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BERLIN (AP) - Police and customs officials investigating suspected patent violations seized dozens of boxes of mobile phones, navigation devices and other gadgets from exhibitors in a technology fair, authorities said Thursday. All the exhibitors who were searched cooperated, except one who was briefly taken to a police station, police said. Of 51 exhibitors affected, 24 were from mainland China, three from Hong Kong and 12 from Taiwan. Another nine were German, and one each were from Poland, the Netherlands and Korea.

How fraud led to this property changing hands 3 times as son of owner sat dead inside The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at the house they won at a foreclosure auction. They took the plywood off the front door and went inside to make sure the utilities had been shut off. Then they called the police. Sitting upright in the corner of a bedroom off the kitchen was a human skeleton in a red tracksuit. Next to him lay a dead dog. Neighbors told police the corpse was...

After nearly a month of silence following accusations of steroid use, Roger Clemens and his legal team exploded into action. They filed a lawsuit late Sunday night, then staged an emotional press conference yesterday, airing a secretly taped conversation with Clemens' accuser, former trainer Brian McNamee, that they contend clears the seven-time Cy Young winner. In fact, little was provided in the way of hard evidence. McNamee did not admit wrongdoing on the tape. A surprisingly impassive Clemens did not ask him to. Clemens saved his anger for the press conference. After weeks of heavy scrutiny, that's where his frustration...

Will Sandy Burgler advise the Hillery campaign how to lie, cheat & steal...or did the Clintons teach him how to steal classified documents from the National Archive and lie about it so as to cheat the 911 Commission out of the truth about Bill Clinton's failure to take terrorism seriously? Or do the Clintons fear what Sandy Burgler might say during the campaign, so they are keeping him on a short leash?

When it comes to Abraham Lincoln, apparently there's no such thing as enough. After countless books about his boyhood, his presidency, the hunt for his killer and yes, even his feet, maybe it was time for a new book devoted to what happened to Lincoln's body after he was done using it. As its title implies, "Stealing Lincoln's Body" by Thomas J. Craughwell (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) is devoted to Lincoln after, as Craughwell writes in the first sentence, "the last tremor of life" left his body. Craughwell details a little-known plot to steal the 16th president's...

A WORKER at a UK boat-building firm has been caught trying to steal a luxury yacht one piece at a time. James Light, 35, stole hundreds of yacht parts worth £55,000 ($133,000) over a period of seven years, Bournemouth Crown Court heard yesterday. He stole the parts from his former employer, Sunseeker.

US military: Afghan leaders steal half of all aid By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:44pm GMT 27/01/2007 Corrupt police and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. In some cases, all the aid earmarked for an area has ended up in the wrong hands. Defence officials in the United States and Britain estimate that up to half of all aid in Afghanistan is failing to reach the right people. Nato forces in the south...

STOCKTON - Ruben, a roofer living in Stockton, knew using a Social Security number that didn't belong to him was against the law. He knew using it was a gamble that could get him deported to Mexico. And, if that happened, it could mean he might never be allowed to return. It was a risk he was willing to take two years ago, as he worked in the United States illegally under an alias. "Because they asked me for a Social Security number at work or they wouldn't pay me," said Ruben, speaking on the condition that his last name...

One bad apple...What if I told you that it would take only one person—one highly motivated, but only moderately skilled bad apple, with either authorized or unauthorized access to the right company's internal computer network—to steal a statewide election? You might think I was crazy, or alarmist, or just talking about something that's only a remote, highly theoretical possibility. You also probably would think I was being really over-the-top if I told you that, without sweeping and very costly changes to the American electoral process, this scenario is almost certain to play out at some point in the future in...

SHANGHAI - When executives at Shanghai Automotive Industry failed in their bid to buy the celebrated Rover brand name for a line of cars they are rolling out this month, they quickly switched to Plan B: Call the new autos Roewe, instead. Roewe, which Shanghai Automotive suggests should be pronounced ''roe-wee,'' is the latest in a series of Chinese brands that bear a striking resemblance to foreign trade names. In some cases, names are drawing ire from multinational companies. Branding is in its infancy in China. Few Chinese companies have experience developing international brands -- something that has become a...

SEPTEMBER 27--The mother of one of Japan's biggest pop stars was recently caught with more than $400,000 in suspected drug proceeds as she tried to board a plane from New York to Las Vegas, according to federal prosecutors now seeking forfeiture of the funds.

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is seeking damages totaling more than $1 billion as part of an arbitration claim against the Ecuadorean government for seizing its assets, a company spokesman said on Thursday. The U.S. oil producer has also terminated all local employees in Ecuador and is relocating its expatriate staff, the spokesman said.

Venezuela and Mexico are among the potential strategic partners for joint operations in the fields that used to be developed by oil corporation Oxy. The corporate agreement to drill oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon was made null and void, the Ecuadorian Government disclosed Tuesday. "There is the possibility of forming a strategic alliance with a state company, as set forth in the regulations," Ecuadorian Minister of Energy Iván Rodríguez said. Additionally, there is the possibility of "contracting directly a state company of a foreign country to reinforce technically Petroproducción. The subsidiary of state oil company Petroecuador will be responsible for...

States and the IRS are mining personal and business data to sniff out scofflaws The Texas comptroller's Office suspected for years that well-heeled Lone Star citizens were buying big-ticket private planes out of state to dodge sales taxes. But the tax collector couldn't prove it. Then the agency installed new computer technology that matched federal airplane registrations with state tax records. In just the past six months, Texas has collected $5 million in unpaid taxes from 43 scofflaws. As tax season nears its Apr. 15 peak, revenue agencies are reaching for a software tool kit that has long been popular...

Four New Orleans police officers have been cleared of allegations that they looted a Wal-Mart store after Hurricane Katrina, but each was suspended 10 days for not stopping civilians from ransacking the store, the Police Department said. The probe stemmed from an MSNBC report that showed the officers filling a shopping cart with shoes, clothes and other items. When a reporter asked the officers what they were doing, one responded, "Looking for looters" and turned her back. Assistant Police Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, said the officers seen on the video were recently cleared of looting...

...If there are serious criminal acts being covered up, then this election could prove to be unlike anything seen before in this country. Would a party guilty of high crimes against the people of Canada willingly go down to defeat running an honourable campaign? Would they restrict themselves to fighting a war of words and ideas when losing power is synonymous with having their crimes exposed, prosecuted and punished? I don’t think so. I expect that such a party would have no problem resorting to winning by any means possible, legal or not...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Oil companies, including one that employed an Iraq weapons supplier, paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein during the U.N. oil-for-food program, a U.N. report said on Thursday. Saddam Hussein's government took in $228.8 million (128.3 million pounds) from surcharges in connection with oil contracts, the report said. That was nearly 13 percent of the $1.8 billion in surcharges Iraq received from more than 2,200 foreign companies during the oil-for-food humanitarian program of 1996 to 2003, the report charged. Intricate webs of companies, individuals, and governments stretching from Europe to Asia...

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was accused of mismanagement, fraud and wasting money after last year's four hurricanes, has asked more than 7,600 Floridians to return $30.3 million in emergency hurricane aid. Most of the payments FEMA wants back are because insurance settlements were paid after the government aid was doled out. By law, FEMA cannot duplicate insurance coverage, spokesman Jim Homstad said. In a small number of cases, FEMA wants to recoup the money because of processing errors or duplicate approval of funds, Homstad said. The measure will affect residents in 60 counties,...

San Francisco, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The author of a new study discounting evidence of the pain unborn children feel during abortions formerly worked at a pro-abortion organization. Also, the school where the study was conducted, the University of California at San Francisco, has been cited as a bastion of activism in favor of abortion. The lead author of the study is Susan J. Lee, a UCSF medical student who once worked for NARAL, an abortion advocacy group that recently came under fire for falsely accusing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts of backing abortion-related violence. Meanwhile, another author, UCSF obstetrician-gynecologist Eleanor...

GLAD SHE HAD HER GUN by Elinor Dufy My gnawing guilt about owning a handgun faded as quickly as the determination on the face of the burglar as soon as he noticed the blue-steel Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver in my hand. The young man, armed with an ice pick, had forced his way in my apartment and was waiting for me-even though he had heard me come down the stairs and had had time to get out. When he saw the gun, the burglar became a sweet young boy pleading for forgiveness. After all, he was only a...

Of things said by Venezuelan Government officials and Fidel Castro today and my first two instictive answers to these statements: --Vice-President Rangel: “Venezuela is Latin America’s most stable country” 1) Allende and Pinochet used to say the same thing about Chile 2) Does he know Costa Rica is in Latin America? --Head of Corpovargas: “The Comptroller’s Office has revised and intervened (?) all of the finances of the Corporation without finding any corruption” 1) The Comptroller’s Office has not found any corruption in Venezuela in the last six years. 2) Somebody is not doing their job.

BISBEE - A demand letter sent by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano seeking reimbursement of $118 million state taxpayers have shelled out to incarcerate illegal immigrants and legal resident aliens was a good move, said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever. Although millions are due to the state, based on a federal law that requires the U.S. government to fully reimburse the cost of keeping immigrants in jail who are accused of committing crimes or convicted of felonies, county taxpayers are paying nearly two-thirds of the costs locally, Dever said. Napolitano sent her letter to new U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales earlier...

Guest columnist King County voters in good hands By Corky Mattingly Special to The Times I've been particularly troubled by one recurring comment regarding the gubernatorial recount in King County. It pertains to county Elections Director Dean Logan's professionalism and integrity. There also have been suggestions that Logan's decisions are based on partisan politics and are without justification or regard to Washington state law. As president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. All 39 counties conducted the recount process according to the rules currently in place, which are...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he signed an order to immediately expropriate the assets of Venepal, a bankrupt paper company that halted operations last month. Chavez met with former Venepal employees to sign the expropriation order. The workers vowed to rebuild the company with the help of the government and manufacture books and notebooks the government could use in public schools and other education-related social projects. Chavez, a self-described "revolutionary" and critic of unbridled capitalism, said Venepal's expropriation is a step in Venezuela's new economic self-development model. "We're at war against poverty and against misery in Venezuela," he...

I have been arranging my extensive CD collection which lead me to play some of those long forgotten CD. This afternoon it was Mendelssohn "Reformation" Symphony. This might not be the best symphony of this rather underrated composer. The 5th popularity has suffered from being a "heftier" work, more intellectual, less crafted and vital than the "Italian". As if trying to encompass the reformation movement in music were possible. Still, the last movement opening is one of the most stirring moments of the repertoire, and a powerful musical image of the liberation of the spirit, no matter what religious connotation...

These past days have been rich in demonstrations that the Venezuelan state is sinking fast into some type of tribal units ruled by weapons. Sunday's papers reflected the marvelous contradictions in which we live, making Gabriel Garcia Marquez an illuminated amateur. I wanted to start with the latest on the seizure of El Charcote, that X-thousand acres ranch in Cojedes part of a group of ranches owned by British interests. I use the X as a number since the true extent of the land owned, and by whom, has become the mystery du jour. And the source of quite a...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is adopting new steps in its global tsunami-relief campaign to guard against improprieties like those alleged in the oil-for-food program for Iraq, U.N. officials said Monday

Countries the world over jockey hard to attract foreign investment. They care about it enough to make it a national priority, to send spies against their competitors, to build infrastructure, and to change laws to make their investment climate attractive. Most know of the economy-developing potential of foreign capital. The United States itself was developed this way, largely on British capital which built its great railroads, mining ventures, universities and corporations. China is now the giant of this game opf attractring foreign investment, aptly offering favorable business conditions and great opportunities to businesses the world over. But it's not just...

Land interventions in Cojedes State will continue next Wednesday. In this way, the decree issued by Cojedes Governor Johnny Yánez Rangel with regard to 16 estates will be enforced. Following the effective intervention of El Charcote farm last Saturday, regional authorities plan to seize several properties of the Boulton family in Cojedes, such as Gavinero, Yaguara, San José and La Flecha. Rafael Alemán, the Cojedes State Secretary-General, said under this schedule of interventions, Paraima and Piñero -both properties of the Branger family- will be intervened next January 13th and 14th, respectively.

The Government of Cojedes state took over as proimised the British owned cattle ranch Hato El Charcote. The Goveror stil claims they are respecing private property, but "it is not absolute" whatever that means. You can read more about it here, here and here. The people at the bottom are not part of the intervention, they are the invaders of the ranch, who are protesting because the Government apparently is not going to give them the intervened land, but it will be handed over to 28 cooperatives of farmers.

I have mentioned Carlos Machado Allison in this blog before. He is retired from Universidad Central de Venezuela, was President of the Venezuelan National Fund for Agrarian Research .... He is just finishing a book called “Agriculture in Venezuela”. Today he is interviewed in page 3 of El Nacional ... here are some excerpts: “The agricultural states are the poorest of the country” On the state being the biggest landowner: “This is true; it has so much that it does not even know what it has. Some say it has 8 million hectares, other say 20 million. But there is...

Venezuelan government officials escorted by around 200 troops and police arrived at a cattle ranch run by a British-owned company today and to assess whether some lands may be turned over to poor farmers as part of an agrarian reform effort. Poor farmers handed over a proposal through which they could make use of the lands on El Charcote Ranch, owned by a subsidiary of British-owned beef producer Vestey Group Ltd. Representatives of El Charcote said they were negotiating the matter and handed over documents which they claimed show rightful ownership. Cojedes state governor Johnny Yanez Rangel, addressing supporters who...

Venezuelan authorities backed by troops are on Saturday expected to seize a 32,000-acre ranch owned by Lord Vestey, an English aristocrat and meat tycoon. The move, the first in what is likely to be a number of Zimbabwe-style expropriations of big estates, appears to signal a renewed radicalisation in the leftwing government of President Hugo Chávez. Lord Vestey, known as “Spam” to friends because his family's wealth comes from the meat trade, is one of Britain's richest men and a close friend of Prince Charles. With interests that have ranged from overseas cattle ranches to a chain of butchers' shops,...

To look at the soft-focus propaganda pictures of Venezuela's Castroite Chavez government, you'd think Venezuela's state oil company was not about producing oil, but rather rehabilitating life's down-and-outers. The Venezuela Information Office's Web site shows smiling, supposedly contented beneficiaries of the bountiful, beneficent state oil company, which is somehow turning singers into systems engineers, and you're supposed to feel good. But that's not what's going on for workers inside the huge Venezuelan state oil company. The remnants of the once-mighty PdVSA are battling the Chavez government in a contract dispute over three miserable dollars a day in wages. Inflation from...

The government of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez will expropriate its first farm, taking Venezuela straight down Zimbabwe road. The grab was announced this morning and will happen Saturday. The chavistas' first target is a British-owned cattle ranch. The move is a bold beginning for the chavista communists who will roll out both military and police forces for the seizure, beginning the first in a series. The communists' mendacious rationale is that a British company, Vestey Group, did not have proper title to 3000 hectares of its 13,000-hectare cattle ranch. So they are taking it all. But the owners of the...

January 5, 2005 | Recently Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez gave Aljazeera TV an interview in which he openly disclosed his plans to lead a global "offensive war" against U.S. "colonialism and imperialism." The interview was one of those prepared events in which the questions are carefully designed to invite the answers. Not journalism but impudent advertisement. The presenter, Mr. Faysal Al-Quaim, starts by telling Chávez that he is so popular in the Arab world that, if he ran in an Arab presidential election he would "win by more than 90% of the votes" and hastened to add: "I mean a...

The Governor of the State of Cojedes announced yesterday that on Saturday they will begin the “intervention” of the Hato El Charcote farm, owned by British company Vestey, under the decree issued by that Governor in mid-December. The concept of “intervention” does not exist in Venezuelan jurisprudence, so that it is unclear exactly what it means. According to the Governor: “The intervention will be performed with all of the machinery of the State to establish the first beachhead of the “Free land and Men Mission…With the aid of all of the Armed Forces and police forces and the authorities of...

A cattle ranch that Venezuela’s government has targeted for expropriation under a land reform programme. Agroflora, a Vestey Venezuelan subsidiary, said it can prove rightful ownership of the El Charcote ranch in western Venezuela. Under a Land Law enacted by President Hugo Chavez in 2001, the government can seize land if it deems property is not being used productively for agriculture or was obtained illegally. Eliezer Otaiza, director of the National Land Institute, said the ranch sits on land previously owned by the government and Vestey has failed to prove it legally acquired all the land.

"El Charcote," a cattle ranch owned by the British Vestey Group, is to be seized on Saturday "with state machinery, to settle a first group of men participating in the Mission Land and Mission Free Men," said Alexis Ortiz, solicitor general of rich farmland Cojedes State. After a meeting at the Executive Vice President's Office, he explained that the move is to be supported by "the National Armed Force and local police corps, as well as officials from Governor Johnny Yánez Rangel's Office."

Many thought there would at least be political calm after Chavez’ victory in the recall vote and the regional elections. No such luck, that is simply not the style. Chavez thrives on conflict, on pushing people to see how far he may go. When the Governor of Cojedes decreed the intervention of some farms in that state, many thought it was another footnote in the revolution, something even reasonable. I didn’t. That is simply not the style, Chavez was in China when this happened, but few of these Governors act alone or even have a mind of their own, they...

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see. In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid?...

NEW YORK - Bev Harris, the Blackbox lady, was apparently quoted in a number of venues during the day Monday as having written “I was tipped off by a person very high up in TV that the news has been locked down tight, and there will be no TV coverage of the real problems with voting on Nov. 2… My source said they’ve also been forbidden to talk about it even on their own time.” I didn’t get the memo. We were able to put together a reasonably solid 15 minutes or so on the voting irregularities in Florida and...

Does the U.S. Justice Dept. have the proper jurisdiction to investigate charges of vote fraud in federal elections on Indian reservations? This question has become increasingly important the last two federal elections in states like New Mexico, South Dakota, and Nevada. If the U.S. Justice Dept. has the proper jurisdiction, why are investigations of vote fraud on Indian reservations not happening? If the U.S. Justice Dept. doesn't have the proper jurisdiction: 1) Should votes be counted as valid if they were cast on an Indian reservation? (Are Indian reservations officially considered to be part of the U.S. territory? If not,...

RAPPER Eminem’s new album Encore has been leaked on to the internet. The Real Slim Shady star’s hotly-anticipated fourth album was stolen nearly two weeks before its release date. The theft has sparked panic at his record label Interscope who have brought forward the worldwide release date. An illegal website called RNS put the entire album on the net two days ago. Thousands of fans instantly downloaded it and could pass it on to countless others. It could lose the 32-year-old rapper MILLIONS of pounds in royalties from CD sales. Interscope bosses were locked in meetings all day yesterday. They...

I have been reading several comments where people have stated that they've already mailed their absentee ballots. I can understand that if you are out of your state, in a body cast etc. However, if you are voting absentee out of convenience, a desire to vote early or because, even though you are in-town now you will be out-of-town on election day, PLEASE DO NOT MAIL YOUR BALLOTS!!!!! With all the reports of voter fraud and missing absentee ballots, we can't afford to take any chances. Either hand-deliver your ballot to your polling station on election day (you won't have...

The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office pointed a finger at the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday for nearly 60,000 missing absentee ballots, but took the blame for having a phone system that was being overwhelmed by calls from frustrated voters. While the post office denied responsibility for the missing ballots, Broward County commissioners, anxious to void another failed election, offered to send county employees to help with the phones. Dozens of employees could begin assisting the elections office today to answer telephone calls and to process voters at the 14 early voting sites. "What we are seeing is unprecedented,...

Voters found on both N.C., S.C. rolls Miscount, fraud possible as election officials not cross-checking lists SCOTT DODD AND TED MELLNIK Staff Writers As many as 60,000 voters may be registered to cast ballots in both Carolinas -- and officials aren't checking. That's one of the flaws discovered by a Charlotte Observer/WCNC 6News investigation of voter registration records in both states that could lead to miscounting or even voter fraud. After the razor-tight 2000 election that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, both presidential campaigns are keeping a close watch for voting irregularities this year. The parties have...

DETROIT - A judge's order requiring some provisional ballots in Michigan to be counted even if they are cast in the wrong precinct was put on hold Sunday, the second time in as many days that a federal appeals court dealt a setback to Democrats who wanted to ease voting restrictions. A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) panel in Cincinnati issued a stay of a lower court ruling that had reversed Michigan's policy for counting provisional ballots, saying it will hear an appeal of the issue quickly. On Saturday, the same three-judge panel had rejected...

NEW YORK -- Hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is following the lead of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry by taking his get-out-the-vote campaign to the swing states. "If you are going to play the game, you need to play it all the way," Combs said in a telephone interview Saturday. "And if you talking about flexing your power, and you ain't flexing in the swing states, then you ain't flexing your power." Combs' Citizen Change initiative will launch a three-day get-out-the-vote drive starting Tuesday in Milwaukee and Detroit, followed by rallies in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Miami. Combs...