To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Jan 2, 2001 TV Programs
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 08:47:53 -0500
8: PM Eastern
HIST Ancient City: Found and Lost
Explore the history of one of the most opulent cities of the ancient world--
Zeugma, located in what is now known as Turkey. Built during the heady
days of the Roman Empire, Zeugma thrived for hundreds of years, then
vanished when Rome fell. Its magnificent ruins and mosaics were recently
discovered and unearthed, only to be lost again when a newly-built
hydroelectric dam flooded the entire valley. TV G
9:00
HIST Noah and the Flood
Explores the story of the great flood and compares it with flood stories in
other religions and cultures, including some American-Indian tribes. TV G
10:00
HIST Aswan Dam
In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Arab Republic of Egypt's first prime
minister, had a plan to bring his poor country into the 20th century. To pull it
off, he needed to harness the flow of the world's longest river--the Nile. The
ambitious plan called for construction of a high dam in southern Egypt at
Aswan. But the builders of the pyramids and the Suez Canal were no
strangers to large undertakings. We'll see how the Aswan High Dam
socially, politically, culturally, and agriculturally affected Egypt. TV G
PBS Apocalypse!.
Scholars examine the origins of the Book of Revelation and how it has
shaped Western perceptions of the apocalypse. (CC) (Stereo) (TVPG)
11:00
HIST Tales of the Gun
Japanese Guns of WWII As Japan bombed its way into the Pacific during
WWII, Imperial soldiers carried pride, a sense of invincibility, and an arsenal
of clumsy and outdated weapons. Convinced that the tactics and tools that
led to victory over colonial enemies would be just as effective against the
Allies, Japan would see its weaponry lead to defeat. TV G
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Subject: [bprlist] Human flesh on sale in North Korea
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 13:48:10 -0000
Human flesh on sale in North Korea
By Stephen Lunn in Tokyo
02jan01
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/forum/skyline.htm
STARVING North Koreans are reverting to cannibalism to survive, while
farmers have been ordered to grow opium for state-endorsed overseas
sale, a maker of television documentaries has claimed.
Carla Garapedian, producer of Children of the Secret State, a BBC-
Channel 4 co-production, said film smuggled out of North Korea, and
interviews with refugees escaping the communist state, revealed "acts
of unspeakable barbarism not seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia".
"(The) footage is shocking. Starving children abandoned by the state.
Orphans thrown into state asylums and left to die," Garapedian wrote
in an opinion article run this week in Japan's Daily Yomiuri
newspaper.
Worse, she said, were the drawings of 15-year-old Jang Gil-su, who
with his family fled North Korea into China and has, while still in
hiding, been recording his experiences of everyday life in his former
country, where millions of people are understood to have starved to
death.
The pictures, given to Garapedian by a refugee support group in
Seoul, depict families eating pine bark, rats, snakes and anything
else to stay alive. One shows a man at a market stall, with Jang
captioning it "Man selling human flesh (saram hoki) at a farmers'
market in Hoeroung city".
"All of the North Koreans we interviewed knew about it. Jang's
picture of a dismembered child in a cooking pot says more than any of
the numbing statistics," Garapedian wrote.
Independent verification of the practice is difficult because
Hoeroung city is impossible to visit or contact in the secretive
country.
"You eat it without knowing it is human flesh. You're so hungry you
just eat it," she quotes one orphan as saying, claiming more than
200,000 orphans are starving in North Korea, despite the country
receiving the second-most food aid in the world.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, desperate to garner more
international aid with a freezing winter in full swing, is trying to
open up his mysterious country to the outside world.
Australia was one of the first nations to reintroduce diplomatic
relations with North Korea early last year. Since then, many nations
have taken steps to follow suit, including Italy, Germany and Britain.
Garapedian said she had spoken to farmers who claimed to have been
barred from growing food and instead ordered to grow opium. "The
opium would then be processed by the state into heroin and then sold
abroad. The proceeds would go to arm the military," she wrote.
North Korean officials could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
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Subject: [bprlist] Wars and rumors of wars...
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 13:54:30 -0000
Bush's defense advisors faced by 68 conflicts worldwide: report
WASHINGTON, Jan 1 (AFP) -
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/
There are 68 conflicts worldwide demanding the attention of the
advisers who will help President-elect George W. Bush shape his
defense and foreign policies, according to a new study.
The study, released here over the weekend by the National Defense
Council Foundation, said that in many cases where a US intervention
might be considered, the US military might not be up to the task.
In today's world, many conflicts were "low-intensity civil" ones,
rather than medium-intensity ones fought with tanks and artillery,
said the foundation, a non-partisan think-tank created in 1978.
"Since low-intensity conflicts are fought primarily with small arms
and using guerrilla forces and terrorism, the current US force
structure is unprepared to meet this growing challenge," the study
said.
The 68 conflicts constitute a slight increase from 1999, when 65 low-
to high-intensity conflicts were registered around the globe, study
said.
However, the think tank noted a dangerous increase of instability in
South and Central Asia, where the number of conflicts had gone up
from six in 1997 to 10 in 2000.
"The rise of conflict in this region is primarily due to the spill-
over of the civil war in Afghanistan, which acts like a cancer on the
region, spreading to the weakest states and destabilizing even the
strongest," the report said.
Using an index measuring instability on a scale of zero to 100, the
group rated Afghanistan at 99.1.
The conflict in Afghanistan took a turn for the worse late last year,
when the predominant Taliban militia took control of the town of
Taloqan and severed supply routes used by the opposition Northern
Alliance, the foundation said.
Moreover, the majority Pustun Taliban has launched a campaign of
ethnic cleansing in the North, targeting Hazaras and ethnic Tajiks
and Uzbeks and sending waves of refugees into Central Asia, the
report said.
"Not only is Afghanistan involved in a medium-intensity civil war of
its own, but the Taliban militia sponsors terrorists and insurgents
in China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Chechnya and elsewhere," the study
said.
"Additionally, Afghanistan has emerged as the world's number one
source of opium, adding narcotics traffickers to the volatile war
zone," the report added.
The foundation also listed Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Sierra Leone and Iraq among countries torn by the most intense,
bloody and intractable conflicts in the modern-day world.
While 12 countries, including Armenia, Syria and Kenya were removed
from the annual list of trouble spots in 2000, 15 nations were added
to it.
The newcomers include Laos, which was rocked by a series of
explosions last year, and the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan, which fought incursions by Islamic rebels.
Violence in Cameroon was declared by the foundation "the stupidest
conflict" of 2000.
The West African nation has formed militias and paramilitary groups
in a bid to curb violent crime, according to the study.
"Now, while violent crime has fallen, the militias and paramilitaries
have created far more chaos and death than crime ever would have,"
the report said.
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Subject: [bprlist] Saddam 'in hospital after stroke'
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 13:56:19 -0000
Saddam 'in hospital after stroke'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0101/02/pageone/pageone10.html
Damascus: An Iraqi opposition group claimed yesterday that Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein was rushed to a Baghdad hospital late on
Sunday suffering from an apparent stroke after having officiated
earlier at the country's biggest New Year's Day parade in 10 years.
The Iraqi leader was being treated for "a severe stroke" at Iben
Sinna Hospital, said a statement issued by dissident leader Bayan
Jaber, of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The statement said the 63-year-old president's condition was unknown
but that he was still in the hospital.
There was no mention of Saddam's medical condition or whereabouts by
the official Iraqi news media yesterday.
The official media generally refrain from carrying news about his
health or that of his family members.
President Hussein officiated on Sunday at the biggest military parade
in Baghdad since the 1991 Gulf War.
Flanked by top aides, he wore a business suit and hat as he stood on
a reviewing stand.
He greeted army units with shots from a rifle he held in one hand as
tanks rumbled past and fighter jets and helicopter gunships flew
overhead.
Saddam, a peasant boy, clawed and killed his way from poverty to
power and became effective ruler in 1968, when the Arab Ba'ath
Socialist Party took over in a coup he helped organise.
Deutsche Press Agenture
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Subject: [bprlist] Indian elephant tramples man and keeps the corpse
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 13:59:33 -0000
Indian elephant tramples man and keeps the corpse
December 31, 2000
Web posted at: 3:37 PM HKT (0737 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/12/31/india.elephant.reut/index.
html
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) -- A wild elephant pulled a man down from a
tree, trampled him to death and for two weeks has refused to part
with the corpse, police in northeast India said on Sunday.
The man climbed the tree to escape a herd of wild elephants rampaging
through his village about 140 km (80 miles) from Guwahati, the
largest city in Assam.
One elephant grabbed him, pulled him to the ground and broke his
legs.
"The elephant must have got even more irritated as the villagers were
trying to free the man," a forest ranger said. "It trampled him to
death and took the body along with him."
That was two weeks ago and it has been carrying the body around ever
since, police said.
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Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Sacrificial sheep shoves Egyptian to his death
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:09:58 -0500
[Sorry, but I don't have a URL for this story.]
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 08:35:41 -0500
From: hblondel
To: Newmill <hblondel@tampabay.rr.com>
Subject: Sacrificial sheep shoves Egyptian to his death
Sacrificial sheep shoves Egyptian to his death
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Jan 2 (Reuters) - An Egyptian sheep destined for
sacrificial slaughter forestalled its owner"s plans by pushing him to
his death from a three-storey building in Alexandria, police said on
Tuesday.
They said Waheeb Hamoudah, 56, who worked in the police tax evasion
department, had been feeding the sheep he had tethered on the rooftop
when it butted him. Neighbours found Hamoudah lying bleeding and
concussed on the ground below, with several broken bones, on Monday.
He died soon after reaching hospital.
Hamoudah had been fattening the sheep for the past six weeks and
planned to kill it for Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice, in
early March. Many Egyptian city-dwellers keep livestock on rooftops,
balconies or in basements, especially in the run-up to Eid al-Adha.
------- End of forwarded message -------
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Subject: [bprlist] Space ANTS: Futuristic Probes to Cruise Asteroid Belt
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:11 -0500
Space ANTS: Futuristic Probes to Cruise Asteroid Belt
By Andrew Bridges
Pasadena Bureau Chief
posted: 07:00 am ET 28 December 2000
SAN FRANCISCO - NASA may mimic the ant in its future efforts to
explore the belt of asteroids that lies between Mars and Jupiter, a
resource-rich region that astronauts might tap as humans move out in
the solar system.
A small group working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has
proposed launching a massive colony of miniature spacecraft - using
social insect-inspired artificial intelligence - to spend several
years prospecting among perhaps 1,000 of the space rocks.
"The idea is to have a totally autonomous swarm you can send out to
explore multiple bodies," said Steven Curtis, a scientist at the
Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA field center.
Called ANTS - that's "Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm" - the fleet of
buggy spacecraft would cruise independently to the asteroid belt. Each
futuristic probe would hoist its own solar sail to capture the minute
pressure of the sun's rays and push it along on its journey.
The tiny probes, each weighing about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram), would
then fan out among the hundreds of thousands of asteroids at least
0.62 mile (1 kilometer) in diameter or larger.
"You build a bunch of them and just throw them out there," said
Curtis, who recently presented the concept at the fall meeting of the
American Geophysical Union.
Scientists look to the asteroid belt for multiple reasons, including
as potential threats to Earth and sources of raw materials. For
example, the asteroids contain metals - otherwise prohibitively
expense to launch into space from Earth - that could be employed in
the further exploration of the cosmos.
Even a cursory - but up-close - survey of the asteroid belt, and the
elemental composition and types of the bodies found there, would allow
astrogeologists to pinpoint which individual rocks would merit mining.
"You could rapidly determine which are the most important mineral
resources in terms of future exploitation," said Donald Yeomans, an
asteroid and comet expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The ANTS mission would not launch before 2020 at the earliest, and
only then from human-occupied space stations parked in Lagrangian
orbits, or L-points, where the gravitational forces of the Earth and
sun are perfectly balanced, Curtis said.
The swarm would take three or more years to travel to the main belt of
asteroids. Once there, 100 ruler and messenger "ants" would look on,
guiding operations, as the 900 or so worker probes did the bulk of the
work. Only a small number of messengers would then make the return
trip to their space-based safe harbor, ferrying with them the data
acquired during the mission.
Each worker would carry a single instrument, whether a magnetometer,
gamma-ray sensor or some other tool, to perform a specific task.
"Basically, everything you'd need to characterize the asteroids from
remote sensing," Curtis said of the complement of instruments. Instead
of a single, large spacecraft though, those functions would be
"smeared" across the 1,000 tiny probes.
That large number builds redundancy into the system: lose 20 percent
of the spacecraft and the mission can still succeed. It also lowers
the cost of a mission, since NASA could churn the probes out on an
assembly line.
Most importantly, the scheme would permit individual probes of modest
means to collectively perform Herculean efforts - just as occurs in
the realm of the ant and other social insects.
"Insects do a lot with what they have," Curtis said.
Indeed, scientists are increasingly looking at ants and other
creatures in designing robotic networks that mimic the collective,
emergent intelligence in the behavior found in places like the colony
of insect critters in your backyard.
"The ant colony as a whole, some people refer to it as a
super-organism, because any one individual isn't that intelligent. But
if you view the ant colony as an organism itself, it does intelligent
things," said Tucker Balch, a research scientist at Carnegie Mellon
University who models ant behavior for adoption in future robotic
systems. "The lesson is, you can build a complex, almost intelligent,
system with many inexpensive and possibly disposable parts."
In the case of the ANTS proposal, the probes would perform their tasks
individually, but at the same time would swap what they've learned
back and forth in a way that makes the collective behave - Borglike -
as would a single, larger spacecraft.
Elsewhere within NASA, scientists are developing similar concepts for
application in planetary exploration. At JPL, for instance, the Sensor
Webs Project seeks to develop an independent network of wireless
sensor pods that could be deployed to monitor and explore a limitless
range of environments.
Like space ants, a sensor web's individual components would
communicate among themselves, allowing for the diffused yet
orchestrated exploration of dynamic regions like the northern polar
cap of Mars.
"The thing with sensor webs is you really want the emergent behavior
to resemble conscious thought for the whole being rather than the
individual," said Kevin Delin, leader of the JPL project. "The
important thing is there is a global purpose to their behavior, rather
than just saying, 'We're all cooperating.'"
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/space_ants_001227.html
via: transhumantech@egroups.com
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Subject: [bprlist] DNA-based sensor chip detects metals in real-time
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:11 -0500
DNA-based sensor chip detects metals in real-time
By R. Colin Johnson , EE Times
Dec 28, 2000 (1:13 PM)
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - An inexpensive, real-time sensor technology
harnesses living DNA to detect dangerous metals such as lead, mercury
and cadmium. Developed by researchers at the University of Illinois,
the DNA sensors immediately react to the presence of specific metals
by emitting light into an inexpensive fiber-optic lens. Traditional
methods require lengthy batch testing or expensive
instrumentation. Genetic algorithms were used to discover the specific
required DNA strands required to detect specific metals from within a
population of trillions of random DNA sequences.
Engineers could benefit from this method by designing their own DNA
strands that would test in real-time for specific metallic substances.
"We have created a new class of simple and environmentally safe
sensors - the world's first example of a catalytic DNA-based biosensor
with highly sensitive fluorescence detection for metals," said
professor Yi Lu. Lu was assisted by graduate student Jing Li,
co-author of their recent paper in the Journal of the American
Chemical Society. The process patent is pending.
Lu's technology harnesses the human body's ability to detect specific
kinds of molecules and orchestrate responses in real-time. This
molecular recognition capability involves a "lock and key" mechanism
in which custom-tailored receptor "pockets" will only accept specific
molecules, and respond immediately when they do encounter the correct
molecules. While the human body grows these specific receptor sites
according to the blueprints contained in DNA, Lu decided to go
straight to the source. "Our sensor's technology is unique, because
the active element consists of small pieces of real DNA, the basic
building block of all our genes," said Lu.
Lead and other dangerous environmental contaminants, such as
industrial mercury and cadmium, can be detected today only after
lengthy batch testing of samples for specific elements. Thus there is
a need for a quick and inexpensive method for on-site, real-time
testing for hazardous substances.
That capability has become a high priority at the National Institutes
of Health, which provided the funding for Lu's experiments. The NIH
has specifically targeted health applications for the technology,
including environmental monitoring, clinical toxicology, wastewater
treatment and industrial process monitoring.
Lu's innovation is based on a 1994 pharmaceutical discovery that DNA
was not just a genetic information repository, but that DNA could also
act in a manner similar to living enzymes that catalyze a specific
chemical reaction right at the site where it is needed. As a result of
this discovery, many promising new pharmaceutical agents have been
demonstrated in which metal ions are essential to activate the
catalytic function. These enzymes, called catalytic DNA, constitute a
new class of metalloenzymes derived from metallo-nucleic acids. Lu's
innovation was seeing how to turn this pharmaceutical discovery into a
sensor technology.
Lu engineered a way to attach a fluorophore to one end of the DNA
strand and a fluorescence quencher on the other end. In steady state
when exposed to 560-nm light for excitation of the flourophore, the
quencher's proximity keeps the fluorophore from glowing. But when the
desired metal is present - lead in his demonstration experiment - it
cleaved the quenching end, resulting in an easily detectable 400
percent increase in fluorescence. "DNA is stable, cost-effective and
easily adaptable to optical-fiber and chip technologies," said Lu.
To turn his discovery into a working sensor technology, something the
researchers have not yet done, they would attach the fluorophore end
to a chip substrate designed to have an optical fiber permanently
attached. Then when the quenching end is cleaved, it leaves the 400
percent increased fluorophore glowing directly into the fiber optic,
indicating the presence of the hazardous metal. These chips could also
be "reset" by washing off the sample and chemically reattaching new
fluorescence quenchers for the same or a different metal to be
detected.
To turn his theoretical biosensor into a working technology, Lu had to
turn to genetic algorithms. While the 1994 discovery of catalytic DNA
demonstrated its principle, now six years later, the process by which
the base-four DNA codes (using A, C, G and T "bits") respond to
specific molecular shapes is still a mystery. Theoreticians continue
to speculate on the specific mechanisms at work, but an analytic
understanding that would allow designers to specify particular A, C, G
and T sequences as "locks" for specific metal "key" molecules is not
yet possible. Rather than wait for the theoreticians to hash it out,
Lu responded in typical engineer fashion, by appealing to genetic
algorithm searching techniques to merely test millions of randomly
generated DNA strands and select those that respond to the desired
metal. Here is where Li took over doing the in-the-trenches work of
generating trillions of different DNA stands in a test tube, then
performing genetic algorithms to select the ones that happen to work
for detecting lead.
Li implemented the genetic algorithm by first generating a massive
population of 1 quadrillion random DNA strands - individual strands
that can fold like proteins, rather than the familiar intertwined
double-helix that serves as a blueprint for living things.
A natural selection process then filtered out those strands that could
only fold around lead, pictured as a DNA "pocket" that can only fit a
specific molecular shape. This smaller population was then subjected
to random mutations which were multiplied using polymerase chain
reactions to create another large population, and the process
repeated.
In the end, Li was able to obtain DNA strands that could detect lead
over a concentration range of three orders of magnitude. Since the
fluorescence domain is decoupled from the metal-recognition domain, by
virtue of the quenching effect, Lu has high hopes that Li will someday
be able to run improved genetic algorithms that further advance not
only the sensitivity of specific catalytic DNA strands, but also make
sure that no untested metal ions are around that could accidentally
trip the system.
http://www.eet.com/printableArticle?doc_id=OEG20001228S0016
via: transhumantech@egroups.com
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Subject: [bprlist] Infobeat News items (1/2/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:11 -0500
*** Y2K bug belatedly hits Norway trains
OSLO, Norway (AP) - The Y2K computer glitch hit Norway's national
railroad company a year later than expected. The bug was discovered
when none of the company's new 16 airport express trains or 13
high-speed, long-distance Signatur trains would start early in the
morning of Dec. 31. The computers on board the trains apparently did
not recognize the date, something not anticipated by experts who
checked the systems thoroughly last year in anticipation of problems
feared worldwide when the clocks rolled to Jan. 1, 2000, a spokesman
said. "We didn't think of trying out the date 31/12/00," said Ronny
Solberg of Adtranz, the German producer of the new trains. Sunday's
problem was quickly solved on a temporary basis by resetting the
computers to Dec. 1, 2000, and the trains started upon ignition.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405624096
*** Satellites to beam radio channels
WASHINGTON (AP) - Tired of endlessly fiddling with the car radio dial
to avoid commercials, improve reception or find a good song? The
remedy could be radio's response to cable TV: a subscription
satellite service that beams 100 channels of music, news and other
programming to cars - and eventually homes - with coast-to-coast
coverage. Two companies are launching pay satellite radio in the new
year, hoping to give listeners more variety, better sound quality
and fewer commercials. Reggae lovers will have their own channel.
Country and rock fans will have multiple choices. Analysts say it
will take a few years for the service to make inroads in the radio
marketplace. Traditional broadcasters argue that consumers won't pay
for what they can get for free. But the new industry players
disagree.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405626476
*** Canada gallery puts art on Internet
OTTAWA (AP) - The National Gallery of Canada on Friday posted
pictures of 110 of its art works on the Internet to try to determine
if they were stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Pierre
Theberge, director of the national gallery, said the works of art
listed on the gallery's Web site lacked information about their
history of ownership from 1933-45. By posting pictures of the art
pieces on the Internet, the gallery gave people around the world the
chance to examine them. Countless paintings, sculptures and other
works of art were plundered from museums and private collections in
Europe during the Nazi era by invading Germans. The art works posted
by the National Gallery of Canada include European and American
paintings and some sculptures, all produced before 1945. None is
considered a masterpiece.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405624169
*** Earthquake jolts south Philippines
CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (AP) - A strong earthquake with a
magnitude of 6.6 jolted the southern Philippines Monday, panicking
many people celebrating the new year, officials said. There were no
immediate reports of serious damage or injuries, the Philippine
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said, but the quake toppled
bottles on tables, knocked books off shelves and prompted many
residents to rush out of homes. The temblor struck Monday afternoon
and was centered under the sea 40 miles east of Mati, a town in
southern Davao province. It was set off by a movement in the
Philippine Trench, a fault line running along the country's eastern
Pacific coast.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405626362
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Subject: [bprlist] Quest for the Perfect Human Has Severe Flaws
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:11 -0500
Sunday, December 31, 2000 | Print this story
Quest for the Perfect Human Has Severe Flaws
By ALLEN J. WILCOX
"Efforts to improve the inherited genome of persons might . . . foster
attempts to have perfect children by correcting their genomes." --American
Assn. for the Advancement of Science report, September 2000
"Original sin is conveyed from our parents unto their posterity by
natural generation, so as all that proceed from them are conceived and born
in sin." --Westminster Larger Catechism, 1649
Are human beings perfectible? On this question, at least, the
Calvinists may have come closer to the truth than more contemporary
observers. With all due respect to molecular genetics as the secular
religion of the day, human beings are no more perfectible through genetics
than through moral teaching. It is a fallacy to believe that manipulation of
genes can ever create "perfect" healthy human beings.
Like most fallacies, this one rests on a shred of truth. Genes do cause
illness. Sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis are genetic diseases. Even
such "environmental" diseases as lung cancer have genetic components.
Genes
probably play some role, great or small, in every disease known to
humankind.
So why not fix these genes? If we had the technology, why not snip
these troublesome genes from the whole human genome? The reason is that,
with few exceptions, the genes are not broken. Unless the genes are a recent
mutation, they probably exist for a reason. To "fix" them may be to invite
trouble elsewhere.
Consider sickle cell anemia. No one would wish this affliction on their
children. However, the very parents whose children are at risk of sickle
cell are themselves resistant to malaria. Protection from malaria may seem
like an unnecessary insurance policy to most Americans. But if the sickle
cell gene did not exist, humankind would be the worse for it. Malaria is a
dangerous disease for which there is no immunization or vaccination. It
kills a million people a year. And its threat is not as remote as we might
think--with continued global warming, the mosquito that carries malaria is
expected to spread to the United States.
How about cystic fibrosis? The genetic variant we fear as the "cystic
fibrosis gene" has another job. Its carriers are apparently resistant to
typhoid fever, caused by salmonella. Typhoid fever may be unfamiliar to most
Americans, but it infects millions of people around the world, and it kills
about 600,000 a year. As salmonella becomes increasingly resistant to
antibiotics, the death toll is predicted to rise.
Then there is the flood of discoveries of gene variants that lead to
breast cancer, diabetes, asthma and Alzheimer's disease. Are these genes
simply bad players, "mutations" that need to be deleted from the human gene
pool? Or could some of these "disease genes" provide benefits we haven't
figured out yet? This is not to argue that people should be unconcerned
about genetic risks. The point is that what makes a gene "good" or "bad"
may
depend on the circumstance as much as the gene.
As the tools of molecular genetics are increasingly brought into
clinical research, there will be better understanding of these complex gene
actions. With better understanding, we may be able to control the
progression of certain diseases. Perhaps we will even be able to intervene
early enough to prevent the disease. But prevention does not have to come at
the cost of changing the human genome. Indeed, it should not.
Let's come back to the idea of the perfectible human. As a species,
humans are not a final product, with just a few blemishes here and there to
be touched up. We are a work in progress. Gene mutation and natural
selection are creative processes that, however slowly, continue to shape us.
Under any given set of circumstances, some gene variants are an
advantage and others a disadvantage. But circumstances change. Our
climate
is warming. Species become extinct, and the ecology of our planet shifts.
Dangerous new infectious diseases arise. HIV is a conspicuous example but
certainly not the last. We err gravely if we assume our air-conditioned,
bottled-water world is the permanent environment of our progeny. Future
generations may all wish they were sickle cell carriers. Attempts to achieve
genetically "perfect" humans under the conditions of contemporary America
would not merely be foolish. It would be reckless.
In the final analysis, the message is not without hope. The countless
variations within our gene pool are a remarkable insurance package. They
increase the chances that we, as a species, can cope with what lies ahead.
Our genetic "imperfections"--or better put, our genetic diversity--are a
hedge against the unknowable circumstances that await our children, and
their children, and all who follow. Hearkening back to those Calvinists, who
instructed us to "hate the sin but love the sinner," we should hate the
disease but love the gene.
- - -
Allen J. Wilcox Is Director of Epidemiology at the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, One of the National Institutes of Health
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20001231/t000124401.html
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Crack team set up to catch lynch suspects-
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:11 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 00:40:34 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Crack team set up to catch lynch
suspects- GSS opposes release of terrorists
Ha'aretz: Crack team set up to catch lynch suspects- GSS opposes release of
terrorists
By Ze'ev Schiff Ha'aretz Military Editor Ha'aretz 2 January 2000
Israeli security forces have managed to arrest a number of Palestinians who
took part in lethal attacks against Israeli civilians in the territories,
and also in the lynching of two Israel Defense Forces reservists at a
Ramallah police station in October.
The arrests are a reflection of the fact that, since the murder of the two
reservists, the operations initiated against Palestinian perpetrators of
violence are continuing.
A special intelligence gathering team was set up to identify those suspected
of involvement in the lynching, and to date 10 Palestinians have been
arrested in connection with the incident.
The operations rely chiefly on accurate Shin Bet intelligence about those
involved in the attacks, on the locations of their residence or hiding
places, and on the best possible ways to trap or attack them. All of this
work demands a high level of operational capability.
In the bridging proposals set forth by U.S. President Bill Clinton, it is
suggested that Palestinian prisoners will be released following the signing
of an agreement between the two sides, bringing an end to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Palestinians maintain, during meetings
with Israelis, that all the Palestinian prisoners, including the members of
Hamas, will be released following a cease-fire agreement, if they express
their commitment to refrain from undertaking acts of violence.
Following the waves of violence in recent weeks and the increase in the
number of murders, the Shin Bet has taken a stronger stance against the
release of the Palestinian prisoners. Its opposition is based on the fact
that a number of Hamas members released by the PA have already returned to
violent activities, including suicide bomb attacks.
The Shin Bet argues that the problem today revolves around the Fatah and the
Tanzim, who are central to the incidents against Israelis.
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Sect leader: Cloning of American baby girl in works
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:11 -0500
Published Monday, January 1, 2001, in the Miami Herald
Sect leader: Cloning of American baby girl in works
`Twenty-seven years ago, when I talked about cloning, they laughed. Now
they are afraid.'
-- RAEL, spiritual leader of Raelian cult
Canadian Press
MONTREAL -- The spiritual leader of the Raelian movement is accustomed to
ridicule; he is, after all, a former sportswriter best known for his claim
that he was given a new identity by aliens.
But now that a Raelian-sponsored cloning laboratory somewhere in the United
States is said to be preparing to clone a 10-month-old American girl, Rael
(formerly Claude Vorilhon) is generating another reaction.
``Twenty-seven years ago, when I talked about cloning, they laughed. They
don't any more. Now they are afraid,'' Rael said.
On hand for the rare conference in November given by Rael -- who claims to
be in regular contact with the gods and is known in the movement as
Elohim -- were a camera crew from a U.S. television network and a
photographer preparing for a New York Times Magazine story.
The hedonistic Raelians are said to number about 500,000. The Swiss-based
movement has a substantial following in Quebec.
In 1997, shortly after Dolly the sheep was cloned, Rael announced in Las
Vegas the formation of the first human cloning company, Clonaid.
Rael and the firm's director, Brigitte Boisselier, said Clonaid has evolved
into a viable enterprise that has investors, a staff and a list of about 250
clients.
Rael said a wealthy American family, whose 10-month-old child died because
of a hospital error, is providing major financial support for the venture
and will get the first clone, a genetic duplicate of their late daughter.
The family's contributions include all the money it will get from a
wrongful-death suit against those responsible for the child's death, Rael
said. The second human clone will also go to a wealthy family who is
supplying seed money, he said.
A fund has also been established for legal fees, said Rael, who expects that
legal challenges will take them to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But the cloned daughter will be presented to the world via television before
the end of 2001, Rael said.
``Public opinion will turn completely [and people] will say this cloning is
perfect.''
Until he was renamed Rael by the aliens who he says first visited him in
1973, he was a sportswriter named Claude Vorilhon.
Rael means ``the messenger,'' and part of the message is that humans were
created in the image of the Elohim as the result of an intergalactic genetic
experiment.
Rael said cloning will not only give ``genetic codes a second chance,'' it
will pave the way to eternal life.
http://www.miamiherald.com/content/today/news/americas/canada/digdocs/0
79704.htm
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) PM BARAK SPEAKS TO US PRESIDENT CLINTON
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:12 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 04:12:21 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: PM BARAK SPEAKS TO US PRESIDENT
CLINTON: ARAFAT'S INTENTIONS IN DOUBT
PM BARAK SPEAKS TO US PRESIDENT CLINTON: ARAFAT'S INTENTIONS IN DOUBT
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Jerusalem Tuesday, January 02, 2001
Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke last night (Monday), 1.1.2001, with US
President Bill Clinton. The Prime Minister made it clear that he has
deep doubts over the seriousness of Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat's intention to reach an agreement that takes Israel's
vital interests into account.
Prime Minister Barak believes that Chairman Arafat intends to work for
the internationalization of the conflict - beyond the Clinton
administration's term in office - by continuing to encourage terrorism.
Prime Minister Barak made it clear to President Clinton that Israel
intends to continue concentrating on vigorous counter-terrorist activity
in the coming weeks and said that it will be impossible to sign an
agreement within the next few weeks. However, if President Clinton
would invite Israeli representatives to Washington against the
background of a halt to the violence and the resumption of meaningful
cooperation in the war against terrorism, we would consider the idea.
In recent days, Prime Minister Barak has reiterated his directive to the
IDF and the security services to continue to use all means to fight
terrorism and strike at those who both attack us and plan the attacks.
Prime Minister Barak has similarly directed the IDF and the Coordinator
of Activities in the Territories to prepare for the possibility of a
unilateral separation in the event that this becomes necessary. Such a
separation would be lengthy and gradual, thus requiring extensive
preparations.
--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Senior Air Force officer says Israel must have airspace
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:12 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 01:53:04 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Senior Air Force officer says Israel must have
airspace to Jordan River
Senior Air Force officer says Israel must have airspace to Jordan River
Aaron Lerner Date: 2 January 2001
Israel Radio reported this morning that a senior Air Force officer
warns Israel must have control of the airspace to the Jordan River.
According to the Clinton proposal, as reported in Ha'aretz, "On
airspace, I suggest that the state of Palestine will have sovereignty
over its airspace but that the two sides should work out special
arrangements for Israeli training and operational needs."
The senior officer cited three problems if the Palestinians control
the airspace in the West Bank:
#1 Israel will be left with literally no time to react to incoming
attacks.
#2 Safety would be jeopardized by squeezing the military and civilian
air traffic over major population centers.
#3 Training missions would have to be drastically reduced.
The senior officer also noted that the operating assumption of the
Air Force is that the PA is equipped with anti-aircraft missiles.
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-548-0092
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Education Ministry bans mock elections
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:12 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 00:45:38 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Education Ministry bans mock elections at
school expected to support right, no connection to
Education Minister Barak
Ha'aretz: Education Ministry bans mock elections at school expected to
support right, no connection to Education Minister Barak
By Relly Sa'ar Ha'aretz Education Correspondent 2 January 2001
An Education Ministry ban on mock elections in high schools threatens to
scuttle a 20-year tradition at a Ramat Gan high school, where mock voting
has accurately forecast the result in previous elections. Surveys at Bleich
high school in recent weeks had shown increasing support for right-wing
parties.
The ban, issued yesterday by Education MinistryDirector General Shlomit
Amihai, also prohibits schools from distributing election propaganda, and
from inviting representatives of political parties to talk to students.
Likud Chair MK Ariel Sharon had been invited to speak to students at Bleich
prior to the mock elections.
A ministry spokeswoman said yesterday that "there is no connection between
the directive and the fact that Barak is also education minister.
--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) DOCUMENT: EXCERPTS FROM MERETZ 1999 PLATFORM
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:31:12 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 03:10:51 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: DOCUMENT: EXCERPTS FROM MERETZ
1999 PLATFORM - no division of Jerusalem, defensive
strength of the IDF is the principle guarantee of Israel's
security, defensible borders
DOCUMENT: EXCERPTS FROM MERETZ 1999 PLATFORM - no division of Jerusalem,
defensive strength of the IDF is the principle guarantee of Israel's
security, defensible borders
Aaron Lerner Date: 2
January 2001
Below is IMRA's unofficial translation of excerpts from the Meretz 1999
Platform released on the Meretz Website www.meretz.org.il in April 1999:
.Continuation of the peace process, with cooperation between the government
of Israel and the Palestinian leadership, is necessary for both sides; and
thus: the Palestinian Authority must prove through actions that is actually
foiling all attempts to circumvent it with terrible acts of terror, and
Israel should decline from reacting with collective punishment.
The cease-fire lines of 1949 have never been internationally recognized
borders. The permanent borders between Israel and the Palestinian state will
be determined in negotiations between the parties in the course of which
Israel will withdraw from most of the territories that were occupied in the
Six Day War. The central considerations in determining the border
demarcations must be those related to security and demography. Meretz is
convinced that it is possible to reach a reasonable compromise on the
question of permanent borders that will insure the necessary interests of
the two parties and will reduce as much as possible the number of
Palestinian residents of the territories that will be left within the area
under Israeli sovereignty and the number of Israelis left in the area under
the sovereignty of the Palestinian state.
The withdrawal of the IDF to the permanent borders will be subject to
security arrangements that will enable Israel to face dangers quickly and
effectively. The areas withdrawn from will be demilitarized, and every
violation will allow Israel to act in accordance with the basic right to
self defense, a right anchored both in peace treaties and regional security
arrangements. Every agreement will guarantee that no foreign army or
terrorist force will cross the Jordan westwards and will not establish bases
there.
.Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, will never again be divided. The
permanent status of the city, as will be set in the agreement, will take
into consideration the national and religious affinities to Jerusalem.
Meretz will support any agreement relating to Jerusalem that will be
acceptable to the two sides.
.The defensive strength of the IDF is the principle guarantee of Israel's
security. Meretz believes that the strength of the IDF must be maintained
also during conditions of peace that will exist in the future in the
region.The government must not entangle the IDF in a war that is not a
defensive war.
++++
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-5480092
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811
--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Israel reviews decision not to sign biological warfare pact
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:35:47 -0500
Tuesday, January 2, 2001
Israel reviews decision not to sign biological warfare pact
By Aluf Benn
Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent
Israel will reconsider its refusal to sign the international treaty against
biological warfare, which was formulated in 1972.
The impetus for the reconsideration is the Foreign Ministry's conclusion that
the Biological Warfare Convention (BWC) now includes a number of
alterations in the verification and inspection protocol for the dismantling of
biological weapons. The Defense Ministry still opposes signing the BWC, but
has agreed to deliberate the issue.
The BWC forbids the development, production and stockpiling of biological
warfare agents, and calls for their elimination.
One of the main shortcomings of the treaty was the absence of a
mechanism of verification and inspection similar to the one included in the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Chemical Warfare Convention
(CWC). This legal loophole was exploited by countries such as Iraq, which
signed the treaty yet continued to secretly develop and produce operational
biological weapons.
Israel never publicly explained its refusal to sign the agreement, a decision
which corresponded to its apprehensive stance toward international weapons
control treaties in general. In recent years, however, Israel's approach to the
subject has undergone a number of changes, and now Israel is seeking to
participate in international weapons control mechanisms, as long as these
do not endanger its nuclear deterrence capability.
One of the arguments used by the Defense Ministry to justify its opposition
to signing the international agreement is that the treaty may impose
limitations on Israel at a time when it continues to be surrounded by hostile
countries that are under no similar restraints, and that have demonstrated
willingness to lie in order to safeguard their nonconventional weapons
capabilities.
The Foreign Ministry, however, argues that if Israel refuses to sign, it will not
be able to influence formulation of the agreement's protocol.
Israel has traditionally sought a regional weapons inspection agreement that
will permit mutual checks by neighboring countries.
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=1/2/01&id
=105416
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Document: Left calls on Palestinian leadership to mak
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 09:39:29 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 08:45:51 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Document: Left calls on Palestinian leadership to
make peace without return of refugees within Israel
Document: Left calls on Palestinian leadership to make peace without return
of refugees within Israel
Aaron Lerner Date: 2 January 2001
The following ad appeared on the front page of Ha'aretz today in
Hebrew and English:
To the Palestinian Leadership
We the undersigned, central activists in the Israeli peace camp who
have struggled for over thirty years for the achievement of a
two-state solution, call upon you in this critical hour to bring the
present negotiation to a positive conclusion and sign on basic
principles for a peace agreement.
We recognize the true and urgent need to resolve the problem of the
1948 refugees, and we recognize the part of the State of Israel,
also, in the creation of the problem. The refugees will have the
right to return to their homeland, Palestine, and settle there. But,
we want to clarify that we shall never be able to agree to the return
of the refugees to within the borders of Israel, for the meaning of
such a return would be the elimination of the State of Israel.
Individual humanitarian solutions in the framework of family reunion
will be possible, but massive return of the Palestinian refugees to
Israel would conflict with the right to self-determination of the
Jewish people. This right, alongside the right of the Palestinian
people to their self-determination, is the basic moral principle of
the agreement that will be signed between our two peoples.
Let us dedicate ourselves to a realistic solution that will open the
way to peace and progress for both peoples.
A.B. Yehoshua
Amos Oz
Arie Lova Eliav
Avshalom Vilan
Amiram Goldblum
Dan Jacobson
Dan Bitan
David Grossman
Elazar Granot
Galia Golan
Gavri Bar-Gil
Haim Oron
Hemi Sal
Itzhak Frankenthal
Magen Broshi
Maska Litvak
Meir Pail
Meir Shalev
Menachem Brinker
Nissim Calderon
Moti Averbuch
Mordechai Bar-On
Moti Peri
Mossi Raz
Ran Cohen
Yael Dayan
Yair Tzaban
Yair Yinov
Yaron Fridman
Yehudith Korin
Yossi Katz
Victor Shem-Tov
Zeev Sternhal
--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Desert reveals rich culture before the age of pharoahs
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 2 Jan 01 09:47:21 EST
Desert reveals rich culture before the age of pharoahs
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/30/world/world7.html
By Tim Radford, in London
Discoveries that open a new window on the prehistory of ancient Egypt have
been made by British archaeologists who have found 30 sites rich in art
chiselled into rocks up to 6,000 years ago in the desert east of the Nile.
The rock drawings show cattle, boats, ostriches, giraffes, hippos and the men
and women who lived in the area in 4,000BC, long before the first pharaohs or
the first pyramids.
"It's the Sistine Chapel of predynastic Egypt. It's amazing," said Dr Toby
Wilkinson, of Christ's College, Cambridge, who led the Eastern Desert Survey
this month. "What this does is open up a completely new chapter in the study
of Egyptian civilisation and its origins."
Ancient Egypt was always a puzzle. The civilisation appeared to archaeologists
to have sprung up as a succession of dynasties of master builders along a
ribbon of fertile land on either side of the Nile.
Even to the ancient Greeks, the Sphinx and the pyramids seemed to have always
been there. The challenge has been to identify the origins of settlement on
the Nile.
Egyptologists now think the forefathers of the pyramid builders could be the
same people who left their signatures on stones in the desert 6,000 years
ago.
"Some of it is quite breathtaking," Dr Wilkinson said. "It is very difficult
to date precisely, but looking at the stylistic parallels, a lot of this art
has got to be from around 4,000BC. That is pretty old - and some of it is even
older.
"Looking at the striking similarities between the rock art pictures and the
painted pottery from the same period in the Nile valley, it is pretty clear
that the same people were producing both."
The origins of Egyptian civilisation emerged as a hot academic topic in the
1970s. More recently, British teams began to look systematically at the
eastern desert. "Until the last two or three years, people had been looking
entirely in the Nile valley, and people had never really considered that there
might be a vast treasure-house of information out there in what is now desert,
because it is so inhospitable and inaccessible today," Dr Wilkinson said.
Egypt began to turn to desert in about 3,500BC. Until then, the landscape
would have been much like the present east African savannah, with waterholes
and seasonal rivers, and with much the same fauna.
Dr Wilkinson and his colleagues began exploring a section of desert between
two major roads, the Wadi Hammamat and the Wadi Barramiya.
"Pretty much everywhere we have looked we found a plethora of rock art sites,"
he said. "A couple of weeks ago, we found more than 30 new sites that had
never been recorded or mentioned before."
Wadis are ancient riverbeds that now serve as channels for periodic flash
floods, and ancient travellers would have stayed close to them. About 20 of
the new rock sites are at a wadi called Umm Salam. Some bear the graffiti of
generations.
The team found evidence of Bedouin, Roman and Greek markings, and of
travellers who went that way in the pharaohs era. But the most dramatic were
pictures that told a story of an unknown pastoral people, driving their cattle
from one watering place to another, between the Nile valley and the Red Sea.
Some boats chiselled into the rocks are fairly simple. Some seem to have
religious significance. They show figures with large plumes in their hair,
like the later gods of Egypt. Some of the boats are being dragged - an image
that recurs in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
"There is a lovely little scene of seven women dancing, holding hands," Dr
Wilkinson said.
In general, the figures are rudimentary.
"We think of Egypt today as just a narrow strip on either side of the Nile
valley. We are going to have to rethink our idea of the extent of Egypt, 7,000
or 6,000 years ago," Dr Wilkinson said.
"It wasn't just the Nile valley, it was this vast area on either side which
was able to support life.
"These people moved out of the savannahs into the Nile valley and settled
there, and this is what kick-started Egyptian civilisation."
The Guardian
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Natural disasters increase
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 2 Jan 01 09:48:18 EST
Natural disasters increase
FRIDAY DECEMBER 29 2000
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,26-59532,00.html
Munich: The world has been hit by a record number of natural disasters this
year and global warming and a rising population are likely to make future
years even worse, the world's largest reinsurer said yesterday. Munich Re s=
aid
that the number of natural disasters had risen by more than 100 to 850,
although the death toll was much lower than last year because many of the
areas affected were not well populated. It said that 10,000 people died
compared with 75,000 last year. Material damage was estimated at more than
=A320.1 billion this year.
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] BNI Priority News 8,1,2,3,4 (1/1-2/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:09 -0500
1. Nahal Hareidi soldier killed in Shar HaGuy bus crash=09
2. Rehovot resident stabbed by dad =96 in serious condition
3. Law to block return of so-called Palestinian refugees passes Knesset=09
4. 54 persons injured in Netanya car bomb attack=09
5. Status of blast victims remaining in hospitals=09
6. Hebron community under attack for 30 minutes=09
*************************
1-JAN-01 =96 11:28pm
*************************
1. Nahal Hareidi soldier killed in Shar HaGuy bus crash
(BNI-JAN.1) IDF Nahal Hareidi soldier Dror Frum, 20, from Jerusalem, was
the single fatality in the Monday crash at Shar HaGuy Junction between a
bus and a truck. Over twenty persons were injured in the crash.
++++
2. Rehovot resident stabbed by dad =96 in serious condition
(BNI-JAN.1) During a family dispute, a Rehovot resident stabbed his
22-year-old son in the abdomen, injuring him seriously. The injured male
was transported to Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot. Hospital officials report
his condition as very serious and life threatening.
The father was placed in police custody and will be brought before a
remand hearing on Tuesday morning.
++++
3. Law to block return of so-called Palestinian refugees passes Knesset
(BNI-JAN.1) The bill sponsored by MK Yisrael Katz intended to block the
return of so-called Palestinian refugees to Israel passed its third and
final reading in the Knesset on Monday night. The law passed in a 56-12
vote.
As a result of the legislation, Prime Minister Ehud Barak may not sign on
any agreement with the PA that would entail permitting the so-called
refugees to return to the borders of Israel without a simple majority of
61 votes of the 120-seat Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
The vote is yet another blow to the ailing minority government of Barak.
The prime minister continues to suffer set backs, unable to pass his own
legislation or defeat opposition bills in the Knesset.
++++
4. 54 persons injured in Netanya car bomb attack
(BNI-JAN.1) A total of 54 persons were treated in area hospitals following
the Monday evening car bomb attack on Netanya=92s Herzl Street at 6:55pm.
23 of the victims were discharged from hospitals and 31 remain
hospitalized. One man, possibly the terrorist, remains in grave condition
in Beilinson Hospital.
Victims of the blast were transported to Beilinson Hospital in Petah
Tikvah, Laniado Hospital in Netanya, and Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera. =
Police did not find any identification papers on the gravely wounded male,
making the process of identifying him increasingly difficult. Due to
serious facial burns, it is also difficult to make a visual
identification. It is being theorized that he may be the terrorist, but
this is only speculation at this point. Due to his grave condition, police
may never have an opportunity to interrogate him.
Police are also reporting that the Suzuki parked at a bus stop for at
least one hour prior to the blast contained the explosive devices. It was
stolen from a Yerucham area rental company about three months ago. There
were heavy damages sustained to area stores as well as to about twenty
cars parked in the area. Police repeated that it was nothing less than a
miracle that more persons were not injured or killed.
Police Chief Shlomo Aaronishky, who assumed his new post on Monday,
reported that his department is prepared for the worst and remains on
alert at all times. He added that despite the level of readiness, it was
not possible to guarantee total protection or the absolute cessation of
terror attacks.
++++
5. Status of blast victims remaining in hospitals
(BNI-JAN.1) Following is a report on the status of victims admitted to
hospitals as a result of the Netanya car bomb attack at 6:55pm on Monday
night. The report was updated at 11:00pm local time.
Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera =96 treated 15 victims. 13 listed as light
and two as light-to-moderate. Dr. Meir Oren reports that there were many
persons treated for shrapnel and assorted cuts and blast injuries. Some
were already released while others require further treatment/observation.
Among the victims was Nachum, who was walking with his wife when he
heard
three powerful blasts. He told Israel Radio that he shouted to his wife
=93to get down.=94
Laniado Hospital in Netanya =96 treated 24 victims =96 all in light conditi=
on.
12 have already been released from the hospital while 13 will spend the
night in the hospital.
Beilinson Hospital =96 treated one victim, in serious condition, possibly
the terrorist. Dr. Michael Stein, head of the trauma unit, explained the
victim arrived at about 8:00pm with serious head and thoracic injuries and
is undergoing emergency surgery. His status is being described as
extremely serious.
++++
6. Hebron community under attack for 30 minutes
(BNI-JAN.1) According to community spokesman Noam Arnon, the Hebron
Jewish
community has been under attack with gunfire for over the past thirty
minutes. IDF forces have yet to respond to the gunfire originating in the
nearby PA autonomous area.
---------------
1. IDF takes action following Netanya car bomb attack=09
2. Mevo Ofra a reality=09
3. Heavy exchanges of gunfire in Gaza=09
4. Arafat leaves for meeting with President Clinton=09
**************************
2-JAN-01 =96 4:30am
**************************
1. IDF takes action following Netanya car bomb attack
(BNI-JAN.2) Following the Monday night car bomb attack on Netanya=92s Herzl
Street, the IDF announced the following actions were being taken.
1. Tightening of the total closure of all areas throughout Judea, Samaria
& Gaza,
2. A total closure of all Arab villages and municipalities throughout
Judea, Samaria & Gaza,
3. The closing of the PA Airport in Dahaniya,
4. Revocation of privileges of travel for officials in the PA with level
one VIP cards,
5. Cessation of transfer of goods via the Karnei crossing point to and
from Gaza with the exception of humanitarian items,
6. Unspecified additional steps to ensure the security of Israeli citizens
against terrorism.
It was emphasized that medical personnel and other humanitarian related
personnel would be permitted free travel.
++++
2. Mevo Ofra a reality
(BNI-JAN.2) Residents of Ofra, in Samaria, on Monday established the new
community of Mevo Ofra on the hilltop opposite the site of the Sunday
morning shooting attack which claimed the lives of Rabbi Binyamin Ze=92ev
Kahane and his wife Talia. The residents set up the makeshift community on
Monday and stated they will maintain an around-the-clock presence from
thereafter.
Ofra and other Yesha residents vow to continue stepping up activist
activities in light of the deteriorating security situation, realizing
they are fighting for their continued ability to travel freely on roadways
to and from their homes. Additional marches such as the symbolic march
from Ofra towards Jerusalem on Monday are planned for Tuesday in several
areas in Yesha.
++++
3. Heavy exchanges of gunfire in Gaza
(BNI-JAN.2) There were reports of heavy exchanges of gunfire at about
2:00am local time between IDF forces at the Gazan community of Neve
Dekalim and PA forces in the area. There were no reports of injuries among
IDF troops. Troops returned fire.
++++
4. Arafat leaves for meeting with President Clinton
(BNI-JAN.2) PA Chairman Yassir Arafat on Monday night left Gaza for
Washington where he is scheduled to meet face to face with outgoing US
President Bill Clinton. Gaza sources confirmed the two leaders spoke on
the phone and it is being reported that Clinton is pressuring Arafat to
close a deal involving US bridging proposals before Clinton leaves the
White House.
Following the car bombing attack in Israel on Monday night, there were
calls from members of the prime minister=92s government for a breaking off
of negotiations with Arafat in light of the increasing terror but Prime
Minister Ehud Barak does appear determined to reach an agreement with
Arafat as soon as possible.
-----------------
1. IDF soldier wounded in Hebron transported to Jerusalem hospital1
2. Soldiers attacked by gunfire near Givat HaAvot=09
3. President Katzav calls for efforts to end daily terrorism=09
4. Sheik Yassin: If Arafat accepts US deal he commits political suicide=09
5. Haggai Amir appeal rejected by district court=09
6. Shots fired at passenger bus in Southern Hebron Hills area=09
7. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Arabs in Samaria=09
8. Israeli laborer injured moderately by gunfire from southern Lebanon
9. IDF Soldier moderately wounded in bomb blast in Gaza=09
10. Arabs rob Israeli of his tractor at Kfar Hass=09
11. PA residents: Settlers killed Gaza resident=09
12. Exchanges of gunfire at Rafiach border crossing=09
13. IDF soldiers ordered to demolish home used in Kahane murders
14. Tens of Jordan Valley residents chain themselves to border fence
15. Netanya car bomb contained 20 kilograms of explosives=09
16. Stone-throwing attacks in Galilee=09
************************
2-JAN-00 =96 6:13pm
************************
1. IDF soldier wounded in Hebron transported to Jerusalem hospital
(BNI-JAN.2) The IDF soldier wounded by gunfire near the Admat Yishai (Tel
Rumeida) section of Hebron is being transported to the trauma unit of
Jerusalem=92s Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem. His condition is being
reported as moderate. Hospital officials report he was wounded by gunfire
on the lest side of his chest and is currently undergoing preliminary
examinations in the trauma unit.
An air force helicopter was dispatched to the scene to transport the
wounded soldier but it was forced to circle above, unable to land due to
the heavy enemy gunfire. As a result, the soldier was transported by
ambulance.
++++
2. Soldiers attacked by gunfire near Givat HaAvot
(BNI-JAN.2) IDF soldiers a short time ago were attacked by gunfire at the
Givat HaAvot neighborhood of Kiryat Arba, in the Hebron District. There
were no injuries among Israeli forces that returned fire.
++++
3. President Katzav calls for efforts to end daily terrorism
(BNI-JAN.2) President Moshe Katzav on Tuesday called for using all the
government=92s efforts to bring an end to the daily terror attacks, Mr.
Katzav stated that we may not negotiate while be fired upon and the
government must first return security to the nation and then the issue of
the negotiations may resume.
++++
4. Sheik Yassin: If Arafat accepts US deal he commits political suicide
(BNI-JAN.2) Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin has called upon PA
Chairman
Yassir Arafat to reject all US calls for compromise, adding that if Arafat
accepts the US=92 current bridging proposals, he will be committing
political suicide. Arafat is scheduled to meet with President Clinton
tonight.
++++
5. Haggai Amir appeal rejected by district court
(BNI-JAN.2) An appeal for prison leave by Haggai Amir was rejected by the
Beersheba District Court on Tuesday. Amir, who was sentenced to a 16-year
sentence for his part in the Rabin assassination conspiracy,
After having completed one-quarter of his sentence, Amir was seeking to be
granted leaves that are given to other prisoners. The court ruled that he
still posed a security risk and therefore would not be permitted leaves
outside of the prison.
Haggai=92s brother Yigal is serving a life sentence for the assassination o=
f
Yitzhak Rabin.
++++
6. Shots fired at passenger bus in Southern Hebron Hills area
(BNI-JAN.2) An Egged public bus was attacked by gunfire on Tuesday
afternoon as it made its way from Jerusalem to Beersheba. The bus was hit
by gunfire in the area of the Southern Hebron Hills. The bulletproof bus
withstood the attack. There were no injuries.
++++
7. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Arabs in Samaria
(BNI-JAN.2) Arabs attacked soldiers with firebombs and stones near the
village of Silat e-Dahar, in Samaria near the PA autonomous city of Jenin.
Clashes were also reported near the autonomous city of Tul Qarem.
There were no reported injuries among IDF forces at either location.
++++
8. Israeli laborer injured moderately by gunfire from southern Lebanon
(BNI-JAN.2) An Israeli laborer from Moshav Shetula was shot in his stomach
from gunfire over the border fence in southern Lebanon. The injured farmer
was transported to a hospital in Nahariya with two bullet wounds.
It is believed that he was injured by sniper gunfire.
++++
9. IDF Soldier moderately wounded in bomb blast in Gaza
(BNI-JAN.2) An IDF soldier was moderately wounded in a bomb blast near
Kfar Darom, in Gaza, on Tuesday morning. The explosive device detonated
while he was examining it. He was taken to the trauma unit of Soroka
Medical Center in Beersheba.
The unknown "Omar El Mukhtar Forces" terror organization claimed
responsibility.
++++
10. Arabs rob Israeli of his tractor at Kfar Hass
(BNI-JAN.2) Three Arabs assaulted an Israeli farmer driving a tractor in
an avocado field early Tuesday afternoon in Kfar Hass. They stole the
tractor and made their escape. The injured man was treated in Meir
Hospital in Kfar Saba.
Kfar Hass is located near Tel Monde, near Route 553.
++++
11. PA residents: Settlers killed Gaza resident
(BNI-JAN.2) Resident of the PA on Tuesday accused =93settlers=94 of the
shooting death of a 50-year-old resident of the Jabalya refugee camp.
The report stated that the local Jewish residents opened fire in the
direction of an open field, killing the man and wounding two others. IDF
soldiers participated in the alleged attack according to the report.
++++
12. Exchanges of gunfire at Rafiach border crossing
(BNI-JAN.2) PA sources report seven persons were injured by IDF mortar
fire during exchanges of gunfire on Tuesday morning, in southern Gaza near
the Rafiach border crossing to Egypt.
++++
13. IDF soldiers ordered to demolish home used in Kahane murders
(BNI-JAN.2) IDF soldiers today provided protection to tractor operators
while the home used to launch the Sunday morning terrorist attack south of
Ofra was demolished.
Rabbi Binyamin Kahane and his wife Talia were killed in the attack and
five of their children were injured. It was learned that the 52 bullets
aimed at the Kahane vehicle were fired from the yard of the home in the
village of Ein Yabroud.
++++
14. Tens of Jordan Valley residents chain themselves to border fence
(BNI-JAN.2) In an act of protest, tens of Jordan Valley residents on
Tuesday morning chained themselves to the border fence between Israel and
Jordan. The protesters were demanding that Prime Minister/Defense Minister
Ehud Barak meet with them.
The residents of the 24 Jordan Valley communities fear Barak is willing to
give away their homes to secure a peace deal with the PA.
++++
15. Netanya car bomb contained 20 kilograms of explosives
(BNI-JAN.2) The car bomb that exploded on Netanya=92s Herzl Street on
Monday
evening contained 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosive materials police
investigators report. 54 persons were injured in the attack.
++++
16. Stone-throwing attacks in Galilee
(BNI-JAN.2) Stone-throwing attacks were reported on Tuesday near Beit
Rimon, in the Galilee. There were no reports of injuries.
---------------
1. Update on Route 443 shooting attack=09
2. Soldiers fire at Israeli car at Nablus area checkpoint=09
3. Heavy exchanges of gunfire at Netzarim=09
4. Soldiers attacked with gunfire near Kfar Darom=09
**************************
2-JAN-00 =96 8:59pm
**************************
1. Update on Route 443 shooting attack
(BNI-JAN.2) One of the shooting victims from the terrorist attack a short
time ago is being transported to Tel HaShomer Hospital in Tel Aviv with a
head injury. The victim is described to be in serious condition in a
comatose state. He was transported in a paramedic advanced life support
ambulance.
A second victim is being transported by ambulance to Assaf HaRofeh
Hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest and/or jaw and is reported to
be in moderate condition according to an emergency medical service
spokesperson.
The shooting occurred on Route 443, the Jerusalem-Modi=92in road at the
Maccabim-Re=92ut Checkpoint.
On December 21, 2000, 29-year-old Eliyahu Cohen was shot to death near
the
area of this latest attack, on Route 443, as he was making his way home to
the Jerusalem area.
As a result of the latest attack, Route 443 is closed in both directions.
Preliminary reports state there were three occupants in the car targeted
by terrorists. It is unknown if the gunfire came from a stationary ambush
position or from a passing vehicle. The location of the attack is on the
=93Green Line.=94
++++
2. Soldiers fire at Israeli car at Nablus area checkpoint
(BNI-JAN.2) IDF soldiers on Tuesday evening fired at an Israeli car that
failed to yield at a military checkpoint in Samaria south of Nablus.
Soldiers ordered the car to halt for inspection, adding it appeared
suspicious =96 traveling towards them with its lights off. When the motoris=
t
failed to comply with orders, soldiers fired at the tires. The gunfire did
not strike the car.
The motorist, a Jewish resident of one of the area communities, explained
to soldiers he was traveling without lights because he feared being
targeted by Arab terrorists.
++++
3. Heavy exchanges of gunfire at Netzarim
(BNI-JAN.2) IDF soldiers at Netzarim in Gaza on Tuesday evening were
involved in heavy exchanges of gunfire emanating from the nearby PA
autonomous areas. There were no reported injured among Israeli forces.
++++
4. Soldiers attacked with gunfire near Kfar Darom
(BNI-JAN.2) IDF soldiers near the community of Kfar Darom in southern Gaza
were attacked by gunfire from the nearby PA autonomous area a short time
ago. There were no injures to Israeli forces that returned fire.
--------------------
1. Terror victim arrives at Tel HaShomer Hospital=09
2. Soldiers escape injury in grenade attack=09
3. Rachel=92s Tomb comes under fire on Tuesday evening=09
4. Soldiers in southern Gaza attacked by gunfire=09
**************************
2-JAN-00 =96 10:12pm
**************************
1. Terror victim arrives at Tel HaShomer Hospital
(BNI-JAN.2) The victim of the shooting attack on Route 443 arrived at Tel
HaShomer Hospital about one-hour ago. His condition is described as
=93grave=94 as physicians work to save his life. The victim, a man in his
thirties, was wounded in his head and as a result is comatose and on life
support systems.
The second victim in the attack, a man about 25, was transported to Assaf
HaRofeh Hospital. He was shot in the mandible (jaw) area and is described
in moderate condition and fully conscious.
++++
2. Soldiers escape injury in grenade attack
(BNI-JAN.2) An IDF jeep was attacked with a hand grenade near Sabastia a
short time ago. There were no injuries or damages.
++++
3. Rachel=92s Tomb comes under fire on Tuesday evening
(BNI-JAN.2) Soldiers assigned to Rachel=92s Tomb in the PA autonomous city
of Bethlehem were attacked with gunfire on Tuesday evening. There were no
reports of injuries.
++++
4. Soldiers in southern Gaza attacked by gunfire
(BNI-JAN.2) Soldiers in southern Gaza near the Rafiach crossing to Egypt
were attacked by gunfire from the nearby PA autonomous areas. There were
no reported injuries to Israeli forces.
++++
++++
News items published by BNI (=93BreakingNews-Israel=94) and/or =93BNI.Elect=
ion=94
lists, may be distributed, copied, posted providing the websites and other
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========
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Medical Armageddon Being Paved With Human Feces In The Food Chain
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:09 -0500
Medical Armageddon Being Paved With Human Feces In The Food Chain
By The Idaho Observer
12-31-00
KING 5 TV (Seattle) reported Nov. 20, 2000, that thousands of tons of sewag=
e
sludge (processed human waste) that has been renamed 'biosolids' are being
spread on farms across the state and other states throughout the country.
The practice is cause for concern in three specific areas with regard to
contamination of the food chain.
Last month in The Observer we reported that traces of unmetabolized
synthetic
pharmaceutical drugs such as Prosac, antibiotics and hormones are turning
up
in the groundwater of Europe and North America. Levels of these substances
are being detected because as much as 95 percent of synthetic drugs
ingested
are not metabolized and leave the body in their original forms through the
urine and the feces. If prescription drugs are being detected in the water
after it has been treated, we can infer that they will also be present in
the
=ECbiosolids=EE being spread all over the crops of this nation.
The presence of metals in 'biosolids' is also a concern. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and Washington's Department of Ecology
claim
the metal content of =ECbiosolids=EE processed at the state-of-the-art West
Point
Treatment Plant in Seattle is minimal.
West Point Manager Dick Finger explains that raw sewage is digested,
heated
and spun at his facility until it's just right for shipment to the fields.
"We make sure the products that we produce are of a very high quality," sai=
d
Finger.
Government agencies also claim that the potential for the spread of
transmissible disease is low because the soil upon which it is deposited
will
kill any remaining pathogens. "Am I concerned about significant impacts to
human health and the environment? No, not based on the information I've
seen
so far," says state Biosolids Coordinator Kyle Dorsey.
It is well known that fully decomposed material, even if it is human waste,
is beneficial to the soil as organic matter and provides plants with the
nutrients needed to grow healthy and yield abundantly. Treated sewage is no=
t
fully decomposed. For government agencies to claim that =ECbiosolids=EE are=
safe
is to ignore a tremendously important body of published science.
State of Washington 'biosolids' policy is likely contributing to the most
ominous food supply disaster looming on the human horizon: Prions.
Prions are protein crystals that grow in grain fungi. Prions are nearly
indestructible. We are being exposed to prions by eating animals such as
cows
that eat prion-contaminated grains. We are also being exposed to prions
when
we eat prion-contaminated grains.
Prions are crystals; crystals are attracted to electromagnetic energy; our
brains produce electromagnetic energy; prions attracted to our brains cause
lesions called encephalopathies; encephalopathies cause swelling of the
brain; swelling of the brain causes dementia. Having prions in your brain
also makes a person more open to suggestions that may be encoded
through the
transmission of TV and radio waves.
Prion disease, which was called 'kuru' when it was discovered in the in New
Guinea in the early 1960s, is called 'mad cow disease' in cattle, 'whirling
disease' in fish, 'scrapie' in pigs and sheep, 'wasting disease' in wild
game
and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in people (there is data to show that as many
as 200,000 Americans who have been misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's
disease may
actually be suffering the ravages of prion disease).
If our food supply is already contaminated with prions, which there is
overwhelming evidence to suggest that it is, then 'fertilizing' crops with
human waste is going to exacerbate the situation.
'Every organism has a food supply that it depends upon for life. If the foo=
d
supply is changed or contaminated, the organism must either adapt or
become
extinct,' Clyde Reynolds, ND, explained.
Scientists at Cornell University have serious concerns about the use of
'biosolids' as fertilizer. A team from Cornell tore apart the EPA's
assumptions about the safety of the sludge.
Cornell found EPA's Cancer Risk Assessment is 'not protective,' and its
enforcement and oversight is =ECinadequate.=EE It also found that pathogens=
may
survive in soil, especially in cool, wet conditions.
The team from Cornell believes that there is no way to protect the public
from leaching and flooding that may spread live pathogens.
Despite these justifiable concerns, Washington state allows sludge to be
dumped in every county. There are no state-mandated testing procedures for
pathogens once 'biosolids' are dumped.
KING 5 test results
"Bob Thode spreads 22,000 wet tons of sludge over 600 acres at his Fire
Mountain Farms in Lewis County. For that, he is paid more than $400,000 a
year," reported KING 5 News.
Thode's neighbors are not impressed with his farming practices and equate
living downstream from him to living downstream from a flushing toilet.
KING 5 Investigators decided to compare a sample of the sediment in one of
Thode's ditches taken in 1994 (before 'biosolids') to one taken in the exac=
t
same place after six years of being licensed by the state to spread the
sludge on his crops above the ditch.
Levels of all metals have increased drastically. KING 5 Investigators
reportedly gave test results to Dorsey, who thought that pure 'biosolids' -=
-
not ditch sediment -- was what KING 5 tested. Levels of pharmaceutical
drugs
were not tested, nor were the presence of prions tested.
"While our test is not conclusive, it has raised serious questions, and the
state says more comprehensive testing may be needed," KING 5 concluded.
Plants absorb metals and other soil components so long as the particles are
small enough. Therefore we have no idea how much metal may be ingested
upon
consumption of food grown in =ECbiosolid=EE enriched soil.
"The government does not require food grown in sludge to be labeled," KING =
5
concluded.
http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20001206.htm
via: isml@egroups.com
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Subject: [bprlist] Infobeat News items (1/2/01) PM
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:09 -0500
*** Syrian president Assad marries
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad has married a
young Syrian woman who grew up in London, his official media
reported Tuesday. In a brief front-page story accompanied by a large
photograph of Assad - but none of his bride - the state newspaper
Tishreen said Assad and Asma Akhras had a New Year's Day ceremony.
Speculation had been rife that the 35-year-old president was
preparing to marry - or perhaps already had - and much of the talk
had focused on Akhras, who is in her 20s. She is the daughter of a
Syrian cardiologist practicing in London and from a prominent family
in Homs, 100 miles north of Damascus. Tishreen, the only Syrian
newspaper to publish Tuesday after the New Year's holiday, provided
few details, saying only that Akhras had a degree in computer
science from a British university.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405632030
*** Documents: Jordan wanted airstrike
LONDON (AP) - The late King Hussein of Jordan called for an Israeli
air strike on Syrian troops supporting a 1970 Palestinian uprising
against his rule, according to British documents declassified
Tuesday. Cut off from direct contact with the United States and
Israel during the two-week Black September uprising, Hussein sent a
plea for air support via the British Embassy in Amman, according to
a summary of a Sept. 21, 1970 Cabinet meeting. It was the only known
instance of an Arab country requesting an Israeli military attack on
a fellow Arab nation. The plea for Israeli help during the two-week
civil was reported at the time by Israeli and other regional radio
stations. Government officials and the late king himself had refused
to confirm or deny the radio reports at the time. The Jewish state
apparently never carried out the request. Some 2,000 people died in
13 days of fighting during the Black September crisis, which was
sparked by a series of airliner hijackings by Palestinian militants.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405631747
*** New faces at UN Security Council
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Five new members of the Security Council took
up their duties Tuesday, preparing to tackle major topics on the
U.N. agenda, including conflicts in Africa and new U.N. reports on
the violations of diamond bans in Sierra Leone and Angola. Colombia,
Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore were elected to two-year
terms by the General Assembly in October to replace Argentina,
Canada, Malaysia, Namibia and the Netherlands, whose two-year terms
ended Sunday. They join permanent members Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States, and non-permanent members Bangladesh,
Jamaica, Mali, Tunisia and Ukraine, in making up the full 15-member
council. Singapore joins the council not only as a first-time member
but also as president for the month of January. Singapore was forced
to take up the job because the presidency schedule rotates
alphabetically and fell on Singapore in January.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405633291
*** 2nd earthquake hits Philippines
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A strong earthquake shook the southern
Philippines Tuesday, the second in two days, but there were no
immediate reports of injuries or damage, authorities said. The
earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, struck about 3:30
p.m. and was centered some 675 miles southeast of Manila off the
east coast of Mindanao island, the Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology said. A movement in the Philippine
trench, a fault line running along the country's eastern Pacific
coast, triggered the quake. It also caused the magnitude 6.6 tremor
that shook the area on Monday. Tuesday's tremor was strong enough to
knock papers off desks in Cagayan de Oro city, about 200 miles
northwest of the epicenter. The Philippine archipelago sits on at
least four major faults and lies in the so-called Pacific "ring of
fire," where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common.
Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=405631642
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Subject: [bprlist] Daily World Affairs Report items (1/1/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:09 -0500
RIGHT-WING CROWD ATTACKS 10 ARABS DURING KAHANE
FUNERAL
Nearly 20,000 mourners shouted "death to Arabs" Sunday as the funeral for
right-wing extremist Binyamin Kahane, slain in an ambush earlier in the
day, verged on bedlam. Angry mourners attacked Palestinians or Arab
Israelis, and police charged a crowd several hundred strong as they broke
into a supermarket near the residence of Ehud Barak. The hearse
transporting the coffin of Kahane, 34, and his wife Talia, 33, was held up in
the press of people through central Jerusalem on the way to the Givat Shaul
cemetery.
Two Arabs were reported seriously injured, rocks were thrown at
policemen, injuring 10 of them, and the tires of journalists' cars were
slashed. Police said 5 people were arrested. "This is enough. We must stir,"
Noam Federman, a Hebron settler and leader of the Kach party founded by
Kahane's father, Rabbi Meir Kahane, shouted into a microphone in the poor
Orthodox neighborhood of Shmuel Hanavi.
"We must take our destiny in our own hands. We must not become
accustomed to Jews dying. Enough!" Federman cried, articulating the Kach
ideology, which advocates establishing a theocratic state and expelling all
Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian territories. "It is not the Israeli army
who will protect us, neither is it the government, nor the right nor left. We
must guard our future with our own hands," his voice blared, eliciting shouts
for "vengeance" from the crowd outside the yeshiva.
A rabbi told the mourners to strike back at the Kahanes' killers and urged
them "to put in place a government that will obey nothing but divine law."
The crowd circulated a collection for the Kahanes' 5 daughers, who were
shot and wounded in the attack on their parents' car as it drove through the
West Bank. As darkness fell, the hearse aproached the cemetery where
the Kahanes would be buried next to his father.
Youths carrying metal bars smashed the windows of a store where an
Arab was alleged to work and proceeded to do the same to a string of other
shops. The police followed the procession but stayed at a distance. With
every approach, the marchers hurled insults at them, accusing the officers
of collaborating with Arabs. But when marchers gathered by a supermarket
opposite the home of Ehud Barak, whom the right-wing accuse of being
weak, police charged the crowd. (Agence France-Presse)
BARAK SAYS HE WANTS "CIVILISED DIVORCE" WITH
PALESTINIANS
Ehud Barak said Sunday he wanted to achieve a "civilised divorce" with the
Palestinians by means of an peace agreement. "Our relations with the
Palestinians have never been described as a marriage of love, and that is
why we must try for a separation," he said on television. "In the framework
of an agreement it will be a civilised divorce, and much more painful if we
do not reach an accord. Finally, we want to arrive at a physical separation
from the Palestinians, which will enable us to live in our country and them in
theirs."
Barak warned earlier Sunday that increased violence was likely if the
Palestinians reject a last-ditch peace plan proposed by President Clinton's
peace plan, and Israel would take unilateral action as a result. "If the
Palestinians are not prepared to advance the process, a negative response
risks bringing an increase in violence," Barak's office quoted him as telling a
weekly cabinet meeting. "If this happens Israel will take time out and
prepare for a unilateral splitting (from the Palestinian territories), while
leaving the door open for resuming the process when the Palestinians are
ready. If the other side is not disposed, Israel will have its reply, and will be
prepared for every eventuality."
The Israeli government has told Clinton it accepts his plan in principle, but
Barak repeated Sunday that he would not sign any accord giving the
Palestinians sovereignty over east Jerusalem's mosque compound. "But that
does not mean that we must not seek formulas which would allow the
recognition of of the special link between the 2 sides with regard to such a
sensitive site."
The Palestinians have not responded officially to Clinton's proposals, saying
that more clarification is needed. The plan would theoretically give them all
the Gaza Strip and 90% of the West Bank, as well as some areas of
Jerusalem, but they would have to renounce the right of return of 3.7mn
refugees, many of whom fled Israel on its creation in 1948. Barak ruled out
in his television address any return of refugees.
Barak said earlier Sunday he hoped Yasser Arafat would give "a positive
response" to the Clinton plan. Arafat, speaking in Tunis, said he wanted to
go to Washington to discuss the plan further with the US president. But he
described the question of refugees and the al-Aqsa mosque as fundamental.
Palestinian negotiatior Saeb Erekat, speaking in Amman, Jordan, said the
Palestinians were considering the plan seriously but needed more details.
He regretted that Washington was asking for an agreement to it in principle
before explaining it further. (Agence France-Presse)
THE NIGHT SKY FOR JANUARY
The Pleiades cluster in Taurus, known in ancient myth as the Seven Sisters
and one of the famous objects in the sky, has been the scene of an
extraordinary discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope. The ghostly
tendrils of an interstellar dust cloud are being destroyed by the light of
Merope, one of its brightest stars. This gives us a clue to what the Pleiades
must have been a few million years ago - not the bright cluster of stars that
we see today, but a hazy nebula like the Great Nebula in Orion (M42), at
present a splodge of gas and dust in which new stars are being formed.
The Pleiades cluster is about 30mn years old. For all of human history it has
appeared as it is now, but earlier, in the age of the dinosaurs - if there had
been anyone here to see it - it would have appeared as one of those
enigmatic objects, half star and half something else, that fill the sky with
mystery.
Towards the southern horizon is the fascinating constellation of Canis Major
(the "Big Dog"), dominated by Sirius, the "Dog Star" which, because it is
only 9 light-years away, appears as the brightest star in the sky. (Its
appearance over ancient Rome during the most humid part of the summer
marked the "Dog Days" when everyone became most bad-tempered - the
Romans had a strong tendency towards bad temper.) There is another
mystery about Sirius. To ancient writers in Greece and Rome, it appeared
red or orange, rather than the brilliant white we see it as today. Horace,
Cicero, Seneca and Ptolemy were emphatic on the point.
Now this appears impossible. Stars come in many colours, but it normally
take them tens of millions of years to change those colours rather than a
few centuries. And yet Sirius seemed to have changed from red to white in
a mere 4 centuries. In 577 AD, the Frankish bishop Gregory of Tours called
it "rubeola", meaning red or rusty red, while 4 centuries later the Arab
astronomer Al Sufi saw it as white. What can have brought about this
change? The only possible explanation is a substitution, that the ancients
and ourselves were looking at a different star that lies in the same place.
This is possible since Sirius has a collapsed, superdense orbiting companion
star known as Sirius B, which today is only visible through a powerful
telescope. Some time before its collapse, Sirius B would have been a red
giant like Betelgeuse in Taurus. But could the "some time" have been just
400 years? It is a bizarre conclusion, but it fits the facts. (The London
Telegraph)
MICHAEL TURNER
(mykelturner@airmail.net)
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Subject: [bprlist] Arutz-7 News items (1/2/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:09 -0500
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001 / Tevet 7, 5761
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. BARAK BACKTRACKS?
2. MIRACLES IN NETANYA, GUSH KATIF
3. CHEMICAL WARFARE BY THE PALESTINIANS
4. RUBENSTEIN LETTER DRAWS FIRE, DEFENSE
5. ARAB MURDERERS USE IDF-SUPPLIED WEAPONS
6. YESHA SETTLERS HAVE SUPPORT OF NATION
1. BARAK BACKTRACKS?
The Prime Minister said this morning that the chances of reaching an
agreement with the Palestinians in the coming weeks are very
small. Blaming Arafat for the impasse, Barak said, "In the current
circumstances, and given the severe terrorist attacks, the talks have given=
way to intensive action on our part to stop the terrorism... We are also
making plans for a unilateral separation." He said that if Arafat responds=
affirmatively to Clinton's proposals - which call for Israel to divide
Jerusalem, give away the homes of tens of thousands of Jews of Judea,
Samaria, and Gaza, leave the Jordan Valley, and allow at least 150,000
Arabs to enter Israel - "we will have to consider our response - but not
under the current level of violence."
Paraphrasing the famous no-drinking slogan, "When Drinking, No Driving,"
Israel's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau said today, "When [There is] Killing,=
No Talking." In a message publicized this morning, the Chief Rabbi states,=
"With the broken cries of the orphans and wounded ringing in our ears,
diplomatic talks should be halted. The old system [formulated by Rabin]
whereby 'negotiations take place as if there was no war, and war is fought=
as if there were no negotiations,' no longer works... If the Palestinian
Authority exists is not in control, there is no point in negotiating with i=
t."
Later this afternoon, Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee more forcefully that the talks will not be resumed while the
terrorism continues. PA senior Nabil Shaath dismissed Barak's new
stance: "Every once in a while, he has to appear to be tough," he said.
Arafat will deliver the PA answer regarding the American proposals to
President Clinton in Washington tonight. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai
Huberman reports that in a letter to Clinton, Arafat wrote that the Halutza=
Sands in the Negev will not suffice as compensation for the areas of Judea=
and Samaria that Israel demands to keep. Arafat further wrote that the
Arabs of 1948 must be granted the right to determine whether they wish to
"return to their homes."
2. MIRACLES IN NETANYA, GUSH KATIF
There seemed to be a consensus in the coastal city of Netanya last
night: A great miracle had happened there. After a Palestinian-placed car=
bomb exploded on a busy and crowded downtown street at 7 PM last night,
Mayor Miriam Feierburg said, "Whoever saw the scene was able to see the
great miracle that occurred here... We have to collectively recite the
HaGomel blessing [for having been saved from certain danger]." Only one
person was severely wounded in the powerful blast - a man who was
apparently involved in preparing the bomb. His chances of surviving are
not great, said the director of Beilinson Hospital, where the apparent
terrorist is being treated; only seven other victims of the attack, in
which a total of 56 people were injured, are still hospitalized in
Netanya's Laniado and other hospitals.
Following last night's explosion, Israel closed the Palestinian Authority's=
Dahaniye International Airport in the Gaza Strip, as well as the border
crossings to Jordan and Egypt. Other announced measures included the
"encirclement" of Palestinian Authority cities and denying Palestinian VIPs=
freedom of movement. A protest tent was erected last night on Herzl St. by=
Netanya residents who demand an immediate cessation of talks with the
Palestinians.
Another miracle apparently occurred in northern Gaza's Dugit this morning:=
a roadside bomb exploded as a school bus passed by, but did not cause
any
injuries. One terrorist was killed in the ensuing exchange of fire. Not
far away, an IDF sapper was lightly wounded when a bomb exploded outside
the Kfar Darom greenhouses.
An IDF soldier was wounded and is listed in moderate condition after
Palestinians shot him outside the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hevron this
afternoon. Kol Rina News Agency reports that he was evacuated under fire
exchanged between Israeli security forces and Palestinians=85 A bus was
shot
at on the road leading to Hevron from the south; bullets hit the bus, but
no one was hurt=85 An IDF worker was hit by a bullet fired at him near the=
Nurit outposts on the Lebanese border this afternoon=85
3. CHEMICAL WARFARE BY THE PALESTINIANS
The Palestinians have adopted chemical warfare methods. Arutz-7 has
learned that some of the bombs recently placed by Palestinian terrorists
have included agricultural chemicals that can worsen the condition of
victims wounded by shrapnel.
IDF bulldozers this morning razed three houses and a stone wall in the Arab=
village of Ein Yabrud, across the highway from Ofrah, where Binyamin and
Talia Kahane were murdered two days ago. The buildings also likely served=
the terrorists who shot upon an Israeli bus several weeks ago. Residents
of Ofrah continue to man the nearby hill they took over yesterday in
response to the murder of the Kahanes; they placed a watchtower there last=
night. The mass-protests and march to Jerusalem that they began
yesterday
resumed this afternoon from five main intersections: Maaleh Adumim, Gush
Etzion, Shilat-Modiin, Latrun, and the T-junction between Ofrah and Beit
El. The slogan of the hundreds of marchers: "Israel fights for her life
[lit.: soul]."
The Tapuach Junction in the Shomron area was blocked this morning by
dozens
of residents, in protest against the deterioration in the security
situation. The police arrested a number of the residents. Dozens of
Jordan Valley residents this morning chained themselves to a fence near
Patzael. They are demanding that the Jordan Valley remain Israeli under
any future agreement.
4. RUBENSTEIN LETTER DRAWS FIRE, DEFENSE
Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein's letter to Prime Minister Barak
yesterday, in which he strongly criticized the conducting of the
negotiations during an election campaign, was the subject of great
controversy today. Rubenstein wrote, "While there is no legal limitation
on a government during an election period=85 An election-eve agreement wit=
h
the Palestinians should be such that it does not raise even the suspicion
that it was subject to time-related considerations - namely, election
considerations=85 even more so in the case of a minority government whose=
prime minister has resigned=85 I raise doubt as to the moral authority of=
the government while the resigned prime minister awaits re-election, and
when the president of the United States, who is acting as midwife for the
agreement, will no longer bear any responsibility for the implementation of=
the agreement=85"
Barak was unsurprisingly critical of the Attorney-General this morning,
saying that the letter was in opposition to previous things he himself had=
previously said, and reflected only his "personal, political, right-wing
opinions." It may be noted that Rubenstein was attacked several times from=
the right side of the political spectrum since assuming office. Knesset
Law Committee Chairman Amnon Rubenstein (Meretz) and Justice Minister
Yossi
Beilin came to the defense of the Attorney-General; the former said that
Barak must not attack the Attorney-General, "who works with dedication and=
under very difficult conditions." Beilin said that Elyakim had not said
that the government is forbidden from conducting negotiations at this time,=
"but merely that it is not suitable. We disagree, and feel that we have a=
moral obligation to continue to seek an end to the violence." Beilin
added, however, that he would "not serve for one minute in a government
that would fire its Attorney-General."
On the other hand, Law Professor Dr. Ruth Gavison attacked the
Attorney-General for assuming the role of moral arbiter. Absorption
Minister Yuli Tamir also said that he should not have gotten involved in
the "political question" of whether or not to continue the negotiations,
and that "there are some things that cannot be decided only by legality."
Hebrew University Political Science Prof. Shlomo Avineri, who recently
wrote about his belief in the "moral justice of an historical compromise"
with the Palestinians, came out in favor of the Attorney-General's
position: "There has never been anything like this in the State of Israel,=
where a minority government, a transition government, and one headed by a
prime minister who has resigned, is conducting negotiations on one of the
essential and most important things that any Israeli government has ever
discussed. Not only peace, but Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. These are
things that are very difficult, very profound, very important... It is
common in every democratic society in the world that a transition
government does not make far-reaching national decisions, certainly not
decisions of historic proportions. Barak is being deceitful, and is walking=
on the fine line of the edge of democratic legitimacy."
Likud MK Silvan Shalom said that Barak has lost his "moral and legal
mandate" to hold negotiations, and that if he wants to change his agenda
and "divide Jerusalem, give away the Jordan Valley, and cede the Temple
Mount, he should ask the people for a mandate to so do."
The Supreme Court issued an order yesterday, demanding that the
government
explain within two days why it is conducting negotiations during an
election period.
5. ARAB MURDERERS USE IDF-SUPPLIED WEAPONS
The weapons used in the terrorist murder of Eli Cohen of Modi'in as he was=
driving along the highway to Givat Ze'ev some ten days ago were supplied to=
the Palestinians by Israel. Ballistic tests carried out during an inquiry=
into the murder found that the bullets that struck Cohen came from
Kalachnikov sub-machine guns that were given to the Palestinian
para-military police force by Israel. The last consignment of Kalachnikov=
guns from Israel to the PA - involving 300 weapons - was carried out nine
months ago.
6. YESHA SETTLERS HAVE SUPPORT OF NATION
A survey by the Brandman Institute shows that 70% of Israel's adult Jewish=
population rejects the notion that the settlements in Judea and Samaria are=
the reason for the recent Palestinian violence. Only 12% are in favor of
"punishing" the settlements with boycotts and the like, while 77% are
against this idea. Some 80% of the public feel that they are "strong" and=
will be able to withstand the current crisis. Ruth Brandman, head of
the Brandman Institute for Research and Marketing Consulting, sums
up: "The results show that as opposed to the popular conception that the
public is apathetic or objects to the Yesha communities, we have found that=
the public is 'with the Yesha towns.'"
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Weekend News Today items (1/2/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:10 -0500
Barak to IDF: Prepare for war
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Jerusalem Post
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak
instructed the General Staff yesterday to prepare for an outbreak of regional
war. Meeting in Tel Aviv yesterday with the weekly General Staff forum,
Barak told his generals that they had to "bear in mind" that the security
situation could deteriorate and lead the entire Middle East into a deadly
conflict.
Barak's instructions to the IDF came as talks with the Palestinians appear to
be going nowhere. They also came following Iranian threats that Teheran
would retaliate if Israel struck at Lebanon or Syria. The two scenarios which
the military sees as most likely are a total collapse of peace talks with the
Palestinians and all-out war with the Palestinian Authority. Israeli retaliation
could easily lead to Egyptian and Jordanian responses against Israel, as well
as dispatching of Arab auxiliary forces, including Iraqi attacks.
The second scenario is a quick deterioration on the Lebanon border by
Hizbullah with Syrian and Iranian encouragement. A decisive Israeli response
could result in a large-scale offensive. The Arab armies have closely watched
the IDF and its progressive build-up with advanced weapons and far superior
air force and armor. Senior intelligence officials have said that except for
Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Arab nations have not tried to reach parity with
the IDF. Syria gave up on that quest over a decade ago. But they have
invested in weapons that would hit Israel's Achilles heel, such as surface-to-
surface missiles and chemical and biological weapons.
IDF: PA has freed all Hamas terrorists
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Jerusalem Post
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- The Palestinian Authority has freed all the Hamas
terrorists, and other opposition group terrorists, it was holding in its jails,
senior IDF officers said today. They were speaking at the Knesset's Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee. The PA is giving the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad its backing for terror activities, the sources said, adding, that the PA is
attempting to cover the tracks of PA security apparatus who are also
carrying out attacks. The officers cast doubt on the likelihood of PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat showing and degree of flexibility in his upcoming
meeting with US President Clinton.
Lebanese group takes responsibility for bomb this morning in Gaza Strip
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Jerusalem Post
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- A Lebanese terrorist group calling itself "The Omar El
Muktar Forces," has taken responsibility for the roadside bomb that
exploded this morning in the Gaza Strip. An IDF tracker sustained moderate
wounds in the blast. The soldier was transferred to Soroka Hospital in Beer
Sheba for treatment, Israel Radio said.
Bush to pull US troops out of Balkans
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: London Times
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- In a move certain to upset his European allies, George W
Bush plans to begin withdrawing American peacekeepers from the Balkans
shortly after he moves into the White House next month. Senior advisers to
the Republican president-elect have told The Sunday Times that America will
have removed all 10,000 of its ground troops from Bosnia and Kosovo within
four years, leaving only logistical and intelligence teams behind. John
Hulsman, a conservative analyst tapped as a Balkans adviser for the new
administration, said Bush was concerned about "imperial overstretch" - a
buzzword within the new national security team for America's involvement in
"nation building" abroad during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
Sha'ath: Clarifications from Clinton could lead to summit
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Ha'aretz
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- Nabil Sha'ath, Palestinian Authority Minister of Planning
and International Cooperation, said that if PA Chairman Yasser Arafat gets
from U.S. President Bill Clinton the clarifications he is seeking, it will help
make possible a three-way summit or a return to the negotiating table, Israel
Radio reported. Sha'ath said the Palestinians are hoping for improvements in
the American document regarding Jerusalem, the right of return, final borders
and Israeli settlements.
Jordan receives British tanks
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- Jordan has accepted delivery of British tanks. Officials said
Jordan has received the third batch of Challenger-1 tanks as part of London's
military aid to the Hashemite kingdom. The tanks arrived at the Red Sea port
of Aqaba. The official Jordanian Petra news agency did not cite the number
of tanks that have arrived. But Jordanian sources said the number was
around 20. The last delivery of the British tanks was in September. At the
time, Jordan received about 30 tanks.
Quietly, Egypt and Jordan back away from Clinton
Weekend News Today
Lead: Kelly
Source: Middle East Newsline
Tue Jan 2,2001 -- Egypt and Jordan are backing away from the Middle East
peace proposals of President Bill Clinton as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
is scheduled to arrive in the White House for what could be a last round of
peace talks with the United States. Arafat left for the United States for a
meeting with Clinton at the White House on late Tuesday in what U.S.
officials said would be a "last chance" to save the peace process. The two
men spoke on late Monday and Clinton also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak.
After the conversation, PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told the
PA Al Ayam daily on Tuesday that Arafat raised seven demands during his
one-hour conversation with Clinton. The minister quoted Arafat as telling
Clinton that the Palestinians reject Israeli control over the entire Western
Wall in Jerusalem, demand territorial contiguity between Jerusalem and the
West Bank, call for Palestinian refugee return, demand international
guarantees as well as the end of any Israeli presence in the Jordan valley
and that a Palestinian declaration of the end of its conflict with Israel be
delayed until the agreement is fully implemented.
http://216.219.160.226/cgi-
bin/readnews.cgi?day=01_01_2&item=#978463233
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Harpazo.net News items (1/2/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 18:54:10 -0500
Russia Ready To Build =A340bn Tunnel Link To America
It would cost =A340 billion, take 20 years to complete and even then would =
link
only two of the world=92s most remote places. Yet a tunnel between Russia
and America under the Bering Strait can and will be built, according to a
senior Moscow official.
Emboldened by the new millennium, the man in charge of modernising
Russia=92s vast but creaking infrastructure has said that the construction =
of a
60-mile tunnel under the international dateline from eastern Chukotka to
western Alaska is only a matter of time. The money, he insists, is availabl=
e.
The tunnel would be the biggest project of its kind. At the windswept point=
where they appear on most maps to kiss, the Russian and American
mainlands are separated by only 23 miles of water and their furthest
outposts, the Diomede Islands, by three. An international feasibility study=
concluded, however, that to be safe a tunnel joining them would have to be=
more than twice as long.
The study is ready to go before the World Bank and the US and Russian
Governments with a draft agreement on how to take the project forward,
Viktor Razbegin, director of Moscow=92s Centre for Regional Transport
Projects, said. the times
Thousands Hit By Cholera
Twelve thousand people have been infected with cholera in the South African=
province of KwaZulu-Natal, since an epidemic began there in mid-August. =
The South African health ministry said 52 people had died of the disease, b=
ut
the majority had been successfully treated.
An education programme has been introduced, and safety measures -
including bleach for purifying water and clean water from tankers - have be=
en
provided.
Health officials will meet members of the World Health Organisation on
Tuesday to discuss other measures to tackle the outbreak. BBC
Quake Shakes Eastern Indonesia
A strong earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale shook eastern
Indonesia on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or
damage, the official Antara news agency reported. It said the earthquake
struck in mid-afternoon and was felt by residents in a wide arc across
northern Sulawesi and in parts of the Molucca Islands, an area that lies
some 2,300 km (1,400 miles) northeast of Jakarta. The agency added that
the quake"s epicentre was in the ocean several hundred km north of the top=
of Sulawesi and with a depth of 100 km (60 miles). Earthquakes regularly hi=
t
Indonesia and occasionally cause widespread damage. Reuters
Study Increases Earthquake Fears For Los Angeles
Los Angeles is sitting on a spongy layer of rock far deeper than was
previously thought, geologists have discovered, making California's most
populous area extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.
A new study of the geology of southern California has also uncovered
dangerous fault lines criss-crossing the well-known San Andreas Fault, the=
root of the area's frequent tremors.
The study, conducted by the US Geological Survey, showed that the basin of=
soft sediment beneath the San Gabriel Valley, an area of suburban Los
Angeles, was three miles deep and shook "like big bowls of Jello" in an
earthquake. The discovery dramatically increases the threat of potential
damage to the area. telegraph
Two Die In Caribbean Sword And Fire Church Attack
Suspected members of an anti-Roman Catholic cult hacked at worshipers
with swords and set them on fire in an attack at a cathedral in St. Lucia t=
hat
killed two people and injured dozens more, the Caribbean News Agency
(CANA) said on Monday.
In a New Year's Eve assault that one witness described as a "scene from
hell," the four or five attackers walked calmly into the Catholic cathedral=
before dousing churchgoers with gasoline, setting them alight and slashing=
at them, CANA said.
Calling the attackers "sick and demonic," St. Lucia's Prime Minister, Dr.
Kenny Anthony, said in a statement: "The evidence of the monstrosity of the=
act was spread out inside the church. There was blood in the spots where
persons were hacked, burnt Bibles, a desecrated altar and other church
furniture either burnt or upended in the melee." Reuters
E-mail Virus Attacks Multiply
Attacks by e-mail viruses soared by 300 per cent during the past year, a
report has revealed. more
www.harpazo.net/news.html
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