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Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 30 Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: This asteroid has a moon! The robot spacecraft Galileo currently exploring the Jovian system, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long journey to Jupiter. The second asteroid it photographed, Ida, was discovered to have a moon which appears as a small dot to the right of Ida in this picture. The tiny...

Bush's Palestinian Putsch SAN FRANCISCO-Now it's official. Bush is Ariel Sharon's bitch. When the Israeli prime minister began demanding that the Palestinian Authority jettison Yasser Arafat as its leader a few months back, even his fans knew he'd crossed the line. Israel was in no position to give the Palestinians this much advice. Sure, Bush had refused to even shake Arafat's hand, but the administration hadn't yet endorsed Sharon's ridiculous bid to beat the Palestinians by turning their leader into an Israeli puppet. "(Washington) is not an honest broker or a neutral intermediary; it stands completely behind Israel," Hamas politburo...

PRAY FOR AMERICA That July 4th is not a day of Terror. Look at the timing of this ATTACK on America's belief in God. It is just DAYS before July 4th. What if America does suffer Terrorist Attacks on July 4th? We'll be so distracted by the events, that in 45 days when this Ninth Court Ruling is due for review... No one will even care anymore. And without Public Protest, ONE NATION UNDER GOD will disappear forever. No matter what happens, we must REMEMBER to fight this assault on the Pledge of Allegiance. It's a fight for Liberty, and...

A life-long sci fi fan (started with "House of Mystery" and "Colonel Tommy Tomorrow" comic books), I went to a noon matinee of "Minority Report" (a benefit of being a free-lance reporter). SPOILERS.......................... "MR" is based upon yet another short story of the late, great Philip K. Dick (who had to die before his estate could become wealthy from the rights to his work). The tale deals with a new technology that allows the police to arrest someone before they commit a murder. In general -- nice try, but it doesn't quite come together. The CGI are so sophisticated that,...

HARARE, Jun 30, 2002 (AP)--President Robert Mugabe has accused mining giant Anglo-American Corp. (AAUK) of hoarding salt amid Zimbabwe's hunger crisis and threatened to seize the company's local assets, state media reported Sunday. Mugabe said his government "will not tolerate companies bent on causing unnecessary suffering to the people by creating unnecessary shortages," state radio reported Sunday. The radio said ruling party officials last week found 2,000 metric tons of salt in warehouses belonging to National Foods, a company partially owned by Anglo Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of London-based Anglo American. A National Foods executive said on condition of anonymity...

A gay Islamic scholar has been criticised by Muslim religious leaders for claiming on national TV that the Koran does not condemn "loving homosexual relationships". Muhsin Hendricks, 35, who appeared on M-Net's current affairs programme Carte Blanche last Sunday, stunned devout Muslims by saying that in the Koran "sexual relations between two men cannot be proven wrong". Hendricks, who said he had studied the Koran for more than four years, recently moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg to start a support centre for gays and lesbians. He said Muslim leaders had avoided addressing homosexuality in their communities because none of...

Attention Freepers in the DC Area - You're invited to the 31st Annual National Conservative 4th of July Soiree. Free Food Patriotic Speech Free Beverages, courtesy of Coors Brewing Company July 4th 12-5 PM - Ft. Hunt Park in Alexandria (just north of Mt. Vernon) Joining us - DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson and U.S. Senator George Allen

NEW DELHI: India test-fired a Russian rocket that is part of an advanced weapons system that the Indian military may acquire, a news report said Sunday. The rocket, launched Saturday from a testing facility off the east coast of India, is part of the Smerch and Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Russia is trying to sell India's military systems, which have both surface-to-surface and surface-to-air strike capabilities and are designed to target personnel, artillery and missile systems. The rockets have a range of up to 90 kilometres (55 miles). Nearly 30 Russian scientists...

United Press International 24 February 2001 Israel gave major to aid to Hamas By Richard Sale, Terrorism Correspondent New York -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas recently described it as "the deadliest terrorist group that we have ever had to face." Active in Gaza and the West Bank Hamas wants to liberate all of Palestine and establish a radical Islamic state in place of Israel. It has gained notoriety with its assassinations, car bombs and other acts of terrorism. But Sharon had left something out. Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in...

The story could easily have been ripped from the headlines of today's tabloids: “Mother of Six Says, 'I Killed Them All'; Attempts Suicide.” Bereft of all hope, a destitute mother married for a decade to a man who was an uncaring father and an abusive husband, took the lives of her six children “to save them.” In a last act of desperation, she vainly tried to take her own life. BARRE (MA)-- A little more than a century ago, an unspeakable tragedy stunned this community and the small neighboring village of Coldbrook Springs. That village no longer exists, taken by...

INTERVIEW 'Treated By Pakistan As Virtual Slaves' While we may hear about PoK, the so-called 'Azad Kashmir' every now and then, what do we know about the other, larger part of J&K, the Northern Areas? YOGINDER SIKAND Abdul Hamid Khan is the Chairman of the Balawaristan National Front, an organization struggling for the independence of Gilgit Baltistan, which he considers to be under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. He spoke to Yoginder Sikand on issues related to the Kashmir question and the quest of his own people for independence from PakistanYoginder Sikand: Could you tell us something about the...

EXCLUSIVEAnti-abortion group use iconic Che Guevara image to push their message at Glastonbury 'Fidel will be so mad when he learns about this' By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor IN one corner there is Jim Dowson, the controversy-seeking Scottish leader of the militant anti-abortion group UK Life League ... and in the other there is Fidel Castro, the spirit of Che Guevara and the anti-capitalist organisation Globalise Resistance. This is a fight which is now going to end in the British courts. The UK Life League, formerly known as Precious Life are today at the Glastonbury Festival dressed in T-shirts...

In most dioceses across the country, Catholics have been led to believe that the current "shortage of priests" has been a wholly unexpected and rather unexplainable curse. They have been asked to pray for an increase in vocations which have mysteriously dried up in these modern times. Rather then objectively evaluating the possible causes of this "shortage" 1 and coming up with solutions, many bishops are focusing on accommodations of how to function with less (or possibly no) priests. Certain measures which would otherwise be cause for outrage are accepted as appropriate measures in the current "vocations crisis". This is...

Lt. Governor Dick Posthumus needs your help during the July 4th weekend, we are going to have supporters all over the state walking in parades on behalf of Dick Posthumus and we would love for you and your family to join us! Please find enclosed a list of the parades that Dick Posthumus is going to have a presence in, please come to as many as you can! We do need all volunteers to show up a half hour before the parade starts; t-shirts will be provided for all volunteers. If you have any questions please feel free to give...

THE MASSIVE BUILD-UP IN BOSNIA "Defence and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy", London, May 31, 1995 The build-of new Islamist units was being completed in Bosnia-Herzegovina (B-H) in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement and the international terrorism which operates under the guise of Islamic religious activism, and include the first organised deployment of "martyrdom" forces (that is, suicide terrorists): both veteran Arabs and newly trained Bosnians. These recent activities are now being conducted under the new Islamist headquaters in Tehran nad Karachi, decided upon during the PAIC (Popular Arab Islamic Conference), convened...

<p>Doug Osugi can't say exactly when he began believing in global warming. The realization that Earth's temperature truly is rising dawned gradually.</p> <p>"It is not something that suddenly, the next day, you realize that it's true," said Osugi, a California water resources planner. "I think it's something that you're slowly being convinced that, yes, it's there, as more and more information comes out.</p>

A live discuss on Conservative Movement - 2 hours on Russell Kirk, then 1 hour with Bill Buckley.

DOHA, June 30 (AFP) - A high-ranking Palestinian official called Sunday for a boycott of US Secretary State Colin Powell after the US diplomat said Washington has no intention of talking with embattled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "I call on all Palestinian officials to boycott Colin Powell. I call on all Palestinians not to meet Powell," said Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman, in an interview with Qatar-based Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera. "I am against any Palestinians meeting with any American or Israeli officials as long as the Palestinian people are under siege, as long as the Palestinian people...

Source: Science 296 (5573), May 31, 2002, p. 1594.BIOTERRORISM:In Search of a Kinder, Gentler Vaccineby Martin EnserinkJames Koopman saw the last 16 cases of smallpox in the Indian district of Azhagar in the early 1970s, but by now they blur together. Crystal clear, however, is the memory of a child, about 1 year old, who suffered from an uncontrollable infection called progressive vaccinia after receiving a smallpox vaccination in 1973. "It completely destroyed her arm, right down to the bone," says Koopman, now a researcher at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.To Koopman, that girl is a grim reminder...