Que., were turned away Wednesday from an evacuation centre in Beirut.
"It was a shame, a disaster and a disgrace, how the Canadian government treated their citizens. It was very badly organized," Khoury, 39, said in an e-mail written from her parents’ house in Bentael, a village 50 kilometres north of Beirut.
"We were treated like sheep — no proper information given, no responsibility taken whatsoever. They did not even give priority to the elderly, the sick and the children. It was total chaos."
Among hundreds of Canadian families crammed in a hall at the port, awaiting transport, were relatives of Nina Adamo, an assistant to Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis, a Toronto MP, who called the government's plan a total failure.
"They should have everybody evacuated by the time Lebanon is no longer in existence (because of bombing by Israel)," Adamo said in an interview after contact from her sister. "There are about 2,000 waiting to go to Canada in the holding room at the port and outside, all over the place."
Karygiannis and Raymonde Folco, the Liberals’ citizenship and immigration critic, accused the government of splitting up families by giving priority to Canadian citizens over permanent residents. Foreign Affairs says it will evacuate permanent residents who have an immediate family member who is a Canadian citizen but those without will have to wait until all citizens who want to return have departed.


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## Spanky (2006 Július 22)

> "It was a shame, a disaster and a disgrace, how the Canadian government treated their citizens. It was very badly organized," Khoury, 39, said in an e-mail written from her parents’ house in Bentael, a village 50 kilometres north of Beirut.
> "We were treated like sheep — no proper information given, no responsibility taken whatsoever. They did not even give priority to the elderly, the sick and the children. It was total chaos."


 
Mar nagyon televan a hocipom ezeknek a nyavajgasaval. 
Egy 70 dollaros kanadai utlevel nem jon 911 szolgaltatasal.
40000 embert a vilag masik oldalarol, csak ugy hip-hop kihozni nem egy egyszeru dolog meg ha bekes alapot is lenne abban az orszagban.
Arrol nem is beszelve, hogy van egy olyan erzesem, hogy ez a 40000 ember nem mint turistak voltak ott.
Neztem a hirekben egy fazont aki azert hoborgott, hogy milyen kenyelmetlen korulmenyek voltak a hajon amivel kimentettek otet.
Mit vart ez a szerencsetlen, hogy a Queen Mary-t kuldik erte?
Kesz rohely.


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## csocsike (2006 Július 22)

Ne felejtsd, hogy a canadai katonak Tim Hurtons nelkul csatazni sem hajlandok Tavaj lattam egy riportot ahol az afganisztanba meno katonaholgyek meg macis pokrocot is vittek . Mit varsz a civilektol? Egyebkent ha melozni voltak ott, talan a munkahely is tehett volna ertuk valamit. Most van vita , legalabb is itt, hogy a tax fizetok szamlajara fizessek e mentest, vagy mindenki sajat maga alja a koltsegeket. Te mit gondolsz?


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## Spanky (2006 Július 22)

csocsike írta:


> Ne felejtsd, hogy a canadai katonak Tim Hurtons nelkul csatazni sem hajlandok Tavaj lattam egy riportot ahol az afganisztanba meno katonaholgyek meg macis pokrocot is vittek . Mit varsz a civilektol? Egyebkent ha melozni voltak ott, talan a munkahely is tehett volna ertuk valamit. Most van vita , legalabb is itt, hogy a tax fizetok szamlajara fizessek e mentest, vagy mindenki sajat maga alja a koltsegeket. Te mit gondolsz?


 
Nezd, az biztos hogy ezert az adofizetok fognak perkalni es talan??? ez igy is helyes, DE amikor valaki olyan hulye, hogy egy olyan helyre megy ahol a politikai helyzet nem eppen a legnyugalmasabbak koze tartozik a vilagon es utana szidja Kanadat, mert nem mentik ki otet onnan ahova sajat maga valasztasabol utazot, egy kicsit elkepeszto.
Szerintem oruljenek hogy luk van a segukon es lejmra viszahozak oket, akkor mikor tisztaba voltak vele, hogy hova mennek.

Neztem a hirekben, egy not aki 6 gyereket kuldott Lebanonba, nyari taborba. Nem vicc Gyurikam, NYARI TABORBA!!! :shock: 
Most meg itt szapulja a kanadai kormanyt.
Az eszem megalt. 

Szomoru iranyba haladunk, mikor a sajat hulyesegunkert nem valaljuk a feleloseget. Mindig kell egy bunbakot keresni ahelyet, hogy a tukorbe neznenek. 

Na jo van, kiduhongtem maga.  
Megyek a tengerpartra napoztatni a selyhajom.
Ott garantalom, hogy nem lessz beloves, habar ebben nem olyan biztos a parom.  :cici: :mrgreen:


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## csocsike (2006 Július 22)

Azert csak ne hajolj melyet, ki tudja


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## csocsike (2006 Július 24)

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israeli warplanes struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting Sunday in southern Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and two people were killed as about 90 Hezbollah rockets fell on northern Israel. 
Syria, one of Hezbollah's main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end the fighting — but only in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative that would include the return of the Golan Heights. Israel was unlikely to accept such terms but the remarks were the first indication of Syria's willingness to be involved in international efforts to defuse the Lebanese crisis.
Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the peace along the border.
The top U.N. humanitarian official, touring Beirut, said billions of dollars will be needed to repair damage from the 12-day offensive, which began July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid.
A member of the U.N. observer team in south Lebanon was wounded by guerrilla fire and a Lebanese photographer became the first journalist to die in the fighting when an Israeli missile hit near her taxi in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops continued to hold a Lebanese border village that they battled into on Saturday, but did not appear to be advancing, Lebanese security officials said. Its warplanes and artillery, meanwhile, battered areas across the south.
In talking about a cease-fire, Damascus warned that it will not stand by if the Israelis step up their offensive in Lebanon.
"Syria and Spain are working to achieve a cease-fire, a prisoners' swap and to start a peace process as one package," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal was quoted as saying by the Spanish daily newspaper ABC.
Bilal said Damascus would cooperate only within a broader peace initiative that would include a return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.
Asked about the comments from Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said, "It's hard to see."
"Syria doesn't need dialogue to know what they need to do," Bolton told "Fox News Sunday." "They need to lean on Hezbollah to get them to release the two captured Israeli soldiers and stop the launch of rockets against innocent Israeli civilians.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet that the current offensive is not an invasion of Lebanon, but rather a series of limited raids. He also said that Israel would accept a temporary international force, preferably headed by NATO, deployed along the Lebanese border to keep Hezbollah guerrillas away from Israel, according to officials in his office.
Asked about such an international force, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora told CNN "it's very early to talk about this matter."
Israel hit the southern port of Sidon for the first time, destroying a religious complex linked to Hezbollah and wounding four people. More than 35,000 people streaming north from the heart of the war zone had swamped the city, which is teetering under the weight of refugees.
Israel also bombed a textile factory in the border town of al-Manara, killing one person and wounding two, Mayor Ali Rahal told The Associated Press.
The stricken minibus was carrying 16 people fleeing the village of Tairi, heading through the mountains for the southern port city of Tyre. A missile hit the bus near the village of Yaatar, killing three and wounding the rest, security officials said.
On Saturday, the Israeli military told residents to evacuate Taire and 12 other nearby villages.
An 8-year-old boy was killed in a strike on a village in the mountains above Tyre, and another missile hit a vehicle outside the Najem hospital, wounding eight, a hospital official said. 
Hezbollah said three of its guerrillas were killed in fighting. 
At least four other people were killed by strikes in the south, Lebanese TV said, but the deaths were not confirmed by security officials. About 45 people were wounded in Israeli air raids that targeted villages and towns around Tyre, security and hospital officials said. 
The deaths brought to at least 380 the official death toll provided by Lebanese authorities. Israel's death toll stands at 36, with 17 people killed by Hezbollah rockets and 19 soldiers killed in fighting. 
Saniora told CNN that one-third of the dead are under age 12. 
A photographer working for a Lebanese magazine was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near her taxi, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Layal Nejim, 23, worked for the Lebanese magazine Al-Jaras, the officials said. Her driver survived. 
A U.N. observer was wounded by Hezbollah gunfire during fighting with Israeli troops in south Lebanon, said U.N. spokesman Milos Strugar. The Italian chiefs of staff office identified the wounded U.N. official as Italian Capt. Roberto Punzo, adding he was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Haifa and that his life was not in danger. 
He was the second member of the U.N. monitoring team injured in the fighting. 
Israeli warplanes and helicopters bombed Nabi Sheet, near the eastern Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek, wounding five people, witnesses said. Strikes in Baalbek leveled an agricultural compound belonging to Hezbollah and also targeted a factory producing prefabricated houses near the highway to Damascus, witnesses said. 
Two civilians died in early morning air raids on border villages, witnesses said. A 15-year-old boy was killed at Meis al-Jabal, and a man was killed at Blida. 
Hezbollah rockets badly damaged a house and slammed into a major road in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, killing two people and wounding five. The militants' rockets wounded at least 13 others. 
In all, about 90 Hezbollah rockets fell Sunday across northern Israel. A similar number has hit the region almost daily since the Israeli offensive began. 
Peretz said the campaign would continue as Israel tries to push Hezbollah guerrillas away from the border. 
"The army's ground operation in Lebanon is focused on limited entrances, and we are not talking about an invasion of Lebanon. We are beginning to see the army's successes opposite Hezbollah," he told the Cabinet, according to a participant. 
Peretz also met with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, one of a series of diplomatic meetings aimed at ending the fighting. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was also on the schedule, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was headed to the region as well. 
"The goal is to create a situation in which we have as broad a space for diplomatic movement as possible," Peretz said after meeting Steinmeier. "The goals we set for ourselves will be achieved. We certainly see a combination of a military operation that is fulfilling its role plus broad international activity to complete the process." 
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel had "pushed the button of its own destruction" by attacking Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. 
He didn't elaborate, but suggested Islamic nations and others could somehow isolate Israel and its main backers led by the United States. 
U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, meanwhile, inspected the destruction from Israeli air raids on south Beirut and he stressed need for a halt to the hostilities. 
"It's terrible, I see a lot of children wounded, homeless, suffering. This is a war where civilians pay a disproportionate price in Lebanon and northern Israel. I hadn't believed it would be block by block leveled to the ground," he said. 
He said the "disproportionate response by Israel is a violation of international humanitarian law." 
On Monday, the United Nations will make an international appeal for "more than $100 million" in aid for Lebanon, Egeland said. 
Egeland also planned to travel to Israel to coordinate opening aid corridors. The number of displaced people has grown to 600,000, according to the World Health Organization. 
Hours after he left, three heavy blasts were heard and smoke rose over the southern neighborhood of Dahiyah. 
Some 35,000 refugees have swamped Sidon, which says it has yet to receive any aid shipments. The refugees were stretching already-tight supplies of fuel, food and medicines for Sidon's 100,000 people. 
The Israeli military has said humanitarian aid could enter Lebanon through Beirut's port and determined a coastal route to Tripoli as a land corridor. But it did not define a safe passage route to the south — where the bombardment is heaviest. 
Aid supplies arrived Friday and Saturday on ships carrying Europeans evacuees. The exodus of foreigners continues, with tens of thousands — including 7,500 Americans — taken out by sea the past week.

&copy; The Associated Press 2006​


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## csocsike (2006 Július 25)

*Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service*

Published: Monday, July 24, 2006 *Another 1,500 evacuees from Lebanon are to arrive in Canada today, according to the latest figures provided by Canadian government officials on Monday afternoon.*

At least four planes, possibly five, are due to land at Montreal’s Pierre Trudeau Airport before the day’s end.
An additional 1,187 evacuees left Beirut today on ships headed for Cyprus and Turkey. That brings the total number of people that the government has helped flee the violence in Lebanon to just over 7,900. The vast majority of them are Canadian citizens, but approximately 20 per cent of them are not.
Embassy officials on the ground in Beirut are changing their approach and no longer contacting Canadians by phone who have registered because they have found many they have called over the past few days have already left. Instead, they are trying to spread the message that those Canadians who want to leave should go to the transit centre in Beirut by 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Those who do not make it by then will not be left behind, however, government officials reiterated that the evacuation effort will continue until everyone who wants to leave has made it out.
Canadians trapped in the southern part of the country, which has virtually been cut off because of the destruction wrought by bombs, are being told to go to the port of Tyre on Wednesday morning to board a ship chartered by the Canadian government. It is considered an "extremely dangerous" rescue operation according to the Canadian ambassador in Lebanon, Louis de Lorimier.
Government officials refused to put a pricetag on the massive evacuation effort to date, saying only that a close eye is being kept on the expenses but it’s too early to release any figures.
"We’re not in a position to say how much this is all going to cost because we’re not finished the operation yet," said one government official.
The government of Canada is footing the bill for getting trapped Canadians out by chartered ships and planes, and overtime and travel expenses for government staff traveling to and from the region will also be part of the final total.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay visited the government operations centre in Ottawa on Monday for meetings and to talk to staff both at home and overseas. "I think he buoyed spirits and told everyone to work hard and keep up the good work," said a government official.
*Fleeing the Fighting*
Figures from Foreign Affairs concerning the evacuation effort in Lebanon:
Canadians removed yesterday: 2,488.
Canadian-chartered ships departing Beirut yesterday: Five, three bound for Cyprus, two for Turkey.
Canadians who have left since effort started: About 6,700.
Canadians returned to Canada to date: 2,500.
Canadians registered with embassy in Lebanon (as of July 19): 39,000.
Canadians believed in Lebanon when conflict began: Between 40,000 and 50,000.
Number of Canadians estimated to be stranded in the south, where fighting is heaviest: 2,000 to 3,000.
&copy; CanWest News Service 2006​


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## Spanky (2006 Július 30)

*Seattle Muslim shoots 6 at Jewish Centre*

*One of the women listed in satisfactory condition is 20 weeks pregnant and was shot in the arm.*

*Phuong Cat Le, Brad Wong and Amy Rolph, Seattle Post-Intelligencer; with files from Jonathan Fowlie, Chantal Eustace and Emily Chung.*

Published: Saturday, July 29, 2006 

SEATTLE -- Six people were shot -- one fatally -- Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle by a man who told a witness he was upset about "what was going on in Israel."
Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt said there was one shooter, who was apprehended without incident outside the Jewish Federation building at Third Avenue and Virginia Street.
"We believe it's a lone individual acting out his antagonism," said David Gomez, who heads the FBI's counterterrorism efforts in Seattle.
Vancouver's Jewish community was "in a state of shock and disbelief" at the violence targeted at its sister community in Seattle, said Michael Elterman, chairman of the Canada-Israel Committee for the Pacific Region.
"I think we are going to become far more vigilant than we have been, realizing it has hit very close to home," Elterman said, adding that security around Jewish institutions in Vancouver will most certainly be beefed up.
U.S. authorities did not release any details about the alleged gunman and would not discuss possible motives.
"There's nothing to indicate that it's terrorism-related," Gomez said. "But we're monitoring the entire situation."
The gunman forced his way through the security door at the federation after an employee had punched in her security code, Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a database coordinator for the center, told The Associated Press. "He said 'I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,' before opening fire on everyone," Meislin-Dietrich said. "He was randomly shooting at everyone."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle is a fund raising and fund allocation organization.
"Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick confirmed one person had died.
Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Pamela Steele said five victims were taken to her facility, all women ranging in age from their 20s to 40s. Each suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen, knee, groin or arm. Three were in critical condition and still in the operating room at press time Friday. Two were in satisfactory condition.
One of the women listed in satisfactory condition is 20 weeks pregnant and was shot in the arm. Doctors believe she will be okay.
Elterman said while the level of violence in Seattle was unusual, Jewish institutions around the world have been on alert since the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began. "We do see an increase in threats and in nasty phone calls whenever Israel is at war," he said.
But threats are not going to stop a rally in support of Israel from going ahead in Vancouver on Monday, said Adam Carroll, Director, Pacific Region Canada-Israel Committee.
"We can't be terrorized or intimidated. We're going to be sowing our solidarity and support with Israel and that's not going to change," he said.
Mira Oreck, acting regional director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific region, said the kind of violence seen in Seattle came without warning. "We are extremely saddened and frankly outraged by the event," she said.
U.S. authorities received a 911 call at 4:03 p.m. with reports of shots fired at the Jewish Federation and a possible hostage situation, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz said at an early evening news conference.


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## csocsike (2006 Július 30)

Olvastam, sajnos varhato volt. Mindig akad egy ket orult


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## goyo (2006 Augusztus 1)

*Walmart Leaves Germany: Blame Smiles, Love or Plastic Bags*

A világ legnagyobb szupermarketlánca a Wal-Mart egyszerûen megbukott a legnagyobb európai piacon, ahol 1997 óta próbálkozott. A 95 áruházból a hajrára már csak 85 maradt, azt meg megette a Metro.

* Walmart Leaves Germany: Blame Smiles, Love or Plastic Bags*







Regardless of whether you are a Walmart basher or activating optimistically for Walmart leadership in environmental and sustainable philosophy, the news on Friday in Germany is of interest: Walmart has ended its long battle to survive in Germany's $370 billion retail market. So did the Germans' preference for shops run by local businessmen and stocked with organically grown food kill Walmart? Nice angle for TreeHuggers, but the fact is: probably not.

Competitors, like the low-cost chains Aldi and Lidl, continue to grow and succeed in Germany. In fact, the competition from a surge of low-cost chains is attributed with keeping average food costs as much as 40% lower in Germany than in France or Great Britain. Walmart entered the German market in 1997, at the outset of the upswing in discount retailers, taking over 95 stores and initiating a price war. Since then, that number has dropped to 85 stores which will now be taken over by a mega-competitor (Metro) happy to grab the supercenters at a discount price. So what is behind Walmart's struggle in Germany? 

The main factor being cited by many analysts is the cultural philosophy. Walmart tried to relocate the American model: service with a smile from the bag-packer at the end of the band, employees chanting W-A-L-M-A-R-T to raise morale and an ethics code which included banning sexual relations between employees. The latter was overturned about a year ago by the German courts, which supported the German custom by which man and wife can often be found across the hall from each other in the same firm after romance blossomed in the workplace. And clerks ordered by supervisors to smile at customers are reported to have discovered their smiles often interpreted as invitations to unwanted social interaction in a country where smiles are exchanged between friends, but not between strangers. And raising morale? Well, in Germany that is the job of the works' council, a group of employees quite akin to a union, which ensures employee concerns are represented during management meetings on the one hand, and organizes employee activities such as the company soccer competition or discounted access to mind and body classes. 
Where does this leave practical TreeHuggers looking for lessons in environmental sustainability which Walmart might take away from this experience? First, Germans do tend to shop frequently and locally. Although more and more often, local might mean the discount market chain rather than the friendly neighborhood grocer, the fact remains that Germans did not drive the extra miles to save a few euro cents. Second, Germans prefer to bag groceries themselves into reusable carriers, or at least to pay a small fee for the avoidable sin of needing a plastic bag. These are cultural misunderstandings as well, but one could say the cultural philosophy of Walmart could not survive in the context of a German culture with a Happy Planet Index significantly higher than America's.

But that is the "public interest" story. It remains a cold hard fact of the discount retailing world that critical mass was never reached. Blame the German building code, as some analyst do, which significantly reduces Walmart's ability to expand quickly. Blame the takeover of existing stores which were scattered and not particularly well located, in contrast with competition which has sprung up on every corner (Aldi has 550 retail locations competing with Walmart's stores). In the face of the analysis that will surely issue from the respected business commentors, it will be hard to draw conclusions that Walmart's exit from Germany is due to rejection of globalization, unsustainable business culture, or even disinclination towards buying American goods. Okay. But we hope that if Walmart regroups to return to the German market, they will do it with a message of sustainability leadership that German TreeHuggers will be happy to hear.


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## Amigo (2006 Augusztus 2)

Nagyhal a kicsit.


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## goyo (2006 Augusztus 2)

Amigo írta:


> Nagyhal a kicsit.



He ?? :???:


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## csocsike (2006 Augusztus 7)

*Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service*


BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The long-awaited first substantive diplomatic moves Saturday in New York to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict have not managed to slow the ferocious pace of combat between the belligerents.
After a bloody early morning raid on the southern port city of Tyre by Israeli naval commandos, attacking what was later described as a Hezbollah headquarters, Israel warned everyone in Lebanon's third largest city, Sidon, to evacuate immediately or risk being trapped in the fighting to come.
Despite renewed claims from Israeli commanders Saturday that it had seriously degraded Hezbollah's ability to launch rockets, it fired about 170 missiles at northern Israel, including 130 during a 60-minute span. Three Palestinians known as Israeli Arabs died when one of the rockets struck the village of Arab al-Aramshe. More than 50 Israelis were wounded by the rocket barrage.
An Israeli combat engineer was also killed by a Hezbollah mortar in fighting just inside Lebanon.
The Israeli threat to bomb Sidon, which is on the Mediterranean Sea about 40 kilometres north of Tyre, was delivered in Arabic-language pamphlets that were dropped by aircraft. The warning came as a surprise to most Lebanese. A mainly Sunni city of 100,000 now crammed with tens of thousands of Shia civilians displaced by the fighting further south, it has largely escaped the attention of Israeli warplanes and was not thought to be a launching site for Hezbollah rockets or harbouring Hezbollah operatives.
The 75-minute commando raid by the Israeli equivalent of U.S. Navy Seals began with Israeli warplanes pummeling multiple targets in Tyre as an apparent diversionary tactic. As this happened, the commandos were inserted by helicopter into a citrus grove near the sea.
From there they raced on foot to an apartment building where they engaged in a prolonged, close range gun battle with a Hezbollah cell at the entrance and on the second floor that left several pools of blood and thousands of spent shell casings.
The commandos exited under the protective fire of attack helicopters which destroyed a Lebanese army armoured personnel carrier and an anti-aircraft gun that had been firing at them.
An eyewitness told AP that the Israelis wore beards similar to those that almost every Hezbollah fighter sports.
An Israeli general promised that more such raids would be carried out in the next few days of a war that is now in its 26th day.
Israel claimed to have killed at least seven Hezbollah gunmen during the raid, which it called a success because it eliminated what had been a key command centre for launching rockets. Two sailors had been seriously wounded in the attack.
The operation had been conducted using commandos rather than bombs and missiles fired from aircraft to avoid harming families that lived on other floors of the building, the Israeli media was told at a briefing.
The Hezbollah version of the battle was that the Israelis had been repulsed and that an Israeli had died in the gunfight. Lebanon said a civilian and one of its soldiers, who apparently joined the fight on Hezbollah's side for the first time, had been killed. Two other Lebanese civilians were also reportedly killed Saturday by Israel gunfire elsewhere in Tyre.


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## csocsike (2006 Augusztus 12)

*Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service*

Published: Friday, August 11, 2006 
OTTAWA - Delays at Canada’s airports are down to a minimum today despite the strict security measures implemented yesterday that banned all liquids and gels from carry-on luggage.
That’s according to Jacques Duchesneau, CEO of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, who said passengers are only waiting an added 10 to 15 minutes to go through security screening points, and there are no flight delays, he said at a news conference.
“So far, so good,” Duchesneau said of how operations are running today. Extra staff were brought in and lots of signage was put up at airports to remind travelers of the new regulations, he said.
“These measures are in place to stay, for now,” said Duchesenau when asked how long liquids and gels would be prohibited in carry-on luggage. Those wondering if electronics such as laptops and iPods will be banned in the future can rest easy for the time being. 
They are still allowed in carry-on luggage but Duchesneau would prefer if people packed them in their checked baggage to help speed up security checks. 
People need not worry about letting their valuable electronic equipment out of their sight he said, because airport employees have been thoroughly scrutinized. They have undergone background checks and Canada is also in the process of implementing a biometric screening system for the 150,000 airport employees across the country.
He explained that CATSA, the government agency in charge of aviation security, tries to find the “proper balance” between passenger security and passenger convenience.
“We’re not in the business of annoying passengers. On the contrary, we want to make it easy for them to board the plane but we cannot dodge the responsibility that we have which is the security of passengers,” said Duchesneau.
He defended Canada’s response to the alleged terror plot uncovered in Britain yesterday and denied the suggestion that Canada is being re-active instead of pro-active. He said Canada is constantly assessing security threats and adapting security measures accordingly. He added that there is currently no direct threat to people boarding planes in Canada.
“We need to make sure that we go with the flow of information that we have and we take the right measures,” he said. “Now there’s a new group of people in the UK using liquid as a weapon of choice so Canada, the US, had to adapt to that situation and that’s why the measures were put in place yesterday,” he said.
He advised Canadians traveling in the next few days to pack light and only bring on board what they need such as their wallet and passport. “Try to put everything in the checked baggage. That would make it much easier for them, much easier for us and for all the traveling public,” he said.
For a full list of what is allowed and what is banned from carry-on luggage travellers can check www.tc.gc.ca


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## csocsike (2006 Augusztus 18)

*Jocelyn Gecker, The Associated Press*

Published: Thursday, August 17, 2006 
*BANGKOK, Thailand -- From inside his dingy hotel, the suspect in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Thursday he loved the six-year-old and is “very sorry for what happened” in the basement of her Colorado home nearly a decade ago.*

John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old teacher arrested Wednesday, was escorted back to his hotel room Thursday to collect his belongings. Dressed in a baggy turquoise polo shirt and khaki trousers, he appeared ashen and stuttered occasionally as he spoke in a quiet voice.
“It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much and that her death was unintentional and that it was an accident,” said Karr, a clean-cut, slight man with steely blue eyes and brown hair.
Earlier in the day, Karr spoke briefly with reporters after a news conference by U.S. and Thai authorities that was mobbed by media, some of whom had camped out since sunrise waiting for him to emerge from Bangkok’s Immigration Detention Centre.
“I was with JonBenet when she died,” he told reporters.
Asked if he was innocent, he said: “No.”
He declined to disclose the nature of his supposed relationship to the Ramsey family, or how he may have known JonBenet.
Asked to recount the details of how JonBenet died, Karr told the AP: “It would take several hours to describe - to describe that,” he said haltingly.
“There’s no way I could be brief about it. It’s a very involved series of events,” said Karr, who speaks with a thick Southern accent.
“It’s very painful for me to talk about.”
JonBenet’s body was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home the day after Christmas 1996 - a gruesome murder that became one of the highest-profile unsolved mysteries in the United States.
Karr will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, said Ann Hurst of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, one of several officials who accompanied the suspect to his hotel.
No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference about whether there was DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
Karr said he had written letters to JonBenet’s mother, Patsy, before she died of cancer in June to express his remorse and it was his understanding that she had read them.
One of the officers who cleaned out Karr’s room said he appeared to be an avid writer and had several CDs on which he had saved his writings that were done on a computer.
The Blooms hotel, in a neighbourhood filled with seedy massage parlours, rents rooms for as short a time as three hours and offers longer-term stays starting at the equivalent of $190 Cdn a month. Karr was staying on the top floor of the nine-storey hotel in a small single room.
U.S. and Thai police moved into rooms down the hall from Karr about 10 days before the arrest to survey Karr’s movements and await the arrival of a U.S. arrest warrant, said Thai police official Lt.-Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul.
As Karr was bundled into a police vehicle, he said JonBenet’s death was “not what it seems to be,” though he declined to elaborate.
“In every way,” he added.
“It’s not at all what it seems to be.”
&copy; The Associated Press​


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## csocsike (2006 Augusztus 24)

*Sixth Canadian arrested in alleged Tamil terror plot*


<!-- wrapper01 end --> 
*Adrian Humphreys, CanWest News TORONTO - Two more men have been arrested in Canada as part of a widening U.S. anti-terrorism probe against the Tamil Tigers, including another with apparent links to the University of Waterloo's engineering program.*

The arrests bring to six the number of Canadians of Tamil descent in custody in the probe.
Ramanan Mylvaganam, 29, of Waterloo, Ont was quietly arrested on Tuesday at dinner time and made a secret appearance in a Brampton courtroom Wednesday morning.
Piratheepan Nadarajah, 30, was arrested Wednesday night and is to appear in court this morning.
Three men - Sathajhan Sarachandran, Sahilal Sabaratnam, and Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam - were arrested in New York after a meeting to buy anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns and other military weapons, the FBI says in court documents.
A fourth man tried to attend the meeting to buy the missiles and other military gear but was stopped at the border crossing to Buffalo, the FBI says.
Nadarajah, who has not been publicly named by U.S. authorities, is believed to be the suspect who accompanied the men on their trip to New York but was unable to enter the United States. Officials were unable to confirm that Wednesday night.
''There is a fourth person who was part of the missile deal who was turned away at the border,'' said Steve Siegal, a spokesman for the FBI. ''All of the accused seem to be extremely well educated - doctors, engineers, people with advanced degrees. If they would have spent their time and energy for the good of mankind instead of the other, they would have been very successful,'' he said.
A man with the name Ramanan Mylvaganam is listed as a former engineering student and executive of the Tamil Student Association at the University of Waterloo. It could not be confirmed last night that this is the same person arrested on Tuesday evening.
Mylvaganam allegedly worked with Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, who graduated with an electrical engineering degree in June from the respected Waterloo university, to purchase submarine and warship design software from a company in Britain and night-vision equipment from a firm in British Columbia, the National Post has learned.
Sriskandarajah was arrested near Toronto Monday at the urgent request of the U.S. government.
Sworn complaints by an FBI agent outlining the alleged role of Mylvaganam remain sealed in a New York court. Sources say, however, he is the unnamed man who is accused of using his status as an engineering student to divert suspicion from their purchases that were destined to aid in the Tamil Tigers' violent struggle for an independent homeland.
Documents filed in a U.S. court say Sriskandarajah, who is identified as going by the nickname ''Waterloo Suresh'' and a co-accused tried to deceive the B.C. firm by claiming the equipment was for ''a fourth-year design project project we are doing at our university.''
Prosecutors in New York want both men extradited to the U.S. to face charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.


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## csocsike (2006 Augusztus 25)

*Adrian Humphreys, CanWest News Service*

Published: Friday, August 25, 2006 
TORONTO - Money to bribe a U.S. official - traced during an international anti-terrorism probe aimed at the Tamil Tigers - came from Montreal, the FBI said Thursday.
And two of the men arrested in the bribery case are former Montreal residents, adding more Canadian connections to a widening probe that has seen six other men from Canada arrested on charges of aiding a foreign terrorist organization, including money laundering, smuggling equipment and people, and trying to purchase anti-aircraft missiles, machine-guns and other military equipment.
Tens of thousands of dollars from Montreal were earmarked as a bribe for a U.S. federal agent who was posing as a corrupt immigration officer, pretending to allow Tamils to illegally enter the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged in a sworn criminal complaint filed in a New York court.
The money's path was tracked as part of a large sting operation mounted by the FBI against alleged operatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly called the Tamil Tigers, an organization banned as a terrorist group on both sides of the border.
So far a total of 14 people have been taken into custody in the joint FBI-RCMP probe.
First, three Canadians of Tamil descent were accused in New York City on the weekend of trying to buy military hardware after driving across the Canada-U.S. border to meet with a man they believed was a black-market arms dealer, but who was a federal agent, and a Tamil man, who co-operated with U.S. authorities in their probe.
Three other Canadian residents were arrested this week by the RCMP in Ontario, including an engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo who is accused of arranging student couriers to smuggle equipment into Sri Lanka to further the Tamil Tiger's cause.
A third set of criminal complaints unsealed in a New York court, against three people arrested in Buffalo as part of the FBI's probe, now reveal further Canadian links.
Thileepan Patpanathan and his brother, Sujeepan Patpanathan, moved to Buffalo from Montreal about six months ago, said Rodney O. Personius, a Buffalo lawyer who represented one of the men in court.
They lived in Montreal for about three years, he said.
The Patpanathan brothers are charged along with Logeswaran Krishnamoorthy of knowingly conspiring to bribe a public official to illegally bring other people from Sri Lanka. They were caught in a sting operation using the same Tamil informant.
An agent was introduced to co-conspirators as an officer with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service who, for a fee, could help smuggle foreigners into the U.S. The man was, in fact, a federal agent and the meetings were recorded, the FBI said.
An offer of $6,000 US per person smuggled was offered, authorities alleged.
The Patpanathan brothers were among the immigrants smuggled into the country, the FBI said. They then allegedly worked with the undercover agent to arrange for others to join them.
When the Patpanathan brothers were facing deportation, a further bribe of $3,000 US was offered to the agent to intervene, according to the FBI.


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## csocsike (2006 Augusztus 29)

Jan Ravensbergen and Marissa Larouche-Smart, Montreal Gazette
Published: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 Two of the five people killed in Monday night’s Greyhound bus crash in upstate New York were from Montreal, New York State police confirmed Tuesday.

More than 30 other people were injured in the accident, some seriously.

One of the dead Montrealers was Souleymane Tambadou, 16, of the Ahuntsic district and the second a 34-year-old man, police said. A third victim, a 69-year-old woman, was also from Canada. The latter two’s identities haven’t been disclosed.

The remaining two dead, one of whom was the driver, were New York State residents.

The bus was travelling from New York City to Montreal when it crashed through a guard rail on Interstate 87 and landed upside down after rolling over several times. New York State police said tire failure is a likely cause of the bus crash. 

"We are listing tire failure as a possible contributing factor to this accident," said Maj. Richard Smith of the state police department. "There is no indication ... in any way that that bus was exceeding the speed limit," he added.

Road conditions were dry at the time of the crash. Some passengers said they heard a pop that could have been a tire blowing before the bus swerved out of control and flipped over. One report indicated a transport truck was trying to pass the bus and another tractor-trailer when the accident took place. Authorities continue their investigation.

The Montreal-bound bus was reported by Greyhound official Kim Plaskett to have been carrying 52 passengers.

On Tuesday afternoon, a neighbour of the Tambadou family, who did want to be named, said the family is from Senegal.

"The father is in real estate, in Senegal, I think he travels back and forth quite a bit. The mother came here with the children so they can go to school," she said.

Souleymane was apparently the middle child with two younger brothers and an elder brother and sister. 

"They are a very nice family. It’s very, very sad," she said when she learned the news.

She recalls the mother being sad for her when her dog died. 

"She liked my German Sheppard because it would guard her house, too," she said.

Late Tuesday, one passenger remained in critical condition in an upstate New York hospital, Chris Blake of Champlain Valley Physicians Medical Center said.

Another three also admitted at Champlain Valley are classified in serious condition, she added.

Blake said she couldn’t disclose their precise injuries. "We saw 37 patients" at the Plattsburgh, N.Y., centre, she said. They were brought in last night beginning "between 9:30 and 10," following the 6:45 p.m. accident, she added.

In total, she said, "there were 20 patients treated and released" at the centre.

Three passengers were taken from the Plattsburgh centre to the Montreal General Hospital.

Jean-Marc Troquet, trauma team leader at the Montreal General Hospital, said five passengers have been transferred to MGH since the crash.

Troquet said the hospital was cooperating with police and could not reveal identities or details on their injuries as long as family members had not been notified.

Two people arrived Monday night and both are in critical condition and remain in intensive care.

Early Tuesday morning, two others arrived and they’re in stable condition, he said. The fifth patient arrived Tuesday afternoon.

The transfers were made because of the hospital’s trauma unit and team of specialists, he said. It did not suggest that patients were Canadian.

"We accept all transfers," Torquet noted. "If you overload a hospital, even with small injuries, it becomes dysfunctional."

All patients were transported by U.S. ambulance from the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, Troquet said. 

Other victims of the crash were sent from the Plattsburgh centre to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt., another hospital and medical centre, Blake said.

Fletcher Allen official Wanda Keosian said Tuesday that her hospital had received a total of five passengers injured in the crash.

"We have conditions on two and three are being evaluated," she said. Citing hospital policy, Keosian would not disclose the medical status of the two whose conditions have already been categorized.

The patient in critical condition at the Champlain Valley centre is a woman. Blake declined to provide her name or the names of other patients, citing hospital policy.

Generally, she said, injuries treated included "bumps, bruises, spinal issues, neck issues."

In addition to the four passengers admitted to Champlain Valley, a further seven were "still being evaluated in Emergency," Blake said, adding that "two will probably have to be admitted."

The centre brought in "between 50 and 75" extra staff – including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, X-ray technicians and others – to cope with the crisis, she said.

It holds disaster-preparedness scenarios "at least once a year." When word of the crash came in, "it was all hands on deck," she said. "Preliminary reports are that it went really well," she added.

A formal review will take place later, Blake said: "We always find ways for improvements."

A dozen translators – for French- and Spanish-speaking passengers – were also brought in, Blake said.

The bus left New York City at 1 p.m. Monday, with stops in Albany and Saratoga Springs.


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## csocsike (2006 Szeptember 4)

*Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' killed*



*Brian Cassey, Associated Press*

Published: Monday, September 04, 2006 *CAIRNS, Australia -- Steve Irwin, the ebullient Australian TV personality and conservationist known as the Crocodile Hunter, was killed Monday by a stingray barb to the heart during a diving expedition, police and his wildlife park said.*

Irwin, 44, was filming an underwater sequence for a television series on remote Batt Reef off the far northeast coast of Australia when he encountered the ray and was stung about 11 a.m., Australia Zoo, Irwin's park, said in a statement.
Crew members aboard Irwin's boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered cardio pulmonary resuscitation techniques as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter.
Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead at about midday, the statement said.
"The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet," John Stainton, Irwin's friend and producer who was on board Croc One said in the statement.
"He died doing what he loves best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind," he said. "Crocs Rule!"
Queensland state police said Irwin's family - which includes U.S.-born wife Terri - had been notified of his death.
Irwin is famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchcry "Crikey!" in his television program, Crocodile Hunter, which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 before it was picked up by the Discovery channel, catapulting him to international celebrity.
Irwin, who made a trademark of hovering dangerously close to untethered crocodiles, often leaping on their backs, talked mile-a-minute in a thick Australian drawl and was almost never seen without his uniform of khaki shorts and shirt and heavy boots.
His ebullience was infectious and Australian officials sought him out for photo opportunities and to promote Australia internationally. Irwin was among guests hand-picked by Prime Minister John Howard to attend a barbecue to honour U.S. President George W. Bush when he visited Canberra, the national capital, in 2003.
The public image was dented in 2004 when Irwin triggered an uproar by holding his baby in one arm while feeding large crocodiles inside a zoo pen. Irwin claimed at the time there was no danger to his son, and authorities declined to charge Irwin with violating safety regulations.
Later that year, he was accused of getting too close to penguins, a seal and humpback whales in Antarctica while making a documentary. Irwin denied any wrongdoing, and an Australian Environment Department investigation recommended no action be taken against him.
He is survived by his wife, from Eugene, Ore., who was Terri Raines before they married in 1992, their daughter Bindi Sue, 8, and son Bob, who will turn 3 in December.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who used a photograph of his family at Australia Zoo for his official Christmas card last year, hailed Irwin for his work in promoting Australia through projects such as the "G'Day LA" tourism and trade promotion in Los Angeles in January.
"The minister knew him, was fond of him and was very, very appreciative of all the work he'd done to promote Australia overseas," Downer's spokesman Tony Parkinson said.
&copy; Associated Press 2006​


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## goyo (2006 Szeptember 4)

csocsike írta:


> *Australia's 'Crocodile Hunter' killed*



My deepest condolences...
It's kind of funny though...a crocodile hunter killeb by a stringray barb...some fed up crocodile hired somebody else to do the dirty job..


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## csocsike (2006 Szeptember 4)

Jupp.


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## goyo (2006 Szeptember 5)

*Budapest Is Stealing Prague’s Spotlight*

<a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/travel/03journey.html?pagewanted=1">From New York Times</a> <h1>Budapest Is Stealing Some of Prague’s Spotlight </h1><div>By RICK LYMAN</div><div id="articleBody"> <p> <img src="http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/03/travel/03journeys_budapest_600.jpg" width="600" height="300"></p> <p>ONLY the barest of murmurs greeted the arrival at the bustling Café Vian of a dozen or so kilt-clad Scots in their late teens and early 20’s and what looked to be their middle-age coach, also in tartan. They ordered a round of vodka shots and erupted in Highland cheers, drawing worried glances from patrons hovering over sweet multicolored cocktails at nearby tables. </p> <p>Finally, the Scots’ skinny young waiter valiantly ordered them to keep it down. “This is not a soccer bar,” he told them.</p> <p> Cultures have been clashing in Budapest for a good many centuries, and usually not to Hungary’s benefit. But through several waves of occupation, tyranny and heroic revolt, it has become one of the few places on earth that have learned the trick of transforming that clash into music. </p> <p> A spectacularly beautiful and subversively lively old royal capital, Budapest has in the last decade or so languished in the shadow of <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/europe/czechrepublic/prague/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the Prague Travel Guide.">Prague</a>, which emerged more quickly as a tourist destination after the Communist era. Even Arthur Phillips’s best-selling 2002 novel, “Prague,” was actually about expatriates in Budapest dreaming of the higher life across the Czech frontier. </p> <p>But now the foreign investment that only trickled into Budapest in the 1980’s has become a gusher, spilling new and ostentatious hotels, boutiques for luxury brands like Salvatore Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton, teeming pedestrian-only nightlife districts and smoky bars full of satirical and world-weary graffiti. Budapest seems ready to claim the light.</p> <p> <img src="http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/03/travel/03journeys_budapest2_190.jpg" width="190" height="193" hspace="10" align="left">For more than a decade — since work-related happenstance led me there — Budapest has been one of my favorite places in <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/europe/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the Europe Travel Guide.">Europe</a>. When I first came to know it, the city was still fresh from the Soviet collapse, an eager place full of downtrodden buildings, dingy marketplaces, makeshift nightclubs, gypsy violinists and restaurant after restaurant serving goulash and little else. In Buda, the once aristocratic old capital on the west side, bicycles navigated near-desolate cobbled medieval lanes. Russian caviar and Hungarian foie gras could be had for a song. </p> <p> When a local paper advertised the arrival of a six-month-old Hollywood movie (“Sneakers,” with Robert Redford), I took a rickety trolley to the foot of the Buda Hills and found an old garage with a white sheet hung from the cinderblock wall and a few dozen happy families seated on wooden benches, unpacking dinner. The projector made an awful racket. Everyone had a wonderful time, eating and laughing, and I walked back to my Danube hotel alone through dark Buda streets.</p> <p> When I went back this summer, I found a city very much changed, and not just because the movies are in multiplexes. </p> <p>Budapest, with a population of more than 1.7 million, still has bedraggled and struggling outer districts. But Nagyvasarcsarnok, the Central Market Hall in Pest, is a bright, dynamic place full of paprika, aromatic food stalls and sweet Tokaji wine. Sidewalk cafes are alive with thrift-shop fashionistas, canoodling couples and joyful chatter in a dozen languages. In Buda, tourist buses cluster like seagulls at Castle Hill, discharging sightseers from all over the world. </p> <p> Yes, goulash — that old soupy peasant staple of beef stewed with vegetables and paprika — is still on pretty much every menu, but I also found the world’s cuisines on offer. Where $5 once bought a brick of foie gras big enough to gorge four adults, a few bites in a small appetizer serving now run around triple that.</p> <p> A collision of forces is transforming Budapest into one of the continent’s liveliest, prettiest and most animated capitals. Attractive prices, especially for housing, have set off a mini-invasion of foreigners setting up second homes in the stylish 19th-century apartment blocks of central Pest. Retail chains from around the world have followed, along with the hoteliers and commercial developers. </p> <p>The rush of foreign capital and the rising standard of living for Budapesters lucky enough to catch the wave has helped the city resuscitate many lavish buildings that had fallen into ruin, from the spectacular Secessionist-style Gresham Palace — now a Four Seasons Hotel — to lesser-known gems like the Egyetemi Konyvtar (University Library), a pale yellow confection of wedding-cake swirls, and the stately mirror-image Klotild-Palotak buildings, whose imposing Baroque towers rise like sentries at the foot of the Elizabeth Bridge. </p> <p>“Ten years ago, you’d come to Budapest and it was cheap and a little rough and everything was in cash,” said Colin Burns, who was visiting the city for the fourth time with his Welsh choir group. “Now it’s all cutting edge and credit cards and trendy restaurants. There’s better Italian food here than back in <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/europe/unitedkingdom/wales/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the Wales Travel Guide.">Wales</a>.” </p> <p>There have been missteps. The New York Cafe, long a center of Hungarian intellectual life, was a smoky, murmuring and impossibly grand space where patrons seemed to have stepped from an Eric Ambler thriller. It has become a gaudy patisserie attached to a swank hotel. The huge and hugely popular Westend Center shopping mall is a flavorless glass-and-steel arc of shops wrapping around the back side of Gustav Eiffel’s soaring Nyugati train station. </p> <p> Yet odd, distinct elements speak to the atmosphere of dynamic upheaval. An underground market of cheap clothes and bad CD’s blends seamlessly into the mall above it, asserting an older, Oriental culture that refuses to be drowned entirely by American-style blandness. Big, clanging storefront casinos sit comfortably beside the boutiques and bookstores.</p> <p><img src="http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/01/travel/0903-tra-webBUDAPESTmap.gif" width="190" height="187" hspace="10" align="left">A member of the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the European Union.">European Union</a> since 2004, Hungary still uses its old currency, the forint, and only its most optimistic economists hope for a conversion to the euro as soon as 2010. Budget deficits are swollen after years of overspending by Hungary’s Socialist government, which was re-elected in April. </p> <p>At the same time, wages are up and the standard of living has noticeably improved, at least for some. Those new luxury boutiques and elegant cafes are not just for foreigners. </p> <p>MY wife, Barbara, and I divided this trip in half: two nights in Buda, with its domed Habsburg palaces and crenellated fortifications stretching along craggy hilltops west of the Danube, and two in Pest, the more populous 19th-century commercial city of grand boulevards on the flats east of the river. </p> <p>Tourism is on the rise in Hungary, up nearly 7 percent in 2005 over 2004, according to the Hungarian Tourist Office. Yet escaping the crowds is still quite easy. </p> <p>In Buda, while tourists concentrated on Castle Hill, we found everyday life in the sprawling shopping mall and food market near Moscow Square. Perfectly coiffed mothers in blue jeans pushed baby strollers through narrow aisles of peppers and cabbages while older, weary workmen in gray shirts and kerchiefs sipped tumblers of blood-red wine from nearby lunch counters. </p> <p>An elderly woman pushing a metal cart paused to scream at a young couple who had parked their Mercedes convertible illegally. They smiled at her impassively and strode away. </p> <p>Even on Castle Hill, the crowds thin once you get away from Matthias Church, with its architectural elements from the 16th century, when it was a mosque; the 17th, when it grew a Baroque facade; and the 19th, when Gothic design celebrated Habsburg supremacy. </p> <p>A decade ago, I had a memorable meal at the foot of Castle Hill, with strolling gypsy violinists pouring out the Brahms at a place called Kacsa Vendeglo that looked as if it hadn’t changed its menu or decorations since the Great War. On this visit, we found a fresh violinist, still playing Brahms though he had added some <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/billy_joel/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Billy Joel.">Billy Joel</a> and had his CD’s for sale. </p> <p><img src="http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/03/travel/03journeys_budapest3_190.jpg" width="190" height="284" hspace="10" vspace="0" align="left">The tablecloths were white and the menu was still an old-fashioned ramble through Hungary’s familiar dishes, emphasizing duck (kacsa in Hungarian) in a blizzard of forms. The place is decidedly out of step with Budapest’s cutting edge, which leans toward fusion at places with names like Baraka, Kepiro and Voro es Feher Borbar (Red and White Wine Bar). Across the river in Pest, a central pedestrian strip called Vaci utca contained the most wandering foreigners, who were weaving among buskers and trying to remember where their tour buses were parked.</p> <p> Two semicircular boulevards, the Inner Ring and the Outer Ring, end at Danube bridges and define the heart of Pest. Local residents can be found by day in American-style malls along the Outer Ring or in one of the new pedestrian-only shopping areas, echoes of Vaci utca, that are now sprinkled around the city and serve as centers of its street life. One of the biggest, Raday utca, a little east of the Central Market Hall, is five blocks of sidewalk tables, multiethnic restaurants and music-pulsing bars.</p> <p>“We came up from <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/europe/austria/vienna/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the Vienna Travel Guide.">Vienna</a> by boat and just wandered around all day and just found our way here,” said Carlos Hererra, who runs a design store near <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/unitedstates/california/losangeles/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the Los Angeles Travel Guide.">Los Angeles</a> and was sipping a tall glass of wheat beer one day at a Raday utca cafe. “Just sitting here for an hour, I’ve heard more foreign languages than I heard in three days in <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/europe/austria/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the Austria Travel Guide.">Austria</a> or that I ever hear back in Orange County.”</p> <p> Tourists and locals mingle in the Great Market Hall, where shoppers should be prepared to prowl. The price of a 400-gram tin of foie gras ranged from $37 to $45, depending on the stall. On the market’s second level are a series of inexpensive minicafes offering German beer, Hungarian wine and all sorts of sausages, pies, sandwiches and paprika stews.</p> <p> On my early visits to Budapest, I often came across other visitors who had just arrived from Prague or were about to go there. This time, most tourists we met were visiting only Budapest or had arrived from Vienna on one of the Danube cruises now connecting the two old capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. </p> <p>New in the past half-dozen years, the riverboats seemed emblematic — part of Budapest’s shrugging off its midcentury past, when connections were to places like Prague and Krakow, to reflect an older and more durable relationship. One couple we met, travelers from <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/unitedstates/california/sandiego/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the San Diego Travel Guide.">San Diego</a> fresh off a river boat, said they were delighted with Budapest’s street bustle and food — and its prices, significantly lower than those they had found in Vienna.</p> <p> Most cities have different day and night personalities, but the contrast in Budapest seems particularly stark, almost as if an entirely different geography and cast of characters has been imposed upon the place. </p> <p>The Danube comes to life as a kind of a kind of floating smorgasbord of moored barges: one offers jazz dinners, another a pulsing disco, yet another a quiet seafood restaurant. Places like Raday utca and Liszt Ferenc Square, just off the fashionable boulevard of Andrassy, attract crowds that are younger, more chic and louder. Often, a club catering to 20-somethings on the prowl reveals itself down a dark Pest side street with a dim glow from a door opening into a hidden warren of lounge rooms and lantern-lit gardens. </p> <p>For a symbol of how Budapest has changed, an obvious first choice would be Roosevelt Square, at the foot of the Chain Bridge. Previously dominated by hulking old buildings and the state-operated Forum Hotel (now an Inter-Continental), it is now overlooked by the Gresham Palace and a gaudy casino, and it is thick with limos.</p> <p>If you’re looking for the heart of the city today, I’d make a case for sampling Lizst Ferenc Square. That’s where we found Café Vian, in which Budapest’s clashing cultures made a particularly sweet sound. The youthful crowd, hovering over sweet cocktails and yelling to be heard in the din, was flecked with a handful of older faces, mostly fresh from hearing Stravinsky and Gulda at the venerable Zeneakademia a few steps away.</p> <p> The State Opera House was doing Wagner that night, “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” so no telling when that crowd would arrive and what mood they’d be in.</p> <p> Perhaps a generous, $9 plate of chicken paprika or a $7.25 helping of tagliatelle would get their heads out of Wagner and back into Liszt, where they belong. Who knows, they might even share a round with the Scottish soccer team, assuming everyone is still playing nice together. </p> <p> <strong>VISITOR INFORMATION </strong></p> <p><strong>HOW TO GET THERE</strong></p> <p>Malev Hungarian Airlines (<a href="http://www.malev.hu" target="_">www.malev.hu</a>) and Delta Airlines offer nonstop flights between New York and Budapest’s Ferihegy Airport. An Internet search for late September found round-trip fares starting around $840. </p> <p>A taxi ride from the airport to central Pest, where most hotels are situated, should run about 4,000 forints, with a small tip, which is about $18 at 220 forints to the dollar. But some drivers might charge closer to 6,000 if you don’t shop around. </p> <p><strong>GETTING AROUND</strong></p> <p> A three-day metro pass (2,500 forints) gives free access to all subway lines and trams. For 6,500 forints, a three-day Budapest Card adds discounts for museums, attractions and restaurants. See <a href="http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en/budapest_card" target="_">www.budapestinfo.hu/en/budapest_card</a>.</p> <p><strong>WHERE TO STAY</strong></p> <p>At the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal (Erzsebet korut 43-49; 36-1-479-4000; <a href="http://www.corinthiahotels.com" target="_">www.corinthiahotels.com</a>), peaked glass roofs enclose once open courtyards around an opulent inner structure. The 414 rooms start at 40,680 forints.</p> <p>Nearby is the Boscolo New York Palace Hotel (Erzsebet korut 9-11; 36-1- 886-6111; <a href="http://www.boscolohotels.com" target="_">www.boscolohotels.com</a>), even more gleaming and gilded than the Corinthia. It has 107 rooms, starting at 50,000 forints. The legendary New York Cafe is adjacent.</p> <p>The city’s premier hotel, the 179-room Four Seasons Gresham Palace on Roosevelt Square (36-1-268-3000; <a href="http://www.fourseasons.com/budapest" target="_">www.fourseasons.com/budapest</a>), is sophisticated and luxe. Rooms start at 87,000 forints. </p> <p>On the Buda side of the Danube, the starkly modern art’otel (Bem rakpart 16-19; 36-1-487-9487, <a href="http://www.artotel.hu" target="_">www.artotel.hu</a> ), offers sweeping views of the Chain Bridge and the ornate Parliament building, and is a short walk from Castle Hill. The 164 rooms start at $184, $242 with a river view.</p> <p><strong>WHERE TO EAT</strong></p> <p>Where goulash once ruled all and still makes a pretty good showing even at the fanciest places, Budapest is now home to pretty much all cuisines. One of the earliest harbingers of this trend was Restaurant Lou Lou, a French-leaning bistro unobtrusively nestled at Vigyazo Ferenc utca 4 (36-1-312-4505), on an otherwise unremarkable side street between Roosevelt Square and Parliament. An antique horse perches over the bar; huge mirrors glisten on the salmon walls while spot lighting illuminates individual tables. A foie gras appetizer is 3,200 forints, and scallops and gravlax are 3,300; among main courses, a duck duo is 3,900 forints and sautéed goose liver is 4,100. Yes, there is goulash, for 1,400 forints.</p> <p>Costes, at Raday utca 4 (36-1-219-0696), is one of the nicer places along Raday utca, a bustling pedestrian strip, with a menu that stresses game and includes French, Italian and Hungarian flavors. A game consommé or goulash runs about 890 forints, a rack of venison with wild mushrooms costs 4,590 forints and a monkfish filet perched improbably atop a thick omelet is 4,000.</p> <p>Less than a block away is the louder and more informal Soul Café, Raday utca 11-13 (36-1-217-6986), with all manner of Mediterranean dishes in a <a href="http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/features/travel/destinations/unitedstates/california/?inline=nyt-geo" title="Go to the California Travel Guide.">California</a>-style setting. A mozzarella and tomato salad is 1,500 forints, asparagus cream soup 913 forints, a Thai cashew chicken only 2,200 and a delicious butterfish in lime sauce over jasmine rice 2,936. Goulash, if you must, is 1,500 forints. </p> <p>For a blast of old Budapest, Kacsa Vendeglo is across the river in the Watertown area of Buda, at Fo utca 75, (36-1-201-9992). The specialty here is duck in many forms — in a strudel, crispy, stuffed with prunes, as a pâté, homestyle, Tisza style, Rozsnyai style or atop mashed apple. If you’re sick of duck, there’s also goose, as well as pike, perch, lobster, chicken and sirloin steak Budapest style. Paprika plays a prominent role. The wandering violinist accepts requests and tips.</p> <p> A particularly pleasant place to begin the day is the Angelika cafe (36-1-212-3784), tucked into one wing of an old church building on Batthyany with a terrace overlooking the river. Inside, the dark rooms are arched and illuminated through stained glass. A café American runs just 400 forints and a fortifying four-egg omelet about 980.</p> <p><strong>WHERE TO DRINK</strong></p> <p>The swank spot is the Gresham Bar, just off the lobby in the Four Seasons Gresham Palace Hotel on Roosevelt Square, just at the Pest foot of the Chain Bridge (36-1-268-3000). The style is international business luxe, and there’s the marble, the dark wood and the recessed lighting to prove it. A glass of palinka, the traditional fruit brandy, is 2,200 forints, and a glass of Calvados 2,400. Good free snacks, though.</p> <p>For a more atmospheric, smoky and downscale alternative, there is West Balkan, a warren of darkly lit rooms at Kisfaludy utca 36 (36-1-371-1807), where a happy crowd lived out its <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/john_le_carre/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about John Le Carre">John le Carré</a> fantasies — or maybe that was just me. The Calvados here was 550 forints. Beers, of which there were dozens on offer, averaged around 480 forints.</p> <p>The coffeehouse is also a Budapest staple, beginning with the venerable Café Gerbeaud on Vorosmarty Square in the center of Pest (36-1-429-9000). This 19th-century palace with a huge outdoor patio spilling into the square has been around since 1858 and is famous for its pastries. A chocolate torte is 590 forints and a cappuccino 680.</p></div>


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## csocsike (2006 Szeptember 7)

Body and Health Protein takes a bite out of hunger
Study suggests new reasons to tuck into that steak 
They're not suggesting people binge on cheeseburgers, but British scientists have found eating a high-protein, hunter/gatherer-like diet boosts levels of an "anorectic" gut hormone that suppresses hunger.

It was already known eating protein makes people feel fuller, faster, but why that's so remained a mystery.

Now, a small study in humans and genetically modified mice reveals high-protein meals goad the body to produce more of a hormone known as peptide YY, or PYY, than either a high-fat or high-carbohydrate diet.

More Diet & Fitness news 

In humans, high-protein diets caused "the greatest satiation," meaning the biggest reduction in hunger, researchers report today in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Mice fed high-protein meals gained less weight than rodents who ate the usual amount of protein.

The studies build on experiments in 2002 by the same researcher, who was the first to discover that injecting PYY into normal-weight and obese humans cut their food intake by one-third. Drug companies are now developing PYY shots and nasal sprays.

"Two questions that needed to be answered were, can you alter your own PYY by modifying your diet, and can we actually change how much PYY the body is making rather than giving it as a drug," Dr. Rachel Batterham, a senior lecturer at University College London, said in an interview.

It appears the answer to both is yes.

According to her team, the average western diet derives 49 per cent of energy intake from carbohydrates, 35 per cent from fat and 16 per cent from protein -- up to half as much protein as our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed.

The diet fed to the male volunteers had 70 per cent of calories from protein, while the diet fed to the mice had 35 per cent of calories from protein. Batterham stressed people should not be rushing out and eating that much protein.

"We wanted the other components to be as low as possible and still be able to give the subjects a meal."

Previous studies have shown that increasing the protein content to 25 per cent has effects on hunger and body weight.

"I'm not going to recommend to anyone to change their diet to 70 per cent protein or even 35 per cent but maybe modulating diet is a good way of harnessing the body's own natural hunger control system," says Batterham, a specialist in diabetes/endocrinology and internal medicine.

More and bigger studies are needed to determine what effects high-protein diets have over the long term on kidney and liver function. What's more, obesity is about more than diet; it's also about the balance between food intake and energy output.

Modern-day humans expend far less energy ordering burgers and super-sized fries from the drive-thru window than hunter-gatherers did taking down prey.

The British and Australian scientists found mice with their PYY "knocked out" ate more and became markedly obese.

"When we gave it back by injection, it basically cured the obesity in the mice. That part proves that if you don't have PYY, you can become obese," Batterham says.

In the human study, nine obese and 10 normal-weight men were randomly assigned to have either a high-carb, high-fat or high-protein diet on three separate visits (they did not know which one they were eating). Their meals had to be eaten within 25 minutes, and the men then filled out hunger scores. Blood samples were taken to measure gut hormones.




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## csocsike (2006 Szeptember 20)

BUDAPEST -- Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany is refusing to step down in the face of a political firestorm that erupted he had admitted lying "morning, noon and night"to win the last election, threatening instead to use force to crack down on any violent protests. 

"Radical street action will not lead to a solution," Gyurcsany told Hungary?s TV2 news on Tuesday. "This is no longer an expression of democratic opinion."



As Gyurcsany spoke, the charred hulks of torched automobiles at Budapest's famous Szabadsag (Freedom) Square cooled and analysts said the prime minister?s credibility may have been irrevocably damaged by his statements and the street violence it triggered.



Budapest?s streets, pelted by rain, were quiet on Tuesday, but the political controversy grew throughout the day as the right-wing parliamentary opposition, the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz) party, expressed sympathy with the disillusionment that triggered the protests.



The government lashed out at Fidesz for condoning street violence, but analysts admit this crisis may dramatically improve Fidesz?s political fortunes in municipal elections across Hungary slated for Oct. 1 and opposition leaders are demanding Gyurcsany step down if he loses the vote.



About 500 protesters gathered at parliament during the day Tuesday. There are also plans for a large student demonstration on Thursday, seen attracting 10,000 people, which the organizers fear could be hijacked by the opposition.



The crisis gripping the country began when a transcript of a caucus meeting of Gyurcsany?s Hungarian Socialist Party (MSzP) was leaked to the media in which Gyurcsany told party faithful that his government had lied "morning, noon, and night for the last 18 to 24 months" to win re-election in April. 


"It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true," said Gyurcsany in the closed meeting May 26. "You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing.



"If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?"



After the leak, spontaneous peaceful protests broke out in cities across Hungary on Sunday, including Budapest, Debrecen and Kecskemet.



Monday?s violence erupted when crowds attending a massive protest at Kossuth Square near Budapest?s parliament buildings marched two blocks to Freedom Square ahead of a few protesters who reportedly wanted to have their complaints aired over public television.



The crowd numbered as large as 5,000 people when several hundred demonstrators (some of whom have been identified as known right-wing figures and football hooligans) began attacking the ornate state-TV building with stones and bricks and setting parked cars on fire.



Riot police, besieged inside the network?s front entrance, proved unable to control the crowd. There are reports that police attempts to subdue rioters with hoses failed when protesters overran police and destroyed the water cannons.



Rioters eventually gained entrance to the building, although for a short time. Police had television personal evacuated through rear doors before the building was occupied.


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## Gabizita (2006 Október 7)

Survivors says Amish girl asked to be shot first
Under a cold, steady drizzle, the Amish drove in horse and buggy to a farmland cemetery Friday to bury the last of five girls shot to death by an intruder as new details emerged of heroism inside their schoolhouse.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15166531/from/ET/


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## Spanky (2006 Október 9)

*Thousands of protesters in Hungary call for PM's ouster*


Associated Press

<!-- dateline -->BUDAPEST, Hungary<!-- /dateline --> — Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters called Sunday for the ouster of the Socialist prime minister because of his admission on a leaked tape that he had lied to the country about the economy. A new leaked recording of a Socialist minister was broadcast, raising more questions about the government's integrity.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061008.whungary09/BNStory/International/


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## oma (2006 Október 10)

Spanky írta:


> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061008.whungary09/BNStory/International/




_"the government would make sure its politicians and local-level officials would have key roles in distributing state development funds despite victories in local elections by the Fidesz party._ _ “Believe me, we know what we have to do,”_ MS. Lamperth said.

Well, I wonder whether she can further make excuses as if nothing had happened. 
It does not surprises me at all that world’s newspapers have many headlines about Hungary nowadays. The country is becoming well advertised, unfortunately.


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## kocsissandrass (2006 Október 16)

It is a mirracle that it's been advertised at all.
By the way: Who care's that it IS advertised, or not? We all know where we came from. Isn't that enought?


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## oma (2006 Október 17)

kocsissandrass írta:


> It is a mirracle that it's been advertised at all.
> By the way: Who care's that it IS advertised, or not? We all know where we came from. Isn't that enought?



Had I known what you might be meaning by saying: *"Who care's that it IS advertised, or not?"* I may be able to reply consequently. Because I do care, for example. 
Let’s make it unmistakably clear at the same time, that I much rather would like to envision Hungary being advertised by its beauty, hospitality, traditions, culture, art, and so on. Therefore, the whole world would know what a potential is lying out there for tourism, investments, relations, etc… However, few or none positive advertisement seams to be appearing either in our most important media, like the above mentioned “The Globe and Mail”, or in world’s media in entirety. Yet, with the actual internal turmoil, our little Hungary made quite focused headlines throughout world’s newspapers, creating a rather false, even scary image about the country. Now that’s unfortunate!! - like I said above, and that’s been my former thoughts’ essence. Well, I should have used some more appropriate emoticons, sarcastic ones, all right. 
Finally, I do know very well where I came from. (actually, for your knowledge, I came from Transylvania and I love Hungary a lot.)


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## csocsike (2006 Október 24)

PROTEST THE VERDICT 
JUSTICE FOR OTTO VASS 
Thursday, Nov. 6, 5 PM 
7-11 Store, corner of College and Lansdowne 


The four police officers who beat Otto Vass to death at the 7-11 store on August 9, 2000 have all been found not guilty of manslaughter. The verdict came as no surprise to those of us who have followed the history of police violence in this city. 

But that doesn't make it any the less of an outrage. 

The police lawyers' tactic - putting the character and psychiatric history of Vass on trial rather than the 51 blows inflicted on Vass by the cops - was successful. This is what happens on those rare occasions when police are called before the courts because of their violence: the victim is put on trial. 

There is a lot to criticize in the way the trial was conducted. The prosecution was half-hearted and inept. Crucial evidence - particularly the eyewitness testimony of two witnesses who graphically described the police violence at the preliminary hearing - was never heard by the jury. The most damning witness against the cops was deported before the trial began, and because the Crown had not interceded with immigration officials, the judge would not allow the sworn testimony from that earlier hearing to be read out to the jury. And the judge in his summation of the case all but instructed the jury to find the cops innocent. 

There will be later opportunities to say more on the conduct of the trial, but now is the time to act. We cannot allow this court to have the last word on Otto Vass's fate. 

Tomorrow at 5 PM, at the 7-11 store parking lot where he was killed more than three years ago, the Committee for Justice for Otto Vass has called for a memorial service. Please spread the word. 



Another trial was possible 
Analysis of the Otto Vass murder trial by Don Weitz 


The jury has been sequestered in the case of the four police officers charged with manslaughter in the August 9, 2000 death of Otto Vass. The trial may be over, but the controversy will continue, regardless of the verdict. Here are just some of the issues. 

1) The opening argument that was heard too early 

The problems began at the very beginning of the trial. It is normal practice in criminal cases for the Crown Attorney - prosecuting the accused - to make an opening statement, and then take whatever time is necessary to present the evidence. Only after that does the defence make an opening statement, and call its own witnesses. 

But on September 16, Judge Patrick Lesage allowed the defence to present its opening arguments immediately after the opening from Crown Attorney Desmond McGarry. For 45 minutes, one of the defence attorneys, Earl Levy, went on and on and on almost exclusively about Mr. Vass' psychiatric history. The effect was to shift attention from the events of August 9 to the story of Otto Vass' life. From that day forward, it was not clear who was on trial - the four police officers, or Otto Vass. 

2) The witness the jury never heard 

The jury heard testimony from five eye-witnesses. But there was a sixth, and his evidence was never presented to them. Amir Hameed was quoted in the Toronto Star August 10, 2000 (the day after Vass was killed), saying: 

"They (the police) were beating him worse than an animal - He wasn't fighting back at all." Hameed said one officer held the man down and punched him in the face while the other hit him on the legs with a baton. "He was just screaming due to the pain," Hameed said. "He never hit an officer - they never gave him a chance, and he never tried to." 

On Friday August 11, Canadian Press wrote the following: 

"(The officer) hit him with the baton 40 or 50 times, with all his energy," said Amir Hameed, who said he watched the incident from his apartment across the street. 

None of this testimony was heard because Hameed was deported from Canada to Pakistan on an unrelated matter June 10, 2003. The Crown's office knew that Hameed was under threat of deportation, but for more than a year after the preliminary inquiry in June of 2002 (where Hameed testified), they did nothing to prevent or delay that deportation. It is very likely that had they contacted Immigration authorities, Hameed would have been kept in the country until he testified. Had Immigration refused after being contacted by the Crown, Lesage indicated that he would have considered having Hameed's testimony from the preliminary inquiry, read in as evidence. But because the Crown did not do "due diligence" to ensure Hameed's presence in the country, Lesage ruled on October 7 - with the jury out of the room - that Hameed's testimony would not be allowed in the trial. 

3) The grieving widow who was kept out of the court-room 

Vass was painted as a mentally-ill "monster" who "met his destiny" (in the words of one of the police lawyers) when he died after the encounter with the police on August 9. The jury was never given a picture of the human side of Vass to counter the demonization coming from the police lawyers. 

They didn't even have the presence in the court-room - until the closing days of the trial - of his grieving widow, Zsuzsanna. This was one of the most outrageous aspects of the trial. In what other circumstances would the wife or husband of a homicide victim be excluded from the trial of those accused in the homicide? 

The judge argued that the exclusion was necessary because Zsuzsanna had been called as a witness (by the police lawyers of all people), and all witnesses were excluded from the court room. But Zsuzsanna was not a witness to the crime. She was nowhere near the 7-11 on August 9, 2000. It was the opinion of many that she had only been called by the police lawyers in order to exclude her from the court-room. The constant presence of a grieving widow in the audience was bound to have an influence on the jury, showing that Vass was a human being, with a life and loved ones. But on September 23, Lesage ruled that Zsuzsanna be excluded. 

4) The objections that were never raised 

It is usually the case that the Crown has more resources at its disposal than the defence. But in this case, with four police on trial, it often seemed to be exactly the reverse. Four defence lawyers would grill each witness. Four defence lawyers were there to raise objections against the Crown. 

And with the cacophony coming from the defence side, time and again, when it seemed like an objection would surely arise from the Crown's side, there was nothing but silence. This came to a peak October 20, when Zsuzsanna finally took the stand. For hours she was grilled by the defence lawyers. They opened up the matter of her civil suit against the police (she is suing for damages, in a matter that can't be heard until the criminal trial is complete). They were pressing her, trying to portray her as someone willing to fudge the truth for financial gain. Finally it was not the Crown who objected, but the judge, who told the defence that this was not the place to prosecute the civil case. It was only after the judge intervened, that finally objections were heard from the Crown. 

There are other matters that should be of real concern to any interested in the cause of justice. It took eleven weeks for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to lay charges in the first place. If any other four people (i.e. not police officers) were seen kicking and hitting a man who subsequently died, would it have taken eleven weeks to lay charges? And once charges were laid, there was no preliminary inquiry for almost two years, and the trial itself began more than three years after the event. Memories fade with time, witnesses can (and in this case, did) fall from sight - there is a reason that the old expression says "Justice delayed is Justice denied". 

Justice for Otto Vass.


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## oma (2006 Október 27)

*Today evening on CBC*

*THE FIFTY SIXERS*
Thursday October 25 at 8pm on CBC-TV
Saturday November 4 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld



In October 1956, the people of Hungary rose up against the Soviet empire. When the Russian army crushed the revolution, Canada opened its doors to one of the largest refugee migrations in its history. 




Miklos Gratzer was 22 years old when the fighting broke out. He was a fourth-year forestry student at Sopron University in the wooded hills near the Austrian border. His roommate, Istvan Tolnai, commanded the brigade of students who immediately took control of the border crossing at Sopron. 
As fighting escalated in the capital city of Budapest, hospitals were quickly overwhelmed and in desperate need of supplies. Gratzer and one of his buddies commandeered a three-ton truck from a local textile factory. They raced toward the city along back roads through a darkening chaos with the first load of blood plasma. Just after midnight they got stopped at a Soviet army roadblock… 
…The next afternoon, in another part of Budapest, 12-year-old Anna Porter met the enemy. She crouched in a doorway only a few blocks from the Danube. With a pocket full of bullets and a long black rifle in her hands, she watched a Russian soldier crawl from the burning wreckage of his tank and stagger towards her…



The revolution began the afternoon of October 23 rd, 1956, as a placard-waving crowd of students and factory workers swarmed the streets of Budapest. They marched to the Hungarian Parliament building demanding free and democratic elections. They told the Soviet-backed government they were fed up with Communism and wanted the Russian army to go home. 
In the small university town of Sopron, near the Austrian border, Miklos Gratzer joined a student-led "revolutionary council" in the takeover of both the university and of Sopron city hall. It was a life-changing event – an act of treason punishable by death. 
To a schoolgirl like Anna Porter, the march on Parliament in Budapest was a lark, a spontaneous party in the street – until shots rang out from a rooftop across the road. Secret police fired into the crowd. Hundreds died; thousands more were wounded. Fighting broke out across the city and quickly spread to the countryside. 



Poorly armed civilians hurled bricks and Molotov cocktails at Russian tanks. Several units of the Hungarian army broke ranks and sided with their fellow citizens. Somehow – miraculously – the communist government fell within days and the Soviet army began to withdraw. 
For about a week it looked as though Hungary had won its freedom. Political prisoners were released. Free elections were promised. 
But on November 4 th, Moscow decided things had gone too far. The Kremlin sent 16 divisions of the Red Army with more than 2,000 tanks to crush the Hungarian uprising. 
Freedom fighters and hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens had only minutes to decide whether to stay and face the Russian onslaught, or to flee across the border into Austria. In the madness and confusion of the moment, families were split apart – some would not see their kin for more than 30 years. 
Tolnai and his student brigade kept the border between Sopron and Austria open as long as they could to speed the movement of refugees. But soon he, Gratzer and Anna Porter were among more than 200,000 Hungarians on the run. Just as quickly as it began, the revolution was crushed and governments around the world faced a flood of refugees.



As winter storms rolled across Europe the refugees huddled in Austrian camps waiting for Western nations to open their doors. Just before Christmas of 1956 the first wave of more than 37,000 Hungarians began their trek toward an unknown future in Canada. 
From Ottawa, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent sent Immigration Minister Jack Pickersgill to Vienna with a mandate to slash red tape and speed the movement of refugees. Pickersgill organized a massive airlift. He booked every available plane and ship. And he told Canadian embassy staff to put students at the front of the line. 
According to Pickersgill, "Most of the countries of refuge wanted to receive Hungarians who could start to work immediately, but we in Canada – alone – encouraged _students_ to come here to complete their studies. We believed, in the long run, their additional qualifications would increase their contribution to their new homeland…" 
*The Sopron Story
*When Pickersgill discovered Miklos Gratzer and Istvan Tolnai, along with 200 of their fellow forestry students and 34 faculty members from Sopron University – all penned-up in the same camp near Salzburg – he made a series of long-distance calls to Vancouver. 
Within hours on a Sunday morning Pickersgill cut an extraordinary deal. He arranged for the Sopron school of forestry to be transferred – virtually intact – from Hungary to the University of British Columbia. In essence, the Sopron foresters were "adopted" en masse by UBC and the pulp mill town of Powell River on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. 
But best intentions could not guarantee a happy ending. For many of the Soproners, transition to a new life in the West was far from idyllic. 
They arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs and a desire to escape communist oppression. Most knew nothing about Canada and didn't speak a word of English. They endured homesickness, depression and doubt. 
Family members back in Hungary wrote emotional letters pleading for them to come home. They even encountered a nasty political backlash in left-wing British Columbia. 
*Anna's Story* 
Anna Porter came to Canada in a roundabout way. She and her mom escaped from Budapest to New Zealand, where they joined other family members. Anna wound up in a convent – the only child in the entire school who spoke no English. She felt isolated and alone, with a sense of "not belonging" that never went away. 
As she grew up, she grew restless. After graduation, she wandered – to Sydney, then Rome and London before finally settling down in Toronto. Where she discovered her life's work – the editing, publishing and writing of books. 
"I got to work with Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood, and Mordecai Richler, Earle Birney, Irving Layton, Al Purdy – I mean, how lucky can you get?" asks Anna. In 1992 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. 



In the end, the Sopron foresters persisted, survived and earned their own measures of recognition and respect. Istvan Tolnai worked his way up from "chokerman" on a rough and tumble West Coast logging crew to become chief forester for Weyerhaeuser Canada, one of the largest timber companies in North America. Miklos Gratzer became a distinguished professor of forestry with top postings at several large universities. 
More than 80 percent of the Soproners graduated from UBC. More than 30 percent went on to earn advanced degrees. And like most of the Hungarians who arrived here in 1956, nearly all have become proud Canadian citizens.


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## Spanky (2006 Október 30)

http://www.hirtv.hu/?tPath=/view/videoview&videoview_id=3787


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## oma (2006 November 4)

<!-- End Table -->




The American Hungarian Federation was founded in 1906 as an umbrella organization and has over the years supported democracy, human and minority rights and the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe. Recent developments relating to demonstrations against the government in Hungary deeply concern the Federation. The Federation condemns all acts of lawlessness and intolerance. Reports from various and credible sources indicate that the vast majority of demonstrators on October 23 were peaceful, law-abiding citizens exercising their right to freely speak, assemble and petition their government -- fundamental rights that are fully respected in all democracies. These reports, including photographs, further indicate that the police used overwhelming and unjustified force against a crowd of people who were merely attending an officially registered commemorative event. The police did not even attempt to distinguish between that peaceful crowd and the few troublemakers. Allegations also have been made of brutal beatings, including of a Catholic priest and a Member of Parliament, indiscriminate use of tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets aimed above the waist contrary to European practices, use of extendable batons, failure by police to wear identifying badges and police being used as provocateurs. 

These are serious and disturbing acts that undermine democracy and the rule of law and violate both the laws of Hungary and international standards of human rights. Official inaction considering these events is troublesome. The Federation strongly believes that these and related allegations must be thoroughly and timely investigated by a credible and completely independent body and if substantiated appropriate measures must be taken.
Finally, the Federation hopes that the respect for the rule of law and principles of democracy will preclude such occurrences in the future.
October 31, 2006


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## oma (2006 November 5)

*Saddam Hussein*

Nov 5, 4:36 AM EST

Saddam, 2 Others Sentenced to Death


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein and two other men were convicted and sentenced Sunday to death by hanging for war crimes in the 1982 killings of 148 people in the town of Dujail, as the former leader, trembling, shouted "God is great!"






After the verdict was read, Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"

Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district.

Saddam initially refused the chief judge's order to rise; two bailiffs lifted the ousted ruler to his feet and he remained standing through the sentencing.

Before the hearing began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the trial a travesty.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out."

In addition to the former Iraqi dictator and Barzan Ibrahim, his former intelligence chief and half brother, the Iraqi High Tribunal convicted and sentenced Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, to death by hanging.

Iraq's former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Three other co-defendants were convicted of murder and torture and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
One defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence

The guilty verdict for Saddam is expected to enrage hard-liners among Saddam's fellow Sunnis, who made up the bulk of the former ruling class. The country's majority Shiites, who were persecuted under the former leader but now largely control the government, will likely view the outcome as a cause of celebration.

AP.


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## Spanky (2006 November 7)

The sound is in arabic. You will be reading the English subtitles. 

One *impressive woman*

Here is a powerful and amazing statement on Al Jazeera television.

The woman is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com



Los Angeles</st1:City>

I would suggest watching it ASAP because I don't know how long the link will be active. 

This film clip should be shown around the world repeatedly!!!

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul<O></O>


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## Judith (2006 November 8)

New York Times Nagy Imréről
http://www.time.com/time/europe/hero2006/nagy.html


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## oma (2006 November 8)

*pure, unadultered bullshit..*

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+2]*Hotel yanks CNN; says network is pro-terrorist*[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]*

Wausau Daily Herald 

* [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ROTHSCHILD — Guests at one local hotel who switch on the TV in search of the latest news no longer have CNN as an option.

The Stoney Creek Inn, 1100 Imperial Ave., in Rothschild has dropped the 24-hour news channels CNN and CNN Headline News from its basic cable offerings.

Tony Magro, 76, of Barrington, Ill., stayed at the inn Monday night and said he was told by a receptionist that the hotel chain’s corporate office had issued a letter calling for the removal of the channels because CNN aids terrorists.

“I’m not an activist, and I really don’t have any interest, but that struck me as over the top,” Magro said. “I’m rather zealous about my rights as an American citizen, particularly when I’m paying for the service.”

Magro, who was driving to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the funeral of a friend when he had car trouble Monday in the Wausau area, said he had tried tuning in to CNN to find the latest news on today’s mid-term elections.

The channel was nowhere to be found, and he received an updated channel listing from the front desk today. The updated listing includes news channels MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2.

James Thompson, owner and chief executive officer of Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp., made the decision to remove the channels, according to the inn’s corporate office in Des Moines, Iowa. Thompson is out of the office today and was not immediately available for comment.

Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp. manages 10 hotels in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin. The 107-room inn near the Cedar Creek Mall opened in 1997.[/FONT][/FONT]






[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][/FONT]


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## oma (2006 November 9)

*Rumsfeld quits in wake of Democratic victory :4:*






http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/1246...nwest/112/bush_rumsfeld11082006new.jpg?size=l

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=e7ba933d-0b4d-44d6-b517-668f2e3d66e5&k=59395

:4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4:


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## alberth (2006 November 11)

I am seiling therew the sea, from the beach of Canada. Purheps monday...


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## pitti (2006 November 11)

Spanky írta:


> This film clip should be shown around the world repeatedly!!!
> 
> http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul<O></O>



Hat igen. Ez egy karakan csaj. \\m/


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## Spanky (2006 November 11)

pitti írta:


> Hat igen. Ez egy karakan csaj. \\m/
> [/size][/font]


 
You got to respect the woman. She’s not afraid to call the spade a spade.


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## csocsike (2006 November 15)

*Sue Bailey and Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press*

Warner Vermette joined some friends last year for a night out in Williams Lake, B.C. Hours later, the 22 year-old wound up naked and screaming on the floor of an RCMP cell.
Vermette has an IQ of 63 - well below what’s considered normal. And what happened to the vulnerable young man that March night happens too often across Canada as the mentally ill are failed by systems meant to protect them.
Without those crucial supports, their harsh fate is frequently jail or the streets.
Vermette was bleeding from a nasty gash to his right foot that would need several stitches when he was finally taken to hospital 15 hours after his arrest.
He had kicked in a window in a building he apparently confused with his own nearby apartment.
Vermette is hospitalized regularly for overwhelming anxiety - when he’s not turned away for lack of beds - and is obsessed with professional wrestling. He can be sweet and engaging but is also prone to profane aggression when cornered.
He is among the 20 per cent of Canadians who will directly experience mental illness. And after 10 years in and out of jail for mostly minor, non-violent offences, he also personifies what happens when demand for mental health care outstrips need.
The result: some of society’s most susceptible members are caught in a revolving door between the prison cell and the street. It threatens the safety of both the mentally ill and the communities where they live.
Thousands of families across Canada find themselves trapped in the same stressful, costly and avoidable cycle. Yet lingering public distaste for open talk about mental illness puts them in a kind of social quarantine.
“I get the feeling from a lot of people out there, as long as it doesn’t affect them it doesn’t matter,” said Gary Allen, who was locked in jail during a particularly tough bout in his continuing fight with bipolar disorder, a form of severe mood condition.
As their loved ones slip in and out of stability, many families find themselves alone, ensnared in a justice system that both critics and corrections officials say is woefully ill-equipped.
Nor is there much help from community services. Most mental health agencies still lack the money and staff needed to fill the void left when large institutions closed years ago.
Jail is often the only alternative. And criminologists say Conservative plans to toughen sentences and curtail house arrest for certain crimes will throw more weight on a buckling system.
Vermette’s arrest for breaking and entering 19 months ago was the latest tangle with a justice system that his mother, Cindy Parsons, wryly calls his main “mental health resource” for the last decade.
The family has waged a losing battle to find effective treatment, says a frustrated Parsons.
“Politicians have to start talking about this.”
Warner is no born-to-be-bad career criminal, she insists.
He has the rational comprehension of about an eight-year-old. 
“I don’t believe he’s capable of masterminding crimes.”
Yet her son has served serious prison time and he is far from alone.
The number of federal inmates identified as mentally ill has climbed dramatically in the last decade. At least 1,500 of 12,500 prisoners in 58 institutions need some form of daily care for serious mental health issues.
The swelling figure reflects the closure of mental institutions in recent decades with few replacement programs.
The shutdowns were a response to budgetary pressures, the emergence of more effective medications, and a belief the mentally ill are better off in the community than hived away in outmoded asylums. 
Abuses indeed took place in the old-style institutions, said Dr. Ian Postnikoff, chief psychiatrist at the Correctional Service’s regional treatment centre in Abbotsford, B.C.
“But I think we’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Where are the community resources?”
Cuts to health services in the 1990s increased pressure on remaining programs as accelerating social stress and homelessness fuelled demand for such help.
The streets and prisons are the asylums of the 21st century, says now retired senator Michael Kirby, who chaired an exhaustive committee study of mental health in Canada.
“There are very, very few resources in the prison system to deal with mental illness.”
The May committee report, Out of the Shadows at Last, called for a wide range of publicly funded community supports.
An acute lack of services means the sick and unstable are increasingly warehoused alongside violent criminals.
“There’s no question that we are criminalizing the mentally ill,” said Dr. John Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist who teaches at the University of Ottawa.
Federal correctional staff openly acknowledge a growing number of inmates should be in hospital - not behind bars.
Better community-based help for the mentally ill could avoid the hefty social and financial costs of locking people away, said Veronica Felizardo, a clinical social worker at the Correctional Service’s regional treatment centre in Kingston, Ont.
“Yeah, their crime was horrible. But they were off their medication. They were living on the streets.”
Jane Laishes, senior manager of mental health for the prison service, warns of pending disaster.
“Everybody is just so stretched to the limit,” she said of chronic staff shortages, especially when it comes to psychologists and psychiatric nurses.
“I guess I’m pretty astounded that we haven’t had a huge crisis, and that people get the level of care they do. But I think it’s a matter of time.
“The issue now is one of public safety. These people are coming back into the community.”
There are just 700 beds available in the five mental health treatment centres run by the prison service across Canada.
Admission is immediate for the most acute cases. But several hundred inmates with serious but less critical mental problems often wait months for care.
Laishes concedes the high-stress, drug-infested prison system is more an incubator than a cure for psychosis.
Untold numbers of offenders - the Correctional Service has no precise statistics - land in a segregation cell when they lash out, she said.
It’s “a tragedy” that locking up an ill inmate alone is the best tool the service sometimes has, Laishes says.
“They’re yelling, they’re screaming, they’re being out of control. They’re not fun for staff. They’re not fun for others.
“The bottom line, though, is that they’re suffering.”
Kim Pate, a national advocate for female inmates, says that kind of isolation is especially hard on women.
“At that moment when they’re most in crisis, it’s human contact - not video surveillance or a restraint chair - that they most want and need.”
Laishes also concedes it’s possible for a mentally unstable inmate to serve an entire sentence without being thoroughly diagnosed, let alone treated.
Evaluations for new inmates are often cursory and followup can be lax. Some prisoners deny having a mental illness.
“There’s still a lot of stigma,” Laishes says. Being bad is a badge of honor for some convicts. “But being mad?
“There’s no part of our culture where that is considered OK yet.” 
The stigma is borne by the ill and their families.
Warner Vermette’s mother recalled his last nightmarish arrest.
Cindy Parsons believes her son panicked and broke into the wrong building after becoming disoriented when friends dropped him off.
He went into an alcohol-fuelled frenzy as police tried to control him. He was stun-gunned three times with 50,000 volts of electricity before officers muscled him into a cell, later stripping him to ensure he didn’t use his clothes to strangle himself.
What her son really required, Parsons says, was a psychiatric ward staffed by people trained to deal humanely with the mentally ill.
“Warner needed help. Only jail would take him.”
The RCMP later apologized after a full investigation.
Vermette should have been taken to hospital sooner, Staff Sgt. Grant Martin said in a letter to Parsons.
“Since the incident, our detachment has purchased a `prisoner restraint chair’ which alleviates the need to strip prisoners of their clothing.”
The detachment also agreed to take part in a training project to help front-line officers recognize and handle mental illness.
Vermette would spend the next eight months in custody. It wasn’t his first lengthy stint behind bars. He was sent to federal prison five years ago after agreeing to play sentry for a gang of would-be thieves who botched a jewelry store heist, his mother said.
“Warner took the blame for a lot of other people.
“He pleads guilty to everything. That sort of shows you his mental capacity.”
He chose to spend much of his prison time at B.C.’s Kent Institution in segregation - he found it less scary - but still mixed with the general population throughout his two-year sentence.
His mother arrived for a visit one day to find Warner sporting a fresh tattoo. Her mind churned with thoughts of dirty needles and liver diseases.
“He had access to drugs in there. I was just beside myself.
“The older inmates could see that he was vulnerable. I am just extremely thankful to a few guys who were there who took care of Warner - because the system sure didn’t.
“Warner has been through a lot in the last 10 years. And, unfortunately, the justice system has been his mental health resource.”
&copy; The Canadian Press​


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## csocsike (2006 November 18)

*Child dies after attacked by five dogs*

*Happened on native reserve in northern Alta.*


<!-- wrapper01 end -->
*Natalie Alcoba, National Post*

Published: Friday, November 17, 2006 A five-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pack of dogs as he was walking home alone on a northern Alberta First Nations reserve. 
Police said the child was so viciously attacked Thursday evening that his face was unrecognizeable. 
A spokesperson for the local RCMP detachment said the boy had been returning from a relative’s house on the North Tallcree First Nation reserve when he was confronted by the animals, some of them wild. 
He could see the house he shared with his mom and siblings, number 9930 on a road without a name, when the animals attacked, around 6:30 p.m.
There were five, maybe six of dogs and they were out for blood. They pounced on the boy, sinking their teeth into his snowpants, shredding his hooded winter coat and tearing through his entire body. 
Neighbours saw the violent attack through the windows of their homes. One man, a father himself, ran out with a shovel and chased the predators away. He called to others for help, and someone dialed 911. 
“It was too late by then,” said Sergeant Ryan Becker, with the Fort Vermilion RCMP detachment, which is about 45 kilometres north of the reserve. 
The boy died on the side of that road. His body was later transported to a local hospital. 
Police found two of the suspect dogs — a rotweiller and a german shepherd-mix — tied up at a nearby residence. The animals have been quarantined and will likely be destroyed, said Sgt. Becker.
The other three or four animals are believed to be strays. Dozens of wild dogs roam the reserve’s 7,000 acres, but attacks on people have not been a problem in the past, according to Sgt. Becker. 
Police expected to positively identify the child by the end of the day. But investigators said they know who he is and have informed his family. Sgt. Becker said the family, led by a single mother who is raising as many as 12 children, had recently moved to North Tallcree from Fox Lake, another reserve nearby. 
National Post
[email protected]


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## csocsike (2006 November 18)

WASHINGTON — Requirements for Canadian air travellers to have passports and pay an extra $5 user fee when entering the United States have been pushed back.

The U.S. government has said it’ll miss a Jan. 8 deadline to begin implementing the air portion of Washington's new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Joanna Gonzales said the U.S. hasn’t set a new deadline yet but warned Canadians against holding off obtaining a passport for travel in the New Year.

“It might send the wrong message and people might think they don't have to worry about January,” Gonzales said in an interview. “We don’t have a specific date (to start this), but it is going to be in the very near future.”

The passport requirement for air travellers is the first stage of tighter U.S. border identification rules for Canadians and Americans entering the country.

Earlier this fall, U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation extending the deadline for passports or another form of approved ID for crossing the land border from Jan. 1, 2008 to mid-2009.

But Homeland Security is still advising Canadians that the U.S. intends to implement the new land crossing rules well ahead of the later deadline, so long as a new wallet-sized 'passport lite' is ready for use by American travellers.

Ottawa has not yet decided if it will introduce its own alternative to a passport.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it’s postponing a $5 airline traveller fee to offset the cost of increased counterterrorism inspections.

The fee, originally set to be applied starting Nov. 24, will now be added to the charge of airline tickets starting Jan. 1.
&copy; CanWest News Service​


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## Spanky (2006 November 20)

*Secret Santa reveals his identity* 

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 18, 6:10 AM ET 




KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's been a long-held holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa? 

But now, weak from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his belief in random kindness, Secret Santa has decided it's time to reveal his identity.
He is Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, Mo., who made his millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service.
His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.
"It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,'" he said.
He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.
"And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"
Stewart went to the bank that day and took out $200, then drove around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his "Christmas present to himself." He's hit the streets each December since.
While Stewart has also given money to other community causes in Kansas City and his hometown of Bruce, Miss., he offers the simple gifts of cash because it's something people don't have to "beg for, get in line for, or apply for."
That was a feeling he came to know in the early '70s when he was living out of his yellow Datsun 510. Hungry and tired, Stewart mustered the nerve to approach a woman at a church and ask for help.
The woman told him the person who could help was gone for the day, and Stewart would have to come back the next day.
"As I turned around, I knew I would never do that again," Stewart said.
Over the years, Stewart's giving as Secret Santa grew. He started a Web site. He allowed the news media to tag along, mostly because he wanted to hear about the people who received the money. Reporters had to agree to guard his identity and not name his company, which he still does not want revealed.
His entourage grew over the years, and he began traveling with special elves. People like the late Negro Leagues icon Buck O'Neil, who handed out hugs while Stewart doled out $100s. NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus will join Stewart this year in Chicago when Stewart hands out $100s in honor of O'Neil, the first African-American coach in the Major Leagues.
They'll give out $100,000 between Chicago and Kansas City. Four Secret Santas who Stewart "trained" will hand out an additional $65,000.
Doctors told Stewart in April that he had cancer of the esophagus and it had spread to his liver. He has been lucky, he says, to get into a clinical trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the aggressive chemotherapy has stripped away his appetite and energy. He's lost about 100 pounds, but has held onto his white hair.
The treatment costs more than $16,000 a month, not including the cost of traveling to Houston every two weeks and staying there for five or six days. He now has two months off, but returns to treatment in February.

His insurance company won't cover the cost of the treatment, which has left him concerned about his finances and his family. 
Now, his mission is bigger than handing out $100 bills. Stewart wants to speak to community groups about his devotion to kindness and to inspire others to donate their time and money. "That's what we're here for," Stewart says, "to help other people out."


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## csocsike (2006 November 22)

<HR class=hrcolor width="100%" SIZE=1> 
*You can get more information >>> *

*Canada kept list of dissidents to lock up in time of crisis
Historian uncovers plan to detain as many as 2,500 in camps*

*The Ottawa Citizen*
Published: Monday, November 06, 2006
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d25ea021-d0f0-41dd-96ed-a4f5463b9edc

*Ottawa had Cold War plan to round up activists
CanWest News Service
*http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=936592e1-db93-47e4-b2fa-d963680c0cef


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## csocsike (2006 November 25)




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## VictorM (2006 November 29)

*Useless things that everyone should know*

Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there. 

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. 

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma. 

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. 

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. 

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. 

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. 

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. 

The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache. 

A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. 

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class. 

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. 

Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning 

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. 

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. 

The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. 

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. 

Marilyn Monroe had six toes. 

All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. 

Walt Disney was afraid of mice. 

Pearls melt in vinegar. 

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 

The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. 

A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why. 

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. 

Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second was William Jefferson Clinton. 

Turtles can breathe through their butts 

Butterflies taste with their feet. 

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined. 

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. 

On average people fear spiders more than they do death. 

Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants. 

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. 

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. 

Women blink nearly twice as much as men. 

It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. 

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. 

A snail can sleep for three years. 

No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH." 

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!! 

The electric chair was invented by a dentist. 

All polar bears are left handed. 

In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. 

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. 

"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. 

If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. 

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. 

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. 

Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. 

Almost everyone who reads this will try to lick their elbow. 

PS... So, did you try to lick your elbow????


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## VictorM (2006 November 30)

Female Hormones in Beer 

Yesterday, scientists for Health Canada suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women. 
To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. 

It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing and refused to apologize when wrong. No further testing is planned.


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## csocsike (2006 December 6)

*Eric Beauchesne, CanWest News Service*

Published: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 
*OTTAWA -- Canadian consumers, unlike Americans, are still borrowing heavily, but also unlike Americans, they are having little difficulty keeping up with their debt payments, a major Canadian financial institution said.

“Unlike the sharp slowing in the pace of household borrowing south of the border, household credit in Canada is sill rising fast,” CIBC World Markets said in an analysis Monday on how well Canadian consumers are holding up under their rising debt burden.

During the third quarter of this year overall household debt rose 2.3 per cent, easily outpacing the 1.4 per cent rise in disposable income, it said, noting that led to a moderate increase in the ratio of debt-to-income to a record 122 per cent from 117 per cent a year earlier.

The ratio of interest payments on consumer loans to disposable income is also still on the rise, and is now at a two-year high, it added.*


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## EDIT-TIDE (2006 December 8)

*Canada & Hungary*


<!--End Section Name--><!--End Breadcrumb and Headers--><!--Start content developer / owner links--><!--End content developer / owner links --><!--Begin Dynamic Text and Images--><TABLE class=clsMainContent style="FONT-SIZE: 80%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>*Canada-Hungary bilateral relations*
Canada and Hungary have enjoyed close relations since the waves of immigration starting in the late 19th century but Canada is best known in Hungary as a destination for those who left this country after the Revolution of 1956. Today, over 250,000 people living in Canada claim to be of Hungarian descent. They make up an important ethnic community, and contribute to Canada's national diversity.
Canada has encouraged the political transformations in Hungary from the outset, and was the first nation to ratify Hungary's NATO accession. There are several conventions and agreements in force between Hungary and Canada in the field of trade, film and video film co-production, extradition, finance, investment protection, legal proceedings, mutual legal assistance (MLAT), dual taxation and air transport. Canada has flourishing cultural and scientific relations with Hungary, and many performers visit Hungary in the framework of the annual Canadian Spring Festival. The effective bilateral co-operation in the field of culture is reflected by the 1999 return by Canada to Hungary of the _Wedding Feast at Cana_ painted by Giorgio Vasari, as well as the history of _Christ in front of Pilate_, a piece from Mihály Munkácsy's Christ's Trilogy.
A good example of academic co-operation is the success of Canadian Studies over 25 years. There are five Canadian Studies Centres at Hungarian universities, and another seven higher education institutions have included courses on Canadian themes into their curricula. The Canadian community living in Hungary plays an active role in the life of Budapest and other towns. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, established in 1993, is actively involved in the organisation of business-related and social events. It has also launched some new initiatives, such as the Canadian Winter Carnival and the Canadian - Hungarian Blood Donation Day.
*Trade and Investment*
Hungary and Canada trade relations are important and indicate signs of growth. Canadian exports to Hungary have been growing from CAD 209.7 million in 2004 to 220.4 million in 2005. Canadian exports to Hungary include machinery, electrical equipment and chemical products. Hungarian exports to Canada have also been growing from CAD 53 million in 2004 to CAD 70.8 million in 2005. Hungarian exports consist of electrical machinery, medical equipment and pharmaceutical products.
Because of its strategic position in central Europe, Hungary is a potential gateway to a much larger market area. A significant number of Canadian companies have established production operations in Hungary with Hungarian partners or on their own.
_Last updated: September 2006_
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


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## csocsike (2006 December 14)

*Canada's richest getting richer*

*Thanks in part to housing boom*





*Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service*

Published: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 


OTTAWA -- The gap between Canada’s richest and poorest widened between 1999 and 2005, thanks in part to an increased value of housing, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

The study, published Wednesday in Perspectives on Labour and Income, ranked family units into five groups from the lowest net worth to the highest. (Net worth is the amount an individual or family would clear after selling all assets and paying off all debts.)

Between 1999 and 2005, the median net worth of families in the top fifth of the wealth distribution increased by 19 per cent, the study said, while the net worth of their counterparts in the bottom fifth remained virtually unchanged. 

In other words, the richest got richer and the poorest stayed poor.

Last year, those in the top 20 per cent of the wealth distribution had a median net worth estimated at $551,000. In 1999, it was $465,000 and in 1984 it was $336,000.

At the other end of the spectrum, the median net worth of the families in the bottom fifth stagnated between 1984 and 2005. The value of their assets never exceeded the value of their debts during that period.

As a whole, the median net worth of all Canadian families in 2005 was $84,800, up from $74,400 in 1999. Part of that growth in net worth - among families in the top 20 per cent of the distribution - was fuelled by increases in the value of housing. At least 95 per cent of these families owned a house in the six-year period of the study and during that time, the median value of their principal residence rose a solid $75,000, reflecting sharp increases in housing prices, the study said.

Only six per cent of families in the bottom 20 per cent owned a house during the study period and the value changed little.

There are other reasons behind the wealth concentration, the study explained. Growing income dispersion over the last decade also contributed to the growing wealth inequality between families. In the 1990s there was an increase in inequality in family after-tax income, the study noted.

Age however, was not a factor behind the growth in wealth inequality between 1984 and 2005. In fact, while the median wealth of families rose 26 per cent between 1984 and 2005, it fell among families where the major income earner was between 25 and 34.

In 2005, these families had median wealth holdings of $13,400, much lower than $27,000 in 1984.
This drop was due mainly to the fact the earnings of young men fell substantially between the 1970s and 1990s.


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## Spanky (2006 December 16)

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=ccbnBgTtl><TD vAlign=top>*Survey Finds American Workers Are Happy, Rate Bosses Highly*

</TD></TR><TR class=ccbnBgTxt><TD vAlign=top>
Survey finds American workers are happy, rate bosses highly 
_Kelly Services Global Workforce Index finds satisfaction among world's highest_ 
TROY, Mich. (December 7, 2006) - Despite the everyday gripes that are typical in most work environments, a new study by leading staffing company Kelly Services finds that the overwhelming majority of American employees are happy in their work. On top of that, they give high marks to their bosses! 
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. employees - 65 percent - reported that they were either happy or very happy with their current position, while a mere 16 percent were at the opposite end of the satisfaction spectrum. The Kelly Global Workforce Index sought the views of approximately 70,000 people in 28 countries including almost 4,000 in the United States. 
"American managers are doing a good job to motivate and engage their employees. The challenge is to continually provide interesting and meaningful work as well as opportunities for employees to learn and more fully develop their own skills," said George Corona, senior vice president of Kelly Services. "The best managers understand a contented and motivated work force will reduce costly turnover and will contribute to the bottom-line through increased productivity." 
*The U.S. scores are only slightly behind those of the nations with the happiest workers* - Denmark (74 percent), Mexico (71 percent) and Sweden (71 percent) - and well ahead of the *nations with the least-happy workers - Hungary (44 percent)*, Russia (48 percent) and Turkey (49 percent). 
Job satisfaction is also heavily influenced by how employees view their bosses. 
Asked to rate their bosses on a 10-point scale, the American workers gave theirs a respectable 7.3, on average - second only to the 7.6 their Mexican counterparts gave their bosses. 
Managers were rated on four attributes - communication, leadership, team spirit and delegation skills. The U.S. workers felt their bosses were best at delegating effectively and weakest when it comes to communication. 
"Time and again, workers tell us that they want a workplace with good morale, stimulating work, a degree of autonomy, and meaningful feedback from their bosses," said Corona. "That feedback need not be limited to formal evaluations. Even informal feedback, especially if frequently provided, can make a big difference." 
Some 58 percent of U.S. workers said their bosses had rewarded them for a job well done, while 29 percent said they were rarely or never rewarded. 
As for who makes the best bosses - men or women - the vast majority (75 percent) said it makes no difference. But 15 percent said they preferred a male boss and 10 percent preferred a female. 
Among the U.S. workers surveyed, those happiest in their jobs were in Travel/Leisure (80 percent), Education (74 percent), Science/Pharmaceutical (74 percent), Business Services (71 percent) and Engineering (70 percent). 
http://www.kellyservices.com/res/content/global/services/en/docs/gws.pdf
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


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## oma (2006 December 17)

*Apartment hunting gets tougher
Rents going up, vacancies slim*

Eric Beauchesne
CanWest News Service

Friday, December 15, 2006


OTTAWA -- It's become harder to find and more expensive to rent an apartment in major Canadian cities, especially in the West, the federal housing agency said Thursday.

The average rental apartment vacancy rate in 28 cities was 2.6 per cent this fall, down slightly from the 2.7 per cent in each of the past two years, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said.

The rate is well above the 1.7 per cent low in 2002, although well below the more than four per cent during much of the previous decade.

The average rent for two-bedroom apartments, meanwhile, rose by 3.2 per cent, it said.

"Solid job creation and healthy income gains helped to strengthen demand for both ownership and rental housing,'' said CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan, in releasing the annual report.

"High levels of immigration were a key driver of rental demand in 2006, as was the increasing gap between the cost of home ownership and renting,'' he said.

"However, near-record levels of existing home sales and the high level of housing starts in 2006 show that home ownership demand remained very strong, and it continues to apply upward pressure on vacancy rates,'' Dugan said. ``Adding to this is the high level of condominium completions in some centres.''

The greatest rent increases over the past year, meanwhile, generally occurred in markets where vacancy rates were lowest, led by a 19.5 per cent jump in Calgary where just 0.5 per cent of apartments were vacant, followed by a 9.9 per cent increase in Edmonton, 5.1 per cent in Greater Sudbury and 4.4 per cent in Vancouver, it said.

If Edmonton and Alberta are excluded, the average increase in rents was 2.4 per cent, which is somewhat higher than core inflation but well below the roughly five per cent increase in disposable incomes, Dugan said.

The highest average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment was in Toronto, at $1,067, followed closely by Vancouver at $1,045, and then by Calgary at $960, and Ottawa at $941. The lowest rent was $485 in Saguenay, Que., which had a 4.1 per cent vacancy rate.

An Ontario tenants advocacy group said the report shows renters in most cities in that province are facing an affordability crisis, citing a recent CMHC report that the incomes of tenants have fallen over the past decade.

Meanwhile, other reports released Thursday show home sales and prices continued to rise across Canada in November, but at a more moderate pace in many cities, a cooling trend that is forecast to continue through next year.

Sales of existing homes rose by 1.5 per cent from October to 27,630, with rebounds in sales in Calgary and Victoria, while sales also edged up in Vancouver, the Canadian Real Estate Association said.

The average price of a house was $298,094, up 9.4 per cent from a year earlier, down from the double-digit increases earlier in the year.

``The resale housing market still has legs,'' said the industry association's chief economist Gregory Klump.

Sales, which earlier this year were on track to set a new record are now running at about last year's record pace, however.

And over the past three months sales are actually down 4.5 per cent from a year earlier, noted National Bank of Canada economist Marc Pinsonneault.

However, he added that still compares favourably with the 12.3 per cent plunge in U.S. housing sales.

Real estate giant Royal LePage Thursday forecast sales next year would fall three per cent, while the increase in housing prices would moderate to 6.5 per cent.

Home sales and prices will continue to increase most in Western Canada, but even in those hot markets the pace of activity will moderate significantly, it said.

``Our plucky housing market should soldier on, with prices rising comfortably, as key economic fundamentals underpin positive consumer confidence,'' said Royal LePage president Phil Soper.

But it's not just Canada's residential real estate market that remains healthy, according to a major international bond rating agency.

``Canadian commercial real estate remains strong,'' Moody's Investors Service said in a separate report. ``All property type markets _ industrial, retail, office, multi-family _ have improved slightly in the past six months.''

``Canadian commercial real estate continues to outperform that in the U.S.,'' it also noted.


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## oma (2006 December 21)

*Martians invade Earth — in the form of bacteria*

Tom Spears, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006


Maybe life from Mars has arrived on Earth.

Astronomers have found bacteria on Earth that can stand up to amazingly high doses of radiation — an environment more typical of Mars than our own planet.

And since Martian rocks are known to have fallen to Earth (a space collision knocks them loose from Mars and they drift here), astronomers are wondering whether alien bacteria could have hitched a ride.

The toughest of these potential Martians is called Deinococcus radiodurans. It can stand several thousand times more radiation than humans can, which is what “radiodurans” means.

Even its nickname shows its strength: Biologists call it Conan the Bacterium.

But why would such a creature evolve on Earth, astronomers now ask.

A team writing in a science journal Astrobiology thinks that bacteria evolve in ways that help them survive, and in the case of D. radiodurans, this points to Mars.

“Our hypothesis of a Martian origin for radio-resistant bacteria provides an explanation for their ability to withstand ionizing radiation, a trait that appears to be of no value on Earth at any time in its history,” Alexander Pavlov and his University of Arizona teammates write.

“It’s actually a theory which is gaining a little more ground of late,” says astronomy Prof. Paul Delaney of York University in Toronto.

There are about 30 known Mars meteorites on Earth (and certainly more that haven’t been found), he says.

“Microbes come in the billions, which is very handy. Even if you kill off 90 per cent of them in flight, you’ve still got enough left.

“We have no proof . . . that says such a venture has already taken place,” he said. “But there is a lot of attention that is being given to the environment of a meteorite that would be required to contain literally billions of bacteria, to survive the interplanetary journey from Mars to Earth. And, by the way, vice versa. Is Earth launching material into the solar system and beyond?

“The one thing in favour of all this is time. If you’re shielded in rock strata (layers), then you could survive millions, tens of millions of years. Well, in those sorts of time frames, you could get rocks a long way.

“So the credibility of the argument is increasing, based on the fact that microbes are proving to be amazingly resilient.”


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## Spanky (2007 Április 20)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4499562022478442170&q=global+warning+swindle


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## E.Ágnes (2007 Április 20)

My problem with this is that you are bombarded with contradictory information from every side: you read articles and pamphlets, you watch light documentaries like this one and tougher ones on another channel, you get the results of scientists funded by governments and you get the results of scientists funded by green organizations. 

Anyway, global warming keeps us pretty well entertained...


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## Spanky (2007 Szeptember 12)

http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570


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## E.Ágnes (2007 Szeptember 13)

Spanky írta:


> http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570


 
That was like something out of Gulliver's Travels...


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## agata_2000 (2011 Április 5)

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/dog-survives-Japan-tsunami-leads-rescuers-injured-friend-13156869


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## agoni (2011 Október 13)

:d


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## agoni (2011 Október 13)

:d


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## perica6892 (2011 Október 15)




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## FLOUFUN (2012 Február 3)

Thank god


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## juozasu (2013 Március 14)

Very interesting for me, about history and also statistics.


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