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Posted on 03/05/2005 5:06:15 PM PST by nwctwx
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377533/posts''!!
"Arabic news outlet accuses Iran of recruiting spies in Iraq"
Iran Focus ^ | 2005 Apr 4
Posted on 04/04/2005 9:39:34 PM PDT by Wiz
London, Apr. 04
Me too. When the media reports that Mexicans chant "Osama, Osama" during soccer games, you can't help but wonder how resorts along the Mexican coast book American tourists with any regularity. Note the "health" section of this article for travel to Costa Rica.
Thanks Godzilla. Much appreciated work you are doing here.
3 Scottish patients contract MRSA superbug this week plus 4 last week
104 illegal Egyptians detained in Crete
Security tightens for crowds, dignitaries in Italy
Group in Russia urges ban on Jewish organizations
Textile imports from China have increased 63% in first quarter 2005
Venezuelan President wants army of 1.5 million reservists
Venezuelan police hunt missing killer capsules of radioactive Iridium-192
Purchase of 100,000 AK-47 rifles from Russia was Venezuelan President's biggest mistake
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
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http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_thailand.html
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Mon Apr 04 2005 23:07:47 GMT-0700.
Thailand
April 4, 2005
This Public Announcement is being issued to alert American citizens to the need to exercise special caution in the far south of Thailand and to urge American citizens to defer non-emergency travel in that area as a result of recent, escalating unrest in the region. This Public Announcement expires on July 5, 2005.
The far south of Thailand has recently experienced increasingly serious and frequent incidents of violence. On April 3 and 4, a series of bombs were detonated in Hat Yai and nearby Songkhla city in Songkhla Province, and in Yala province. The bombings occurred at the Hat Yai International airport, a large international department store, a hotel, and on a road near a technical college. They represent a continuing spread of indiscriminate violence in public areas where tourists may congregate. Two American citizens were injured in the most recent attacks.
In response to the escalating violence in Thailand’s southern region, the Department of State urges Americans to defer non-emergency travel to the far south of Thailand, including Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, Satun, and Songkhla provinces, including the town of Hat Yai. American citizens who must travel to these areas are urged to exercise special caution.
Americans living or traveling in Thailand are encouraged to register and update their contact information at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok or the Consulate General in Chiang Mai. Registration may be done on line, and can be done in advance of travel. Information on registering can be found at the Department of State’s Consular Affairs website: http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/registration/registration_1186.html.
U.S. citizens should consult the Consular Information Sheet for Thailand and the latest Worldwide Caution Public Announcement at the Department’s Internet site at http://travel.state.gov. Updated information on travel and security in Thailand may also be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States or by calling 1-202-501-4444 outside the United Sates.
Other Government Websites
First Gov Service Locator
U.S. Department of Justice
The White House
more >
This site is managed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.
I visited the Vatican on March 8th this year. After a long walk through the museum, I approached the exit area that opens to St. Peter's Square. It was a good time for a "potty" break. I went into the men's restroom. Very nice quality stalls and toilets....except all the toilets are lacking seats. Apparently they spent all their money on works of art and forgot something so basic as putting a seat on the toilets :-(
I walked over to the crowd standing under the window to the pope's apartment. The Swiss guard was changing shifts at that time. The pope wasn't in his apartment...he was in the Gemelli clinic around the corner from my hotel.
St. Peter's Basilica was easily the most impressive sight in Rome. Even better than the Sistine Chapel. Rome is a great place to do some sight seeing.
I'm not a Roman Catholic, but I've always held John Paul II in very high esteem. He will be sorely missed.
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
===
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http://www.assistnews.net/Imaages05/mi%20LauraJeff&CalebKnowles.jpg
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05040014.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com
Monday, April 4, 2005
EXPERIENCING THE SCHIAVO DILEMMA: WHO WILL DECIDE FOR YOU?
Brain Injury Victim Speaks Out On Terri Schiavo Case
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
ORLANDO, FLORIDA (ANS) -- Terri Schaivo’s life ended at 9:03 a.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2005, thirteen days after her feeding tube was removed. "Was her life as hopeless as the world was told?" asks Laura McCue Knowles. (Pictured: Laura, Jeff and Caleb Knowles. Laura survived traumatic brain injury and now speaks on the sanctity of life. Courtesy: www.hangontohope.com).
As a traumatic brain injury victim herself, and someone who has spoken with several people who had close contact with Terri, including her Chaplain and other close family friends, Knowles wants to speak out on Terri’s behalf.
Suffering from a severe traumatic brain injury, having a punctured lung and lacerated spleen, and three fractures to her pelvic bone in a church van accident in Central Florida, Knowles was taken to the hospital in a deep coma.
"The doctors informed my family and friends that I had maybe three days to live, and that the type of brain injury I had sustained (Diffuse Axonal) was permanent and irreversible, so if I did live and wake from the coma I would be in a vegetative state for the rest of my life. Hearing that, why didn’t my parents just take me off of life support and let me die, so I wouldn’t have to live a life without purpose?" Knowles asks.
"They hung on to hope. Hope in God who is bigger, smarter, and more powerful than all the doctors in the world. Hope in God who sees life as more than just flesh and bones or even a working mind. God created me on purpose, and my parents knew they had to let Him be the one to decide when my life here on Earth would end, so they hung on," Knowles said in a recent article obtained by ASSIST News Service (ANS).
"I hung on too. After years of trusting God’s plan, numerous surgeries on my trachea to allow me to breath, months of different therapies, and putting new meaning to the term hard work I am living a life the doctors said was impossible," Knowles said.
The accident took place just after she graduated high school at the age of 17.
"I am now 23 years old living each moment of life to its fullest. I was married to Jeff Knowles three years ago and our wedding was featured on TLC’s, 'A Wedding Story.' We are now raising our beautiful son (Caleb) who is nearing the age of two," she said.
Knowles is now also an author and public speaker.
"I never dreamed life could have so much fulfillment and joy. Being truly happy, I have learned over the past five years that the joy in me isn’t because of how much I have recovered. I don’t remember much about my time in the hospital because when I awoke from the coma I had no short-term memory. It took a while to remember anything."
What she does remember is in bits and pieces -- like the sound of her mother playing her guitar and singing to her or husband Jeff’s blue eyes looking into hers, telling her everything would be okay without saying a word.
"The one memory I have that encompasses them all though is God’s presence and peace that assured me constantly I was more alive than I had ever been before. I knew in the midst of my circumstances that my life was not over and I trusted God’s plan. I pushed on to live each moment realizing that God’s plan was a purpose worth living for even if I never woke up. The joy I have isn’t controlled by circumstances surrounding me, but it comes from my Savior who lives in me," Knowles said.
"Terri Schaivo’s injury was not the same as mine but Terri was alive and conscious to an extent that she could respond to her family through verbal and facial expressions, move her limbs with more control and to a larger degree than many other mentally handicapped patients, and she could even swallow and say the word 'no' when she felt pain during the brief amount of physical therapy she had," she added.
Knowles says that according to Terri’s lawyer (Patricia Anderson) Schiavo's husband stopped therapy only a year after her collapse and refused to allow anymore.
"The fact that the judicially-appointed doctors argued Terri was in a persistent vegetative state is ludicrous. If that were the case than we can also constitute every newborn baby as in a vegetative state because they can’t communicate properly, move with high accuracy, or get food and eat on their own," Knowles said.
One argument made against Terri’s life was that there was no hope for her to recover at all, she writes.
"After hearing the facts, I disagree that there was no hope for recovery. The truth is that, yes, all brain injuries are different, and just because one person recovers, like I have, that doesn’t mean Terri could have recovered to the degree I have. However, if all brain injuries are different then how could doctors know for sure, especially when so little therapy had been allowed, that recovery was 100 percent impossible for Terri?" Knowles says.
"Call me a stubborn optimist, but I have seen far too many brain injury cases where after therapy the brain was able to make new neurological connections to compensate for the damaged ones. Research shows that we only use 10 percent of our brain, so the other 90 percent is perfectly capable of picking up at least some of the slack if part of the ten percent is destroyed. I know the brain is one of the most complicated things we study and I am making things sound more simple than they are. But I also know doctors don’t know everything about the brain because it is so intricate," Knowles explains.
"My point is that we need to stop playing God with things we really know nothing about. If there is no proof that someone can heal, then where is the proof that they can’t heal?"
Knowles concludes: "What has happened to Terri breaks my heart because I believe God is the only one with the authority to decide when life should begin or end. As someone who was once where Terri was, I can testify that she was very much alive when they killed her, and I ask that the people of our country take a stand to make sure that this type of thing never happens again."
Laura Knowles is a speaker and writer for the sanctity of all life. For more information about her ministry see the website, www.hangontohope.com.
If you would like more information about Laura Knowles, please contact:
Audra Jennings
Media Specialist
The B&B Media Group
“A Media Communications Company”
109 S. Main
Corsicana, TX 75110
Fax: 903-872-0518
1-800-927-0517 Ext. 104
ajennings@tbbmedia.com
Visit us on the web at www.tbbmedia.com
** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
Thanks to MamaDearest for pointing to this article:
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http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=29254
Published: Sunday, April 03, 2005
Bylined to: David Coleman
"Venezuelan police hunt missing killer capsules of radioactive Iridium-192"
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Venezuela's National Guard (GN), Civil Defense and police are also involved in the nationwide hunt. The capsules were encased in protective containers of depleted uranium and are said to be "about the size of a lunchbox."
"The health and lives of people around would be at risk ... since they're quite heavy, people might think they have something valuable inside."
Venezuela's Civil Defense chief Antonio Rivero is concerned that the capsules might fall into terrorist hands ... "they could be used in a malicious fashion ... someone might try to place these capsules near a person or a place where people were gathered, for terrorist purposes.""
(Warning, kind of OT.)
An old good friend was in a bad car crash in FL, of all places, a number of years ago. Went into a coma, for some weeks. Wife came to make "the decision" (they were separated at the time) whether to pull the plugs. The friend was on various life support machines. Doctors said he'd never come out of the coma, if he did he'd be a vegetable, all the usual.
His wife (also my good friend) did a lot of praying and decided he should have a chance, that God should decide. She gave him a chance against all the doctors' advice. Today, her husband can not only walk and talk (somewhat disabled) but is a changed man. He's actually grateful for the accident, as it brought him closer to God, as well as gave him more appreciation of his devoted wife.
What an inspiring story little jeremiah.
THANK YOU.
FOR THE RECORD...
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
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http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pr2005/054.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2005
For Information, Contact Public Affairs
Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
MAN WHO CALLED IN BOGUS TIP CLAIMING PLOT TO BOMB SHOPPING MALL SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
Los Angeles, CA - A man who called the United States Department of Homeland Security with a bogus tip about an alleged terrorist attack against a shopping mall in West Los Angeles was sentenced this morning to five years in federal prison.
Zameer Mohamed, 24, a Tanzanian national who most recently lived in Canada, was sentenced this morning by United States District Judge Percy Anderson. In sentencing Mohamed, Judge Anderson noted that the defendant's hoax disrupted an entire city, scared thousands of people and wasted countless hours of law enforcement resources.
Mohamed pleaded guilty on December 20, 2004 to one count of using a telephone to convey false information about an explosive attack. Mohammed made the call on April 23, 2004 when he telephoned DHS and said that a Los Angeles-area mall in the vicinity of UCLA and "the federal building" would be attacked by terrorists on April 29. He said he had connections to an al Qaeda cell and that four individuals would enter United States through Canada using false U.S. passports. The threats caused law enforcement to dispatch well over 100 agents and officers to patrol malls and streets in Westwood.
Mohamed was arrested by the Border Patrol in Helena, Montana on April 29 after he entered the country illegally. Mohammed was interviewed by FBI Agents and admitted making the false threat because of a dispute involving money allegedly owed to him by a former girlfriend.
The investigation into this case was coordinated by the Los Angeles Joint Task Force on Terrorism, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Department of Justice/California Anti-Terrorism Information Center, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Beverly Hills Police Department. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.S. Border Patrol also provided substantial assistance during this investigation.
#####
Release No. 05-054
Return to the 2005 Press Release Index
It inspires me every time I think of them. I've known them for around 35 years, and they've been through VERY tough times. A good illustration that often the tough times are the ones that really help us spiritually, if we accept the hidden lesson. Or not so hidden - that God is the Master, I'm the servant; His job is to proctect me, and my job is to let Him; to open my heart to His will and His plan.
Yep and Amen..."God is the Master, I'm the servant."
UPDATE...
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
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http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20050405.txt
NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
April 4, 2005
Release Number: 05-04-05
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UPDATE: U.S. FORCES REPEL TERRORIST ATTACK ON CAMP ABU GHRAIB
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Soldiers and Marines successfully repelled a well-coordinated attack by 40-60 terrorists on Forward Operating Base Abu Ghraib April 2 at about 7 p.m. Abu Ghraib is a detention facility for 3,400 detainees as well as an Iraqi-run prison.
In an attempt to gain access to the prison, terrorists launched a simultaneous attack in multiple locations using indirect fires, rocket-propelled grenade fire, small arms fire and a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Just as the sun was setting, indirect fire from 81 mm and 120 mm mortars began impacting the operating base. This was followed by multiple RPG attacks and a large volume of small arms fire focused on two guard towers, one on the northwestern and the other on the southeastern corner on the operating base. Using the cover of the mortar fire and the intense fire on the guard towers, the terrorists launched a VBIED to penetrate the perimeter wall near the southeastern guard tower. Marines defending the base returned fire and the VBIED exploded before it reached the perimeter. Marines in the tower were forced to evacuate but were quickly reinforced by a quick reaction force.
The terrorists, using residential areas for cover and concealment, then conducted a ground assault towards the southeastern tower. With reinforcements from the quick reaction force, Marines and Soldiers halted the advance of the terrorists. Additionally, Apache helicopters and artillery fire began to engage the remnants of the attackers. The terrorists were forced to withdraw after suffering an estimated 50 casualties. The attack was over by 9 p.m.
US forces sustained seven wounded who were evacuated to a combat support hospital and sixteen minor injuries from shrapnel who have been returned to duty.
Additionally, thirteen detainees were also wounded from indirect fire, and all detainees remained accounted for.
-30-
Thanks for the summary 'zilla. Much appreciated!
Good morning Cindy.
...morning placemark...
Whatever you do jg...hold onto these rights and DO NOT sell!! Only sell once you have an independent survey company determine what type, and what quantity of minerals are available. Make sure that they in no way would want to have a financial vested interest in purchasing this property. Perhaps a University that has a geologicial studies program could help you.
The offers that you have received make it seem like someone knows what and how much this property could produce in some type of mineral...it could also be oil....or water. I have a colleague who told me approx. 5 years ago that members of a very wealthy family from TX were buying up properties in CA, NV and other areas in the Southwest...and they were doing so to get the rights to the subterranian water. And in the future it is the water rights that would increase their wealth...not the actual property. Anyway...just my humble opinion....I am in the construction industry and try to also purchase undervalued real estate for future profit, so my opinion is just speculation...make sure to contact the experts!
n&v...I had similar thoughts this morning upon seeing the crowds and listening to the list of expected dignitaries. Very chilling notion.
Good morning AD.
Daylights saving time.
No coffee, yet.
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