Pope has Died

Bad sourcing....not dead...sorry to everyone

posted by Frodgie at 4:16 PM

 

Hamas: Barrier won't stop attacks

"THE WALL WILL not protect the Zionist entity and will not stop the strikes of resistance. The day will come when this wall will eventually collapse just as the Berlin Wall collapsed," Hamas said in a statement released in the Gaza Strip.
The statement stepped up a Palestinian campaign against the barrier, which Israel decided on Wednesday to extend deeper into Palestinian territory to enclose some big Jewish settlements.
The Palestinian Authority, led by leader Yasser Arafat, is demanding intervention by the world powers steering Middle East peacemaking to persuade Israel to stop the project.
Israel says the barrier, which is mostly an electronic sensor fence but in a few parts a huge concrete wall, is needed to keep out suicide bombers who have killed hundreds of Israelis as part of a three-year-old uprising for statehood.






posted by Frodgie at 6:46 AM

 

Limbaugh Faces Drug Allegations

Limbaugh, who quit his job as a football analyst for ESPN late Wednesday, had multiple sources from whom he could obtain the prescription drugs, namely OxyContin (search) and other painkillers, law enforcement sources said.

Reports in the New York Daily News and the National Enquirer alleged Limbaugh got the drugs from his housekeeper, Wilma Cline (search). But sources close to the investigation told Fox News that Limbaugh had other drug suppliers and said the popular conservative personality could face a criminal inquiry by the Palm Beach County (search) state attorney's office.

Cline's attorney, Ed Shohat, told Fox News that "my client stands behind her story." Cline has been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for her cooperation, a source told Fox News.

In a statement issued Thursday, Limbaugh said he was unaware of any investigation involving him. "No government representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required, I will, of course, cooperate fully," he said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:41 AM

 

Iraq Weapons Searcher Indicates Longtime U.N. Violations

Speaking to reporters after a companion hearing on the Senate side late Thursday afternoon, CIA adviser and head of the Iraq Survey Group David Kay (search) said he is convinced that there will be more surprises to come.

"Don't be surprised by surprises in Iraq," Kay said, adding that a mission that size will always uncover startling information.

Kay did not reveal any bombshells but said that he had enough evidence to show that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (search) had been violating U.N. disarmament resolutions up until as recently as this year, including by having very substantial chemical and biological weapons plans.

"At this point we have found substantial evidence of an intent of senior-level Iraqi officials, including Saddam, to continue production at some future point in time of weapons of mass destruction. We have not found at this point actual weapons," he said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:39 AM

 

Report: Net attacks more frequent, lethal

NEW YORK (AP) -- Attacks on computer systems by virus writers and hackers continued to rise during the first half of the year, the Internet-security firm Symantec Corp. said this week.

Attacks by automated programs that spread like viruses and worms to exploit software flaws rose 20 percent in the first half of 2003 compared with the previous six-month period.

These attacks, the most significant of which was January's "Slammer" worm, accounted for 78 percent of all attack activity, according to Symantec's 20,000 security sensors monitoring networks in more than 180 countries.

posted by Frodgie at 6:37 AM

 

Schwarzenegger apologizes, denies admiring Hitler

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, who leads the polls ahead of the next week's California recall election, spent Thursday disputing and apologizing for sexual misconduct allegations, and denying a report he once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.

In a Los Angeles Times report, six women alleged that Schwarzenegger touched them in a sexual manner without their consent.

The alleged acts date back to the 1970s, but the latest was in 2000. The newspaper contacted the women, and none of them approached the newspaper, the Times said.

Two of the six women in the Times report were identified. The other four spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared career retaliation. None of the six has filed legal action against Schwarzenegger. None alleged that they were raped.

posted by Frodgie at 6:33 AM

 

Austrian Cardinal Says Pope Nearing Death

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn made his comments on the same day the pope's private secretary was trying to play down concerns about the pope's evident frailty.

Pope John Paul, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease and can no longer walk without help, has appeared weaker than normal in recent public appearances and has struggled to speak at times.

"The whole world is experiencing a pope who is sick, handicapped and dying -- I don't know how close to death he is -- who is approaching the last days and months of his life," Schoenborn told Austrian radio.

Later Schoenborn's spokesman, Erich Leitenberger, said the comment was meant "to be seen philosophically" and should not be interpreted literally.

Schoenborn, head of the Catholic Church in Austria and archbishop of Vienna, is seen as a possible successor to the pope, who celebrates the 25th anniversary of his pontificate later this month.

Earlier on Thursday, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's long-term personal secretary, said recent comments by another senior cardinal about the pope's condition had been taken out of context.


posted by Frodgie at 9:27 PM

 

Hormones may raise risk of ovarian cancer

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Estrogen-progestin pills do not reduce the risk of ovarian cancer and might even increase it, according to a study that raises more red flags about a once widely accepted treatment for women going through menopause.

"It's more bad news" for hormones, said American Cancer Society epidemiologist Dr. Carmen Rodriguez.

The findings came from the federally funded Women's Health Initiative study, part of which was abruptly halted in 2002 because of evidence that estrogen-progestin pills raise the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

Previous findings on hormone pills and ovarian cancer have been inconsistent. Some studies, especially those involving estrogen-only pills, showed an increased risk. But some doctors have theorized that combination pills would reduce the risk because they contain hormones similar to those in birth control pills, which have been shown to lower the odds.


posted by Frodgie at 9:15 AM

 

Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Tuesday he welcomes a Justice Department investigation into who revealed the classified identity of a CIA operative.

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.

"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job.

"I want to know the truth," the president continued. "Leaks of classified information are bad things."

He added that he did not know of "anybody in my administration who leaked classified information."

Bush said he has told his administration to cooperate fully with the investigation and asked anyone with knowledge of the case to come forward.


posted by Frodgie at 9:06 AM

 

FBI Opens Probe of Bush Staff on CIA Leak

Democrats demanded the appointment of a special outside counsel but Bush resisted. "I'm absolutely confident that the Justice Department can do a good job," he said on a re-election fund-raising stop in Chicago.

"If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it and we'll take the appropriate action," Bush said. "And this investigation is a good thing."

Democratic leaders said Attorney General John Ashcroft was too close to the White House to conduct an impartial investigation. "We don't have confidence in John Ashcroft ... and we know without a doubt that somebody broke the federal law," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said, "If there ever was a case for the appointment of a special counsel, this is it."

With pressure building, the Justice Department alerted the White House late Monday of the decision to move from a preliminary inquiry into a full investigation, a step rarely taken with complaints involving leaks of classified information.

The investigation is aimed at finding who leaked the name of the CIA operative, possibly in an attempt to punish the officer's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had accused the administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq.


posted by Frodgie at 8:42 PM

 

The Liberal Game Made Obvious

Chait tries to say Bush is a "phony," but as compared to Al Gore this claim can't persuade rational people. Chait tries to say Bush is more "radical" than he let show during his campaign. But as compared with the euphemisms and evasions of the Left — who admit to only "moderates" in their ranks — this rings hollow. The Left always hides its leftward aims. The Left hides behind Sunday-school teachers, southerners, and generals as its national candidates.

Chait tries to say that Bush is an easterner pretending to be a Texan. But the truth is that one of the most admirable things about both Presidents Bush is that, early in their lives, when they could have sheltered back East under their blue-ribbon family trees, both chose the most difficult environment in America for easterners — the Texas oil fields. Texas oilmen love to taunt Yankees. Nonetheless, Bush the elder ended up in Houston, but Bush the younger went back to Midland, Texas. There are no travel agencies in Europe that have brochures on Midland.

Chait says that the younger Bush was handed everything, did nothing meritocratically. Yet no one handed young Bush his thorough drubbing of Ann Richards in the Texas gubernatorial debate. The same with his crushing of Al Gore, supposedly the debater par excellence, in three presidential debates.

Sensing desperation, Chait's comments about the younger Bush's accent, posture, and mannerisms come down to ethnic prejudice and intellectual bigotry. None of this is remotely rational.


posted by Frodgie at 8:57 AM

 

Economy, fund raising on Bush agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has more than $65 million in his political war chest and is picking up more campaign cash in Illinois and Ohio as he talks about the fragile economic recovery.

On the president's schedule for Tuesday: a fund-raising luncheon at a hotel in Chicago, a meeting with business leaders at the University of Chicago School of Business and then an evening fund-raiser in Cincinnati.

"The business leaders he's meeting with represent a cross-section of the economy -- everything from manufacturing to services to finance," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

Bush's trip follows Monday's Commerce Department report showing that consumer spending increased by a strong 0.8 percent last month on top of an even bigger 0.9 percent advance in July -- an increase that many economists attributed to Bush's tax cuts. Last month, however, businesses slashed jobs for the seventh month in a row, and claims for unemployment benefits have remained high.


posted by Frodgie at 8:54 AM

 

Lead Suspect Convicted in Belgian Trial of 23 Suspected Al Qaeda

Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian who once played soccer in Germany, was given the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He had admitted planning to drive a car bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel air base, where 100 U.S. military personnel work.

Another Tunisian-born suspect, Tarek Maaroufi, was sentenced to six years for his involvement in the assassination of an anti-Taliban, Afghan military commander in 2001. Twenty others were convicted of lesser crimes and sentenced to up to five years. One defendant was acquitted.

"These acts were very grave, the evidence was clear and uniform," Judge Claire de Gryse said in pronouncing the verdicts and sentences at the end of Belgium's biggest-ever terrorism trial.

Trabelsi, 33, fidgeted in his seat during the lengthy court session, smiling at times and trying to talk to his co-defendants.

Trabelsi, who says he met Usama bin Laden (search) in Afghanistan and asked to become a homicide bomber, was arrested two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.


posted by Frodgie at 8:44 AM

 

Private space race nears finale

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a race to achieve the first privately funded manned spaceflight, two teams of rocket engineers are poised to compete for the $10 million X-Prize by launching people to the edge of space and bringing them back safely twice within a two-week period.

Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation, said he expects that one of the two teams will launch within the next few months, using rockets and spacecraft that are already being tested and prepared for the daring venture.

A Mojave Desert airport in California has already been approved for use as a launch pad for the suborbital missions.

"We expect to have a winner within the next nine to 12 months," said Diamandis in a presentation Friday to officials of the Federal Aviation Administration.


posted by Frodgie at 8:43 AM

 

U.S. soldier dies in Afghan shootout

(CNN) -- A U.S. soldier has been killed and two others wounded in a shootout with militants near the Afghan city of Shkin in Paktika province, south of Kabul, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday.

Two militants also died in Monday's gunbattle.

On August 31, two U.S. soldiers died and a third was wounded in the same area.

A upsurge in attacks by the Taliban since mid-summer -- the Islamic militia that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 -- has wreaked havoc in parts of Afghanistan in recent months. Numerous Afghan police and soldiers have been killed.


posted by Frodgie at 8:41 AM

 

BUSH TEAM VIEWS DEMOCRATIC FIELD AS 'UNUSUALLY WEAK'

President Bush's senior advisers describe the Democratic field as unusually weak heading in to the coming election year, Monday's NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in a Page One splash.

"Each of them has relative strengths and weaknesses, but happily for us, in each case the relative weaknesses outweigh the relative strengths," Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, tells the TIMES.

"They're all Howard Dean now. They have adopted harsh, bitter, personal attacks as their approach. They are a party of protest and pessimism and offer no positive agenda of their own."

Team Bush has delayed the start of running any advertising until a single Democrat is selected.

MORE

"We expect it to be a hard-fought, close election in a country narrowly divided," Karl Rove tells the TIMES. "When a Democratic nominee is finally selected, our expectation is that it could be a close and hard-fought race."

Like the Democrats, the Bush campaign is convinced that the election of 2004 could once again turn on a relative handful of votes in key states.

posted by Frodgie at 9:30 AM

 

Personal spending up 0.8% in August, income up 0.2%

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers — flush from tax cuts that put extra cash in their wallets — ratcheted up their spending a strong 0.8% in August, the Commerce Department on Monday, putting some push into the economic recovery.
The advance in spending came on top of an even bigger 0.9% increase in July as larger paychecks and other incentives from a federal income tax cut began to take hold.

The August spending figure was in line with economists' expectations.

Meanwhile, disposable incomes, or what's left after taxes, advanced 0.9% in August, following a 1.5% jump in July.

The government attributed much of the increase in disposable incomes in both July and August to President Bush's tax cuts, which lowered federal tax withholdings, boosting take-home pay, and provided other incentives.

Excluding the tax impact, disposable incomes increased a more modest 0.3% in July and 0.2% in August.

The spending and income figures are not adjusted for price changes.

Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of economic activity in the United States. Because of that, consumer spending is a major factor in shaping the economy's recovery.

Thus far, consumers are keeping their pocketbooks and wallets sufficiently open to keep cash registers humming and the economy's rebound chugging forward.

Many analysts believe the economy is growing at an annual rate in excess of 5% in the current quarter and should be able to maintain growth above 4% in the final three months of the year.

posted by Frodgie at 9:27 AM

 

Iran: Enriched Uranium Found at Second Site

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (search), said enriched uranium has been found at the Kalay-e Electric Co. (search), just west of Tehran.

Salehi, speaking on Tehran television, ruled out that the enriched uranium found at the site and another facility at Natanz was produced in Iran.

Foreign diplomats said last week that IAEA inspectors found minute quantities of weapons-grade uranium at the Kalay-e Electric Co. Earlier this year, U.N. inspectors found weapons-grade highly enriched uranium particles at a plant in Natanz that is supposed to produce only a lower grade for energy purposes.

Salehi said Iranian and IAEA officials were surprised that high percentages of enriched uranium had been found at both sites.

It was "unexpected ... because it needs a lot of centrifuges to work for a long time to enrich uranium," he told the TV station.


posted by Frodgie at 9:26 AM

 

Iraqis, U.S. Launch Largest-Ever Joint Military Operation

Also Monday, residents reported scattered, heavy gunfire north of Khaldiyah, a town west of Baghdad in the so-called "Sunni Triangle."

The fighting outside Khaldiyah reportedly began in mid-morning and continued into the early afternoon after Iraqi insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at an American convoy, with U.S. M1A2 tanks firing 120-millimeter cannons as helicopters strafed farm houses with 50-millimeter machine gun fire.

During the raids in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, dozens of soldiers from the U.S. Army's 720th Military Police Battalion backed up over 200 American-trained Iraqi police.

The raids, along with others operations conducted in Sunni areas, netted 92 people and weapons that included Kalashnikov rifles, mortars, firing tubes, 155-mm artillery shells and rocket launchers.

Among those arrested were 12 men suspected of being behind recent attacks around Tikrit, said 4th Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Gordon Tate. Another U.S. commander credited the operation's success to the leadership of the Iraqis.

posted by Frodgie at 9:25 AM

 

The biggest mouth in Silicon Valley

Sitting in the movie seat right next to Arnold Schwarzenegger at the San Francisco premiere of Terminator 3 in June, Marc Benioff looks extremely pleased with himself.

The lights have dimmed, the movie is rolling, and Benioff has just pulled off another marketing coup for Salesforce.com. Most of the people in the audience are his personal guests. An hour earlier they were celebrating the launch of the latest version of his company's software, S3, at a pre-movie party across the street from the theater.

Schwarzenegger made an appearance with his crew of bodyguards, even though he is not endorsing the product. The premiere is actually a charity event for an afterschool program Schwarzenegger sponsors.

When Benioff was asked if he wanted to buy a few seats, he smelled a marketing windfall. (The new product is S3. The movie is T3. Get it?) He bought 500 seats. In return for a $150,000 donation, most of which he collected from business partners to help sponsor the event, Benioff has drawn to his launch a huge crowd of influential customers, Silicon Valley bigwigs, and several journalists. (He will later squeeze more good branding vibes from the moment by shamelessly slapping a photo of Schwarzenegger accepting the check onto Salesforce's Web site.)


posted by Frodgie at 9:23 AM

 

Bush officials defend Iraq intelligence

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bush administration officials used Sunday's talk shows to shrug off criticism that going to war with Iraq was based on outdated, "fragmentary" and "circumstantial" evidence, as was asserted in a letter to the CIA director from the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the administration relied on "an enrichment" of 5-year-old intelligence in its claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the administration changed its view of Iraq after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

"I believed then that [Iraqi President Saddam Hussein] had weapons of mass destruction," Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We didn't think it was significant.

"But a lot changed with 9/11," Powell said. "With 9/11, we saw what could happen with the nexus between nations that had weapons of mass destruction and terrorists who might be anxious to get those weapons of mass destruction."


posted by Frodgie at 9:21 AM