( / Associated Press ) - In this photo taken Monday, May 9, 2011, medical workers attend to conjoined twin babies with a single body and two heads born on May 5 in a hospital in Suining city in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. The local Huaxi Metropolis Daily says the twins weighed nine pounds (4 kg) and measured 20 inches (51 centimeters) and have two spines, two esophaguses and shared other organs. Doctors were quoted as saying it would be nearly impossible to separate them.
Wang said Tuesday the parents, who are farmers, did not want to have the babies at first, fearing they could not afford to keep them alive. She said they transferred the twins to a hospital in the nearby metropolis of Chongqing to be examined by experts.
The local Huaxi Metropolis Daily reported the twins weighed 9 pounds (4 kilograms) and measured 20 inches (51 centimeters). They have two spines and two esophaguses and share other organs. Doctors were quoted as saying it would be nearly impossible to separate them.
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WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Competition over the burgeoning defense industry market in South America had U.S. officials feeling threatened by the rise of an Israeli arms firm in the region, leaked diplomatic cables showed.
Cables made public by WikiLeaks and cited in U.S. media said the security company, led by the former head of operations for the Israeli military, made such inroads into Latin America a few years ago that U.S. diplomats saw it as a security risk and moved to thwart the company's expansion.
The diplomats' efforts were made easier when an interpreter for the Israeli firm, Global CST, was allegedly caught peddling classified Colombian Defense Ministry documents to Marxist guerrillas seeking to topple the state, said one cable cited by McClatchy Newspapers.
Global CST marketing led to sales contracts in Colombia, Peru and Panama -- countries with varying levels of close ties with Washington and with shared strategic interests.
(Reuters) - A federal investigation has found serious problems with the worker identification program at U.S. ports that could compromise security, a U.S. senator from New Jersey said on Tuesday.
Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat, released a Government Accountability Office report that said investigators were able to obtain fraudulent Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC) and gain access to secure port facilities.
Amnesty or bust. Though not using those words, that's expected to be the message President Barack Obama will deliver in the border town of El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday.
Obama, according to unofficial reports, will argue that his administration has tightened America's borders and stepped up deportations, and that it is time for Congress to enact a "path to citizenship" for at least some of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in this country.
Wary congressional Republicans and even a few Democrats say that "path to citizenship" means "amnesty," and they're not willing to go down that road again. Previous amnesty programs, which effectively rewarded lawbreakers, simply enticed more illegals to enter the country.
Obama, eager to make good on campaign promises from 2008 and bolster his Hispanic base for 2012, says the time is ripe for immigration reform. The administration reports that it deported a record 392,000 immigrants, and has put more "boots on the ground" along America's southern border.
Workplace raids have stepped up, too, and more businesses are using the federal E-Verify program to screen new hires.
As for the illegals who remain, reformers argue that it is unrealistic to expect the government to deport some 11 million people.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday regretted the ‘unilateral action’ by the United States in Abbottabad and warned that any attack on Pakistan’s strategic assets would be retaliated with full force.
“Let no one draw any wrong conclusions. Any attack against Pakistan’s strategic assets whether overt or covert will find a matching response,” Gilani told the National Assembly in a policy statement over the US military operation in Abbottabad on May 2.
“Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and Armed Forces to defend our sacred homeland,” he said amidst heavy thumping of desks by the Parliamentarians.
The statement by the Prime Minister follows the May 2 US attack deep inside Pakistan’s territory by a group of its Navy SEALs that killed the 9/11 terrorist mastermind and leader of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. He said an investigation into the matter had been ordered which shall be conducted by Adjutant General of the Pakistan Army Lt. Gen. Javed Iqbal.
He also informed the Parliament that the US used its technological ability to evade Pakistan’s radar system. The Prime Minister pointing to the US military operation said “Our people are rightly incensed on the issue of violation of sovereignty as typified by the covert US air and ground assault on the Osama hideout in Abbottabad.”
He said it has raised questions about Pakistan’s defence capability and the security of country’s strategic assets. He said the Abbottabad episode illustrates that Pakistan’s military quickly responded to the US Forces covert incursion. “The Air Force was ordered to scramble. Ground units arrived at the scene quickly ... Our response demonstrates that our Armed Forces reacted, as was expected of them.”
He, however said that there was no denying the US technological ability to evade radars. “We regret that this unilateral action was undertaken without our concurrence,” Gilani said.
“Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences,” he said and pointed that the operation could have gone wrong as was seen by the abandoning of a US helicopter that had to be destroyed on the site. Gilani admitted an intelligence failure, not only of Pakistan, but also of global agencies. “Yes, there has been an intelligence failure. It is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world.”
Rising global temperatures, increasing population, and degradation of water supplies, have created broad support for the growing field of weather modification. The U.S. government has conducted weather modification experiments for over half a century, and the military-industrial complex stands poised to capitalize on these discoveries.
One of the latest programs is HAARP, the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program. This technology can potentially trigger floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. The scientific idea behind HAARP is to “excite” a specific area of the ionosphere and observe the physical processes in that excited area with intention of modifying ecological conditions. HAARP is also a weapon of mass destruction, capable of selectively destabilizing entire regions.
Another EnMod program is that of atmospheric geoengineering or cloud seeding, which has found new life since the global warming scare. Cloud Seeding is cirrus clouds created from airplane contrails. Unlike regular contrails, which dissolve in minutes, these artificial contrails can last for several hours…even days. At a recent international symposium, scientists asserted that “manipulation of climate through modification of cirrus clouds is neither a hoax nor a conspiracy theory.” The only conspiracy surrounding geoengineering is that most governments and industry refuse to publicly admit what anyone can see in the sky or discover in peer-reviewed research. As Dr. Coen Vermeeren, of Delft University of Technology, stated: “Weather manipulation through contrail formation … is in place and fully operational.” Currently, China conducts more cloud seeding projects than any other nation.
Last week marked an important milestone in the war on terrorism for our country. Osama bin Laden applauded the 9/11 attacks. Such deliberate killing of innocent lives deserved retaliation. It is good that bin Laden is dead and justice is served. The way in which he was finally captured and killed shows that targeted retribution is far superior to wars of aggression and nation-building. In 2001 I supported giving the president the authority to pursue those responsible for the vicious 9/11 attacks. However, misusing that authority to pursue nation-building and remaking the Middle East was cynical and dangerous, as the past ten years have proven.
It is tragic that it took ten years, trillions of dollars, tens of thousands of American casualties and many thousands of innocent lives to achieve our mission of killing one evil person. A narrow, targeted mission under these circumstances was far superior to initiating wars against countries not involved in the 9/11 attacks, and that is all we should have done. This was the reason I emphasized at the time the principle of Marque and Reprisal, permitted to us by the US Constitution for difficult missions such as we faced. I am convinced that this approach would have achieved our goal much sooner and much cheaper.
The elimination of Osama bin Laden should now prompt us to declare victory and bring our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Qaeda was never in Iraq and we were supposedly in Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden. With bin Laden gone, there is no reason for our presence in the region – unless indeed it was all about oil, nation-building, and remaking the Middle East and Central Asia.
Hopefully bin Laden does not get the last laugh. He claimed the 9/11 attacks were designed to get the US to spread its military dangerously and excessively throughout the Middle East, bankrupting us through excessive military spending as he did the Soviets, and to cause political dissention within the United States. Some 70 percent of Americans now believe we should leave Afghanistan yet both parties seem determined to stay. The best thing we could do right now is prove bin Laden a false prophet by coming home and ending this madness on a high note.
More than 28 percent of U.S. homeowners owed more than their properties were worth in the first quarter as values fell the most since 2008, Zillow Inc. said today.
Homeowners with negative equity increased from 22 percent a year earlier as home prices slumped 8.2 percent over the past 12 months, the Seattle-based company said. About 27 percent of homes with mortgages were “underwater” in the fourth quarter, according to Zillow, which runs a website with property-value estimates and real-estate listings.
Home prices fell 3 percent in the first quarter and will drop as much as 9 percent this year as foreclosures spread and unemployment remains high, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said. Prices won’t find a floor until 2012, he said.
“We get tired of telling such a grim story, but unfortunately this is the story that needs to be told,” Humphries said in a telephone interview. “Demand is still quite anemic due to unemployment and the fact that home values are still falling. And that tends to make people more cautious about buying.”
As concern grows about child obesity, more people are asking why sugary flavored milk remains a staple of school lunches across the country.
Flavored milk makes up about 70 percent of milk consumed in schools. Most of that milk is chocolate.
Los Angeles schools Superintendent John Deasy is the latest official to push to remove flavored milk from school menus. He's supported by many parents and even British TV chef Jamie Oliver. Oliver has made revamping school food one of his signature causes.
Others argue that if flavored varieties are removed, students won't drink milk. A number of medical groups and the milk industry point to studies saying children who drink flavored milk meet more of their nutrient needs and aren't heavier than non-milk drinkers.
Tripoli, Libya (AP) - NATO warplanes struck Tripoli early Tuesday in the heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital in weeks, hours after an uptick in fighting between rebels and Moammar Gadhafi's forces on a long deadlocked front line in the country's east.
NATO struck at least four sites in Tripoli, setting off crackling explosions that thundered through the city overnight. One strike hit a building that local residents said was used by a military intelligence agency. Another targeted a government building that officials said was sometimes used by parliament members.
It was not immediately clear what the other two strikes hit, but one of them sent plumes of smoke over Tripoli. Libyan officials would not say what that strike hit but the smoke appeared to come from the sprawling compound housing members of Gadhafi's family.
Between explosions, an aircraft dropped burning flares. Some residents responded by raking the sky with gunfire and beeping their horns.
The Tripoli bombing came just hours after heavy fighting was reported Monday on the eastern front, south of Ajdabiya, a rebel-held town about 90 miles (150 kilometers) south of Benghazi, the rebel headquarters in the east.
Hundreds of rebels gathered at a checkpoint outside Ajdabiya on Monday afternoon, when an AP photographer counted about 100 pickup trucks coming back from the front, each carrying four or five fighters and some with mounted submachine guns.
Following New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s call for a “no ride list” that would mimic the notoriously sweeping, oppressive and ineffective “no fly list,” Amtrak has publicly backed the idea, which would officially create a Soviet-style internal passport for American citizens and make the presence of TSA workers conducting grope downs at train stations ubiquitous.
“Amtrak is committed to the safety and security of our passengers and remains a safe way to travel. All countermeasures add value in creating an overall security posture in protecting a rail system that operates in an open environment. The creation of a “do not ride” list is no exception. It would, however, have to be developed in close coordination with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and implemented in a way that respects civil rights and allows for the rapid flow of persons and trains, necessary for effective mass transit. “
The “no ride list” move is part of a long-planned agenda to force Americans into accepting an internal passport that they would need to display at security checkpoints littered across the country at so-called “soft target” locations like subways, malls and sports stadiums. Every single form of transport is slated to be included under an internal passport system that would treat Americans similarly to how Israeli troops treat citizens in occupied Palestine.
An internal passport for Americans is codified under the December 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which Congressman Ron Paul warned at the time would, “Allow the government to establish a Soviet-style internal passport system” that would subject “every citizen to surveillance and screening points”.
It’s also about isolating so-called “domestic extremists” under the terms of the MIAC report who will have their freedom of movement restricted and basic liberties such as Second Amendment rights stripped by the federal government. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants people on the “no fly” list, and by extension a “no ride” list, to also be on a “no buy” list and be prevented from purchasing firearms.
“Anyone, even a member of al-Qaida could purchase a train ticket and board an Amtrak train without so much as a question asked,” Schumer said on Sunday. “So that’s why I’m calling for the creation of an Amtrak no ride list. That would take the secure flight program and apply it to Amtrak trains.”
Of course, anyone could enter a shopping mall or sports stadium with no questions asked, but does that mean America should be festooned with checkpoints staffed by TSA goons asking for people’s papers? Yes, according to Schumer and others who are aggressively pushing for TSA agents, who have continually proven to be prone to predatory criminal behavior, sexual molestation and abuse, to become a literal occupying Gestapo army as America sinks further into a Sovietized police state.
Schumer justified the idea by pointing to alleged evidence obtained from Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, which the White House claimed divulged plans for Al-Qaeda to attack the US train system. The plot, described as “aspirational rather than operational,” was targeted against trains that travel at 500mph, none of which exist in the United States or indeed the world, and was set to center around a sabotage of railway tracks rather than the train itself, rendering Schumer’s call for a no ride list completely obsolete anyway.
As we have documented, VIPR teams are now already swarming America in the name of “security,” having expanded from airports, to train stations, highways and street corners.
The TSA is also already performing grope downs of passengers, including young children, inside train stations. In one case, passengers who disembarked from a train in Savannah, Georgia and were trying to leave the station after their journey were forced by TSA thugs to enter the terminal building in order to be subjected to pat downs. The TSA later lied about the sequence of events in an effort to dismiss criticism.
The no fly list that Schumer seeks to imitate for trains now contains well over one million names and is exponentially expanding. Reports have confirmed that the watch list contains the names of thousands of innocent Americans, including children, lawyers and even a retired Air National Guard brigadier, now a commercial pilot for a major airline.
In some cases, credit reports have been used in calculating the risk score, while the list has also been used to target political activists and anti-war protesters.
In 2008, the chairman of a House technology oversight subcommittee warned that the database used to produce the government’s terror watch lists is “crippled by technical flaws,” and the system designed to replace it may be even worse.
In a letter to the inspector general at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) warned that the upgrade “if actually deployed will leave our country more vulnerable than the existing yet flawed system in operation today.”
Critics have charged that the list is already far too expansive to be in any way effective. Expanding the list to include Amtrak trains, as suggested by Senator Schumer, would only add to this problem.
As Steve Chapman writes for the Chicago Tribune, “Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to create a “no-ride” list for Amtrak, which makes even less sense than the “no-fly” list for airlines. And that’s saying something.
“The terrorist watch list is an odd creature. As the American Civil Liberties Union says, it’s “a vast and growing list of individuals whom the government deems too dangerous to fly, but are too harmless to arrest.”
“If these people are truly, provably dangerous, why aren’t they in jail? Why are they allowed to venture into shopping malls, subway stations, the Willis Tower or Wrigley Field? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to let jihadists go anywhere except a plane or train.”
The transparent haste with which Schumer, a putrid figure whose every action as Senator seems designed to eviscerate the constitutional rights of Americans, seized upon the dubious Bin Laden raid to push his anti-American police state agenda was a revolting display of public relations manipulation.
Internal passports enforced by TSA goons at security checkpoints have no place in America. Chuckie Schumer should be sent to North Korea, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan or somewhere similar if he wishes to live in a country where citizens are forced to show their papers at every turn – and then he should be put on a no fly list to ensure he never comes back to disgrace the public discourse with this kind of garbage again.
They couldn’t find Osama bin Laden or practically any other major al Qaeda figure on the State Department terrorist list, but don’t blame a lack of money for the inadequacies of the Pakistani police. The Pentagon and State Department forked over $162 million in fiscal 2009 to aid Pakistani cops, second only to Afghanistan in the region. A new Government Accountability Office report says the cash was used to train and equip police and that 39 countries get Pentagon-State funds for counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and anticrime missions. The agency didn’t comment on the value of the Pakistan investment. It says the money supports activities by the Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary, and Antinarcotics Force on the Afghan border to combat the drug trade, crooks, and terrorists.
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