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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...

MANAMA, Bahrain, April 27, 2006 – Civilian leaders got an introduction here today to one of the least-recognized success stories in the Middle East: how the U.S. Coast Guard is helping keep Iraq's offshore oil terminals operating and training Iraq's new marine force to maintain port and waterway security in the region. Lukin Gilliland Jr., managing director of Aquila Capital Parters in San Antonio, uses a battering ram to get access to a mock shipboard compartment during a training drill in Manama, Bahrain, for participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Larry Chambers,...

RIDGEFIELD — Gabriel Galanski is disheartened that more students from Ridgefield High School aren't considering a career in the military.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2005 – America has a solid strategy for victory in Iraq and will see that strategy through, President Bush said today in Minneapolis. "We will defeat the terrorists in Iraq. We will not let al Qaeda get a stronghold in Iraq," Bush said. "We'll help this country develop a democracy, which will send a powerful signal to people in Damascus and Tehran." The U.S. strategy is two-fold, he explained. The United States and coalition are helping the Iraqis establish a democracy. At the same time, they're training Iraqis so they can take the right to the enemy...

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2005 – The United States, Great Britain and the United Nations remain steadfast in seeing democracy established in Iraq despite continued insurgent violence, Britain's senior defense official said here today. "The litmus test of leadership is not when things are easy or fashionable, but when times are difficult and we have to come through them towards the objective in the end," British Secretary of State for Defense John Reid told reporters at a Pentagon news briefing. Resolution 1546, adopted by the U.N. Security Council on June 8, 2004, demonstrates that the mission to establish a democratic Iraqi...

A Times Square movie theater laid an egg at a showing of "Chicken Little" last night. Adults and kids expecting to watch Disney's G-rated animated flick at the AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd St. were instead presented with a foreign film that opened with a young man committing suicide. "It's pandemonium," Joshua Gallo, 30, told the Daily News as he rushed out of the theater with his 5-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. "The kids are crying. The mothers are screaming for the managers to stop the film." Terrified children didn't know what to do as they watched a young...

South African farmers see barren future with evictions on horizon By Stephen Bevan in Ventersdorp, North West Province (Filed: 23/10/2005) He does not look like the leader of a resistance movement. Yet, as one of the first half-dozen white farmers in South Africa to be forced to sell up under its land reform programme, Pieter Jacobs is at the forefront of a battle likely to be as bitterly fought as that in neighbouring Zimbabwe. For eight years Mr Jacobs, 53, and six neighbouring landowners in the Ventersdorp district of North West Province, have been disputing the claims on their farms...

ABOARD THE USS MOUNT WHITNEY, Oct. 21, 2005 – Business leaders participating in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference today got to visit a one-of-a-kind Navy ship and sail off the coast of Naples, Italy. The USS Mount Whitney, the flagship for the 6th Fleet, is the only Navy ship with a hybrid crew of civilian and military personnel. About 60 percent of the crew are Navy personnel, and 40 percent are civilian mariners from the Military Sealift Command. The USS Mount Whitney is being used as a test platform for the hybrid crew model, said Navy Capt. Tadd Wheeler, commanding...

SADR CITY, Iraq, Sept. 27, 2005 — Sadr City residents say they’re definitely seeing a difference as nearly $86.5 million in infrastructure improvements have been completed with an additional $246 million ongoing. Local citizens report their sewers are working (unlike last year when all the lift stations were inoperable with broken pumps), water pressure is better, and they’re seeing electric lines going up. U.S. Army Lieutenant Col. Jamie Gayton, Commander, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Brigade Troops Battalion Commander, is overseeing the work and says he couldn’t accomplish the mission without the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). “The lash-up...

The 278-149 roll call Thursday by which the House rejected an effort to restrict gun manufacturers' exports of high-powered, .50-caliber rifles. A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the amendment restricting the gun exports. A "no" vote is a vote to reject the amendment. Voting yes were 134 Democrats, 15 Republicans and no Independents. Voting no were 65 Democrats, 212 Republicans and 1 Independent. X denotes those not voting.

Holy See Grieved by Terri Schiavo's Death Reaction of Vatican Spokesman and Cardinal VATICAN CITY, APRIL 1, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See officially expressed its sadness over the death of the brain-damaged woman in Florida who died of starvation after her husband had her feeding tube removed. On Thursday afternoon, Joaquín Navarro Valls, director of the Vatican press office, said that the circumstances surrounding Terri Schiavo’s death have "rightly upset consciences." "A life was interrupted. Death was arbitrarily anticipated, because feeding a person can never be considered as drastic therapy," said the Vatican spokesman in a statement. "There is no...

Sun-starved Alpine villagers 'see the light' with the help of solar mirrors By Clare Chapman in Innsbruck (Filed: 16/01/2005) Residents of an Austrian mountain village deprived of sunshine for four months of the year have found a way to beat the winter gloom. Mirrors will be installed in a sunnier spot across the valley, to reflect sunlight back to Rattenberg and eliminate the shadows that make its inhabitants feel so depressed. Franz Wurzenrainer, the mayor, said: "When weather forecasters predict a bright winter's day with plenty of sunshine, we have to take their word for it. From November to February,...

Indian town sees evidence of ancient tsunamiOnce-powerful city on same spot 'swallowed by the sea' Gautam Singh / APThis ancient Thirupallavaneeswaram Temple is one of the few remnants of ancient Poompuhar, which was a thriving capital city until it was "swallowed by the sea" more than 1,500 years ago.The Associated Press Updated: 2:33 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2005POOMPUHAR, India - For generations, the people of Poompuhar have spoken of the days when their sleepy fishing town was the capital of a powerful kingdom, and traders came from Rome, Greece and Egypt to deal in pearls and silk. .

In Angry Waves, the Devout See an Angry God BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Jan. 4 - Aceh's highly influential Islamic clergy have explained the giant wave that devastated this overwhelmingly Muslim region as a warning to the faithful that they must more strictly observe their religion, including a ban on Muslims killing Muslims. The infusion of religious meaning into the tragedy, in a province already known as Indonesia's most fervently Muslim area, suggested the consequences of the Dec. 26 tsunami could extend well beyond the death toll. The sweeping destruction has torn apart the infrastructure on the northern part of Sumatra...

Breaking Point Segment 1(Illegal Immigration through our southern border)(SEGMENT 1)Breaking Point Segment 2(Terror cells in CANADA)(SEGMENT 2)Breaking Point Segment 3(Terror cells in CANADA)(SEGMENT 3)Breaking Point Segment 4(Terror cells in CANADA)(SEGMENT 4)Breaking Point Segment 5(Park Rangers confronting ILLEGAL ALIENS)(SEGMENT 5)Breaking Point Segment 6(Families lost members on 9/11 attack by ILLEGAL ALIENS)(SEGMENT 6)

As long as I am confessing less than elevated interests today, I might as well admit that I really enjoyed the new film National Treasure. This is probably the first Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie I have ever praised, unless you count Team America, which is a parody of his extravagent explosion-filled action movies, acted by puppets. Sure, it is a highly-implausible adventure film, but it has a number of redeeming values. It is first-rate storytelling, with nary a dull moment, and a mostly coherent narrative line. It is basically a treasure hunt, comparable in many ways to Raiders of the Lost...

Women see scarlet, men see red Jennifer Viegas Discovery News Wednesday, 4 August 2004 The world may appear a more colourful place to women, according to a new study that finds many women perceive a greater range of colours than men, particularly shades of red. The U.S. study, which analysed DNA from populations around the world, is published in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. How men and women see the world appears to relate to evolution and how our early ancestors found food. Men were likely to have been surveying the landscape for prey to...

[It's ironic that Kerry makes accusations of the Bush Admin. bringing the Draft back when this was Kerry's plan the whole time. This was posted on the Kerry/Edwards site then removed when the Draft e-mail began to circulate. Young American's need to know who is really behind the draft issue. It is a democratic legislation that was recently killed in congress and this is Kerry's plan oulined for you below once he gets in office.] John Kerry Outlines Plan to Require Service for High School Students Part of 100 days Plan to Enlist One Million Americans in National Service A...

Kerry won Vietnam vets' wrath describing what he couldn't see BY HAROLD W. ANDERSEN Published Sunday, August 22, 2004 WORLD-HERALD CONTRIBUTING EDITOR It is one of the bigger gambles of the presidential campaign. But with most of the news media looking the other way, John Kerry has been getting away with it so far. I refer to Kerry's gamble that the news media won't finally take a hard look at his anti-war activities instead of concentrating on his four-plus months of combat-zone experience as a decorated, wounded veteran of the Vietnam War - experience that Kerry incessantly promotes as qualifying...