February 27, 2004
Truckloads of Armed Men Vow to Defend Haiti's Capital
In Port-au-Prince, Haitians set up more blazing barricades to protect President Jean Bertrand Aristide. (Reuters)
LYDIA POLGREEN, The New York Times, Reports::
ORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 27 — With a rising panic creeping across Haiti's capital, truckloads of armed men, many in ski masks, patrolled the city today, vowing to slaughter anyone who dared challenge the embattled presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Looters pillaged warehouses at the city's port, and at least four people were killed in violence sweeping through the city, triggered by rumors that rebel soldiers, who have taken several large cities, including Les Cayes, the nation' third-largest city, according to The Associated Press, would soon march into Port-au-Prince to remove Mr. Aristide by force.
Armed loyalists of the president and his party, Lavalas, vowed to stop the rebel advance, brandishing M-16 rifles and handguns at barricades of flaming tires.
The city's port was a mad scene of looting, with thousands of people streaming into a narrow entrance that had been pried open. Just outside the port gate lay the body a man killed earlier in the day — he lay dressed in a pink shirt and black pants, a stream of blood congealing next to his head.
A 7-year-old boy wgo gave his name as Poupe came running out of the port with all the booty he could carry — two bags of strawberry lollipops and an air filter for a car engine.
"I am going to sell them," he said, holding the bags of candy aloft. "Maybe I will eat some, too."
Residents of La Saline, a seaside slum next to the port, helped themselves to all manner of goods — boxes of Brazilian pastries, calculators, packages of sanitary napkins, and soiled mattresses.
"These people have no choice but to do this," said Tassy Frantzy, a 36-year-old telephone company worker, who lives in La Saline. He stood watching the frenzy but did not join in. "People hear false rumors and they panic — they think Aristide is running away. But he will never run away."
Elsewhere in the city, in the neighborhood Nauzon, Ronald Dacayet was drinking his morning coffee at his house at 6 a.m. when, he said, he heard gunshots just outside his gate. When he ran outside he saw two men lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from the brain. One man's hands were bound by plastic ties, and rivulets of blood streamed from their wounds. Both men had been shot execution-style in the head.
"Every day we hear gunshots," Mr. Dacayet said. "This is how we live now," he said, gesturing to the dead men splayed on the sidewalk. He said he had never seen the men before.
Other witnesses said the two men had been brought by Lavalas militants and executed here on suspicion of cooperating with the rebels. Rebel leaders have said that they have operatives awaiting orders in Port-au-Prince.
The mutilated body of another man killed could be seen today lying on a commercial thoroughfare downtown.
At a pier in Carrefour, on the edge of the city, officers deposited boatloads of people who had been picked up by United States Coast Guard cutters as they tried to flee the violence to the United States.
An inspector at the depot, Dupiton Jean-Francois, said that 537 people were being repatriated, a sharp increase from the 100 to 200 that usually arrive.
Osner Sainta boarded a boat with his wife and two children on Feb. 17 in their hometown of Miragoane and headed for Miami. But their vessel, which carried 102 people, was intercepted before they even got past the Haitian coast, near Mole Saint-Nicholas at the northern tip of the island.
Gripping two toothbrushes that were given to her by Coast Guard officials and cradling her one-year-old son, Jefferson, in her lap, Mr. Sainta's wife, Larose, spoke bitterly of their failed effort to escape as their country descended into chaos.
"We did not even get close," she said. "There are too many problems here. We have to go away. We have no money to eat. We paid for our children's school, but now the schools are closed. We have to go to America."
As the family sat on a low wall, wondering how they would scratch together bus fare back to Miragoane, Mr. Sainta vowed to try again to leave as soon as possible.
"We will be back on the next boat," he said.
Study Finds 10,600 Children Abused by U.S. Priests
Deborah Zabarenko, REUTERS, Reports:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 10,600 children said they were molested by priests since 1950 in an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least 4 percent of U.S. Roman Catholic priests, two studies reported on Friday.
The two studies, which were commissioned by U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002, said the abuse peaked with the ordination class of 1970, from which one in 10 priests was eventually accused of abuse.
The abuse of children was a national health problem, said Robert Bennett of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Review Board.
"It's always bad when a child gets abused but when the abuser wears a collar, it's worse," said Bennett, who described the scandals involving the Catholic church as a crisis of trust and faith.
The report revealed that 10,667 children were allegedly victimized by 4,392 priests from 1950 to 2002, but said the figures depend on self-reporting by American bishops and were probably an undercount.
The Archdiocese of Boston on Thursday released local figures from the reports, saying 7 percent of its priests were accused of abuse in the last 50 years.
A group of academics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York conducted one of the reports. It said 97 percent of the dioceses filled out its surveys.
The other report, on the causes and context of the crisis, was written by a team of prominent Catholic lawyers, judges, business people and bishop-appointed professionals on a national review board.
It used interviews with 85 bishops and cardinals, Vatican officials, experts and a handful of victims.
The 145-page report looked at the culture in Catholic seminaries, where priests are trained, and chanceries, or church office, that it said tolerated moral laxity and a gay subculture.
While the report made recommendations for reform, it did not say if church doctrine or rules needed to be changed.
"The problem facing the church was not caused by church doctrine, and the solution does not lie in questioning doctrine," said the review board's report.
Between 1950 and 2003, 162 priests were accused of molesting minors, the archdiocese of Boston said, citing the John Jay report. (Additional reporting by Sinead Carew)
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
Man Dies After Lying In Yard For Days Refusing Help
ORLANDO, Fla. -- An 83-year-old man was found lying dead in his yard next to his wife after he fell, became stranded and ordered his wife not to get help for three days despite heavy rainstorms, according to authorities.
Sheriff's deputies said Glen Schibley, 83, was working in his yard at 5459 Brosche Road in Orlando Monday when he fell and was unable to get up.
When his wife, Harriet, 79, found Glen on the ground, he instructed her not to get help and that he would take care of his situation, Local 6 News reported.
The man's wife left him in the yard but continued to care for him for three days by covering him up in a tarp during rainstorms and bringing food and water.
Sheriff's deputies said that while caring for her husband, Harriet also fell and was unable to get help.
The couple's son-in-law went to the house to check on the elderly couple and found them in the yard. Glen Schibley had passed away and Harriet was found injured. She was transported to Florida Hospital East, where she is expected to recover.
"They wanted to be left alone and we left them alone and maybe we shouldn't have left them alone," neighbor Sherman Brunell said.
No foul play is suspected in this incident.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
Copyright 2004 by Local6.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
China Rich-Poor Gap Is World's Worst
Richard Spencer, The Telegraph (UK) Report:
BEIJING -- After 50 years of Communism China now has the biggest divide between urban rich and rural poor in the world, according to the government's own researchers.
A report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, one of the Communist Party's leading research schools, compared the country gloomily with Zimbabwe.
It said the earnings of urban residents were now more than three times those of residents of rural areas. If non-cash factors were taken into account - such as the fact that only urban residents receive health care and social security benefits - the difference could be six times.
"When comparing with other countries, Zimbabwe's income disparity may be slightly higher than that for China if we only considered nominal income," the report concluded. "But if non-currency factors are taken into consideration, China's rural-urban income gap is the highest in the world."
The report, and its publication in state media, is the latest sign of the government's concern that the country's rapid economic reforms have left most of its population behind, and may even become a threat to social stability.
It is torn between the knowledge that only continuing the current rates of growth - more than nine per cent last year - can cure poverty, and the fact that they still rest on former leader Deng Xiaoping's dictum "Let some get rich first".
In line with this, the booming cities on and near China's coast have had preferential investment treatment, their populations protected from socially dangerous mass migration to the cities by a strict resident permit system.
The survey found almost half the wealth gap in China was accounted for by the urban-rural divide. But there was also a growing gap within urban areas, between the ordinary working class and the new middle and super-rich classes.
The top five and 10 per cent of earners in China accounted for 19.8 per cent and 31.9 per cent of the country's revenue in 2002, the report found.
According to Li Shi, the economist who wrote the report, a programme of tax reduction for rural areas could alone increase farmers' incomes by five per cent.
The government should also cover educational, health and social security costs in the countryside, he said. The government is already attempting this, though critics say that they are unlikely to succeed unless they dramatically reduce the number and powers of local officials.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
Superflu is being brewed in the lab
After the worldwide alarm triggered by 2003's SARS outbreak, it might seem reckless to set about creating a potentially far more devastating virus in the lab. But that is what is being attempted by some researchers, who argue that the dangers of doing nothing are even greater.
We already know that the H5N1 bird flu virus ravaging poultry farms in Asia can be lethal on the rare occasions when it infects people. Now a team is tinkering with its genes to see if it can turn into a strain capable of spreading from human to human. If they manage this, they will have created a virus that could kill tens of millions if it got out of the lab.
Many researchers say experiments like this are needed to answer crucial questions. Why can a few animal flu viruses infect humans What makes the viruses deadly And what changes, if any, would enable them to spread from person to person and cause pandemics that might prove far worse than that of 1918 Once we know this, they argue, we will be better prepared for whatever nature throws at us.
Others disagree. It is not clear how much we can learn from such work, they argue. And they point out that it is already possible to create a vaccine by other means. The work is simply too dangerous, they say.
"I'm getting bombarded from both sides," says Ronald Atlas, head of the Center for Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. "Some say that this sort of research is dangerous because of the risk of the virus escaping or being using in bioterrorism, and others that it's good science."
Rodents and monkeys
Some researchers refuse to discuss their plans. But Jacqueline Katz at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, told New Scientist her team is already tweaking the genes of the H5N1 bird flu virus that killed several people in Hong Kong in 1997, and those of the human flu virus H3N2.
She is testing the ability of the new viruses to spread by air and cause disease in ferrets, whose susceptibility to flu appears to be remarkably similar to ours.
Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus University in Rotterdam in the Netherlands plans to test altered viruses on rodents and macaque monkeys. Other groups are also considering similar experiments, he says.
If such work were to show that H5N1 could cause a human pandemic, everything that is happening in Asia would be even more alarming, Osterhaus argues. If, on the other hand, it failed to transform H5N1 into a highly contagious human virus, we could relax. "It becomes a veterinary health problem, not a public health problem. That would be an enormous relief."
Cell cultures
But Wendy Barclay of the University of Reading in the UK, who "thought long and hard" about trying to create a pandemic flu virus before abandoning the idea, disagrees. "If you get a negative, how can you be sure that you have tested every option" she says. Health authorities would still have to take the precaution of creating H5N1 vaccines.
Barclay concedes, however, that creating a virus that spreads in people might tell us how real the threat is. For instance, do you need one mutation for H5N1 to adapt to humans, or dozens
Osterhaus is more optimistic. "Within the next decade, the whole thing will be solved," he says. "We will know the rules." In other words, once experts understand what the genetic sequence of any flu virus means, they could predict which animals it can infect, how severe it will be, and how easily it will spread.
Yet any new viruses could only be tested in human cell cultures or in animals, not on people. None of these methods exactly reflects how flu behaves in humans. This has led some flu experts to argue that attempts to create a pandemic virus should be put on hold until there is agreement on the best way of testing it.
Mix flu genes
And there is an even more fundamental objection to such experiments: the processes used to create the viruses may be too artificial. Researchers who want to see if H5N1 can be pandemic can take two approaches.
One is to tinker with the genome of the bird flu virus to mimic mutations that might occur naturally. This can be done precisely using a technique called reverse genetics. The other approach is to mix bird flu genes with those of human flu viruses, either using reverse genetics or through random re-assortment in cells infected with both types.
Although re-assortment sounds more natural, there is a problem. "Re-assortments can be made very easily in the lab using cells or animals," says flu expert Graeme Laver, formerly at the Australian National University in Canberra. "But one of the big mysteries is that [human] viruses that appear by reassortment are extremely rare in nature. There is something else involved that we don't understand."
Then there is the question of safety. The worst-case scenario is that researchers might end up engineering extremely dangerous viruses that would never have evolved naturally.
Masks or hoods
In 2001, for instance, Australian researchers created a mousepox virus far more virulent than any wild strains. This scenario is unlikely, but not impossible, says virologist Earl Brown of the University of Ottawa, Canada. "You could create something that is right out of whack, but I'd be surprised."
For those reasons, several prominent flu researchers told New Scientist that the H5N1 experiments must be done at the highest level of containment: Biosafety Level 4, or BSL-4. But the CDC work is being done at BSL-3Ag, an intermediate level between BSL-3 and BSL-4. Workers wear half-suits with masks or hoods to prevent infection, for instance, rather than full-body suits as in BSL-4.
"US Department of Agriculture guidelines specify that work with highly pathogenic avian strains be done in BSL-3+ (also known as BSL-3Ag) laboratories," a CDC spokeswomen says.
One of the reasons is that the H5N1 virus is regarded as a non-contagious, treatable disease in humans. But this is not necessarily true of all of the genetically engineered strains that might be created. And drug supplies would quickly run out if an escaped virus triggered a major epidemic.
New variants
A recent report by the US National Academy of Sciences recommends a series of checks be put in place to control such research. It says a panel of leading scientists and security experts should be set up to regulate it.
"Some public representation is another option," says Atlas, who helped draw up the report. At the moment, however, such experiments can be carried out without any special consultation.
Methods like reverse genetics might also be used to create new variants of other diseases. "You can make some pretty unusual things new viruses that would never have existed in nature," says Barclay. "It's not just an issue for flu."
With additional reporting by Michael Le Page
Rachel Nowak, Melbourne
February 25, 2004
Mystery Virus Closes US Army Bases In Germany
A mysterious viral infection has forced military authorities in Germany to close 4 bases, ordering nearly 4000 personnel and their dependents to stay at home, authorities said on Fri 20 Feb 2004. The bases at Schwalmstadt, Schwarzenborn, Stadtallendorf, and Neustadt will be closed for 3 weeks while the premises are disinfected. "This is the worst single such infectious situation we've ever had," a Defence Ministry spokesman.
The viral epidemic began in Schwalmstadt in the central German state of Hessen, when 150 of the 800 personnel stationed there complained of inflamed and itching eyes. The Bundeswehr closed that base last week. Just 4 days later, the same symptoms cropped up at nearby Neustadt, where all 800 service personnel were told to go home until further notice.
With some 14 000 troops stationed in Hesse, German military authorities became alarmed as 2 more bases were ordered closed. "Something is being transmitted between these bases -- food, laundry, books -- something that people touch with their hands and then inadvertently transfer to their eyes," a spokesman said.
At the one base in the area that is still open, in Frankenberg, the base commander is confident the epidemic is waning. "We have had just a dozen reported cases of eye infection out of a base population of 1200," said Colonel Peter Richard, Frankenberg base commander. "We have launched hygiene drills and cleaning campaigns aimed at ensuring that this does not spread any further."
Bundeswehr medical officials note that infectious diseases are common at military bases due to the close confines of 1000 or more men and women living and working together. "This infection, however, is a definitely more stubborn than any we have seen in recent years," one military doctor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.aspsubchannel_id=26&story_id=4883
-- Matthew Bruns Biomedical Engineering Hartford Hospital Hartford CT US
[A similar report in the Saturday edition of the Allgemeine Zeitung (summarised by Matthew Bruns) indicated that, following an outbreak of infection affecting about 230 soldiers in 6 barracks in northern and southern Hessen, some 4700 members of the German Federal Armed Forces have have been withdrawn from service. Disinfection of the 6 barracks is estimated to require closure for a period of three weeks.
It is not clear whether the 2 incidents are connected, and the descriptions of the illnesses are not sufficient to suggest a diagnosis. Outbreaks of adenovirus infection are not uncommon in military establishments, and some types of adenovirus infection have been associated with conjunctivitis in the past. More specific information is awaited. - Mod.CP] .....................cp/pg/dk
Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.phpCat=&Board=emergingdiseases Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
A ProMed Mail Post
From Matthew Bruns
2-25-4
Angelina Jolie releases online journal on mission to Russian Federation
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie with displaced Chechens in Bella camp, Ingushetia. The camp has since been closed. © UNHCR/T.Makeeva
GENEVA, Jan 26 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency's Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie, has released a new online journal documenting her mission to the Russian Federation, where she met displaced Chechens as well as refugees in Moscow and North Ossetia.
During her four-day mission from August 21-24 last year, Jolie travelled to the republic of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus, meeting Ingush President Murat Zyazikov and displaced Chechens in Bella and Sputnik camps. Her journal shows both sides of the picture, reflecting the displaced people's fears about security in Chechnya alongside the authorities' view of the situation.
In North Ossetia, a republic bordering Georgia, the Goodwill Ambassador visited the Gizel collective centre in Vladikavkaz, where she spoke to elderly Georgian refugees, many of whom had lost loved ones and were living alone. At a housing project in Komsomolskoe, she was welcomed by a traditional dance and refugees grateful for their new homes.
In Moscow, Jolie was invited into the homes of African refugees, where she heard their problems ranging from xenophobic attacks to a lack of status. She also met an Afghan women's support group, as well as a group of African refugees who had set up a non-governmental organisation with help from UNHCR.
Jolie's journal recorded more than her experiences with displaced populations. It also reflected her concern for humanitarian workers working in the field – from a long list of aid workers attacked in the Caucasus region, to those killed when the UN headquarters in Baghdad was bombed just days before the start of her mission. The Goodwill Ambassador also mourned the deaths of UNHCR's friend and 2003 Nansen Refugee Award winner Annalena Tonelli in Somalia and aid worker Bettina Goislard in Afghanistan.
"I know that if thousands of people were dying every day in California, London or New York, it would be very different. But most of these people are in places like Africa, Chechnya, the Balkans, Central Asia and Colombia, and maybe the world is used to hearing about their deaths Is it old news Are they too many Or is it that they have nothing we feel to give to us in return Which is of course wrong because they have everything to offer," concluded the journal.
"At the end of the day, what should that matter, we are equal. They are families like us. And they need our help, our support. And in areas like Chechnya, they need us not to forget."
Read Angelina Jolie's Russia journal here:
http://www.unhcr.ch/news/jolierussia.pdf
February 24, 2004
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York, The (UK) Observer, Report:
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.
The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.
An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.
Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change.
Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.
A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch.
One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible.
Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change.
Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important document indeed.'
Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.
'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.
'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.
Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.
Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.'
Randall added that it was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,' he said.
'The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.'
So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign.
The fact that Marshall is behind its scathing findings will aid Kerry's cause. Marshall, 82, is a Pentagon legend who heads a secretive think-tank dedicated to weighing risks to national security called the Office of Net Assessment. Dubbed 'Yoda' by Pentagon insiders who respect his vast experience, he is credited with being behind the Department of Defence's push on ballistic-missile defence.
Symons, who left the EPA in protest at political interference, said that the suppression of the report was a further instance of the White House trying to bury evidence of climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this government should stop burying its head in the sand on this issue.'
Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received sceptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.
FBI Confiscates All CIT Hosting Servers
http://cithosting.com/news.htm
We regret to inform you that on Saturday February 14, 2004 at approximately 8:35 am EST, FOONET/CIT's data center in Columbus, Ohio temporarily ceased operations.
Here are the facts of what occurred:
The FBI executed a search warrant issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio regarding the IRC network that we host. According to the warrant, it appears that the Bureau is investigating whether someone hosted on our network hacked and attacked someone else.
After several hours of attempting to track down, inspect and audit the terabytes of data that we host, the FBI determined that it was more efficient (from their point of view) to remove all of our servers and transport them to the FBI local laboratories for inspection. This was completed at 7:00 pm EST same day.
The FBI has assured us that as soon as the data has been safely copied and inspected, the equipment will be promptly returned. Unfortunately, the FBI has not been able to tell us when they will be completed with their inspection.
We have been told by the Special Agent in charge of the investigation that If you need access to your data you are asked to please contact the Bureau via email to . Make sure to include in your email your name, mailing address, and telephone number with area code.
Since we wish to focus 100% of our efforts on restoring services, we would appreciate it very much if you do not attempt to contact us directly. Please rest assured that we are doing everything possible to restore service to you as quickly as possible.
To the many who have inquired, Paul and family are OK, although shaken by these events. They are at home and awaiting the blessed event of their new child's birth. We thank you for your good wishes and prayers.
Please check back here often. Through this site, we will keep you informed of ongoing developments as we know them.
Thanks again for your understanding.
Minnesota's Canadian drug Web site draws FDA warning
ST. PAUL (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has sent Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty a harsh warning, calling a state program to help Minnesotans buy low-priced prescription drugs from Canada "unsafe, unsound and ill-considered."
The letter sent Monday stopped short of ordering a shutdown of the month-old Minnesota RX Connect Web site, which directs people to state-approved Canadian pharmacies, but urged Pawlenty to "reconsider your action."
By endorsing foreign pharmacies and going "outside of our regulatory system," the letter said, "you ... shine a bright light on a path used not only by profiteers masquerading as pharmacists, but by outright criminals."
The site will remain online despite the FDA's complaints, state Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno said. He said nothing in the letter changed his opinion that the state is operating within the law.
"We feel very strongly that we're right, so we have to stand up for what we believe," he said.
An FDA associate commissioner who wrote the letter, Bill Hubbard, said the federal agency is not threatening legal action — yet.
But, he said, "We think this letter is very strongly worded and makes the point that what he (Pawlenty) is doing is unsafe. ... Obviously, it would be a good thing if he stopped."
What the FDA fails to recognize, Goodno said, is that Minnesotans already were purchasing discount drugs from questionable sources, both domestically and abroad, in their search for affordable medicine. "We decided to step in as a state and be a source of reliable information," he said.
Hubbard said that should the state persist in directing Minnesotans to foreign pharmacies, "this is a potential violation of the law." While FDA officials want to work with the state, he said, they cannot tolerate wholesale defiance of the law.
Pawlenty issued a statement late Monday calling the FDA's letter "good news" because it fell short of legal action to shut down the state's Web site.
"We appreciate FDA's critique of our effort but disagree with their conclusions," Pawlenty said.
Pawlenty was in Washington, where he was due to co-host a prescription drug summit Tuesday for other governors with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has expressed strong interest in linking his state's Web site to Minnesota's. He said the governors of North Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin had expressed a similar interest.
"The FDA has completely lost all perspective on this issue," said Peter Wyckoff, executive director of the Minnesota Senior Federation metro region. About 6,000 members buy Canadian drugs through the federation's Web site program, which has been in place for more than a year.
"I can't imagine the state will close its Web site unless it is ordered to," Wyckoff said. "If that happens, the FDA will be declaring war on efforts to control rising drug costs.
"They say they're concerned about safety, but the fact is I'm not aware of anybody getting sick from tainted or counterfeit Canadian drugs. The problems I'm aware of have all been with drugs purchased in the U.S., not Canada," he said.
The Minnesota RxConnect Online site is located at MinnesotaRxConnect.com.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
February 23, 2004
Sunken Vessel Causes Mississippi River Traffic Jam
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A weekend collision between two vessels caused a growing traffic jam on the Mississippi River in Louisiana on Monday where dozens of ships were blocked from getting in or out of one of the main U.S. shipping arteries, officials said.
The river could remain blocked for several days as rescuers sought five crew members missing from the 178-foot supply boat Lee III, which sank after colliding with the 534-foot container ship Zim Mexico III in fog on Saturday near where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said.
The accident forced the closure of the Southwest Pass, the only entrance into the river for deep draft ocean-going vessels, and had created a back up of at least 80 ships, Coast Guard spokesman Jeff Murphy said.
Among those waiting to get through were several passenger ships carrying thousands, he said.
Searches by boat and from the air had so far turned up only life preservers and a life boat at the site about 80 miles southeast of New Orleans, the Coast Guard said.
Only the bow of the submerged Lee III was visible, jutting from the fast-moving muddy water.
Searches by boat and from the air had so far turned up only life preservers and a life boat but commercials divers were on the scene to look inside the sunken vessel for the missing crew, Murphy said.
The Zim Mexico III, which reported minor damage and no injuries, is owned by B. Rickmers GMBH Cie and operated by Zim American Israeli Shipping Co.
The Lee III is owned by Ocean Runner Inc. in Galveston, Texas, the Coast Guard said.
Bergen (Norway) school bans 'sex-code' bracelets
Bergen kids shocked their elders by turning simple bracelets into a sex challenge. (PHOTO: TOR JARILD)
The colorful plastic bracelets are popular with youngsters in the Bergen area, and to the eye are nothing more than the latest fad. Now a principal will ban the trinkets after learning that students use them to color code demands for sex, newspaper Bergensavisen reports.
Principal Arne Bjoroey at Brattholmen School is sending a letter to parents asking them not to let their children wear the bracelets to school.
"We have had a lot of references to sex and sexual behavior that have no place in a grade school," Bjoroey told the newspaper.
The bracelets are very popular in elementary and junior high schools. The plastic rings are associated with different sexual acts according to their color, and are commonly known as f**k-bracelets.
Some students have felt pressured by the focus on sex and arguments and unrest have developed in classrooms.
"The students did not really let us in on the exact meaning of the various colors but we have understood enough to know that this is not just something innocent," Bjoroey said.
Bergensavisen had less trouble finding out more about the system. According to the newspaper, if someone rips off a bracelet then the wearer is obliged to give that person what the color represents.
Their interviews, with children in the sixth and seventh grades, produced the following code(s):
Black: Sex, coital or oral
Orange: Necking. Bare breasts
Yellow: Sex. French kissing
Blue: Oral sex
Red: Body contact
White: Friendship
Green: Give a flower
Pink: Give a hug
The shop Glitter carries the bracelets, which have been a hot item since before Christmas. Black bracelets were sold out.
Manager Linda Nygaard , was shocked to hear how the baubles were being used. She said parents had begun to call and ask if they were being sold as "f**k-bracelets", but they were just a fashion item.
February 20, 2004
Military Rot Spreads To Russia's Nuclear Forces
MOSCOW (AFP) - Moscow's latest bid to flaunt its military might backfired dramatically when three failed missile tests revealed that even Russia's final line of defense -- a fearsome nuclear arsenal -- was not immune from the rot eroding the post-Soviet military.
Russia this week staged its biggest war games in 20 years aimed primarily at demonstrating that its powerful nuclear force could penetrate a missile defense shield being built by the United States.
Their launch only a month before Vladimir Putin's expected re-election on March 14 were also due help the president's tough guy image that has played so well among voters traumatized by Russia's loss of international prestige.
But little went according to plan in the Arctic waters this week.
Putin went out to sea in a nuclear submarine Tuesday to witness two failed launches of missiles that could theoretically deliver a nuclear strike on the United States.
A third missile veered off course and self-destructed the next day. It was the first such accident in 36 tests.
"Our fictitious enemy won" the war games, the popular Gazeta.ru Internet site scoffed.
"The navy's defense shield of Russia blew up over the Barents Sea," the centrist Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily agreed. "The naval exercises ended in complete failure."
The disintegration of Russia's ground and air forces -- equipped by Soviet tanks that no longer work and with planes grounded because there is no cash to pay for fuel -- has been an open secret since the military got bogged down in the first 1994-96 Chechen war.
The navy's troubles came to prominence with the August 2000 Kursk nuclear submarine disaster. But Russia has in fact not been sending more than a few ships out to sea for years. It has only one functioning airplane carrier.
Meanwhile morale among soldiers has largely collasped. Recruits regularly complain of brutal hazing, or initiation ceremonies, and corrupt generals who force them out into the Siberian cold in threadbare outfits. Food is limited and teenagers try almost anything to avoid the draft.
But Russia's nuclear arsenal has always served as a defensive backbone that keeps politicians here referring to their country as a "great power."
That backbone appeared to develop an unpleasant crack this week.
"These mishaps tell us one clear thing: We have little money and a lot of weapons. And these weapons are growing old," said Ivan Safranchuk of the Center of Defense Information.
"This shows that these weapons are reaching the end of their lifetimes and should not be further used."
Maxim Pyadushkin of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies agreed that "what happened shattered all illusions that our nuclear and rocket forces are the most battle-ready element of our armed forces."
Russia's main problem is that it has been churning out only a handful of missiles a year while keeping in service rockets which were built as far back as the early 1970s.
Analysts urge the military to carry out an urgent re-think of their strategy.
But the official Krasnaya Zvezda defense ministry daily announced proudly that the missile that exploded Wednesday -- first constructed in 1979 -- would be "exploited for another 10 years, and possibly 20 or more, serving as our nuclear backbone."
And Russia's deputy chief of staff general reported Thursday that a new class of ballistic missiles would not be introduced until 2010.
"I wish that we had these rocket complexes yesterday -- but we fully understand the government's financial means," Yury Baluyevsky said.
Meanwhile analysts scorned the military's effort to cover up their embarrassment by initially denying and then giving conflicting accounts over the accidents.
The national state-controlled television stations refused to report on the test failures and instead focused on three other successful ground-based missile tests.
Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the navy was trying to confuse foreign intelligence services which were closely following the war games.
"But if the most modern ballistic missile available to our navy really did misfire, any serious foreign intelligence service will eventually find out about it," Felgenhauer wrote in Novaya Gazeta.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse
February 19, 2004
Chicago Police infiltration of protest groups upsets rights activists
FRANK MAIN, Sun-Times Crime Reporter, writes:
Chicago Police officers infiltrated five protest groups in 2002 and launched four other spying operations in 2003 -- actions that civil rights activists are calling outrageous.
The investigations have come in the wake of a court decision that expanded the department's intelligence-gathering powers.
In 2002, undercover officers were assigned to attend meetings, rallies and fund-raisers of the Chicago Direct Action Network, the American Friends Service Committee, The Autonomous Zone, Not in Our Name, and Anarchist Black Cross.
Police zeroed in on the groups because protesters were threatening to disrupt the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue -- a meeting of international business leaders held in Chicago in 2002 -- according to an internal police audit obtained by the Sun-Times. The department made video and audio recordings of the protests, the audit said.
The department would not describe what organizations were targeted in 2003.
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, criticized the police for targeting the American Friends Service Committee in 2002.
"We cannot imagine any circumstance that would justify the intrusive infiltration of such a peaceful group, and we hope that the city will open up all of the relevant files related to this matter to explain this disturbing action," Yohnka said.
Michael McConnell, regional director of the American Friends Service Committee, said he was outraged that police infiltrated the anti-war group, founded in 1917.
"What was the officer's participation and did it affect the group" McConnell asked. "This is a disturbing pattern throughout the country of infiltration of peace groups that are doing nothing more than fulfilling their rights of freedom of speech."
In Denver last year, he noted, the police agreed to investigate only people "reasonably suspected" of criminal activity after American Friends Service Committee members and others wound up in police spy files.
Chicago's new spying activity stems from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision in 2001 to modify the so-called Red Squad consent decree.
The federal decree, which dated to 1982, barred the city from gathering information on suspected terrorist and hate groups because it violated their First Amendment right to free speech.
In 2001, though, Chief Judge Richard A. Posner wrote that the decree "rendered the police helpless to do anything to protect the public." The court approved a modified decree that allows police to snoop on demonstrators and other groups.
"The department has demonstrated compliance with the consent decree on every level," said Sheri Mecklenburg, general counsel to police Supt. Phil Cline.
Under the modified decree, intelligence gathering must be documented. And internal and external audits are required to make sure the department is complying with the decree.
Chicago Mayor Daley on gay marriage: 'no problem'
FRAN SPIELMAN, Sun-Times City Hall Reporter , reports:
Mayor Daley said Wednesday he would have "no problem" with County Clerk David Orr issuing marriage licenses to gay couples -- and Orr said he's open to a San Francisco-style protest if a consensus can be built.
"They're your doctors, your lawyers, your journalists, your politicians," the mayor said. "They're someone's son or daughter. They're someone's mother or father. . . . I've seen people of the same sex adopt children, have families. [They're] great parents.
"Some people have a difference of opinion -- that only a man and a woman can get married. But in the long run, we have to understand what they're saying. They love each other just as much as anyone else.''
A devout Catholic, Daley scoffed at the suggestion that gay marriage would somehow undermine the institution of marriage between a man and a woman.
"Marriage has been undermined by divorce, so don't tell me about marriage. You're not going to lecture me about marriage. People should look at their own life and look in their own mirror. Marriage has been undermined for a number of years if you look at the facts and figures on it. Don't blame the gay and lesbian, transgender and transsexual community. Please don't blame them for it," he said.
Daley said he has no control over marriage licenses in Cook County. But if Orr wants to take that bold step, the mayor has no problem with it.
Orr said he was "game to looking at options" provided a consensus could be built.
"I'm fed up with people being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. We can't even pass a law that eliminates discrimination against gay couples. [But] whatever you do when it comes to challenging laws, you want it to be effective and not knee-jerk," Orr said.
The clerk noted the protest that has gay couples from around the nation lining up for hours outside San Francisco's City Hall was meticulously planned.
It wasn't just "the clerk waking up one day and deciding to marry someone," Orr said. It had the support of the entire "city apparatus" in San Francisco -- from the mayor, City Council and advocacy groups on down. That's the model that would have to be followed here, Orr said.
"Whether or not, here in Cook County, we should be considering a San Francisco or other kind of protest, that is what some of us are discussing. I'm quite interested in exploring that with key players in the city and county. I'm already discussing that with a number of advocacy and key groups. I would like to discuss it with the mayor," Orr said.
State law says same-sex marriage is contrary to public policy. It recognizes only a marriage between a man and a woman.
Daley and Orr are going farther than gay activists are willing to go on the issue of gay marriage.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), Chicago's first openly gay alderman, said his top legislative priority is to pass Senate Bill 101 prohibiting statewide discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing and employment.
"We're putting the cart before the horse. We have to get to that step first and then we move incrementally," Tunney said.
Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, applauded Daley for taking the lead on the explosive issue of gay marriage. "No one can accuse Mayor Daley of being some left-wing pinko. ... It means a lot. It sets a tone."
Last fall, the county board authorized Orr to issue certificates of domestic partnership that carry no legal rights. Garcia believes it's time for Orr to take it a step further and issue marriage license to gay couples. But he's not about to "initiate anything at this point" with a formal protest.
@ Symbol Added to Morse Code
Morse code is entering the 21st century -- or at least the late 20th.
The 160-year-old communication system now has a new character to denote the "@" symbol used in e-mail addresses.
In December, the International Telecommunications Union, which oversees the entire frequency spectrum, from amateur radio to satellites, voted to add the new character.
The new sign, which will be known as a "commat," consists of the signals for "A" (dot-dash) and "C" (dash-dot-dash-dot), with no space between them.
The new sign is the first in at least several decades, and possibly much longer. Among ITU officials and Morse code aficionados, no one could remember any other addition.
"It's a pretty big deal," said Paul Rinaldo, chief technical officer for the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio operators. "There certainly hasn't been any change since before World War II."
The change will allow ham radio operators to exchange e-mails more easily. That is because -- in an irony of the digital age -- they often use Morse to initiate conversations over the Internet.
"People trade their e-mail addresses a lot," said Nick Yocanovich, a Morse code enthusiast who lives in Arnold, Md.
Morse code uses two audible electrical signals -- short "dots" and slightly longer "dashes" -- to form letters, numbers and punctuation marks. Created in the 1830s by Samuel F.B. Morse, who invented the telegraph, the electronic signaling system spread across the world, and until the past few decades, it was used widely by the public, industry and government.
"It was the beginning of the Information Age," said Gary Fowlie, Chief of Media Relations and Public Information for the ITU, which has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
When Morse died in 1872, more than 650,000 miles of telegraph wire circled the globe. By the early 20th century, Morse messages were being sent wirelessly, via radio.
Perhaps the most famous Morse communication is the international distress signal S-O-S. It consists of three dots, three dashes, and three more dots.
But with the proliferation of digital communications technologies such as cell phones, satellites and the Internet, Morse code has lost its pre-eminent place in global communications. "There's really no reason to use it anymore," said Robert Colburn, research coordinator for the History Center of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Today it's largely the province of ham radio operators, including 700,000 in the United States. While not all of them communicate regularly in Morse, almost all are familiar with it.
Some ham operators wouldn't mind more changes to spice up the language. While Morse code has a period, a question mark, and even a semicolon, it offers no simple way to articulate excitement.
"I was hoping they'd add a character for the exclamation point," said Yocanovich, who is active in the International Morse Preservation Society. "It expresses an emotion that's difficult to get across any other way."
SGC founder, president Pierre Goral, KI7UA, Dies
The man who co-founded and headed radio manufacturer SGC Inc -- Pierre Goral, KI7UA (ex-N7VRJ), of Kirkland, Washington--died February 12. He was 67. Goral, who established SGC in 1971 with the late Don Stoner, W6TNS (the company originally was called Stoner-Goral Communications, later shortened to SGC), was "an internationally recognized designer, entrepreneur and leader in the field of RF engineering," the company said this week in announcing his death. "He led an adventurous life, working in the jungles of Brazil as a young engineer and traveling the world to represent his company," SGC said. "RF engineering was his passion, and he devoted himself and his company to producing only the very finest, professional HF SSB products." Outside of his professional life, SGC said, Goral was an artist, photographer, skier and snowboarder who "demonstrated an appreciation of life in everything he did." SGC is a manufacturer of both commercial and amateur gear. Condolences may be sent care of SGC Inc, 13737 SE 26 St, Bellevue, WA 98005 or via e-mail to . (via ARRL.org)
San Francisco Allows Gay Marriages
Rona Marech, Chronicle Staff Writer, Reports:
The story of Mayor Gavin Newsom's bold dictum to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the thousands who have descended on San Francisco City Hall has captivated people around the country -- and advocates on both sides of the issue say the media attention has galvanized their forces.
In Dallas, news stories about same-sex marriages in San Francisco are being broadcast on television at least once every news cycle. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found time and space for the marriage hoopla in San Francisco -- running numerous stories and photographs of couples lining up for marriage licenses and exuberantly leaving City Hall as newlyweds. Editorial writers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to the Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal (both supporting same-sex marriage) have penned various opinions on the subject.
San Francisco is in the news, big time.
"I can certainly say that all around the country, people are watching," said Evan Wolfson, director of Freedom to Marry. "We have the deeply moving images of thousands of couples lining up overnight, some in the rain -- some with kids and parents -- because of their deep hunger to marry. There's no question it's touching a chord."
But Robert Knight, director of the conservative Culture and Family Institute in Washington, D.C., said, "Some people have seen it over and over and are becoming jaded, which is a goal of the activists. So people don't think it's any big deal. But others are outraged and see it as anarchy and the breakdown of civilization itself."
"People who know marriage is between man and woman will be turned off by the image. They will take a stronger stand to defend marriage," said Diane Gramley, president of American Family Association of Pennsylvania.
Marriage equality advocates from Georgia to North Carolina to New York --
who have been following the blow-by-blow action in San Francisco in the local and national media -- had a different take.
"People are realizing the earth didn't fall off its axis. Heterosexual marriages are not suddenly crumbling because of gay people getting married," said Cindy Abel, who runs an Atlanta public relations firm focusing on gay and lesbian issues.
All too often, the news cameras only come out at gay pride celebrations when people are whooping it up in costume. The attention to committed couples in San Francisco is helping to show the diversity in the gay community, she said.
While the events in the Massachusetts Legislature have shined welcome light on the issue of same-sex marriage, the saga in San Francisco has succeeded in adding a deeply human element to the debate, said Cathy Renna, news media director at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, a media advocacy group.
Renna -- who had been instrumental in getting footage of San Francisco's first same-sex marriage between Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon on "Good Morning America" -- cried when she watched the program. "How amazing to know that so many Americans are seeing loving couples who have been together for 51 years, realize the dream of having the rights and protections that they deserve as a couple," she said.
Renna compared it to the evolution of her mother's attitude toward the commitment ceremony that she and her partner recently held. At first, her mother was lukewarm, but eventually, she was won over completely.
"I think some version of that happens when people who haven't thought about this issue in anything but an abstract sense see real couples telling their stories, and they see the images of them going to City Hall, exchanging marriage vows and getting that piece of paper."
The issue has naturally popped up in numerous opinion pages around the country.
"'What more proof do decent, law-abiding and moral citizens need that the homosexual-lesbian agenda is out of control" reader Tom Russell wrote to The Press-Enterprise in Riverside.
But while letters and opinion pieces have reflected a real divide around the country, many editorials have come out in favor of the nuptial activities at City Hall.
"... As symbolism it has struck a deep chord, dramatically illustrating the hunger of gay couples for official recognition, something that any compassionate society would attempt to accommodate," read the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette.
"The future has been on display in San Francisco over the past few days. That future is tolerant, respectful and supportive of the rights of all Americans to marry. And it's on the way, faster than even the most optimistic among us could have imagined," wrote The Capital Times & Wisconsin State Journal.
Even those who came out against Newsom's tactics mostly did so on technical and legal rather than philosophical grounds.
"It's easy to sympathize with the elected officials in San Francisco who have begun issuing marriage licenses to gay couples -- they believe in this issue passionately, and they're doing something they believe in," opined the Los Angeles Daily News. "But they're also breaking the law. And elected officials are sworn to uphold the law, even laws they disdain."
The Dallas Morning News agreed. "Whether it comes from the political left or right, this kind of thing must be discouraged," the Wednesday editorial read. "If state and local officials across the country began to assert the right, however speciously, to defy the law, we would have chaos."
E-mail Rona Marech at
UK Government Unit 'urges fat tax'
Plans for a tax on fatty foods such as cakes and biscuits are being considered by government advisers.
The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit is considering extending VAT on some food and having a national sports drive to fight obesity, according to the Times.
The newspaper claims a document urges a fatty food tax as a "signal to society" because the number of obese British people has risen sharply in 20 years.
A Downing Street spokesman said the government had no plans for such a tax.
He said: "It is no secret that the government is looking at the problem of obesity.
FOODS TARGETED
Dairy products: fresh butter, cheddar cheese, full fat milk
Fast food: Cheeseburger, takeaway pizza, potato wedges
Sweets: Milk chocolate bar, Danish pastry, butter toffee popcorn
Source: strategy unit paper according to the Times
"But no proposals of this kind have been put to the prime minister."
The spokesman said that there was agreement both in and out of government that it would not be a workable system.
However, he confirmed the story came from a minor discussion document by their strategy unit.
The Times says the strategy unit's paper, titled Personal Responsibility and Changing Behaviour, points out that NHS spending on obesity-related disease has risen.
"The main drivers - poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle - are largely outside the direct influence of the NHS," it says.
It suggests a number of policies such as a national sports drive along the lines of the successful Active Australia strategy, and lifestyle lessons in schools.
Tax 'life-saving'
A new tax or the extension of VAT is proposed for some dairy products, fast food and sweets.
"This would be a signal to producers as well as consumers and serve more broadly as a signal to society that nutritional content in food is important," says the document.
Last year doctors at the British Medical Association (BMA) debated a proposal to impose the full 17.5% VAT rate on a wider range of high-fat foods such as biscuits, cakes and processed meals.
The 17.5% rate is already charged on some foods including fizzy drinks, crisps and take-away burgers.
The British Medical Journal recently claimed a 'fat tax' could help prevent 1,000 premature deaths from heart disease every year in the UK.
Plans opposed
Martin Paterson, of the Food and Drink Federation, said a fat tax would hit lower income families who already spend a higher proportion of their income on food and drink.
He said: "Consumers will rightly feel patronised by "top-down" messages based on the idea that they can¿t think for themselves and need to be taxed into weight-loss.
"The idea that any particular food is bad for you is out of date and simplistic. A balanced diet can include snacks and treats - moderation is the key."
Tim Yeo, Shadow Shadow Health and Education Secretary, said: "The government¿s approach to tackle the problems of obesity, like their approach to all public health issues, has been haphazard and has lacked coherence.
"The Department of Health has announced a consultation paper on public health, the Treasury has commissioned Derek Wanless to look into matters, including public health, whilst Number 10's Strategy Unit have been working on yet another tax - the fat tax."
Published: 2004/02/19 08:11:03 GMT
© BBC MMIV
February 08, 2004
WAMEGO (KANSAS) LSD LABORATORY
On November 25, 2003, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas announced that two men had been sentenced to prison after being convicted for conspiring to operate the largest complete LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) laboratory ever seized by the DEA. One man was sentenced to life and the other was sentenced to 30 years, both without the possibility of parole. In March 2003, a federal jury found the two California residents guilty of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute LSD and possession with the intent to distribute LSD. During the 11-week trial, prosecutors entered evidence showing that in October 2000 law enforcement authorities received information regarding an LSD laboratory located in a decommissioned missile silo in Wamego, Kansas. DEA agents obtained and executed a search warrant for the silo and discovered a nonoperational LSD laboratory. The agents also discovered 41.3 kilograms of LSD, 23.6 kilograms of iso-LSD (a by-product of LSD production), 97.5 kilograms of lysergic acid (a chemical used in LSD production), and 19 kilograms of ergocristine (an LSD precursor).
Authorities guarded the evidence found at the silo and maintained surveillance on the site until early November 2000 when the defendants returned to move the laboratory to another location. The Kansas Highway Patrol stopped the men as they left the site; one defendant drove a rental truck containing the laboratory components, and the other drove an automobile. The defendant in the rental truck was arrested, and the other defendant fled on foot. He was apprehended and arrested the following day at a farm in Wamego. During a subsequent investigation, agents learned that although chemicals needed to produce LSD had been found in the missile silo, the seized LSD had actually been produced at another site.
NDIC Comment: The defendants in this case were responsible for the production of a significant amount of LSD that was widely distributed over several years. Investigators believe that the defendants previously were involved with two other complete LSD laboratories that DEA seized in 1996 (Oregon) and 1998 (California). Investigators also believe that between 1997 and 2000 the defendants used the equipment seized in October 2000 to operate LSD laboratories in Aspen (CO), Santa Fe (NM), and Carneiro (KS) before moving it to the missile silo in Wamego during July 2000. While authorities believe that no LSD was produced at the Wamego location, they estimate that the defendants used the laboratory equipment to produce approximately 10 million dosage units (2.2 pounds) of LSD every 5 weeks while at the Santa Fe location and comparable amounts while at the Carneiro location. The men sold the LSD to distributors in San Francisco and California. Additionally, investigators believe that some of the LSD was shipped overseas to the Netherlands via couriers on commercial airlines.
[From the NDIC Narcotics Digest Weekly 2003;2(52):3 Unclassified, Reprinted with Permission.] via MICROGRAM BULLETIN, VOL. XXXVII, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2004 Page 33
February 02, 2004
Virus Shuts Down SCO Web Site
SCO Group (SCOX:Nasdaq - commentary - research) was forced to set up a new temporary Web site after the so-called "Mydoom" computer virus morphed into a massive denial-of-service attack on the software company.
SCO was directing customers and vendors to the new site and offering a $250,000 reward for information on the hack, on top of a separate $250,000 reward offered by Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq - commentary - research).
"We expect hundreds of thousands of attacks on www.sco.com because of these viruses," SCO said in a release. "Starting on Feb. 1 and running through Feb. 12, SCO has developed layers of contingency plans to communicate with our valued customers, resellers, developers, partners and shareholders."
SCO has been the target of much Internet sabotage, having earned the wrath of hackers because of its legal efforts to take control of the Linux operating system. SCO owns the Unix code and claims that gives it a royalty right to Linux, an open-source operating system that was popularized in the mid-1990s as a free alternative to Micosoft Windows.
SCO's shares were recently up 13 cents, or about 1%, to $14.50.
The SuperBowl ad you didn't get to see
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, writes:
MoveOn.org organized the BushIn30Seconds campaign to raise the money to air a 30-second spot during the SuperBowl detailing the problems with the Bush administration. The spots were produced by MoveOn fans, released under a Creative Commons license, and juried by a distinguished panel.
Only one snag: CBS wouldn't run the winning ad. They claimed that it would be too topical for them (though an ad equating drugs with terrorism and a Janet Jackson's nipple were both peachy keen). So much for open political discourse in America.
Here's the SuperBowl ad you didn't see. It's licensed under a Creative Commons license, so you can make copies, you can share it with your friends, you can put it on your hard-drive and show it to your kids when they ask you what happened to America.
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/
The Farewell Dossier
WILLIAM SAFIRE, The New York Times, writes:
Intelligence shortcomings, as we see, have a thousand fathers; secret intelligence triumphs are orphans. Here is the unremarked story of "the Farewell dossier": how a C.I.A. campaign of computer sabotage resulting in a huge explosion in Siberia — all engineered by a mild-mannered economist named Gus Weiss — helped us win the cold war.
Weiss worked down the hall from me in the Nixon administration. In early 1974, he wrote a report on Soviet advances in technology through purchasing and copying that led the beleaguered president — détente notwithstanding — to place restrictions on the export of computers and software to the U.S.S.R.
Seven years later, we learned how the K.G.B. responded. I was writing a series of hard-line columns denouncing the financial backing being given Moscow by Germany and Britain for a major natural gas pipeline from Siberia to Europe. That project would give control of European energy supplies to the Communists, as well as generate $8 billion a year to support Soviet computer and satellite research.
President François Mitterrand of France also opposed the gas pipeline. He took President Reagan aside at a conference in Ottawa on July 19, 1981, to reveal that France had recruited a key K.G.B. officer in Moscow Center.
Col. Vladimir Vetrov provided what French intelligence called the Farewell dossier. It contained documents from the K.G.B. Technology Directorate showing how the Soviets were systematically stealing — or secretly buying through third parties — the radar, machine tools and semiconductors to keep the Russians nearly competitive with U.S. military-industrial strength through the 70's. In effect, the U.S. was in an arms race with itself.
Reagan passed this on to William J. Casey, his director of central intelligence, now remembered only for the Iran-contra fiasco. Casey called in Weiss, then working with Thomas C. Reed on the staff of the National Security Council. After studying the list of hundreds of Soviet agents and purchasers (including one cosmonaut) assigned to this penetration in the U.S. and Japan, Weiss counseled against deportation.
Instead, according to Reed — a former Air Force secretary whose fascinating cold war book, "At the Abyss," will be published by Random House next month — Weiss said: "Why not help the Soviets with their shopping Now that we know what they want, we can help them get it." The catch: computer chips would be designed to pass Soviet quality tests and then to fail in operation.
In our complex disinformation scheme, deliberately flawed designs for stealth technology and space defense sent Russian scientists down paths that wasted time and money.
The technology topping the Soviets' wish list was for computer control systems to automate the operation of the new trans-Siberian gas pipeline. When we turned down their overt purchase order, the K.G.B. sent a covert agent into a Canadian company to steal the software; tipped off by Farewell, we added what geeks call a "Trojan Horse" to the pirated product.
"The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire," writes Reed, "to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."
Our Norad monitors feared a nuclear detonation, but satellites that would have picked up its electromagnetic pulse were silent. That mystified many in the White House, but "Gus Weiss came down the hall to tell his fellow NSC staffers not to worry. It took him another twenty years to tell me why."
Farewell stayed secret because the blast in June 1982, estimated at three kilotons, took place in the Siberian wilderness, with no casualties known. Nor was the red-faced K.G.B. about to complain publicly about being tricked by bogus technology. But all the software it had stolen for years was suddenly suspect, which stopped or delayed the work of thousands of worried Russian technicians and scientists.
Vetrov was caught and executed in 1983. A year later, Bill Casey ordered the K.G.B. collection network rolled up, closing the Farewell dossier. Gus Weiss died from a fall a few months ago. Now is a time to remember that sometimes our spooks get it right in a big way.
