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The number of influenza cases remains elevated; the number of deaths reported remains below the epidemic threshold. All of two thousand one hundred twenty-six specimens tested by the WHO (World Health Organization) and NREVSS (National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System), were then sent to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) for reporting, tested positive.

This data is current upto 28 September 2009. http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_us/

Israel is up in arms over a declaration by a British government spokesman that the UK is funding political activity in Israel. World British spokesman Martin Day said in an interview in Dubai with Al-Arabiya television last week that the British government was "taking practical steps towards freezing settlement activities." "For instance," Day said, "we finance projects aimed at halting settlement activities. One of these projects seeks to build new Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and save Palestinian houses from demolition."

Barack Hussein Obama is no bambi, he learned dirty politics from the pros in Chicago's political underworld. Apparently, both Obama and Biden have ties to that famous lunatic, George Soros and his one-world view. As more and more information about Obama's own statements, his choices of activities and people with whom to associate himself after graduation from Harvard Law School, one aspect of him becomes abundantly clear...he is NO patriot of the United States of America. If he is not a patriot, then what is he...what is still unknown that is being kept hidden in his closet?The Chicago-type strong-arm tactics...

Learn something new every day entry: this image and accompanying article (click the source link above) told me about Nea Kameni, which is in the Santorini lagoon and which had volcanic activity in 1950. I never knew the name of the island and that it was recently active until yesterday. Click for full-size. Here's a view taken from Santorini. And this image is just to put everything into proper perspective.

The sun's surface has been fairly blank for the last couple of years, and that has some worried that it may be entering another Maunder minimum, the sun's 50-year abstinence from sunspots, which some scientists have linked to the Little Ice Age of the 17th century. Could a new sunspot drought plunge us into another decades-long cold spell? It's not very likely, says David Hathaway a solar physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The question came up after an international solar conference held last week at Montana State University, where scientists discussed the dearth of solar...

NEW ORLEANS -- Natural changes in ocean currents are to blame for increased Atlantic hurricane activity in recent years, not man-made global warming as many scientists believe, hurricane forecaster William Gray said on Friday. "I think the whole human-induced greenhouse gas thing is a red herring," Gray said in a speech at the National Hurricane Conference.

RAMADI, Iraq – This morning Iraqi Security Forces, with support from Coalition forces, began searching Al Anbar University in southwestern Ramadi, which is being used as a center for insurgent activity. Iraqi and Coalition forces have received sniper fire from the hospital on multiple occasions, and credible intelligence reports indicated the university is being used as an insurgent safe haven and command center. Iraqi and Coalition forces are securing the university to provide a safe and secure educational environment. Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division, with support from soldiers assigned to the U.S. Army 1st Brigade, 1st Armored...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 19, 2006 – A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter, providing nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to coalition ground forces, killed a member of an improvised explosive device cell and identified an IED emplacement yesterday near Baqubah, Iraq, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials reported today. The F-16 identified three possible IED emplacers and passed the information to ground forces. Ground unit personnel positively identified the terrorists and requested the F-16 engage the hostile forces. The F-16 strafed the terrorists, killing one and ending the engagement. Coalition aircraft, operationally controlled by U.S. Central Command Air Forces from...

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2006 – Coalition forces engaged several insurgents near an abandoned train station in southeastern Ramadi, Iraq, May 16 in response to repeated hostile activity. It was the seventh day since May 7 that coalition forces engaged insurgents in the area. Troops observed several insurgents moving a weapon from the train station to a vehicle nearby. Coalition forces engaged the insurgents with artillery, killing several insurgents and destroying the weapon. Troops saw one of the insurgents leave the area with the vehicle. Later in the day, troops observed several more insurgents with weapons taking positions on a rooftop...

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago after eight decades of inactivity, scientists said. The volcano registered 133 explosions of vapor and gas between Wednesday and Friday, Ecuador's Geophysics Institute reported. But the increased activity was not necessarily a sign of an imminent eruption, said Hugo Yepes, the institute's director. "It has been rumbling constantly in the last six years, always registering explosions, emitting ash," he told The Associated Press. "What's happening now is that since May 10, we have had times in...

Villagers north of Kirkuk, Iraq, have been eager to help Iraqi Army soldiers fight the insurgents who have been attempting to kidnap their neighbors. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Cassandra Groce   More Photos Iraqi Soldiers Gather Intel on Insurgent Activity Iraqi soldiers gather information to prevent kidnappings and insurgent activity. Spc. Cassandra Groce 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detach KIRKUK, Iraq, April 12, 2006 — Fourth Iraqi Army Division soldiers and U.S. Army soldiers from Delta Company have found challenges with insurgents traveling through their operating area and avoiding Iraqi Army checkpoints. Miles of farmland divide Kirkuk from the northeastern...

New archaeological discovery rewrites Hong Kong's history of human activity Archaeologists have discovered a new site of human activity in remote antiquity in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Zhang Shenshui, researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua here Wednesday that the important archaeological discovery not only rewrites the history when Hong Kong began having human activity, but also puts forward new topics of research for archaeologists. More than 6,000 artifacts have been unearthed at the site, which is located at the Wong Tei Tung of Sai Kung, covering 8,000 square meters. The site was a field for stone artifacts...

I have received two email today asking me to login into my paypal account and verify my info. Seeing as Pay-Pal has the worst customer support on the planet I decided to share this with everybody. This first emailer messed up and gave me his actual e-mail address, or at least its not his spoofed email. To: aft_lizard01@yahoo.com Subject: Your Account Access Has Been Compromised Message-ID: <1134799105.41926.qmail@paypal.com> From: "service@paypal.com"<service@paypal.com> Content-Type: text/html <br> <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;Dear PayPal Member,<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;Our systems detected your user ID being used in Europe.<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;At the moment we are trying to trace and resolve the provenience of...

PARIS - Saturn's planet-size moon Titan has dramatic weather, with freezing temperatures, carbon- and nitrogen-rich clouds and possibly lightning, scientists said Wednesday, describing a world that may have looked like Earth before life developed. The European Space Agency's probe landed on Titan in January, uncovering some mysteries of the methane-rich globe - the only moon in the solar system known to have a thick atmosphere. Scientists presented detailed results of months of study in the journal Nature and at a news conference in Paris. Titan has long intrigued researchers because it is surrounded by a thick blanket of nitrogen and...

VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. nuclear watchdog on Wednesday urged Iran not to resume uranium conversion until the agency can set up a system to monitor the activity, which can be used as part of a weapons program. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, responded by saying Tehran would push back the reopening of its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan until "early next week" to give the International Atomic Energy Agency time to install surveillance equipment inside the facility. Tehran had threatened to resume uranium conversion at the plant starting Wednesday sparking harsh criticism from the European Union, the United...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military is holding five U.S. citizens suspected of insurgent activities in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. They were captured separately and don't appear to have ties to one another, spokesman Bryan Whitman said. He declined to identify them, citing a Pentagon policy that prohibits identification of detainees. Three of those being detained are Iraqi-Americans; another is an Iranian-American; the fifth is a Jordanian-American, Whitman said. The three Iraqi-Americans were captured in April, May and June, officials said. The Iranian-American was captured May 17, one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of...

Six Minutes of Hard-Core Exercise Per Week May Be Enough   Contributed by Ron Gara|  06 June, 2005  23:31 GMT 'This type of training is very demanding and requires a high level of motivation. However less frequent, higher intensity exercise can indeed lead to improvements in health and fitness.' Fitness experts have suggested an alluring prospect for people who want to stay fit but can't afford to spend long hours in the gym: Just six minutes of intense exercise a week could be as effective as an hour of daily moderate activity. "Short bouts of very intense exercise improved muscle...

A memo leaked to Narco News by some brave soul within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers a revealing insight into the so-called war on terrorism. In short, the memo seems to show that for at least one federal law-enforcement agency, investigating terrorism is not unlike the childhood game of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” The memo, issued on March 28 by a high-ranking official with DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), essentially orders supervisors in the field to sanitize terrorism-related case files maintained in a major law-enforcement computer system called TECS. All told, TECS contains about 12,000 terrorism-related...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals on public employee pensions, health care for the poor and school funding will get scrutiny from lawmakers this week. The Republican governor's plan to replace public employee pensions with 401(k) plans will be taken up Tuesday by a Senate budget subcommittee. On Wednesday, the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee will consider the same general subject when it looks at the condition of California's public pension systems. Also on Wednesday, an Assembly budget subcommittee will travel to an elementary school in the Sacramento suburb of Fair Oaks to take testimony on...