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A 50-year-old map of the Milky Way will have to be redrawn after Australian astronomers made the astonishing discovery that our spiral galaxy has a huge, outflung arm, New Scientist reports. The vast gassy limb comprises an arc of hydrogen 77,000 light years long and several thousand light years thick, running along the Milky Way's outermost edge and sweeping around the four main arms that swirl out from the galaxy's core. As it is not in the visible part of the light spectrum, it cannot be seen by telescope. Astronomers at the Australia National Telescope Facility in the Sydney suburb...

Mr. Kerry, if elected what will be your stance on the war on terrorism?I SURRENDER!

Muslims round on 'British way' minister By George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 22/11/2003) A Foreign Office minister caused outrage yesterday when he told Muslims they must make a choice between the "British way" of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism. The comments by Denis MacShane, which came the day after 27 people died in two bomb blasts at Istanbul, were described as "outrageous" and "disgraceful". Mr MacShane urged imams and other Muslim leaders to use "clearer, stronger language" to speak out against terrorism. "It is time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: it is...

The woman in the cover illustration is called "Mother Palestine." Inside, articles by controversial Israeli historians Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim, and Palestinian historian Nur Masalha, tell the tale of a bellicose colonial Israel that displaced innocent Arabs from their homes in 1948, and from then on prevented peace by provoking and murdering Palestinians. No, this is not a Palestinian Authority history text, but part of a curriculum being taught in regular Santa Barbara classrooms and paid for by your tax dollars. The above items were published in "A Reader and Resource Guide Introducing the Middle East Into Social Studies...

WASHINGTON (Oct. 14) - The Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for state laws allowing ill patients to smoke marijuana if a doctor recommends it. Justices turned down the Bush administration's request to consider whether the federal government can punish doctors for recommending or perhaps just talking about the benefits of the drug to sick patients. An appeals court said the government cannot. Nine states have laws legalizing marijuana for people with physician recommendations or prescriptions: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. And 35 states have passed legislation recognizing marijuana's medicinal value. But federal law bans...

Language influences the way you think Speakers of different languages not only describe the world differently but think about it differently too, according to a new study. Researchers used a cartoon featuring black and white cat Sylvester to study how language was reflected in the gestures people made. Dr Sotaro Kita of the University of Bristol's Department of Experimental Psychology, showed the cartoon to a group of native English, Japanese and Turkish speakers and then watched their gestures as they described the action they had seen. He found speakers of the three different languages used different gestures to depict the...

Peering into a giant molecular cloud in the Milky Way galaxy - known as W49 - astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have discovered a whole new population of very massive newborn stars. This research was presented at the International Astronomical Union's 25th General Assembly held in Sydney, Australia, by ESO-scientist Joao Alves. With the help of infrared images obtained during a period of excellent observing conditions with the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory (Chile), the astronomers looked deep into this molecular cloud and discovered four massive stellar clusters, with hot and energetic...

American special forces are already paving the way for mass invasion By Patrick Cockburn in Dohuk, northern Iraq 07 March 2003 In the mountain city of Dohuk, some 40 highly trained US special forces are secretly preparing the way for the American armies expected to invade Iraq in the next few weeks. "We will help any kind of force which comes to destroy the Iraqi regime," said Faisal Amin Rostinki, a veteran Kurdish soldier who is head of security for the 23,000-strong Kurdish force that has its headquarters in Dohuk. While confirming the presence of US soldiers he refused to...

Saddam may be on his way to an African exile January 17 2003 at 05:32AM Dubai - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has agreed to leave Iraq and go into exile in an African country if certain conditions are met, three diplomats in the United Arab Emirates were quoted as saying on Thursday. The diplomats in Dubai - one Western and two Arab - who did not want to be named or reveal their sources, said the Iraqi leader was prepared to accept a deal under which he would leave the country if it was guaranteed that he would not to...

It's green, prickly and sour, but this plant could cure obesity and save an ancient way of life Bushmen of the Kalahari stand to benefit from development of hoodia, which curbs appetite Rory Carroll in Johannesburg Saturday January 4, 2003 The Guardian Hunting with bows and poisoned arrows over the bleached sands of the Kalahari, it was sometimes days before the San bushmen had food or water. So precarious was survival that some believed their god was a "trickster" who played jokes with the land and their fate. The San learned that in this arid wilderness of southern Africa they...

Background: This information is provided as a service toward understanding and information. Americans generally (those of derived Christian background) are used to the rules of action and behavoir set down in the Old Testiment. This group of rules is commonly referred to as the "Ten Commandments". Compared to the Religion of Islam, Christians "have it easy" with only ten clear and simple rules to follow. This is not so in Islam where their list of "Commandments" reads like it was written by an aggressive Divorce Attorney. It is, in my humble attempt at understanding, quite severe and hard on...