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Thread Six: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1109459/posts |
Posted on 03/12/2004 8:23:06 PM PST by thecabal
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.
"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
If you want a totally private one that the public can not access, let me know and I can have a backup on my server. But we won't be posting it's address..only through freepmail
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops fought running battles with insurgents in the Iraqi flashpoint town of Falluja on Friday, the gunfire killing at least seven people, including three children and a cameraman for U.S. network ABC.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, four Iraqi paramilitaries and three armed suspects died during a pre-dawn raid by the U.S.-backed force. In Baghdad, a series of night-time blasts wounded at least six people.
Falluja, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, is known for its fierce hostility to the U.S.-led occupation. Insurgents fought U.S. troops in the town for several hours, but it was unclear what sparked the violence.
"It was a bloody day in Falluja," doctor Mohammad Daham told Reuters Television. "We have been receiving casualties in great numbers."
Burhan Mohammed Mazhour, a freelance Iraqi cameraman working for the American ABC network, was shot in the head covering the clashes. Witnesses said he was fired on by U.S. troops.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it had no immediate information about the incident, or the fighting in Falluja.
Doctors at Falluja hospital said at least six civilians were killed. Reuters Television footage showed a boy wounded in the head screaming in pain as doctors bandaged him.
Several explosions, apparently from mortar bombs fired by guerrillas, echoed through the streets, which were deserted apart from ambulances and U.S. military vehicles.
A mosque loudspeaker broadcast the call to Friday prayers, but residents had to stay in their homes.
U.N. TEAM ARRIVES
The latest violence coincided with the arrival of a United Nations team sent to Iraq to help work out details of the planned transfer of sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30.
Electoral experts arrived in Baghdad on Friday, to look at the technicalities of holding elections for a transitional assembly, due by the end of January according to an interim constitution.
They will be joined late next week by another team, led by former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, which will focus on the shape of the interim government that assumes power from the handover until those elections.
With less than 100 days to go until the handover, U.S. officials are at pains to stress the improvements on the ground in Iraq since they invaded and occupied the country last year, citing mended water and electricity supplies, reopened schools and large numbers of new Iraqi security forces on the streets.
But security remains the main concern for most Iraqis. Insurgents have increasingly targeted civilians, Iraqi security forces and Iraqis working with Western organizations, seeing them as softer targets than U.S. troops.
Four members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), a paramilitary force working alongside U.S. troops and police, were killed during a raid near Tikrit at about 4 a.m.
A U.S. military spokeswoman said three armed suspects were also killed during the raid. Four other ICDC were wounded, and 21 suspects detained.
U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces regularly raid homes and villages from their base in Tikrit, 110 miles north of Baghdad, looking for insurgents fighting the U.S. occupation.
In Baghdad, a series of blasts echoed through the city from around 9 p.m. It was not clear what caused them, but there appeared to be explosions in several different areas.
Doctors at the capital's Yarmouk hospital said six people including a teenage boy and a child were brought into the emergency room after the explosions. Two were seriously wounded.
"I was standing with my friends and then we heard a strong blast," Mohammed Sahib, a 16-year-old injured in a blast in a residential district said. "Something fell on us from the sky. I don't know what it was, a missile or something else."
In western Baghdad near a U.S. base, a large fire was sparked by a projectile, witnesses said. There were no injuries.
Earlier on Friday, New York-based Time magazine said an Iraqi translator it employed in Baghdad had died after being shot earlier this week.
Journalists and other media staff have come under attack several times in Iraq in recent weeks. Some appear to have been targets of anti-American rebels focusing on "soft targets" while others were allegedly shot by U.S. troops.
What?? Is going on today?
Keep us posted if you get any other info. I haven't had the news on.....sort of sidetracked right now with qualifying/Nascar.
IMO, the above sentence is the key here. Russia has been suffering from a deflated ego, reduced "leader" stance and needs to stomp their collective feet and bluster to feel/appear more important. They have been unhappy for a while now with "their" former countries joining in with the free world and now being allowed to join NATO.
I posted an article yesterday or the day before that 4 bodies had been recovered. I have not ran across anything today with all the other incidents popping up one right after another. I will see if I find any recent news on it.
I know just what you mean. We were going to watch the Daily Show last night until they mentioned that their guest was Al Franken. That signalled an immediate channel change for us.
Published Fri, Mar 26, 2004
By MARK BABINECK, Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) - Four more bodies were found early Friday among debris from a helicopter carrying 10 people that went down in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, the Coast Guard said.
Friday's discovery raises to eight the number of victims found. The Coast Guard said the search for the other two was continuing.
The twin-engine helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76A owned by Era Aviation and chartered by the oil company Unocal, was headed to a ship owned by an offshore drilling company when it vanished Tuesday evening.
The first bodies were found about 60 miles south of Galveston on Wednesday.
Friday morning, a private ship helping out in the search located pieces of the helicopter's wreckage about 70 miles south of Galveston, Coast Guard Petty Officer Andy Kendrick said. A remote camera was sent to search the water, and the four bodies were spotted between 100 feet and 150 feet below the surface.
"They are currently being recovered," Kendrick said. "We are going to do it as quickly as we possibly can."
The passengers were contractors hired by Unocal. Four were employees of Halliburton Co., two were from Offshore Energy Services, one from Dril-Quip and one from Unocal.
A jet, a helicopter and a patrol boat from the Coast Guard, as well as various private ships and aircraft continue searching for the other two individuals, Kendrick said.
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Domoic acid was first isolated from the red alga Chondria armata. In 1975 it was identified as coming from the Mediterranean Alsidium corallinum. It was later found in either microalgae species (diatoms) or macroalgae species (red algae) (IOC,1995).
Bivalve molluscs are contaminated by filtering toxic dinoflagellates and accumulating the toxins in their digestive system. As for the crabs observed to contain domoic acid in Oregon, USA, the toxins concentrated mostly in the digestive system even if lower concentration could be found in the flesh. Dinoflagellate-eating fish may also become contaminated.
Domoic Acid and Sea Lions
A naturally-occurring neurotoxin called domoic acid has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of sea lions in southern California during the last few years. Domoic acid is a chemical that is produced by algae or plankton when it blooms. Domoic acid was not discovered until the late 1980s, and scientists still don't understand why or when the algae blooms occur, nor can they predict which blooms will produce toxins and when they will impact wildlife. What is known is that anchovies, sardines, clams, mussels and other sea life ingest the algae. Then when sea lions (and to a lesser extent, dolphins) eat the anchovies and other affected sea life, they become sick.
The toxin affects the part of the brain known as the hippocampus and causes rapid deterioration. Affected sea lions exhibit head weaving, bobbing, bulging from the eyes, mucus from the mouth, disorientation and sometimes seizures. The sick sea lions are almost always female, and are often pregnant. Unfortunately, not much can be done for the affected sea lions. Treatment typically consists of injecting approximately 4 liters of an electrolyte solution containing vitamin B-12 to flush out the toxin. The mammals are also given medication to control seizures. The survival rate is only about 25% to 50%.
If you see a sea lion in distress, it's important that you don't go near, touch or feed the animal. You should contact a lifeguard or a marine mammal care center. Four such facilities exist in southern California:
Domonic Acid in Shellfish
Razor clams accumulate domoic acid in the edible tissue (foot, siphon and mantle) and are slow to rid themselves of the toxin. In Dungeness crab, domoic acid primarily accumulates in the viscera (gut, also known as the "butter").
In the fall of 1991, domoic acid was detected in razor clams off the coast of Washington (State). In that same year, DOH began monitoring all major shellfish growing areas for domoic acid.
Does cooking the shellfish make it safe to eat?
No. The poison is not destroyed by cooking or freezing.
What are the symptoms of ASP?
Symptoms include vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and abdominal cramps within 24 hours of ingestion. In more severe cases, neurological symptoms develop within 48 hours and include headache, dizziness, confusion, disorientation, loss of short-term memory, motor weakness, seizures, profuse respiratory secretions, cardiac arrhythmias, coma and possibly death. (Short term memory loss is permanent, thus the name Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning).
What should I do if I think someone may have ASP?
If symptoms are mild, call your health care provider and your local public health agency. If symptoms are severe, call 911 or transport the affected person to the emergency room. There is no antidote for ASP.
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