Miscellaneous news items

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Thought I'd try this. Check out the items below and if you find one of interest, post it on a separate thread, with or without comment.

For Calif. Dog-Attack Trial, Anger Slows Jury Selection Washington Post, by Rene Sanchez   Original Article Posted By: Liberty7 - 1/29/2002 8:59:28 AM    Post Reply In a criminal courthouse famed for trials that produce media spectacles and strange sideshows, now comes the sordid case of Marjorie Knoller, her husband Robert Noel and their big dog, Bane. After a year of sensational headlines and national attention, the couple is in court facing charges of murder and manslaughter in the death of Diane Whipple, a neighbor mauled and killed by Bane, a 120-pound Presa Canario. The gruesome attack occurred last January in the hallway of their apartment building in San Francisco. But the couple's conduct afterward so outraged the city that the trial has been moved to the same Los Angeles courthouse where O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers were tried for murder. Jury selection has just begun and may take weeks. Hundreds of potential jurors are being screened for bias in the highly publicized case, which mayinclude testimony about bestiality, an imprisoned white supremacist nicknamed "Cornfed," and whether Whipple's perfume drove the ferocious dog mad. "This trial will have a very, very unbelievable set of circumstances," said Kenneth Phillips, an attorney who specializes in dog-mauling cases. "It's all so extreme, if you turned in a screenplay about it, you'd be fired."

Austin Powers' new enemy: MGM c|Net News, by Jim Hu    Original Article Posted By: DuckStab - 1/29/2002 8:58:40 AM    Post Reply New Line has been recalling posters, commercials and even online links to the trailer for its upcoming film "Austin Powers in Goldmember" after an industry panel determined the title infringed on copyrights held by MGM, the home of the long-running James Bond spymaster series.

El Al passenger flies with gun to New York Jerusalem Post, by Melissa Radler and News Agencies   Original Article Posted By: LastHurrah - 1/29/2002 8:56:31 AM    Post Reply NEW YORK (January 29) - Airport authorities are investigating how an Israeli managed to fly on an El Al plane to New York last week with a pistol in his hand luggage, without being detected at Ben-Gurion Airport or at the airport in New York. Upon his arrival, the man called the consulate in New York to inform it of his actions. A source at the Israeli Consulate confirmed that the man had contacted it, but declined to elaborate.

Assessing the blame Washington Times, by Morton Kondracke   Original Article Posted By: ptolemy - 1/29/2002 8:51:00 AM    Post Reply Congress certainly ought to find out whether the Bush administration can be tied to the Enron scandal, but it also needs to undo its own culpability in the affair. Specifically, Congress should ensure that investors and the public are protected by clean audits of companies. But two years ago, dozens of congressmen helped accounting firms dodge proposed regulations that would have kept them honest and might have forestalled Enron's collapse.

Second-hand aircraft parts scam linked to 10 air crashes Guardian Unlimited, by Philip Willan and Julian Borger    Original Article Posted By: fmcd - 1/29/2002 8:46:45 AM    Post Reply As many as 10 recent air crashes, including the American Airlines disaster in New York last November, could have been linked to a newly uncovered scam by which old and faulty aircraft parts were sold as new, it was revealed yesterday. In what is being described as a scandal which will "shake the whole aviation world", investigators claim to have uncovered a multimillion pound bogus parts business which could affect more than 1,000 aircraft. Yesterday it emerged that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a warning to 167 countries over the potential danger caused by the scam.

Egypt Opts for US-Israel-Jordan Bloc Against Arafat Amid Israeli Preparations for Major Offensive Debka Files, by Staff   Original Article Posted By: wekillusholdings - 1/29/2002 8:44:34 AM    Post Reply Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has had a sudden change of heart towards the Sharon government, producing the first flurry of diplomatic exchanges between Cairo and Jerusalem since Ariel Sharon took office 11 months ago. Wednesday, January 30, defense minister Binyamin ben Eliezer is meeting the Egyptian president at Sharm el-Sheikh. The same day, Ms. Tsipi Livneh, information minister in the prime minister’s office, flies to Cairo to call on the Egyptian president’s senior political adviser, Osama al Baz.

Australia to deport asylum seekers The Nando Times, by EMMA TINKLER, Associated Press    Original Article Posted By: fmcd - 1/29/2002 8:43:55 AM    Post Reply SYDNEY, Australia Sixty-seven illegal immigrants detained at a remote desert facility have exhausted all options in applying for refugee status and will be deported, Australia's immigration minister said. The 67 are among hundreds of detainees, mostly Afghan, being held at the Woomera detention center deep in the Outback 1,120 miles west of Sydney. -snip-

Top U.S. Admiral Declares Singapore Safe The Straits Times (Singapore), by AFP   Original Article Posted By: Coral Pink - 1/29/2002 8:40:44 AM    Post Reply SINGAPORE -- The United States' top military commander in the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday declared that Singapore was safe for both US forces and businessmen. Admiral Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the US Pacific Command, said he was satisfied with the security measures taken by Singapore authorities following the discovery of a plot to attack American targets by suspected Islamic extremists. After talking to American businessmen based in Singapore, he said: 'They feel as do I that while no place is completely safe, the measures taken by Singapore have been very effective and this is a safe place as any to do business. 'I can tell you that from the point of view of our sailors and marines visiting Singapore, we feel that good security is in place.'

Why Bush will have coattails The Christian Science Monitor, by Godfrey Sperling   Original Article Posted By: MoJan - 1/29/2002 8:08:21 AM    Post Reply This is the time of year when some of my columnist colleagues look back on the past year and own up to blunders. It's a moment of contrition from writers who are expected always to express cloudless certainty. --SNIP-- I wrote that the prospective victory would "dominate the thinking of voters through the next [1992] election.... George Bush will remain as he is now a very popular president, and very likely to be swept back into office." --SNIP-- And now I have laid myself open to committing a similar blooper by coming up with the opinion, in a recent column, that the present President Bush's war-related popularity will help Republicans running in the off-year election. And I will forecast now - if I haven't made myself clear on this earlier - that this president, because of this war-related popularity, is well positioned politically to gain a second term.

Daily Phys Ed Classes Make Pupils Happier - and Smarter Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, by Gerd Schneider    Original Article Posted By: fmcd - 1/29/2002 8:07:08 AM    Post Reply ...The unique feature that has made Friedrich Ebert Primary School famous...is that it offers a daily hour of gym class. Seven years have passed since a group of sport scientists from Frankfurt's university went in search of a suitable school for a new project. During the project, the children would be given daily gym classes and the effects -- not just physical -- would be recorded and evaluated scientifically. ... The opposition, especially from older teachers, was strong. -snip- ...the first results have been published ...the children at Friedrich Ebert Primary School had more stamina and greater skill, "enjoyed" school more, suffered far fewer accidents and were noticeably less violent. And they are also demonstrably brighter...

Confessions of a Jewish fundamentalist JewishWorldReview.com, by Rabbi Avi Shafran    Original Article Posted By: LastHurrah - 1/29/2002 8:04:01 AM    Post Reply WITH all the understandable concern these days about fundamentalism, the American public might want to better understand one group of religious reactionaries that have long been lurking in our midst: Jewish ones, that is, like me. "Haredim", as we rigorously observant Orthodox Jews are called, are fundamentalists of the first order. The fundamentals we affirm without compromise are those of the Jewish faith: That there is a God. That He revealed Himself at Sinai. And that an

High-Ranking Clergy Remain Silent washingpost.com via AP, by Rachel Zoll   Original Article Posted By: LasVegasLou - 1/29/2002 8:03:11 AM    Post Reply The list of Roman Catholic officials who apparently remained silent despite evidence a Boston-area priest was molesting boys has grown to include a cardinal, five bishops and several parish clergy. Some Massachusetts Catholics are stunned to see so many priests accused of failing to stop the former Rev. John Geoghan – but lawyers who follow such cases nationally are not.

Police hairstyle Restrictions Forced Soul Searching Decisions Dallas Morning News, by By TERESA GUBBINS   Original Article Posted By: Mrs. Obelix - 1/29/2002 8:01:13 AM    Post Reply Imagine that you wear your hair a certain way. You've worn it that way for a couple of years. It's comfortable – it's "you. One day you come to work and find that your employer has decided that your hair is inappropriate and must be cut – despite the fact that you've been doing the job with your hair as is.

Let Israel declare war on Gaza and the West Bank JewishWorldReview.com, by Linda Chavez    Original Article Posted By: LastHurrah - 1/29/2002 8:00:43 AM    Post Reply LIGHTNING isn't supposed to strike twice in the same place, but tell that to Mark Sokolow. Mr. Sokolow survived the attack on the World Trade Center in September, barely escaping from his 38th floor office when the second plane hit and the building collapsed. Then on Sunday, Sokolow and his family were shopping in Jerusalem, where they had gone to visit a daughter studying there, when a suicide bomber,

UK web surfers increase BBC News, by BBC Staff   Original Article Posted By: WeirdButSweet - 1/29/2002 7:57:43 AM    Post Reply Almost one in two homes in the UK now have access to the internet, according to the latest figures. A total of 45% of homes are now online compared with 39% three months ago, said telecoms regulator Oftel on Tuesday.

An old man with a curious little metal cross Las Vegas Review-Journal, by Vin Suprynowicz   Original Article Posted By: LastHurrah - 1/29/2002 7:51:39 AM    Post Reply I see where the crack airport security teams who let 19 out of 19 terrorists slip through their net last Sept. 11 have been saving the republic from terror, again. The Washington Times reported last week that airline security at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport stopped a suspicious looking gentleman as he tried to board an America West plane Jan. 11 on his way to attend a meeting of the National Rifle Association in Arlington, Va.

Widows say husbands' Trade Center heroism ignored ASBURY PARK PRESS, by JEAN MIKLE   Original Article Posted By: Everyones Cherub - 1/29/2002 7:50:22 AM    Post Reply Meryl Mayo and Teresa Boisseau know their husbands are heroes. They just want the rest of the country to know it, too. On Sept. 11, Robert J. Mayo, 46, of Marlboro and Lawrence Boisseau, 36, of Freehold lost their lives at the World Trade Center. "It does irk me that my husband and some of the others were not recognized by either the Governor's Office or the Mayor's Office" in New York, said Meryl Mayo, who is now the single parent for the couple's 11-year-old son. "It hurts. I'm trying to deal with it just by the knowledge of knowing he did the right thing."

Afghan Campaign's Blueprint Emerges Washington Post, by Woodward-Balz   Original Article Posted By: PocaDon - 1/29/2002 7:48:27 AM    Post Reply Shortly after 12:30 p.m., President Bush's limousine pulled into the White House driveway, stopping not far from the Oval Office. The president was returning from a visit to the burn unit of Washington Hospital Center, where he had had several emotional encounters with severe burn victims injured when a hijacked airliner hit the Pentagon two days before. Before Bush could get out of the car, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., who had walked outside to meet the limousine, put up his hands. "Mr. President," Card said, "sit back down for a minute. I've got to tell you something." ... [SNIP] ... "I'm not leaving," Bush said.

Motorola claims Turkish fraud Chicago Tribune, by Rob Kaiser   Original Article Posted By: CHUCKY and RUSTY - 1/29/2002 7:46:33 AM    Post Reply Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. have accused a Turkish wireless company of racketeering and fraud, claiming the family backing the wireless carrier orchestrated an "elaborate scheme of deceit and intimidation." The world's two largest cell phone-makers jointly filed a $3 billion lawsuit Monday against the owners of Telsim Mobil. The suit claims the family made threats, filed "baseless" criminal charges in Turkey against Motorola and Nokia executives, and hacked into Motorola's computer system by bribing a Motorola employee.

Islam's young radical front BBC News, by BBC Staff   Original Article Posted By: WeirdButSweet - 1/29/2002 7:42:56 AM    Post Reply What led Shafiq Rasul to fight in Afghanistan? At least three of the suspected al-Qaeda fighters held by America are British. They represent the extreme element of an increasingly radical Muslim youth in the UK. "Platoons of young angry Muslims are mushrooming all over [Britain] ... they are bitter and resentful - potential fifth-column guerrillas for the numerous causes in the Muslim world." In the light of recent developments at Camp X-Ray, whoever wrote such a passage might be accused of rather stating the obvious. But Fuad Nahdi issued this prediction in a national newspaper more than four years ago. Resentment among young Muslims in Britain has been bubbling for some time.

Exec who built firm on clout indicted CHICAGO TRIBUNE, by Matt O'Connor and Ray Gibson   Original Article Posted By: Loretta - 1/29/2002 7:42:40 AM    Post Reply A Chicago insurance executive whose brokerage firm has been synonymous with political clout for decades was charged Monday with insurance and mail fraud for allegedly misappropriating millions of dollars from the firm. Michael Segal, whose partners once included powerful Cook County Board President George Dunne, was arrested Saturday shortly before he was scheduled to fly to London on what his lawyer said was to be a routine business trip.

Thank God for the Post Andrewsullivan.com, by Andrew Sullivan   Original Article Posted By: ptolemy - 1/29/2002 7:37:52 AM    Post Reply The left-wing lurch of the New York Times increasingly means that the Washington Post is the paper of record for simple news coverage. This is a terrible shame. We need

Lemak won't get death penalty Chicago Tribune, by JEFF COEN   Original Article Posted By: hmmmm - 1/29/2002 7:36:43 AM    Post Reply Marilyn Lemak, convicted of murder last month in the drugging and suffocation of her three young children, will not face the death penalty, sources close to the case said on Monday. DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett is expected to announce as early as Wednesday that he will not ask a DuPage County judge to sentence Lemak to death, according to two of Birkett's advisers.

Rest insured, political pals feel Segal's pain
-- Anonymous, January 29, 2002


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