VEILED THREATS

Long Black Veil: Tony Blair's Deadly Game of Muslim-Bashing

For centuries in Britain, each sentence of death was accompanied by a strange ritual. Before handing down the verdict, the judge would first take a piece of black silk cloth and put it on his head. With this rather bizarre and ancient drapery covering his powdered wig - itself a relic, a cultural fossil carried into modern times - he would then render the prisoner into the hangman's care.

In such a guise, the black cloth once represented the full, dread measure of state power. Today, however, a cloth of similar size, shape and color - worn across the faces of a small number of some of the most vulnerable members of British society - has become a target of that same dread power, after Britain's high and mighty unleashed a sudden, thunderous sneak attack on the nation's Muslim minority, centering the campaign around the tabloid-ready symbol of the veil.

LIQUID INTAKE

India finds pesticides in colas

Indian MPs have upheld the findings of an environment group which reported that Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinks contained pesticide residues. Activists of the Indian Democratic Party protest in Delhi

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said last August that its investigations revealed the drinks contained harmful residues and posed a health risk.
A 15-member committee, which included MPs from both the government and the opposition, said the CSE findings on the presence of pesticide residues were correct.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

"Where the bee can live, man too can live" - Juliette de Bairacli-Levy

Howard's science award lauds military applications of the bee

The Prime Minister's Science Prizes, awarded in Parliament House in Canberra, went to Professor Srinivasan of the Australian National University for studying the brilliance of bees and even how their brains may be adapted to fly combat aircraft.

Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan: "What I could tell you about is something that really excites me for some of my future work. I'm getting more and more interested in trying to learn how sophisticated these small nervous systems are in terms of being able to feel emotions and feel pain."

WAR IS HELL

Israel confirms phosphorus munitions used in Lebanon

Israel has confirmed for the first time that it used controversial white phosphorus shells against military targets in southern Lebanon, an Israeli newspaper has reported.
White phosphorus munitions cause severe burns and agonising deaths.
The chemical seeps into the bloodstream and causes respiratory problems and other ailments in victims, which has lead many to demand it be classified as a chemical weapon.
The Haaretz daily has reported that Israeli Government-Parliamentary Relations Minister Yakov Edery told law makers last week that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have used phosphorus munitions.
"The IDF made use of phosphorus shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground," he told the newspaper.

[The International Red Cross and other human rights groups have long argued that phosphorus weapons should be banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
US leaders went on the defensive after reports surfaced last year that American troops in Iraq had used phosphorus in the battle for Fallujah in 2004.]


Melting the Skin Off of Children

In a documentary by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

The Independent, US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah

EXPANDING SCIENCE

Occult claims clamor for serious study

A telepathy study, presented at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, involved 63 people asked to say in advance which of four friends or relatives was calling on the telephone.

The session featured research from Rupert Sheldrake, an independent biologist who is funded by Trinity College, Cambridge, that claims to have found evidence that some people know telepathically who is calling them before they answer the telephone. The answers were 45 percent correct, which, the researchers claimed, was above the 25 percent expected through chance. A host of angry British scientists said telepathy is "a charlatan's fancy".

"Either I or the scientist is a fool with our opposing views of probability,'' wrote William James, the famed American psychologist and philosopher 100 years ago regarding another famous experiment.

The risk of appearing foolish, he believed, was the least of the dangers. There also was the risk of failing to investigate the world in all its dimensions, or making it appear smaller and less interesting than it really is.
He worried about a time when people would become "indifferent to science because science is so callously indifferent to their experiences".

[He worried also that a close-minded community of science could become a kind of cult itself, devoted to its own beliefs and no more.]

Discussion between Rupert and a skeptical Prof Peter Atkins

Professor Peter Atkins, who is a chemist at Lincoln College Oxford: You can’t rely on any of these experiments. There is no serious work done in this field. The samples that people use are very tiny, the effects are statistically insignificant, the controls are not done in a scientific way. On the whole there’s just no point in doing it. There are no serious reasons for believing there should be an effect of telepathy anyway. There is no mechanism within modern science to account for it. There’s nothing that drives people to believe in it except sentiment, emotion, and things like that.
[Sheldrake is] just playing with statistics.
Interviewer: Let’s put that to Rupert. Rupert Sheldrake, he says you’re just playing with statistics. He doesn’t believe a word of it. What do you say to him?
Rupert Sheldrake: Well I’d like to ask him if he’s actually read the evidence? May I ask you Professor Atkins if you’ve actually studied any of this evidence or any other evidence?
Atkins: No, but I would be very suspicious of it.

HIPOCRITES RULE

Italian MPs Caught In TV Drugs Sting

Italy's privacy authority blocked the broadcasting of a television show exposing the widespread drug use of Italian politicians. The 'Lene' program carried out secret tests for illegal substances on 50 members of parliament.
Almost a third tested positive for cocaine and cannabis.
Although the identity of the parlamentarians was not revealed, the authority blocked the program saying it violated the privacy of the MPs who were unaware they were being tested.

A reporter interviewed lawmakers on a draft budget being debated in parliament.
Prior to the interview a make-up artist dabbed the faces of the interviewees and their perspiration was later tested for drug use. The drug wipe revealed drug consumption in purportedly in the 36 hours prior to the interview.

Italy has one of the toughest drug laws in Europe. Under new legislation, people found in possession of cannabis could risk having their passport and their driving licence suspended. Dealing in cocaine or cannabis is punished with jail sentences of between six and 20 years and a fine of up to 260,000 euros.

Yahoo News version

[The program was to air on Italia Uno, one of three national television channels owned by the family of the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi]

FLASHBACK

Chirac drumming up support to halt US-British rush to war

French President Jacques Chirac is lobbying other heads of state to join him at an emergency summit of United Nations Security Council members to search for a compromise on Iraq, according to a statement from his office at the weekend.
The presidential palace also reiterated France's objection to a US-British draft resolution giving Saddam Hussein a March 17 ultimatum to destroy illicit weapons or prove he has none.
"War is not a small thing," Mr Chirac's office said. "When you declare death or life, this merits being taken to the highest level of responsibility."

[SMH: March 10 2003]

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Anna Politkovskaya. Shot by an assassin in the lift of her apartment building.

Prominent Journalist, Kremlin Critic, Shot Dead In Moscow

Hundreds rallied in downtown Moscow on Sunday to protest the murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
the apparent contract killing Saturday of Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the war in Chechnya who had tirelessly uncovered abuses against civilians, became a major focus of the protest that drew about 500 demonstrators to Pushkin Square.

Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, 48, had today been due to publish an article on torture and kidnappings by pro-Moscow forces in the restless southern republic of Chechnya, her colleagues said. About a dozen other Russian reporters have been killed in Russia since Putin came to power.

Politkovskaya was poisoned on a flight to Belsan during the hostage seige which ended in the deaths of hundreds, mostly children. She was intent on arranging negotiations to defuse the situation.

Belsan questions

Was the hostage-taking preventable? How many guerrillas were there, and did any of them manage to escape? Why did the bombs in the gym explode, and why did the roof catch fire? The tank parked outside the school: how many times did it fire, and at what targets? Exactly why did the hostages die? Were there any plans to storm the school, and was there any possibility of reaching agreement with the terrorists on a "peaceful" withdrawal?
Other publications add further questions to this list. What were senior state officials doing during those three dark days? Why were orders from the Interior Ministries of North Ossetia ignored? They had prior information about the guerrillas planning an operation. How did a number of armed terrorists manage to enter Beslan at all?
That last question, as the Kommersant newspaper reports, is answered by Shamil Basayev in a statement posted on his Kavkazcenter.com website shortly before the first anniversary of the tragedy. He claims that his people were "encouraged" to seize the school by "the special services of North Ossetia".

ANIMAL FARM

BBC crew gathers evidence of organ harvesting in China

An undercover BBC crew appears to have found direct evidence of organ harvesting from executed prisoners, which is thriving on a growing demand from desperately ill foreigners.
BBC learnt that the going price for a liver transplant is now $125,000 and that according to the doctors, the donors are recently executed prisoners.

TRANSCRIPT:
I've told the hospital I'm looking for a new liver for my ailing father. The chief surgeon, Dr Dung, tells me he can get a matching liver in less than three weeks. Then I broach the awkward issue of where the liver will come from.
We have heard that many of the organs come from executed prisoners.
DR DUNG: Yes, it's true.
RUPERT WINGFIELD-HAYES: Another man arrives. This is the hospital's agent for dealing with foreign clients. He's eager to do business and produces documents for making a payment of £50,000 to a bank account in Hong Kong. He's also far less discrete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To put it bluntly, it's true. We use a lot of organs from executed prisoners. The prisoners on death row have done many bad things. Before they die they give their organs as a present to society. It's a good thing.
RUPERT WINGFIELD-HAYES: Then an astonishing admission; that an increase in executions ahead of the 1 October national holiday means there is a sudden abundance of organs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1 October is China's National Day.

Mass arrest of Falun Gong practitioners on National Day

At first all appeared quiet. But then suddenly, at about 0830, throngs of Falun Gong protestors emerged amid the crowds, holding up large banners and shouting "Falun Gong is good".
Hundreds of police swarmed onto the square to try and suppress the protests but their efforts were hampered by the vast numbers of ordinary tourists, who gawped in amazement as the protestors were tackled.
Ranks of uniformed police began to clear the square completely as the Falun Gong protestors were gradually rounded up, herded onto buses and driven away.
The number of protestors is estimated to run into the hundreds.

Sale of executed Falun Gong prisoner organs in China 'shocking'
Falun Gong supporters say thousands of members have been jailed and hundreds killed.
How they were killed -- and for what purpose -- were troubling questions raised during a Congressional subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC.
The subject was a report from human rights activists who say the Chinese government is supporting the sale of organs from Falun Gong prisoners who have been executed.

Download PDF  Report into Allegations of
Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China
by David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) for Canada, and David Matas, international human rights lawyer

UN Rapporteur Investigates CCP’s Live Organ Harvesting

The UN Human Rights Commission pays attention to the issue of the CCP killing and harvesting practitioners’ organs. Austria’s Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture will investigate the severe allegations.

MINI ME

Flores man ... a model of a skull from the newly found species of hobbit-sized humans that lived about 18,000 years ago in Indonesia.

Australian researchers back hobbit claims

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) are backing claims that the discovery of the so-called hobbit in Indonesia does represent a new species of human.
In 2003, Australian scientists unearthed the remains of a hobbit-like species, with adults about the height of a three-year-old child, in a cave on a remote island in Indonesia.
In a new paper, ANU researchers reject claims that the skeleton of a hobbit-like species was simply a very short human with a rare brain disease.

["What is particularly interesting about it is it survived in isolation through those two-million-years or so in eastern Indonesia and its existence was quite unsuspected until very recently," ANU Professor Colin Groves said.]

MIND OVER MATTER

What makes us human?

Scientists figured out decades ago that chimps are our nearest evolutionary cousins, roughly 98 percent to 99 percent identical to humans at the genetic level. When it comes to DNA, a human is closer to a chimp than a mouse is to a rat.
Yet tiny differences, sprinkled throughout the genome, have made all the difference.
Agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy -- all the achievements that make us profoundly different from chimpanzees -- are somehow encoded within minute fractions of our genetic code.

[Genetic engineering by aliens?]

BIG NUKE

Is Big Oil going nucular?

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'NUCULAR' DAZE

Scientists create more efficient nuclear power fuel

United States researchers have re-designed nuclear reactor fuel by changing the shape of the fuel from solid cylinders to hollow tubes, adding surface area that allowed water to flow inside and outside the pellets, increasing heat transfer.
They claim new fuel design is also much safer because it reaches an operating temperature of about 700C, much lower than 1800C for conventional fuel and further from the 2840C melting point for uranium fuel.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers believe they can make nuclear power plants 50 per cent more powerful and safer.