New Hampshire Health News Digest

Pentagon ousts official who tied Russia, Iraq arms - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - December 30, 2004 A Pentagon official who publicly disclosed information showing Russian involvement in moving Iraqi weapons out of that country has been dismissed. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security and formerly an aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, was forced to leave his position Dec. 10 as the result of a "reorganization" that eliminated his job, defense officials said. Mr. Shaw said he had been asked to resign for "exceeding his authority" in disclosing the information, a charge he called "specious." In October, Mr. Shaw told The Washington Times that he had received foreign intelligence data showing that Russian special forces units were involved in an effort to remove Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in Marc...

The Command Post - Global War On Terror - Dan Darling: Report on al-Qaeda : "As some of you already know, last weekend I was at a counter-terrorism conference in New York City at the behest of my patrons, who were nice enough to fly me out there and for the purposes of me posting on the Internet would prefer to remain anonymous, if for nothing else than so they can plausibly deny everything they say ;) I've also been finishing finals and watching the extended edition of The Return of the King, so I apologize in advance for the number of Tolkien references that are likely to be used here. The conference's attendees included a wide variety of law enforcement, intelligence, military or former military, and think tank types from pretty much across the ideological spectrum and I learned a great deal both from the presentations and in conversation. None of the information that was shared at the conference was classified or anything like that, and I have my own doubts (and...

military news about Iraq With the defeat of Saddam, al Zarqawi suddenly found Iraqi Sunni Arabs were eager to join al Qaeda. The Baath Party, which had run the country for four decades, was now willing to do more than offer sanctuary for al Qaeda members. Baath had money and manpower they made available. Al Qaeda and Baath had one thing in common; they wanted the foreigners out of Iraq. Beyond that, they had quite different goals. Al Qaeda wanted the world converted to Islam, and ruled as an Islamic state, according to al Qaedas strict interpretation of Islamic law. Al Qaeda and the Taliban came close to this in Afghanistan. There was another Islamic Republic in Iran, but that was run by Shia Moslems. Shia are considered heretics by the conservative Sunni Moslems that lead al Qaeda. This had not prevented Iran from offering sanctuary to for a small group of Kurdish Islamic radicals, Ansar al Islam. This group operated on the border of northern Iraq and Iran until dispersed by...

The Australian: Hostage talks of Planet bin Laden [December 24, 2004] : ONE of two French journalists freed after a four-month hostage ordeal in Iraq has described their captivity as being 'immersed in Planet (Osama) bin Laden'. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot had spent their first day back in France recounting details of their ordeal to the foreign intelligence agency, DGSE. 'One of the lessons we drew from our captivity was that we were immersed in Planet Bin Laden, especially when we were in a cell of the Islamic Army in the north' of Iraq, Mr Malbrunot told France 2 public television. 'We really understood that these kidnappers were driven not by an Iraqi agenda, but by an agenda of Islamic holy war.'"

Times Online - World They should be rebuilding the country, but foreign workers face serious accusations HOME-MADE pornographic videos shot by a United Nations logistics expert in the Democratic Republic of Congo have sparked a sex scandal that threatens to become the UN’s Abu Ghraib. The expert was a Frenchman who worked at Goma airport as part of the UN’s $700 million-a-year effort to rebuild the war-shattered country. When police raided his home they discovered that he had turned his bedroom into a studio for videotaping and photographing sex sessions with young girls. The bed was surrounded by large mirrors on three sides, according to a senior Congolese police officer. On the fourth side was a camera that he could operate from the bed with a remote control. When the police arrived the man was allegedly about to rape a 12-year-old girl sent to him in a sting operation. Three home-made porn videos and more than 50 photographs were found. The case has highlight...

ABC News: Farmers Making Use of Global Positioning The tractor weaves to ride the field's dips and rises while perfectly hugging the row previously cut by its black-clawed tiller, creating a seamless pattern of turned soil. But the person in the cab has nothing to do with this precision. Aided by a computer and a Global Positioning System a constellation of Earth-orbiting satellites the vehicle is driving itself. All the farmer has to do is turn the tractor around when it reaches the end of the field. The use of technology has increased in the past few years as farmers try to cut costs to compensate for relatively stagnant crop prices. Infrared sensors control how much fertilizer is applied. Retinal imaging tracks cattle. On the horizon, perhaps, are tomato-picking robots. Experts estimate that up to 15 percent of farmers now have GPS precision-controlled tractors or combines, which first began hitting the fields in the late 1990s. "It's the difference be...

Aljazeera.Net - Saddam calls for Iraqi unity A trial date for the ex-Iraqi president has yet to be finalised Saddam Hussein has urged the Iraqi people from his prison cell to be united and cautioned them to be wary of elections slated for 30 January. His Jordan-based legal team said he made 'recommendations' during his first meeting with one of his Iraqi lawyers, Khalil al-Dulaimi, last Thursday. 'The president asked about the Iraqi people ... and stressed the need for their unity,' spokesman Ziad Khassawnih said on Sunday. 'Our representative in Iraq told us that the president warned the people of Iraq and the Arabs to beware of the American scheme aimed at splitting Iraq into sectarian and religious divisions and weakening the (Arab) nation,' said Bushra Khalil, a Lebanese member of the defence team. 'The president sent recommendations to the Iraqi people to remain united and not fall in the trap of America's slogans,' she said....

BBC NEWS | Technology | Gamer buys $26,500 virtual land A 22-year-old gamer has spent $26,500 (£13,700) on an island that exists only in a computer role-playing game (RPG). The Australian gamer, known only by his gaming moniker Deathifier, bought the island in an online auction. The land exists within the game Project Entropia, an RPG which allows thousands of players to interact with each other. Entropia allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash, while fans of other titles often use auction site eBay to sell their virtual wares. Earlier this year economists calculated that these massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have a gross economic impact equivalent to the GDP of the African nation of Namibia. Investment prospects "This is a historic moment in gaming history, and this sale only goes to prove that massive multi-player online gaming has reached a new plateau," said Marco Behrmann, director of community relation...

The Australian: Taliban security chief held [December 14, 2004] Afghan security forces have captured Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s personal security chief as he travelled in a van to the southern city of Kandahar, provincial officials said today. The capture of Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan, who headed Mullah Omar’s household security during his time in power, could help US and Afghan forces track down his boss, one of the most wanted fugitives in the US-led war on terror. Osama bin Laden, who ran his al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, is also believed to be at large in the area. “We have arrested top Taliban figures Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan and Mullah Qayoom Angar on the way between Arghandab and Kandahar,” a senior Kandahar security official who requested anonymity said. “They were carrying a satellite telephone and some important documents. “We are hopeful we will arrest more Taliban figures and we hope that we can arrest...

The New York Times > Technology > Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database : "oogle, the operator of the world's most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web. It may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global virtual library. But the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library is a major stride in an ambitious Internet effort by various parties. The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections. [...] Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have long vowed to ...

In its Issue 181, DEBKA-Net-Weekly reported: Officers and engineers of the Revolutionary Guard’s “flying objects” program built Mirsad 1 and decided when to launch it, causing some fallout between two of Israel’s enemies, Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, and Iran. The quarrel was sharp but not serious. The two countries have a commonality of interests and share a place on the US state department’s list of nations that sponsor terrorism. In its complaint to Teheran, Syria made several key arguments that Iran will have to take into consideration. Facing possible international sanctions over its military presence in Iraq, Syria told Iran that its “act of provocation” could only hurt Syrian interests. Akhtari tried to play down Syria’s concerns, saying the world was fully preoccupied with the US battle for Fallujah and Yasser Arafat’s demise. But still, Syria demanded a detailed explanation from Iran and a promise to abide by the existing understandings between the two co...

DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report On November 19, Lt. Col. Steve Iwicki, director of the Actionable Intelligence Department of the Army G2, announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s “units of action” due for shipment to Iraq will be equipped with the first unmanned vehicles of the Prophet collection system. He disclosed that in the next few years, 9,000 of these new military intelligence positions will be deployed with US forces world wide, 5,000 with brigade-sized units, 3,000 at the division level, and 1,000 with corps. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that these new infantry units for beefing up election security in Iraq will arrive complete with 40 Prophet systems. Their deployment is the most important military development in the Iraq war since the high-mobility, eight-wheeled Strykers were introduced last January to take over urban combat in Iraq’s narrow streets from the heavy Abrams M1 tanks. Although many commanders had complained that the tanks were too slow and ...

My Way News : "Yet asked what Iraqis would vote for on Jan. 30, Maithem Modher, a 24-year-old computer company employee, was unclear. 'We will vote to choose a president,' he said. 'If any person gets a majority, he will win the presidency.' Others were not sure when the election would take place. 'On Jan. 15 we will elect a number of members and they will elect a constitution and a president,' said Mortadha Hussein, 34, a shopkeeper. 'I don't know how many members will be elected ... I only know that there are more then 200 political parties,' he said. 'I would be lying if I said I knew the parties or candidates.' While 230 parties have registered for the election, most of them are grouping into coalitions that will put forward a list of candidates. The number of votes for each list will determine the number of candidates on the list that get seats. Others seem confused about the nature of a free vote. Iraq's...

My Way News KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that Osama bin Laden is 'definitely' in the region and eventually will be caught, even though American and Pakistani generals admit the trail is cold. Speculation on bin Laden's whereabouts has long focused on the mountains along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the al-Qaida leader slipped away from Afghan and U.S. forces three years ago. 'It's very difficult to say where he is hiding. He cannot be away from this region. He's definitely in this region,' Karzai told CNN's 'Late Edition.''We will get him sooner or later, trust me on that.'"

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Madrassas hit by sex abuse claims A Pakistani minister has revealed hundreds of cases of alleged child sex abuse at Islamic schools, or madrassas. There were 500 complaints this year of abuse allegedly committed by clerics, Aamer Liaquat Hussain, a minister in the religious affairs department, said. That compares with 2,000 last year, but as yet there have been no successful prosecutions, Mr Hussain told the BBC. The minister’s revelations have sparked death threats and infuriated some religious political leaders. Mr Hussain said he had received death threats from clerics, but that he had done his job and his conscience was clear. The time had come for his country to face the bitter truth - the sickness of child abuse, he said.

ABC News: 'BitTorrent' Gives Hollywood a Headache - Movies swapped online using 'BitTorrent' give Hollywood a blockbuster headache : "Bram Cohen didn't set out to upset Hollywood movie studios. But his innovative online file-sharing software, BitTorrent, has grown into a piracy problem the film industry is struggling to handle. As its name suggests, the software lets computer users share large chunks of data. But unlike other popular file-sharing programs, the more people swap data on BitTorrent, the quicker it flows and that includes such large files as feature films and computer games. Because of its speed and effectiveness, BitTorrent steadily gained in popularity after the recording industry began cracking down last year on users of Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster and other established file-sharing software. The program now accounts for as much as half of all online file-sharing activity, says Andrew Parker, chief technology officer of Britain-based ...

Pizza courier 'targeted' Amsterdam sex zone AMSTERDAM — Justice authorities arrested a Moroccan man last month after receiving a tip-off that Islamic extremists were allegedly planning an attack on the Red Light District in Amsterdam, it was reported on Friday. The pizza-delivery courier allegedly conducted reconnaissance of the capital's prostitution zone while riding through the area during work hours on his scooter. He was arrested on 5 November. Newspaper De Telegraaf described him as a "radical Moroccan pizza courier".

My Way News : "VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Dioxin poisoning caused the mysterious illness of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, a doctor said Saturday, adding that the poison could have been put in his soup. Yushchenko is now in satisfactory condition and dioxin levels in his liver have returned to normal, Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic, said at a news conference. A series of tests run over the past 24 hours provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said. 'There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease - especially following the results of the blood work - has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin,' Zimpfer said."

ABC News: Famous Atheist Now Believes in God : "A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God more or less based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday. At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England. Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives. "I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being ...

MSNBC - Of mice, men and in-between Such "humanized" animals could have countless uses. They would almost certainly provide better ways to test a new drug's efficacy and toxicity, for example, than the ordinary mice typically used today. But few scientists are eager to do that experiment. The risk, they say, is that some human cells will find their way to the developing testes or ovaries, where they might grow into human sperm and eggs. If two such chimeras — say, mice — were to mate, a human embryo might form, trapped in a mouse. Not everyone agrees that this would be a terrible result. "What would be so dreadful?" asked Ann McLaren, a renowned developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge in England. After all, she said, no human embryo could develop successfully in a mouse womb. It would simply die, she told the academy. No harm done. But others disagree — if for no other reason than nothing else out of fear of a public backlash. ...

Newsday.com: French Judge: ATMs Help Finance Militants : "In recent years, the powerful magistrate has rounded up hundreds of suspected militants in France and earned a global reputation as having a key role in the fight against al-Qaida. He said the focus now ought to be on the Caucasus region including Chechnya, as well as Iraq and southeast Asia. 'The Caucasus is a training zone that has partially replaced Afghanistan,' he said, adding that the situation was true even before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. With the Afghan territory out of Islamists' control following the U.S.-led ousting of the Taliban in late 2001, Bruguiere said, Chechnya -- which he called 'a jihad land' -- as well as other parts of the Caucasus region -- including Ossetia and Ingushetia -- 'have taken on an enormous importance.' 'Today, the Caucasian problem ... is not unique to Russia. It is a true international problem because the majorit...

Yahoo! News - Sharpton Got $86,715 to Aid Kerry Campaign WASHINGTON - All of John Kerry’s one-time rivals in the Democratic presidential primary eventually lined up to support him as the nominee, but only one got paid for it — Al Sharpton. The Democratic National Committee paid Sharpton $86,715 in travel and consulting fees to compensate for his campaigning for Kerry and other Democratic candidates, according to reports to the Federal Election Commission. In an interview with The Associated Press, Sharpton said he was paid for travel and he didn’t know how much he had been reimbursed. “They asked me to travel to 20 or 30 cities to campaign, and I did that,” Sharpton said. “What am I supposed to do, donate the cost of air fare?” But records show that while most of the money was to reimburse travel expenses, Sharpton was paid $35,000 as a “political consulting fee” 15 days after the election. The consulting fee was first reported in this week’s edition of the Village V...

Rebels Aided By Sources in Syria, U.S. Says (washingtonpost.com) Baathists Reportedly Relay Money, Support U.S. military intelligence officials have concluded that the Iraqi insurgency is being directed to a greater degree than previously recognized from Syria, where they said former Saddam Hussein loyalists have found sanctuary and are channeling money and other support to those fighting the established government. Based on information gathered during the recent fighting in Fallujah, Baghdad and elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle, the officials said that a handful of senior Iraqi Baathists operating in Syria are collecting money from private sources in Saudi Arabia and Europe and turning it over to the insurgency. In some cases, evidence suggests that these Baathists are managing operations in Iraq from a distance, the officials said. A U.S. military summary of operations in Fallujah noted recently that troops discovered a global positioning signal receiver in a bomb factory...

Genital Mutilation 'On the Increase in Europe' Young girls born in Europe to immigrant families from Africa are being subjected to ritual genital mutilation, and authorities are doing little to discourage it, a leading women’s rights activist warned. Somalia-born supermodel and best-selling author Waris Dirie, who has campaigned to end the disfiguring practice she suffered at age five in her homeland, said yesterday that she estimates one in every three African families living in Europe is secretly carrying out the ritual on their daughters. No official figures exist. The procedure – illegal in most European countries – is especially prevalent in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in Austria, where an estimated 8,000 girls born into immigrant families have been affected, Dirie said.

My Way News : "The Bush administration has said it plans to stick to the election date despite the violence and a call for postponement by several leading Sunni Muslim groups. Some foreign leaders have expressed doubts. With Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi looking on, Putin expressed some of the most pointed and outspoken concerns Tuesday. 'Honestly speaking, I cannot imagine how it is possible to organize elections under the conditions of occupation by foreign forces,' the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying at the meeting in Moscow. 'At the same time, I don't understand how you alone can remedy the situation in the country and prevent its disintegration,' Putin said, addressing Allawi. In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli played down any differences with Russia, saying, 'There are, as in any relationship, issues where we see things differently.' He called the election 'an important milestone ev...

Iran race against time is getting down to the wire. Will the Extremists conducting maneuvers in the desert and seeking nuclear missiles, or the reformers demanding freedom achieve their goals first? BBC NEWS | Middle East | Students heckle Iranian president : "Students heckle Iranian president Iranian President Khatami adjusts his glasses as students shout slogans during his speech Khatami: Accused of failing to stand up to conservatives Iranian students have interrupted a speech by President Mohammad Khatami to mark Student Day at Tehran university. Students chanted 'Shame on you' and 'Where are your promised freedoms?' to express their frustration with the failure of Iran's reform movement. A visibly-shaken Khatami defended his record and criticised the powerful hardliners who have closed newspapers and jailed dissidents. He asked students to stop heckling and accused his critics of intolerance. Students were once some of President...

Iran flexes its muscles. I have a feeling their military isn't as impressive as they think it is. They won't last long. WorldTribune.com Iran conducts largest exercise ever Iran has launched what officials termed its largest military exercise ever. Officials said the Iran Army began the exercise on Dec. 3 in western Iran near the border with Iraq. They said the aim of the exercise was to demonstrate ground force capabilities and weaponry in an effort to deter any attack from the United States. U.S. officials said the administration wants to increase defense and security cooperation with Saudi Arabia which is regarded as the key to the U.S.-led war against Al Qaida and the containment of Iran in the region, according to the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. The exercise tested a range of indigenous missiles, rockets, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks and unmanned aerial vehicles developed over the last decade. Officials said many of these wea...

Muslim "loophole" allows prostitution. Just get married, and then divorce right after sex! The Telegraph - Calcutta : Nation ‘Marriage’ veil for sex workers Karachi, Dec. 4: More and more sex workers in Pakistan are practising “mutah” — a short marriage contract — to gain a sense of legitimacy and beat the law of the land. In most red light districts of Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Hyderabad and other cities, every time there’s a police raid, sex workers and their patrons seek cover by owing allegiance to any sect that allows mutah. According to a tradition among some sects representing Islam, mutah takes place if both partners agree to enter into a marriage for a short duration, even for a few hours, based on verbal consent. There is no need for any documentation or testimony, apart from a confirmation from the man and the woman. A majority of the clergy in Pakistan is unimpressed by the opportunistic use of the provision. Mutah is a controversial provision i...

WorldNetDaily: Bin Laden hideout like Disney World? : "SEARCH FOR OSAMA Bin Laden hideout like Disney World? Afghan authorities look to make Tora Bora hot tourist destination If Orlando, Las Vegas or the Caribbean aren't exciting enough for your next vacation, how about considering the hideout of Osama bin Laden? Osama bin Laden The idea is not a joke and is being pushed by Afghan authorities looking to revive the local tourism industry by promoting the terror mastermind's mountain lair at Tora Bora. 'We have plans to make a tourist site at the Tora Bora caves. Many Americans wish to go there,' Dr. Hassamuddin Hamrah, the man in charge of the concept, told the London Telegraph. 'Our main problem is lack of budget so we are approaching the private sector. We request that anybody, any company, who is interested should contact us.' Hamrah thinks the name recognition of the site, along with the remains of Russian tanks and crashed helicopt...

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide : "Thailand Drops Millions of Paper Doves on Muslim Provinces Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Thai military and civilian aircraft rained 120 million paper doves down on Muslim southern provinces in a goodwill gesture, as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tries to ease violence that has killed 400 people. The birds, folded according to the Japanese art of origami, were dropped on Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, the three Muslim- dominated provinces in the mainly Buddhist nation. Violence has escalated after 78 protesters crammed into military trucks died of suffocation on Oct. 25."

Musharraf says Pakistan can't find Bin Laden, and calls for the rebuilding of Aghanistan's army to fight no-good-niks Musharraf: Bin Laden's Location Is Unknown / Pakistani Presses U.S. on Rebuilding Afghan Army(washingtonpost.com) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that the search for Osama bin Laden has gone completely cold, with no recent intelligence indicating where he and his top lieutenants are hiding. More than three years after al Qaeda's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed almost 3,000 people, Musharraf insisted that Pakistani forces are still aggressively pursuing the world's most notorious terrorist. But he acknowledged that recent security force operations and interrogations have been able to determine only one fact -- that bin Laden is still alive. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, center, confers with journalists at Mayflower Hotel here after he met with President Bush at the White House. Bush s...

Retina scans and DNA swabs for returning Fallujans! Hard hitting strategy to ensure terrorists don't return to Falluja to set up bases again. Marines have given up on "hearts and minds" strategy for Falluja, want fear and respect now. Boston.com / News / World / Returning Fallujans will face clampdown : FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised. Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned. Marine c...

Europe finally realizing that multiculturalism has allowed dangerous Islamic terrorists to thrive in their countries. Times Online - World Stoned to death... why Europe is starting to lose its faith in Islam By Charles Bremner Islamic fundamentalism is causing a 'clash of civilisations' between liberal democracies and Muslims DAYS before she was due to be married, Ghofrane Haddaoui, 23, refused the advances of a teenage boy and paid with her life. Lured to waste ground near her home in Marseilles, the Tunisian-born Frenchwoman was stoned to death, her skull smashed by rocks hurled by at least two young men, according to police. Although the circumstances of the murder are not clear, the horrific “lapidation” of the young Muslim stoked a French belief that the country can no longer tolerate the excesses of an alien culture in its midst. A few days ago, pop celebrities joined 2,000 people in a march through Marseilles denouncing violence against women, particul...

Marijuana may increase risk of psychosis Drug makes some users more vulnerable to mental problems Teenagers and young adults who frequently use cannabis are increasing their risk of suffering from psychotic symptoms such as bizarre behavior and delusions later in life, Dutch scientists said on Wednesday. Young people with a family history, or pre-existing susceptibility to mental instability, are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of the drug. “Cannabis does not act in the same fashion on psychosis risk for everybody. There is a group that is particularly susceptible,” Professor Jim van Os, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, told a news conference.

VOA.GOV ---Khomeini’s grandson criticizes theocratic rule Seyyed Hossein Khomeini, the grandson of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, told the Voice of America’s new Persian language TV news program that the clerical rulers of his native Iran have left Iranians yearning for democracy. "Iran is not free," Khomeini told VOA in an exclusive interview. "Islamic clerical rule is not, and cannot be, democratic." Khomeini, who, like his grandfather, is a Shi’ite Islamic cleric, made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with VOA News and Views anchor Hossein Kangarloo. Segments of the interview are being broadcast from Sept. 27 through Oct. 1 on News and Views via satellite to Iran. Khomeini, who now lives in Iraq, said he moved there to experience the freedom made possible by the United States. Khomeini said that despite Iraq’s problems, he feels not only a sense of hope in Iraq, but a will to establish democratic government and a disavowal of terrorism. He said that ...

International Relations and Security Network ISN - Security Watch Sectarian divisions after Falluja Beyond the innumerable expressions of defiance at the loss to the insurgents of Falluja, some expressions of pessimism have crept into jihadist forums - always a useful barometer of mujahideen morale. The fall of the city is of great significance "since it was considered the citadel of the Sunnis who were counting on its persistence as a military force to support their political policy and guarantee them against marginalization", as one thoughtful contributor to the alsakifah.org forum put it. However, he went on to note what he felt was the more ominous development, "the beginning of the empowerment of the Shi’ites". The search for scapegoats has received a boost, and it is taking the form of exacerbated sectarian tension. The leader of the Salafi Movement in Iraq, Sheikh Mahdi As-Sumaidai, in a November 11 interview to the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, (http:/...

Animal rights group steals woman's corpse! Times Online - Britain Village demands exclusion zone to keep animal rights protesters at bay AN ENTIRE community has applied for an unprecedented injunction against animal rights extremists after a vicious campaign of intimidation that has included the theft of an elderly woman’s corpse. The move comes days after an arson attack on another company listed on an animal rights group’s website. The premises of International Product Supplies, in Wellingham, Norfolk, were firebombed on Friday night. Activists have relentlessly targeted Newchurch guinea-pig farm in Yoxall, East Staffordshire, which is run by Chris Hall and his family. In the most recent attack, the remains of Mr Hall’s mother-in-law, Gladys Hammond, 82, were stolen from her grave. The family is following the lead of Oxford University and Huntingdon Life Sciences by applying for a protest-free exclusion zone around their property. Their case will be heard tomorr...