New Hampshire Health News Digest

ThisisLondon - Commuting 'more stressful than flying a jet fighter' By Mark Prigg Science Correspondent, Evening Standard 30 November 2004 The true level of stress faced by commuters in London is revealed today. A major new study claims the average journey by train or bus is more stressful than being a fighter pilot in combat, or a police officer in a riot. The researchers also say that as passengers' stress levels rocket, their brains switch off, leading to a condition they identified as "commuter amnesia". Psychologist Dr David Lewis, who led the research, warns that commuters-could suffer serious heart problems. He also says staff are arriving at their offices less able to work. "People's productivity is damaged. The stress levels harm their ability to concentrate when they make it in." Researchers measured the blood pressure and heart beats of more than 125 commuters, on a variety of routes. More than 800 people were also inter...

No Library should be without these! Complete list - Top 1000 things for libraries to stock [OCLC - OCLC Top 1000] Research : OCLC Top 1000 : Complete list Complete list This list contains the "Top 1000" titles owned by OCLC member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" oflibraries around the globe. Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 50,540 libraries in 84 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.

Can the Blue-Red divide in American politics be explained by people's demographic density and number of children? Fascinating Article! "The Baby Gap: Explaining Red and Blue" by Steve Sailer in The American Conservative, December 20, 2004 : "As you've seen on all those red-blue maps, most of America's land is red, even though Kerry won 48 percent of the vote. Even excluding vast Alaska, Bush's counties are only one-fourth as densely populated on average as Kerry's counties. Lower density helps explain why red regions both attract the baby-oriented and encourage larger families among those already there. A dozen years ago, the U. of Chicago sociologist Edward O. Laumann and others wrote a tome with the soporific post-modern title The Social Organization of Sexuality. I wrote to them and suggested a follow-up called The Sexual Organization of Society, because, in my experience with Chicago, where people lived coincided with their sexual sta...

The Australian: WMDs camouflage real reasons behind Iraq invasion [November 26, 2004] For those seriously interested in the question I recommend a seriously interesting new book, America's Secret War by George Friedman. Friedman is founder of Stratfor, a private, subscription-financed global intelligence service, which I find consistently well-informed. Friedman writes of the struggle in Iraq in relentlessly Realpolitik terms. Although the US believed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, the WMDs were ultimately "a cover for a much deeper game". The big game began with the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and the US enlisting the assistance of Saudi Arabia in backing the Afghan resistance. The Saudis provided financing and guerilla fighters. They influenced other Islamic countries to send guerillas. This international brigade included members of Islam's moneyed and educated elite (including Osama bin Laden) - the core of al-Qa...

The Australian: French hostages 'in good spirits' [November 29, 2004] : "French hostages 'in good spirits' From correspondents in London November 29, 2004 NEW footage has emerged of two French reporters taken hostage in Iraq showing both men apparently well and in good spirits, Britain's the Sunday Times reported today. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who marked their 100th day in captivity yesterday, appear on a CD-Rom obtained by the paper, which said the recording was believed to have been made earlier this month. The two are the longest-held Western hostages in Iraq. Chesnot, 37, reportedly says he and Malbrunot are 'here because there are security issues and investigations regarding our identities as we are journalists and the Islamic Army is doing the investigations'. Speaking in Lebanese Arabic, he says they are being treated well by their captors, 'although their hospitality is not like a five-star hotel'. ...

2Slick's Forum: Letter from Fallujah Although American forces had not been into the city since April, we had been collecting intelligence on the city for months through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s), human intelligence, and Special Forces. So we knew exactly where they stored their weapons and where they held meetings, and so on…all of these attacks from the air were precise and very effective in reducing the enemy’s ability to fight us before thebattle even started. With each attack, secondary explosions of weapons/ammo blowing up were heard. The Coalition also threw the enemy a curveball by destroying all the vehicles that had been parked in the same location for more than 3 days—-the enemy planned to use these as car bombs when we attacked. Again, almost every single vehicle the air assets attacked had huge secondary explosions. After 12 hours of massive air strikes, Task Force 2-7 got the green light and was the first unit to enter the city. There is a big trai...

Al-Qaeda believed to be calling followers to action in Afghanistan: general : Al-Qaeda is believed to have called its followers to action in response to the massively attended vote last month that elected President Hamid Karzai, a top US commander said. A sign that al-Qaeda followers may be slipping back into the country was a recent discovery of a bomb-making operation in Nangarhar province by a small group of Arab fighters killed in an encounter with US forces, said Major General Eric Olson, second in command of US forces here. 'I think there now is a call out to do something to reverse the momentum that right now is going in the direction of freely elected governments,' Olson said in an interview here."...... US intelligence has gathered evidence of anger and disarray within the Taliban over the success of the elections, which drew millions of Afghans to the polls despite the threat of insurgent attacks that never materialized. Olson said "there ...

CNN.com - Iraqi forces find chemical materials in Falluja lab : " Iraqi soldiers have discovered chemical materials in a Falluja lab, while a top aide of wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been arrested in Mosul, Iraq's interim national security adviser said Thursday. The reports came as U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted anti-insurgency operations in Falluja, Mosul and south of Baghdad in the province of Babil. Iraq's interim National Security Adviser Kasim Dawood announced discovery of the lab with chemical materials which he said was 'manufacturing death, intoxication and assassination.' 'We have also discovered in this laboratory a pamphlet and instructions showing how to manufacture explosives and toxins,' Dawood said. 'And they also talk about the production of anthrax.' In Washington, a U.S. military official confirmed that materials found in the laboratory included instructions for making anthrax, as well as formulas ...

UK troops raid rebel stronghold south of Baghdad. 25/11/2004. ABC News Online : Hundreds of British troops raided houses of suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists today in the latest phase of a US-led operation to crack down on guerrilla strongholds south of Baghdad. Around 500 British soldiers searched a stretch of road lined with upscale villas where officials in Saddam’s regime kept country retreats outside the capital. They detained 80 Iraqis and confiscated suspected bomb making equipment. No soldiers were wounded during the raids, which were part of Operation Plymouth Rock, a new offensive in the area that has been dubbed the “triangle of death”. The operation, named in reference to the US Thanksgiving celebration, involves 5,000 US troops, Iraqi police commandos and British soldiers. US and Iraqi troops also raided villages in the area overnight........ Following the offensive in Fallujah earlier this month, in which US forces say they killed 1,200 Sunni insu...

US continues search for weapons in Fallujah. ABC News Online US military officials in Iraq say the amount of weapons they have discovered as they continue searching the city of Fallujah would have been enough to fuel a nationwide rebellion. Us-led troops launched a huge operation three weeks ago to rid Fallujah of insurgents. With the fighting in Fallujah all but done, US Marines are still searching building by building for weapons. In a mosque complex in the east of the city they say they found grenades, mortars, rockets and bomb making materials. They say they also discovered documents detailing interrogations of recent hostages. A Marine commander described the weapons they had found in the city as a whole as “stunning", enough to mount an insurgency across the country.

Ten Iraqi parties demand vote be postponed Ten leading Iraqi parties, including Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's movement, demanded that elections scheduled for January 30 be postponed by six months. These parties, led by former presidential candidate and senior Sunni statesman Adnan Pachachi, signed a joint statement arguing that elections should be postponed by six months to allow an improvement of the security conditions.

World Tribune.com--Zarqawi network appeals for help in first signals of defeat — Sunni insurgents backing Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi have expressed alarm at the prospect of a defeat by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. An audio tape said to be from Al Zarqawi charged Muslim clerics with letting down the insurgency "because of your silence." On Wednesday, Al Zarqawi, with a $25 million bounty on his head, was the target of a major manhunt in the Sunni Triangle, Middle East Newsline reported. Iraqi military sources said Al Zarqawi was said to have been seen in an area south of Fallujah. Islamic sources said that for the first time in more than a year the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Al Zarqawi appears to have lost control over many of its insurgents in the Sunni Triangle. The sources said Iraqi and U.S. assaults on major insurgency strongholds in such cities as Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi and Samara have resulted in heavy insurgency casualties and a break in the ...

Iraq extremists threaten attacks THE group led by Iraq's most wanted man have joined other extremist Islamists and Saddam Hussein's old Baath party to threaten increased attacks on US-led forces following the international conference on Iraq. "We are committed to intensifying armed attacks against coalition forces and their spies and agents... in response to the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, a sordid and suspect farce," said the statement signed by groups including the al-Qaeda Group in the Land of Two Rivers (Iraq) of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The international conference that wound up in Egypt on Tuesday brought together the world's major powers, neighbours of Iraq, the United Nations and others to support the process of political transition, including the January 30 elections. The signatories said they signed "the statement written by the Iraqi Baath party, not because we support the party or Saddam, but because it expresses the demands of resista...

Zarqawi Tape Criticizes Muslim Scholars BAGHDAD, Iraq — Notorious Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appears to be increasingly desperate, accusing Muslim clerics of betrayal in an audio recording released Wednesday. In the tape, the Al Qaeda-linked terror leader says clerics have not spoken out enough against U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The recording, posted on an Islamist Web site, has not yet been authenticated. Al-Zarqawi, who leads the feared terror group Al Qaeda in Iraq, is believed to have escaped from his headquarters in insurgent-held Fallujah during the massive U.S.-led assault on the city earlier this month. U.S. and Iraqi security forces continued their search for him after reports that he was north of Baghdad.............. Zarqawi and his group, formerly named Tawhid wa-Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War), is believed to be behind many bomb attacks and hostage beheadings in Iraq. The United States has put a $25 million bounty on his head. ...

UN: 150 Sex Abuse Charges in Congo Peacekeeping Yahoo! News - UN: 150 Sex Abuse Charges in Congo Peacekeeping : UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations (news - web sites) is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on Monday. The accusations include pedophilia, rape and prostitution, said Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary-general in the peacekeeping department. Lute, an American, said there was photographic and video evidence for some of the allegations and most of the charges came to light since the spring. 'We are shining a light on this problem in order to determine its scope, and we will not stop there,' Lute told a news conference."

WorldTribune.com-U.S. military captures top insurgency commander BAGHDAD – The U.S. military has captured what officials termed a senior Sunni commander in Iraq, near the Syrian border. The military said the Marine Corps detained the top commander in Al Anbar province in western Iraq. The commander, who was not identified, was one of six insurgents captured on Nov. 21 in the Anbar town of Haqlaniya. "One of the six detainees is believed to be a high-ranking cell leader of anti-Iraqi forces operating in and around the Al Anbar province," the military said in a statement on Monday. The military did not provide additional details........... Officials said the suspected senior Sunni commander was captured during a raid of Haqlaniyah, along the Euphrates River. Marines also found arms and munitions in the counter-insurgency operation. The U.S. military has intensified its search for Sunni commanders in Al Anbar, many of whom were said to have escaped from Faluja ov...

Yahoo! News - Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents WASHINGTON--Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printer there that could be used to trace the document back to you. According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters. Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, says his company's laser printers, copiers and multifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro series, put the "serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots" in every printout. The millimeter-sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled w...

Saudis, Arabs Funneled Millions to President Clinton's Library - November 22, 2004 - The New York Sun : "Saudis, Arabs Funneled Millions to President Clinton's Library BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun November 22, 2004 LITTLE ROCK, ARK. - President Clinton's new $165 million library here was funded in part by gifts of $1 million or more each from the Saudi royal family and three Saudi businessmen. The governments of Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar and the deputy prime minister of Lebanon all also appear to have donated $1 million or more for the archive and museum that opened last week. Democrats spent much of the presidential campaign this year accusing President Bush of improperly close ties to Saudi Arabia. The case was made in Michael Moore's film 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' in a bestselling book by Craig Unger titled 'House of Bush, House of Saud,' and by the Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Kerry.'This administration del...

Iraq election may yet be postponed: Arab ministers : Violence and boycotts could yet stop promised Iraqi elections going ahead on time, Arab ministers said, despite Baghdad's confident assertion the landmark vote would be held on January 30. Iraq had somewhat upstaged a major international conference in Egypt on its future by announcing the date for the first post-Saddam Hussein elections a day before the meeting opened. But not everyone was impressed by its confidence. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, hosting the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh said the meeting would be deciding whether the vote could be held on time, adding that 'the question needs to be re-examined'. 'The debates that will take place ... are very important because they will look at the question of the elections and decide on whether they can take place on the date envisaged or whether it needs more reflection.' Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulk...

'Security services foil 9/11 attack in UK' : Britain's security services thwarted a September 11-style attack on targets including Canary Wharf and Heathrow Airport, according to reports. The plot is said to have involved pilots being trained to fly into target buildings including London's famous financial centre and the world's busiest airport. It is one of four or five al-Qaeda planned attacks, since 9/11, that have come to nothing, after the authorities intervened, reports claim. The disclosure comes as the Government prepares to unveil a series of tough law-and-order Bills in tomorrow's Queen's Speech, setting out the legislative programme for what is expected to be the final session of the current Parliament. The speech will contain Bills designed to protect the UK against al-Qaeda attacks as well as plans for a crackdown on major organised crime and petty offences which ruin people's lives."

The Green Side - Email from Dave - Nov 19, 04 : Dear Dad - Just came out of the city and I honestly do not know where to start. I am afraid that whatever I send you will not do sufficient honor to the men who fought and took Fallujah......... It is incredibly humbling to walk among such men. They fought as hard as any Marines in history and deserve to be remembered as such. The enemy they fought burrowed into houses and fired through mouse holes cut in walls, lured them into houses rigged with explosives and detonated the houses on pursuing Marines, and actually hid behind surrender flags only to engage the Marines with small arms fire once they perceived that the Marines had let their guard down. I know of several instances where near dead enemy rolled grenades out on Marines who were preparing to render them aid. It was a fight to the finish in every sense and the Marines delivered. I have called the enemy cowards many times in the past because they have never re...

U.S. tactics, training kept casualties down in Fallujah : Military leaders hate fighting in cities because it's hard to find the enemy, to tell him apart from civilians and to use supporting weapons such as artillery and tanks. Combat can occur on multiple levels simultaneously (on the street, on rooftops, in basements), communication and resupply are difficult, and there really is no way to clear buildings except to send soldiers or Marines into them. "A battle fought under these conditions lessens all the advantages the U.S. military possesses on the open battlefield, and requires that soldiers, not machines, fight and die for every corner, set of stairs, soda machine and hallway," wrote George Mordica of the Center for Army Lessons Learned in a 1999 paper. "The grim reaper will collect his due, no matter what devices can be developed to improve our advantage. There are just too many corners, stairs, vending machines and hallways along the way." By h...

The Australian: US troops 'seize top Iraq guerilla' [November 22, 2004] US Marines had detained what they believe is a senior commander in the Sunni Muslim insurgency in Iraq’s western Anbar province, the US military said today. Marines detained six suspected guerillas yesterday in Haqlaniya in Anbar, a province which includes the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi, a military statement said. “One of the six detainees is believed to be a high-ranking cell leader of anti-Iraqi forces operating in and around the Al Anbar province,” it added, giving no further details.

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Nations Agree to Write Off Iraq's Debt PARIS — Major economic powers agreed on Saturday to write off billions of dollars of debt for Iraq, the French Finance Ministry said, in a deal that marked a significant step in U.S. efforts to help put the Iraqi economy back on its feet. Under the agreement, the Paris Club (search) of 19 creditor nations will write off 80 percent of the $42 billion that Iraq owes them, ministry spokesman Rene Forgues said. "It's 80 percent, it's official," Forgues told The Associated Press. He said the deal would take effect in three phases but did not give additional details. The Paris Club includes, the United States, Japan, Russia and European nations. Iraq owes another $80 billion to various Arab governments. The United States had been pressing for up to 95 percent of the Paris Club debt to be lifted. Iraq has said that its foreign debt was hindering postwar reconstruction, already struggl...

2Slick's Forum: What's Next For Fallujah? : "What's Next For Fallujah? This simple answer to this question can be found by looking at the current state of affairs in Samarra, Najaf, and Sadr City. Oh, I'm sorry- the press isn't telling you anything about that. Well, the short story is that our forces are steadily working on financing and supervising reconstruction projects- employing a substantial Iraqi work force and getting the towns back on their feet. Newly trained Iraqi cops provide security and protection, and US forces just sort of monitor the situation and help where they're needed. This is what we in the business call an 'exit strategy.' While this is a relatively new concept for insurgent strongholds, it's old hat for long-time areas of relative stability like Mosul and Basra. When I was in Mosul last year, we didn't have a substantial insurgent threat to prevent us from moving the city forward. There's a guy named Eric...

Insurgents Fire on US Troops in Fallujah After Waving White Flag : "In Fallujah, where U.S. Marines and soldiers are still battling pockets of resistance, insurgents waved a white flag of surrender before opening fire on U.S. troops and causing casualties, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert said Saturday without elaborating."

Zarqawi 'harder to catch' than Saddam. 21/11/2004. ABC News Online Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is harder to catch than Saddam Hussein but the chances may have improved since he fled Fallujah, a US general says. General Ray Odierno was part of the team who captured Saddam, after the ousting of his government last year. He says that Zarqawi, an ally of Al Qaeda, has a well-organised guerrilla network moving him between hide-outs. However, he says that US defeat of insurgents in Fallujah could have disrupted Zarqawi's co-ordination because he lost his main base. "I think (with) Saddam, after the fall, there was no organisation, he was fleeing for his life, whereas I think Zarqawi is a little more organised... he has a more organised group around him than Saddam Hussein," Gen Odierno said. "That's what makes it a bit more difficult with Zarqawi." Zarqawi is believed to have escaped the insurgency's epicentre ...

Return date uncertain for Fallujah residents. 21/11/2004. ABC News Online It could be as late as February before hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fled the US-led assault on Fallujah are allowed to return, US commanders warn. ”The bottom line is there is no firm date. It’s not a date-driven trigger,” said Major Francis Piccoli, a spokesman for the First Marine Expeditionary Force. “If we have a concern, it would be civilians returning to the city and it not being safe for them.” The blistering eight-day offensive levelled much of the city of 300,000, the majority of whom made a dramatic exodus ahead of the US military’s overwhelming display of force. The fighting left the now-deserted city in shambles, littered with rubble, unexploded ordnance and corpses, and US and Iraqi forces are only now making small steps towards reconstruction. But how long it will take to demolish unsound buildings, restore basic services, destroy unexploded ordnance and pull the bodies...

My Way News-Militants Try to Stir Arab-Kurd Violence : "The two main Iraqi Kurdish parties are mostly secular U.S. allies that have a bloody history of animosity with some militant Islamic groups and Baath Party loyalists, both believed to be active in the Mosul insurgency. The parties have long been targets. The Kurdish minority generally lives in peace with Mosul's Arab majority, although land and property disputes have in the past created some tensions. When the militants overpowered Mosul's police force, which U.S. and Iraqi officials say is infiltrated by insurgents, the local government called in reinforcements, some of which came from the mostly quiet Kurdish region. Gouran said some of the Iraqi National Guard reinforcements rushed to the city came from the Kurdish provinces of Dohuk and Irbil. He said many of their members were former peshmerga, a term that refers to the Kurdish militia that fought former Baghdad governments. In addition, Kurdi...

My Way News- Lebanese Demonstrations Target Syria : "BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Thousands of Lebanese students and activists defied government warnings Friday and demonstrated against Syria's domination of their country. Large numbers of security forces watched, but did not intervene, as about 3,000 students from several universities and right-wing Christian activists converged on downtown Beirut shouting 'Syrians out!'"............... While the government had declared street protests illegal, the police and troops seemed to heed Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh's instructions to exercise maximum restraint. Hundreds of security forces allowed about 1,000 students from the Sagesse University to march to the downtown area of the national museum. Prominent members of the opposition had warned the government against using force to stop the protests, saying the world is watching. Previous protests against Syria have ended in violent clashes in the...

Yahoo! News - UN staff ready historic no-confidence vote in Annan UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN employees are expected to issue an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), union sources say, after he pardoned the body's top oversight official over a series of allegations. The UN staff union, in what officials said was the first vote of its kind in the more than 50-year history of the United Nations (news - web sites), was set to approve a resolution withdrawing support for the embattled Annan and senior UN management. Annan has been in the line of fire over a high-profile series of scandals including controversy about a UN aid programme that investigators say allowed deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) to embezzle billions of dollars. Staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Annan had pardoned the UN's top oversight official, who was facing allegati...

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | French insurgents killed in Iraq : A dozen French nationals have travelled to Iraq, officials say Three Frenchmen have died fighting with insurgents against US-led troops in Iraq, reports say. The men, all of Arab origin, were killed in the country over recent months as the insurgency has flared. Two of the men were aged 19 and the third was 24 years old, a French official said. Authorities estimate that around a dozen Frenchmen of North African or Arab background have travelled to Iraq to join the insurgency."

Yahoo! News - Bin Laden Said Unable to Run Operations By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON - Pakistan's military has been so effective in pressuring al-Qaida leaders hiding in the tribal region of western Pakistan that Osama bin Laden and his top deputies no longer are able to direct terrorist operations, a senior American commander said Thursday "They are living in the remotest areas of the world without any communications — other than courier — with the outside world or their people and unable to orchestrate or provide command and control over a terrorist network," said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of Central Command. "They are basically on the run and unable to really conduct operations except, in the very long term, provide vision and guidance as Osama bin Laden does when he provides one of those tapes," he added, alluding to a bin Laden video tape released three weeks ago. Bin Laden has been on the run since U.S. forces...

ABC News: U.S. May Have Found Fallujah Militant Base : "U.S. troops sweeping through Fallujah on Thursday said they believe they have found the main headquarters of the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In video shot by an embedded CNN cameraman, soldiers walked through an imposing building with concrete columns and with a large sign in Arabic on the wall reading 'Al Qaida Organization' and 'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.' Inside the building, U.S. soldiers found documents, old computers, notebooks, photographs and copies of the Quran. Al-Zarqawi last month renamed his group al-Qaida in Iraq, and his followers have been blamed for a number of deadly bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, including three Americans and a Briton. The United States has offered a $25 million reward for his capture or killing the same amount as for Osama bin Laden. The senior U.S. Marine commander in Iraq c...

Yahoo! News - Humans Were Born to Run, Scientists Say : Humans were born to run and evolved from ape-like creatures into the way they look today probably because of the need to cover long distances and compete for food, scientists said on Wednesday. From tendons and ligaments in the legs and feet that act like springs and skull features that help prevent overheating, to well-defined buttocks that stabilize the body, the human anatomy is shaped for running. "We do it because we are good at it. We enjoy it and we have all kinds of specializations that permit us to run well," said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University in Massachusetts. "There are all kinds of features that we see in the human body that are critical for running," he told Reuters. Lieberman and Dennis Bramble, a biology professor at the University of Utah, studied more than two dozen traits that increase humans' ability to run. Their research is reported...

Marine, insurgent tactics evolve | csmonitor.com : "But Tuesday 1st Sgt. Rodolfo Sarino wanted to take the counterinsurgency effort one step further, in keeping with the volumes of new information US troops are learning every day about the rebellion they are trying to crush. He upended barrels full of drinking water, and used his knife to carve slits into plastic water jugs, draining them, too. Then the marine examined the large store of food adjacent to the kitchen: sacks of rice, bowls of potatoes, and onions. And he lit a match. Within minutes, the store was on fire, adding belching black smoke to Fallujah's acrid skyline - and depriving mobile bands of insurgents of at least one life-giving larder. 'That's how they move from place to place and survive,' Sergeant Sarino said, as flames began licking up the food cache. 'They go from house to house, and stockpile food and water wherever they can. You have to [burn it], because that's th...

Parameters: In praise of attrition - Ralph Peters : "Even campaigns that appear to be triumphs of maneuver prove, on closer inspection, to have been successful because of a dynamic combination of fire and maneuver. The opening, conventional phase of the Franco-Prussian War, culminating in the grand envelopment at Sedan, is often cited as an example of brilliant maneuver at the operational level--yet the road to Paris was paved with more German than French corpses. It was a bloody war that happened to be fought on the move. Other campaigns whose success was built on audacious maneuvers nonetheless required attrition battles along the way or at their climax, from Moltke's brilliant concentration on multiple axes at Koenigsgraetz (urgent marches to a gory day), to the German blitzkrieg efforts against the Poles, French, and Russians, and on to Operation Desert Storm, in which daring operational maneuvers positioned tactical firepower for a series of short, convincingly sharp ...

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion THE FACES OF DENIAL By RALPH PETERS The old-school terrorists that Europe survived did not seek death, although they were sometimes willing to die for their causes. None were suicide bombers, although a few committed suicide in prison to make a political statement. Crucially, their goals were of this earth. All would have preferred to survive to rule in a government that they controlled. Now we face terrorists who regard death as a promotion — who reject secular ideologies and believe themselves to be instruments of their god's will. Indeed, they hope to nudge their god along, to convince him through their actions that the final struggle between faith and infidelity is at hand. While they'd like to see certain changes here on earth — the destruction of Israel, of the United States, of the West, of unbelievers and heretics everywhere — their longed-for destination is paradise beyond the grave. THE new terrorists are v...

CNN.com - Probe of Marine's disappearance re-opened - Nov 17, 2004 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Military investigators have re-opened the case of U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Wassef Hassoun after several personal items -- including his military ID and civilian passport -- were found in Falluja, the city where he disappeared in June. : "Because of the new evidence, the case of Hassoun's disappearance is unexpectedly open again. Investigators are assessing the evidence found in Falluja. After the initial report that Hassoun was missing, military officials assumed he had walked away from camp. He was listed as a deserter. His status was changed to captured after the release of a videotape that showed him blindfolded with a sword suspended over his head. A few days later, a posting to three Islamist Web sites claimed Hassoun had been beheaded. Hassoun denied being a deserter and staging his own kidnapping. A Marine Corps official said representatives of the Naval Criminal Inv...

"Religious violence in Netherlands alarms Germany : BERLIN - There is growing alarm in Germany over the torching of mosques, churches and schools in the Netherlands following the brutal killing of Islam-critical film director Theo van Gogh. With 3.4 million Muslims comprising 4 percent of Germany's population, the question was put this way by a banner headline in the conservative Bild newspaper: 'Is the hate going to come here?' asked the biggest selling tabloid. The Berliner Zeitung, a left-leaning paper in the German capital where about 200,000 mainly Turkish Muslims live, claims to know the answer: 'The feelings of hated against the majority Christian society are growing.' So far there has not been a high profile killing in Germany to match the stabbing and shooting of van Gogh. But a series of attacks on Jews in Berlin by Arab youths have sharply raised concerns. Germany's tough-minded interior minister, Otto Schily, spoke at the we...

Times Online - Britain - Chirac's skepticism of the United States Mr Blair suffered another setback when Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State and the administration figure most trusted by Europe, resigned. There were doubts over whether his successor, possibly Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser, would be as accommodating. M Chirac, speaking to British journalists, including The Times, soon after General Powell’s announcement, revealed that he had urged Mr Blair to demand the relaunch of the Middle East peace process in return for backing the war. “Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see anything in return. I’m not sure it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically.” In other remarks that will sting the Bush Administration, he again outlined his vision of a “multipolar” world in which a united Europe would be equal with the US, and mocked Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, for his division...

For an Iraqi Soldier, the Battle in Fallujah Is Personal (washingtonpost.com) By Omar Fekeiki Special to The Washington Post Monday, November 15, 2004; Page A18 NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 14 -- In every street of the city, there were insurgents, the lieutenant said. In every corner, they were waiting. The fighters would shoot at the Iraqi soldiers and then disappear through open doors. Sometimes they would approach the soldiers and detonate explosives wrapped around their bodies. "We saw insurgents being divided into pieces," said the lieutenant, 24, who gave his last name as Mustafa. "We'd shoot one bullet and they would explode. It is amazing how trained they are. They are not stupid. They had a plan, but we didn't give them time to apply it." For Mustafa, one of 2,000 Iraqi soldiers fighting alongside U.S. troops for control of this insurgent-occupied city, the battle for Fallujah was personal. If the fighters continue to control Iraqi citie...

BocaNews.com- First post-therapy Kerry supporter speaks out publicly A post-therapy John Kerry supporter spoke out about her trauma treatment for the first time this weekend, saying Florida psychologist Douglas Schooler took her from the depths of despair over President Bush’s victory to a new lease on life. Forty-four year old Karen of Boca Raton, a divorced mother of one who didn’t want her last name in print, called the trauma specialist’s intensive election therapy “profoundly effective” and described his hypnosis technique as “a healing process.” “I wasn’t sleeping,” Karen told the Boca Raton News in an interview. “I was very devastated and very astonished that people would re-elect this president. I was moody about the war and economic issues. I felt very unsettled and fearful. I thought, ‘Oh no, what will happen for four years?’” Karen, whose medical insurance covers the treatment, said she approached Schooler last week after finding herself unable to function publicly d...

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004 Wounded soldiers describe 'reckless' Fallujah rebels : "The handful of Marines and soldiers who met the press were flown to Landstuhl in southwest Germany, which is the largest US military medical facility outside the United States, last week. They described the rebel fighters as young, disorganised and often reckless but well-armed. 'You recognise them easily. They wear masks, they carry weapons, they move in small squads,' said 22-year-old soldier Kris Clinkscales, who suffered an arm injury from an exploding shell. 'Civilians are usually wearing traditional gowns, they lift their hands when they see you.' He said he was sure he had not shot at civilians because they were easy to identify. 'There were bodies on the street, but only insurgents,' he said. Clinkscales is among the 275 wounded on the US side according to figures given by commanders in Baghdad, although a spokeswoman for the hospital said th...