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A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination. Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna...

Human Rights Watch's employment of a man who trades and collects Nazi memorabilia as its "senior military expert" is a "new low" for the organization that frequently criticizes Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's policy director Ron Dermer said Wednesday. Netanyahu's policy director,... "I thought that nothing could top a human rights organization trying to raise money in Saudi Arabia, but I was apparently wrong," said Dermer, referring to HRW's fundraising efforts in the kingdom earlier this year, using its reports against Israel as a sales pitch. "A war crimes investigator who is an avid collector and trader in Nazi memorabilia...

Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars has put out a call for help. It's important, so I'm doing what I can to help amplify his voice. Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America needs to find an expert witness for "a pending legal case." Here's what Larry sent Mike: Do you know of a reference to the Camp Perry matches where they have gunsmiths to handle malfunctions? Or any other such venue where they are used to shooters having guns that malfunction by firing a burst and then jamming? Time is of the essence on this. Mike asks us to...

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's nominee to fix Pentagon purchasing problems vowed Thursday to root out cost overruns in major arms programs, fearing the $150 billion arms-procurement budget may be on its way to becoming unaffordable. Ashton Carter, a physicist, international-security expert and Harvard University professor, told his Senate confirmation hearing he expected funding for big-ticket programs to be under "increasing pressure in the future." If confirmed as expected, Carter would become under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. He said he would go program by program to "see if there isn't more to that...

The abduction of a U.S. anti-kidnap expert in northern Mexico last month remains a mystery with no clues to the man's whereabouts and no ransom demanded by his captors, police said on Monday. Gunmen abducted Felix Batista,a Cuban-American credited with negotiating the release of hostages held by Colombian rebels in past years, in the relatively safe industrial city of Saltillo,Coahuila state,on Dec 10. "We have not had contact with Batista or those who took him," an official at the Coahuila attorney general's office said. Another official said last month the attorney general suspected drug gangs who wanted to show their...

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexican gunmen have kidnapped a U.S. security consultant who negotiated the release of dozens of kidnap victims in Latin America. Gunmen abducted Felix Batista outside a restaurant last Wednesday in the relatively safe northern industrial city of Saltillo in Coahuila state, Mexican authorities and his employer, security consultancy ASI Global, said on Monday. Batista, a Miami-based Cuban American credited with negotiating the release of victims abducted by Colombian rebels, was snatched after he stepped outside the restaurant, answering a call on his cellular phone, Mexican media said. The U.S. embassy in Mexico City said it was...

Studies show as many as 15 percent of children in wealthy nations are physically abused by guardians each year, but the alleged torture of a boy who stumbled into a Tracy fitness club battered, half-starved and in chains last week stands out for its cruelty, a leading child abuse expert says. Cases that severe are "not a very common thing." But they continuously pop up, said Carole Jenny, a pediatrics professor at Brown University's medical school. Underfunding and a lack of resources for child protective services is a huge problem, said Jenny, who called what authorities say happened to the...

January 31, 2008 -- An expert on domestic violence, who has appeared on several national TV shows, was busted for roughing up his wife, Florida officials said yesterday. Cops near Tampa responded to the home of Dean Tong, 51, after receiving a frantic call from his wife the night of Jan. 21, according to law-enforcement records. Tong was booked for alleged domestic violence and tampering with a witness. He was released on $1,000 bail.

Expert sceptical of sacred Roman cave By Silvia Aloisi in Rome November 24, 2007 A LEADING Italian archaeologist said that the grotto whose discovery was announced this week in Rome is not the sacred cave linked to the myth of the city's foundation by Romulus and Remus. The Culture Ministry and experts who presented the find said they were “reasonably certain” the cavern is the Lupercale - a sanctuary worshipped for centuries by Romans because, according to legend, a wolf nursed the twin brothers there. But Adriano La Regina, Rome's superintendent of archaeology from 1976 to 2004, said ancient descriptions...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Navy investigator testified Wednesday that a computer disk seized from the brother of a Chinese-born engineer accused of stealing U.S. defense technology secrets contained encrypted files. Nicholas Mikus, an investigative computer specialist for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said the files could only be unlocked with a specific "key," a chain of 113 letters that was stored on a floppy disk. Mikus was the latest witness called by the government in its case against Chi Mak, an engineer accused of passing sensitive military information to the Chinese government for more than 20 years. Mak, a...

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces have captured suspected terrorists and destroyed a car rigged with explosives in operations in Afghanistan over the past three days. A suspected al Qaeda facilitator and improvised-explosive-device expert was captured today, along with five other suspected terrorists, during an assault by Afghan and coalition forces on a compound near Jalalabad, in the Nangarahar province of Afghanistan. No shots were fired, and no civilians or forces were injured during the assault. The suspected terrorist was an alleged IED expert and logistics officer for the “Tora Bora Front,” which facilitates the movement...

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should have above-average activity, with three major hurricanes and a good chance at least one of them will make landfall, a top hurricane researcher said Friday. Colorado State forecaster William Gray predicted 14 named storms and a total of seven hurricanes next year. He and fellow researcher Philip Klotzbach said there is a 64 percent chance of one of the major hurricanes — with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater — coming ashore. The long-term average probability is 52 percent, they said. Still, they said fewer hurricanes are likely to...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2006 -- The irony stung worse than the scorpion. Army Capt. Stephen Garvin, an entomologist with the 981st Medical Detachment supporting 3rd Army/U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, was stung by a deadly scorpion. U.S. Army photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A soldier dedicated to studying dangerous wildlife recently got attacked by one of the aggressive fat-tailed scorpions he spent months warning other soldiers to avoid. Army Capt. Stephen Garvin, an entomologist with the 981st Medical Detachment supporting 3rd Army/U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, made a routine visit to a portable toilet at Camp Buehring...

Nutritional "Boost" Making Westerners Taller, Healthier, Expert Says Erica Lloyd for National Geographic News October 2, 2006 It's no secret that in the past few centuries people in Western nations have been getting taller and living longer. But now experts say that today's Westerners are the product of an accelerated spate of growth that is unique in human history. People in the developed world are taller and more robust than their great, great, great grandparents probably ever imagined. Robert Fogel, director of the Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago, notes that Westerners are about 50 percent larger...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2006 – Afghan and coalition forces captured a known makeshift bomb expert and terrorist cell leader today during an operation south of Asadabad, U.S. military officials reported. The terrorist was the leader of a cell that planned bomb attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in the Konar region. He was also responsible for placing bombs in various locations in the Pech Valley region. Intelligence indicated that the terrorist was planning to attack coalition and Afghan security forces in the immediate future, officials said. “This improvised explosive device builder posed an imminent threat to the safety of not...

GENEVA - Torture in Iraq may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the U.N. anti-torture chief said Thursday. Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, made the remarks as he was presenting a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay as well as to brief the U.N. Human Rights Council, the global body's top rights watchdog, on torture worldwide. Reports from Iraq indicate that torture "is totally out of hand," he said. "The situation is so bad...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Defense lawyers in a major South Florida terror case want to make sure jurors never hear from witness Evan Kohlmann. The proposed government expert on al-Qaida is simply no expert, lawyers say. He has no Ph.D., no faculty position and no real-life experience in the Middle East. Plus there's the age thing. Kohlmann, who has testified five times for the government already, is just 27. He's been called the "Doogie Howser" of terrorism. One critic cracked that prosecutors have been using Kohlmann "since he was a zygote." Kohlmann has fought off such attacks before. The Fort...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Legislatures around the country are passing state laws to get tough on illegal immigration, but legal experts say many of those laws will turn out to be unconstitutional. More than 550 bills relating to illegal immigration were introduced in statehouses this year, and at least 77 were enacted, according to a survey presented last week at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, NCSL analyst Ann Morse told lawmakers at the conference that a 1986 federal law forbids states from enacting stricter criminal or civil penalties for illegal immigration than those adopted by...

SOFIA, Bulgaria - An almost 7,000-year old stone tablet found in Bulgaria bears carvings that might turn out to be one of the world's oldest inscriptions, a prominent Bulgarian archaeologist said Thursday. "These signs are unique and apparently bear a meaning," Nikolai Ovcharov told a press conference. Ovcharov said he had received the tablet from a private collector who had unearthed it 20 years ago. The collector asked to remain anonymous, because he risked criminal prosecution for looting or criminal possession of antiquities. The tablet, about three inches, carries five distinct signs each made up of two elements, Ovcharov said....

HOUSTON, July 20, 2006 – A new program aims to help military students develop leadership skills, patriotism, commitment to selfless service, and intellectual and problem-solving capacity. The "Student 2 Student Initiative," under the auspices of the Frances Hesselbein Student Leadership Program, is a student-led, school-managed program designed to help students moving from one school to another focus on the positive aspects of their new experiences. The Military Child Education Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates on issues facing military families, sponsors the program. "The leadership program will develop our leaders of the future, who are our hope," Frances Hesselbein...

QUITO (AFP) - Tungurahua, a volcano in southern Ecuador, erupted for a fourth day, burying thousands of farms in ash and threatening to "boil over" and dump lava on a nearby town, officials said. Explosions were heard for days, said Geophysical Institute engineer Pablo Samaniego, who compared the volcanic activity to a "pot of milk waiting to boil over at any moment". Lava threatens to run downhill, toward Banos, with 15,000 residents, he said. "This has happened before and could affect Banos," he said. "The town will have to make its decisions" on whether to evacuate," he said. So far,...

INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. (Army News Service, May 18, 2006) - Soldiers can serve on the battlefield with confidence knowing the world’s best medics are there to help if they become injured. The best of the best of these Soldiers wear a badge that identifies them as the cream of the Army's medical crop - the Expert Field Medical Badge. Only 18 of 250 candidates earned the badge at the Army’s largest EFMB testing session, which took place May 12 at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa. The low number might seem alarming, but it is a testament to the badge's demanding criteria....

A computer expert has described his astonishment at seeing the BBC's 24-hour news channel interview supposed taxi driver Guy Goma in the mistaken belief it was him. Guy Kewney - a white, bearded technology expert - was astonished to see himself appear on screen as a black man with an apparent French accent. He was even more shocked to see himself unable to answer basic questions about the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer over the use of an apple symbol.

Expert: H5N1 Worst Flu Virus He's Ever Seen Thursday, May 04, 2006 SINGAPORE — A leading expert said Thursday the H5N1 virus is the worst flu virus he's ever encountered, and far too many gaps in planning and knowledge persist for the world to handle it in the event of a pandemic. The virus is a vicious killer in poultry, moving into the brain and destroying the respiratory tract, said Robert G. Webster, a virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. "I've worked with flu all my life, and this is the worst influenza virus that...

CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. - John Roth shined his flashlight on a black streak flowing through the cream-colored marble forming the walls of the Oregon Caves. The graphite line is graphic evidence of dramatic global warming that consumed so much oxygen that it nearly wiped out all life on the planet 247 million years ago, said the natural resources specialist for the Oregon Caves National Monument. "It was the biggest extinction by far of all time," he said. "Geologists and paleontologists all agree on that. ... The extinction that killed the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, that wasn't anything compared...

NEW YORK - An expert on ancient Egyptian texts is predicting that the "Gospel of Judas" — a manuscript from early Christian times that's nearing release amid widespread interest from scholars — will be a dud in terms of learning anything new about Judas. James M. Robinson, America's leading expert on such ancient religious texts from Egypt, predicts in a new book that the text won't offer any insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus. His reason: While it's old, it's not old enough. "Does it go back to Judas? No," Robinson told The Associated Press on Thursday. The text,...

One exciting thing about the free market is that you can't predict what the market will create. Big-government advocates tell you exactly what will happen when their plans work (as if they actually would work!), but we who trust the free market can only say that people will compete and good ideas will win. We do know that competition works. It works because it gives people the chance to be creative...

Guitarist Jeff Baxter is a founding member of Steely Dan and a member of the Doobie Brothers. The 56-year-old Baxter has eight platinum albums and two Grammy’s but he likes to call himself a hippie rock guitarist with top secret clearances. Now, believe-it-or-not, he is one of the top counter-terrorism experts in the United States.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2005 – A human rights specialist from Europe has accepted the U. S. offer to visit the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba, a senior Defense Department official said here today. Anne-Marie Lizin, a Belgian politician and a representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, will be able to tour the facility and ask questions of its command and staff, but she'll not be permitted to visit with detainees, DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters. "She'll have access similarly to what you guys have when you go down there and observe...

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against three Amman hotels, and police arrested 120 Jordanians and Iraqis in the hunt for anyone who might have aided them. If their involvement is confirmed, the husband and wife would be the first married couple yet known to take part in a suicide bombing, a top Israeli counterterrorism expert said. Thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman for a second straight day, condemning the attacks that killed 57 people, excluding the bombers, and denouncing al-Qaida in Iraq's leader,...

LONDON (Reuters) - Do you have memories of being abducted by aliens and whisked away in a spaceship?You wouldn't be alone. Several thousand people worldwide claim to have had such close encounters, researchers say. But in a new study, a psychology expert at London's Goldsmiths College says these experiences are proof of the frailty of the human memory, rather than evidence of life in other galaxies. "Maybe what we're dealing with here is false memories, and not that people are actually being abducted and taken aboard spaceships," says Professor Chris French, who surveyed 19 self-proclaimed alien abductees. Several of the...

Can anyone generate a large, good quality closeup of just Lee Harvey Oswald's face in this picture? I'm doing it to play a practical joke on a liberal friend of mine (too much of an inside joke to fully explain), and I've scoured the Internet for hours looking for a closeup of his expression in this picture. Don't know anything about Photoshop, but know that there are many wizards here. Thanks to any who respond.

GENEVA (AFP) - A UN human rights expert sharply criticised major African leaders, saying their failure to condemn President Robert Mugabe's housing demolition campaign in Zimbabwe was tantamount to a "cover-up." The UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, said Zimbabwe was heading towards a disaster if the government failed to change course on the forcible eviction of about 700,000 people from shantytowns. "The silence of major governments in Africa continues to be shocking," Kothari told journalists. "And of influential individuals like Nelson Mandela, I don't understand why they don't speak out," he added, referring to...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.N. human rights experts have begun an investigation into U.S. detention facilities for terrorist suspects and allegations that there are secret prisons, one of the project leaders said Wednesday. Manfred Nowak, the U.N.'s special expert on torture, said some undeclared holding areas could include U.S. Navy ships in international waters. He said there were "serious" allegations to that effect from Amnesty International and other non-governmental human rights groups. "I have heard these rumors and we have to follow them up," he told The Associated Press, urging Washington to cooperate with the investigation. Officials at the U.S....

NEW YORK (AP) - The FBI arrested a Florida doctor and a New York martial arts expert on federal terrorism charges, saying they conspired to treat and train terrorists, prosecutors announced Sunday. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. New York police spokesman Paul Browne said Shah was arrested early Friday. Florida authorities said Sabir was arrested Saturday. Both are American...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - With another 20 million Californians expected by 2050, a state water official said changing sea water into tap water must play a more significant role to make sure there's enough drinking water for the burgeoning population. "We're living on finite water resources. I don't know where we're going to get that. To me, desalination in all its forms is going to have to play a much larger role," Pete Silva, vice chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, told scientists Monday. Silva, speaking at the International Salinity Forum at the Riverside Convention Center, said the...

PARIS (AFP) - Human activities, notably the building of coastal resorts and the destruction of natural protection, contributed to the enormous loss of life from killer tidal waves that hit the shores of the Indian Ocean after an earthquake, an environmental expert said. Jeff McNeely, chief scientist of the Swiss-based World Conservation Union (IUCN), who lived for several years in Indonesia and Thailand, two of the countries hit by Sunday's disaster, said it was "nothing new for nature" in a geologically active region. "What has made this a disaster is that people have started to occupy part of the landscape...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

MILNET: Those In The Know Interview with Ryan Mauro This briefing asks questions of the first analyst we have interviewed, Ryan Mauro, Ryan is a knowledgeable geo-political analyst in the commercial field (www.WorldThreats.com) whose expertise was recognized quite early in life... How would you interpret apparent U.S. Intelligence Community failures in light of information on WMD in Iraq? Intelligence on Iraq, as well as most foreign countries, was flawed. I do not think anyone can look at the present situation and be completely satisfied. Recognizing that, I have been amazed at some of the analysis regarding the WMD. First off,...

(AP) - Arms hunter Charles Duelfer's report, in concluding Iraq might have resumed weapons-building "after sanctions were removed," left out the crucial fact that the U.N. Security Council had planned controls over Baghdad for years to come, U.N. officials say. The council, led by the United States, had decreed that inspections and disarmament of Iraq were to be followed by tough, open-ended monitoring. "It's been a little disturbing," said Demetrius Perricos, chief U.N. weapons inspector. "All the arguments say that when sanctions ended, Saddam Hussein would have had a free hand. By the council's own resolutions that wasn't so." In...

Turmeric may reduce leukaemia risk - expert September 09 2004 at 04:22PM London - Turmeric, a spice used extensively in Asia as a key ingredient of curry, may be protecting children against leukaemia, a scientist said on Thursday. Rates of the blood cancer have been rising steadily for the past 50 years but its incidence in Asia is much lower than in the West. Professor Moolky Nagabhushan, of the Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago, told a conference that factor could be due, at least partly, to turmeric. "Some of the known risk factors that contribute to the high incidence...

The Case of the Missing POWs: Interview with Dr. Joseph Douglass By: Ryan Mauro tdcanalyst@optonline.net Joseph Douglass Jr., PhD (Cornell University, 1962), has 35 years experience in national security matters as a researcher, author, and frequent speaker. He is a recognized authority on U.S. and Soviet nuclear strategy, chemical and biological warfare, Communist decision-making, and Soviet strategic intelligence operations. Over the past twenty years his work has focused on the international narcotics trafficking and the war on drugs, the leading role of Russian intelligence in international terrorism and organized crime, chemical and biological warfare agents for use in political and...

MADRID, Spain (AP) - The Spanish government deliberately ignored a mosque known for fundamentalist preachings and frequented by suspects in the Madrid train bombings because the facility was financed by Saudi Arabia, an academic expert testified Wednesday. Spanish authorities knew for years the city's largest mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center, adhered to the Wahabi fundamentalist movement sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Islam expert Jesus Nunez told a commission investigating the March 11 bombings. Authorities did nothing to monitor the mosque because Saudi Arabia provides Spain with oil, Nunez said. "Until now the West in general - and Spain as part of...

Egyptian bombs expert held over Madrid outrage By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels (Filed: 09/06/2004) An explosives expert said to be one of the masterminds behind the Madrid train bombings was arrested in Italy yesterday Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", was seized in Milan as he was planning more outrages, said Giuseppe Pisanu, the Italian interior minister.. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed: conversations At least 16 other suspected Islamic extremists were arrested in a co-ordinated series of raids in Italy, Belgium, France and Spain. The attacks in March in Madrid killed 191 people and wounded 1,900. Mr Pisanu...

Top Food and Drug Administration officials admitted yesterday that they barred the agency's top expert from testifying at a public hearing about his conclusion that antidepressants cause children to become suicidal because they viewed his findings as alarmist and premature. "It would have been entirely inappropriate to present as an F.D.A. conclusion an analysis of data that were not ripe," Dr. Robert Temple, the Food and Drug Administration's associate director of medical policy, said in an interview. "This is a very serious matter. If you get it wrong and over-discourage the use of these medicines, people could die." Dr. Temple...

Expert: Cleopatra Seduces Antony on Vase By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Cleopatra Seducing Antony? April 13, 2004 — The epic romance between Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman general Marc Antony was immortalized on a Roman vase that is now housed at the British Museum, according to an expert in classical art. Susan Walker, former deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum who is now the head of a similar department at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, believes the Portland Vase shows Cleopatra seducing Antony, while cupid and Anton, the son of Greek mythological hero Hercules,...

Expert Says Iraq Could Rewrite Archaeology Books Thu Mar 4,10:15 AM ET By Luke Baker BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq, torn apart by years of war and sanctions, remains so rich in hidden ancient wonders that a leading expert believes the world's archaeology books will have to be rewritten over the next decade. Reuters Photo As security improves to allow excavation, evidence may emerge that advanced societies existed in the area much earlier than previously thought, said Dr John Russell, professor of archaeology at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. "A decade of research in Iraq could rewrite the books...

Police expert claims Bigfoot 'proof' Much bigfoot evidence turns out to be fake A forensic expert in the US believes he has some of the strongest evidence yet that the Bigfoot, or sasquatch, creature exists. The creatures are real enough to those who say they have spotted them - but most scientists remain sceptical about their existence. Investigator Jimmy Chilcutt of the Conroe Police Department in Texas, who specialises in finger and footprints, has said he believes he is certain around six footprints found - claimed to have been made by Bigfoot - are genuine. He added that one 42...

TOKYO (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) said the death of an expert at the center of a dispute over Iraq (news - web sites)'s weapons programs was a "terrible tragedy", but added an independent inquiry must be allowed to determine the facts. The discovery of the body of David Kelly on Friday triggered perhaps the worst crisis in Blair's six years in power, drawing heavy criticism from the British press and overshadowing the start of his six-day tour of East Asia. Kelly, 59, a Ministry of Defence adviser on Iraqi biological weapons and former...

21:01 Security forces manage to apprehend IRA bomb expert in West Bank after large hunt by police and Shin Bet (Army Radio)