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After several months of prolonged negotiations, the 15 members of the UN Security Council collectively passed a resolution which limits Iran’s trade in material and technology that it could use to create a nuclear weapon. UN Resolution 1737 prohibits the sale of any materials to Iran that could be used in their "enrichment related, reprocessing or heavy water related activities". It also imposes restrictions on the movements of twenty-two people or entities involved in the nuclear program. The resolution froze the assets of 10 Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs. This is arguably the first time in...

WASHINGTON — An accident that occurred as a decades-old nuclear warhead was being dismantled at the government's Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, could have caused the device to detonate, a nonprofit organization charged Thursday. The Project on Government Oversight said the "near miss" event, which led the Energy Department to fine the plant's operator $110,000, was due partly to requirements that technicians at the plant work up to 72 hours per week. The Pantex plant, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, is the country's only factory for assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons. The organization said it was told by unidentified...

An 80-year-old New York cemetery worker has been charged with using a rake as an offensive weapon after allegedly beating a man who caught him urinating on a relative's grave, prosecutors said. The full details of the alleged incident were unclear, but according to the New York Post, Itomor Khaimov, 28, was walking his dog in the cemetery when he spotted the 80-year-old relieving himself in a vase on his grandmother's grave. When Khaimov asked the man what he was doing, he replied: "I'm urinating. ... I'm an old man, I can't hold it," the report said. As Khaimov confronted...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Snoop Dogg was booked Monday on one felony count of possession of a deadly weapon filed after security officers at John Wayne International Airport found a collapsible baton in his carry-on luggage. ADVERTISEMENT The 35-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, turned himself over to authorities at the Orange County Jail on Monday morning. He was expected to post $150,000 bail, said Susan Schroeder of the district attorney's office. If convicted, he could be sentenced to three years in prison. The Sept. 27 incident occurred as Snoop Dogg prepared to take a flight to San...

CNBC Asia, South Korea Wire Services Reporting

"Global Trends 2015" Terrorism-Related Excerpts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following items are terrorism-related items from the National Intelligence Council's "Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts" report (December 2000). Transnational Terrorism (page 50) States with poor governance; ethnic, cultural, or religious tensions; weak economies; and porous borders will be prime breeding grounds for terrorism. In such states, domestic groups will challenge the entrenched government, and transnational networks seeking safehavens. At the same time, the trend away from state-supported political terrorism and toward more diverse, free-wheeling, transnational networks—enabled by information technology—will continue. Some of the states that actively sponsor...

Bandits Use Snakes in Robbery FORREST CITY, AR - This isn't the first time Leake's Kwik Shop in Forrest City, Arkansas has ever been robbed. But it was the first time robbers used baby pythons to rob the store clerks. "We screamed and ran. I threw the stool we were sitting on and ran to the back. And she yelled if you don't get those snakes out of here, she'll call the police," says Bethany Hatcher came face to face with the pythons. Hatcher says when she and another clerk ran to the back of the store the four robbers...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 18, 2006 -- As during the Cold War, the spread of freedom remains America’s most valuable tool in combating the nation’s enemies, a senior Defense Department official said here yesterday. A slab of the Berlin Wall now housed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Photo by Steven Donald Smith  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The power of freedom brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989, and it brought millions to the voting booth in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Christopher “Ryan” Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said during a...

We never expected this, beware! BTW, I've emailed my resume to Reuters, counting on getting a job!

Tehran & Damascus Move to Lebanon Lebanon-born Walid Phares is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Author of the recent book Future Jihad, he was also one of the architects of 2004’s United Nations resolution 1559, which called for the disarming of Hezbollah. NRO editor Kathryn Lopez recently talked to Phares about what’s going on in the Mideast, what happened to the Cedar Revolution, and this war we’re all in. Kathryn Jean Lopez: What is “Future Jihad”? Are we seeing it in the Mideast now? Walid Phares: “Future Jihad,” which has already begun, refers to...

Iran threatens to use 'oil weapon' in nuclear standoff · Energy crisis would leave people 'shivering in cold'· UN deadline looms for Tehran to accept deal Simon Tisdall in Tehran Monday August 7, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Iran warned Britain and the US yesterday that the international community could face a new oil crisis if the United Nations security council imposes sanctions on Tehran over its alleged attempt to acquire a nuclear weapons-making capability. Speaking in Tehran, Ali Larijani, the country's chief nuclear negotiator and head of the supreme national security council, said Iran would be reluctant to cut its...

Japan's latest weapon against terror. . . a fish By Colin Joyce in Tokyo (Filed: 25/07/2006) Japan is to use tiny fish in the battle against terrorism. Ricefish, measuring less than two inches and commonly kept as pets, react rapidly to contaminated water. The fish, which is pale orange, pushes its face close to the surface when it experiences breathing difficulties or simply dies in the manner of canaries in gas-filled mines. Whereas sophisticated and expensive filters may take up to 15 hours to detect a problem, ricefish typically react to contamination within a couple of hours. So far, they...

Senator Lindsey Graham often plays the contrarian, the conservative Republican willing to poke a stick in the eye of the White House. Mr. Graham advocates using the existing court-martial system as the basis for trying suspects, a position that has drawn fire from many other Republicans. Last year, against the wishes of the Bush administration, he was one of the key forces in helping pass a ban on torture. While some other Republicans argue that terrorists do not deserve legal or human rights, Mr. Graham has insisted that only a system grounded in the fundamental rights of the military code...

Poor Ambassador Kariyawasam For four years, CF's laughed (good naturedly) at "well-meaning dunderheads" from the various groups that work ceaselessly to make certain that various lower life forms are elevated to the top of the heap on planet earth. I've also laughed (nervously) at people who continue to elect various crooks, felons and generally unemployable politicians to perpetual terms in office. It's not always been easy to laugh at the politicians' shenanigans, but the American electorate has repeatedly proven one thing: we only get as good a public servant as we elect. They don't "rise to the position" after we...

The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution by David Kennedy Houck First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law? Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1]...

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday that Iran has "weeks not months" to respond to a U.S.-backed offer aimed at containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and said Tehran needs to suspend uranium enrichment. Bush said if Iran does not suspend enrichment, "there must be a consequence" and that it would be action taken in the U.N. Security Council. "We have given the Iranians a limited period of time, weeks not months," to respond to an offer for an incentives package for Iran to ensure it does not pursue nuclear weapons, said Bush.

(CBS) NEW YORK Police have issued an internal memo warning officers to be on the lookout for a gun designed to look like a cell phone. The weapon has four .22 caliber bullets in it. They are fired from holes in the top.

Remember the Trebuchet, the original siege engine?It's back and ready to put your physics muscles to the test. Custome build your "Treb" to take on three seperate challenges: Distance, Accuracy and Power. GlobalSpec Treb Challenge

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2006 – A U.S. military commander met with an Afghan governor in northeastern Afghanistan April 23 to discuss coalition activities in the area, U.S. military officials said. Task Force Spartan Commander Army Col. John Nicholson met with Nangarhar province Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai at the governor's residence in Jalalabad, the province's capital to discuss topics ranging from border security and poppy eradication to regional reconstruction and economic transformation, officials said. Nicholson also had a meeting with civic leaders and mullahs April 22. The leaders shared the allies' commitment to ridding northeast Afghanistan of terrorism, officials said. "We'll...

AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar, April 18, 2006 – American forces are using an unconventional approach to fighting terrorism in the Horn of Africa, the senior enlisted adviser at U.S. Central Command said. "The weapon systems down there are well-drilling equipment and shovels, and building schools and hospitals, and training border patrols and counterterrorism forces," Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Curtis Brownhill said. "It's an elaborate civil affairs and security effort that is all about building capacity and confidence." Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa is a small group of servicemembers who work with governments and U.S. officials in the...