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MANAMA, Bahrain – Cmdr. Jack Noell, commanding officer of DDG Crew Sierra, turned over command of the guided missile destroyer USS Gonzalez (DDG 66) Feb. 21, to Cmdr. Robert Randall and DDG Crew Golf at an exchange of command ceremony here. Gonzalez is taking part in the Navy's Sea Swap program, which is designed to increase forward naval presence by keeping the ship continuously present in its area of operations while swapping crews at six-month intervals. The Sea-Swap initiative has enabled Gonzalez to remain forward deployed since March 25, 2005 conducting maritime security operations (MSO) in the U. S. Naval...

Tide of opinion turns against Venice dam By Hilary Clarke in Venice (Filed: 29/01/2006) A multi-billion pound project to stop Venice disappearing under water is itself in danger of sinking under the weight of opposition from the city's mayor and the European Commission. Brussels is concerned about the impact the £2.9 billion Moses dam project could have on the environment, while Venice's own council believes the cash would be better spent on maintaining buildings. Water levels in Venice have risen by 32in since the 18th century, when Canaletto painted the lagoon city. Its tourist centre, St Mark's Square, floods more...

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq, Oct. 21, 2005 – Take a design engineer, a project manager and a construction company. Drop them into Iraq's mountainous north and hand them a "mission, impossible": Turn a relic of an old military fort into an internment facility ready to receive 1,000 detainees within eight weeks. That's the task that faced the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence and contractor ECC International. "We and our contract partner were up to the challenge," said Tom Russell, AFCEE's director of worldwide installation support. The team got the order to proceed in August, but the challenge began months earlier, when...

It was exactly two years ago today that Californians took a giant leap of faith and hope by throwing out the governor whom they had re-elected just a year earlier and giving the job to a famous actor without any outward credentials other than his promises to make Sacramento work. ... --snip-- Although Schwarzenegger's popularity has not - at least not yet - plummeted to the abysmal levels that drove Davis out of office, it's just half of where it was a year ago, ... The best the governor could hope to achieve now on Nov. 8 is a mixed...

US Right turns on Blair for being 'soft on terror' By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 25/07/2005) The American Right, for four years a fount of rapturous praise for Tony Blair, is showing signs of falling out of love with Britain over what it sees as its soft and ineffective record on terrorism. The July 7 bombings prompted outpourings of sympathy from Americans. But the media coverage of the bombings was marked by a tone of frustration at London's record of tolerance for Islamist preachers. This has intensified on the Right in the wake of Thursday's botched attacks. Two prominent...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party turned 84 on Friday, trumpeting an increase in young new members and calling itself the world's largest political party in terms of membership. The party, which has monopolized politics in the world's most populous nation since 1949, added 2.4 million new members to its ranks last year, bringing its total numbers up to 69.6 million, the online edition of Xinhua news agency said. "The political party with the most members in the world, the Chinese Communist Party, welcomes its 84th birthday on July 1," Xinhua said. Higher education students were one source of...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Move over Smokey the Bear. In California, thousands of goats are helping prevent wildfires. From hilly San Francisco to more rural settings, California landowners, business and officials have hired the voracious animals to devour the grass and brush that fuels wildfires. Last year, more than 5,500 fires blackened over 168,000 acres in the most populous U.S. state. "Goats are just another tool in the toolbox for California and we try to use as many tools as possible," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Michael Jarvis said in an interview last week. Goats are munching...

CUATRO CIENEGAS, Mexico (Reuters) - With cobalt waters harboring eerie, coral-like formations, this archipelago of lakes in Mexico's searing Chihuahuan desert has always had an other-worldly appearance. Now top researchers at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration say the calcified clumps of primitive bacteria lurking in its pools could provide important clues in their search for extraterrestrial life. The network of 170 cactus-ringed lagoons around the town of Cuatro Cienegas have intrigued evolutionary biologists for decades because their fish, snail and turtle species rival the Galapagos Islands in their uniqueness. Scientists from NASA's Astrobiology Institute have begun studying the...

My brother, one of a whole lot of WW2 heroes, turns 85 next month.

Bush Turns Attention to Daunting 2nd Term 2 hours, 18 minutes ago By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON - President Bush turned from inaugural pageantry to a daunting second-term agenda Friday while his administration scrambled to explain his newly declared goal of ending tyranny around the world. The president's expansive pledge, the major theme of his inaugural address, raised questions about whether Bush intended to apply new standards to allies or partners that are not ideal democracies, or aren't democracies at all. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and other countries fit that description. Bush "made clear it was not...

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Chileans are turning more and more against ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites), making courts more likely to put the ailing retired general on trial for human rights abuses during his 1973-1990 regime, political scientists said. The Supreme Court will make a key ruling in the coming days over whether murder and kidnapping charges against Pinochet can proceed in a human rights case, a decision preceded by a string of court rulings against Pinochet this year. "Public opinion is more and more negative regarding Pinochet ... and that obviously influences the judges as they review...

BART's political efforts on a seismic repair bond are a major focus of a federal political corruption probe into Sen. Don Perata and his associates. In a Nov. 8 subpoena, the U.S. District Court ordered BART to hand over records relating to the work of Perata, his children and their companies. The subpoena also names Perata's college roommate Timothy Staples, Oakland lobbyist Lily Hu, political consultant Sandra Polka and their firms. The federal grand jury wants to know about direct or indirect payments to them. The subpoena highlights 26 BART checks to Hu's political consulting firm Lily Hu & Associates...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court turned away several First Amendment-related cases today, appeals by: A media company claiming it had a right to distribute real-time golf scores. Telemarketing groups challenging the federal do-not-call registry. A Catholic organization challenging a California law that forces it to pay for workers' contraceptive health insurance benefits. The Montana Right to Life Association, which claimed state campaign-contribution limits violated free-speech rights. Alabama's former chief justice and Ten Commandments proponent Roy Moore who was seeking to get his job back. Morris Communications Co. v. PGA Tour The high court turned away an appeal by Morris Communications...

GOP turns up heat on McGreevey to leave Mike Lavers, PlanetOut Network Friday, August 27, 2004 / 05:37 PM With a federal judge scheduled to hear arguments early next month on whether New Jersey should hold a special election after Gov. James E. McGreevey unexpectedly resigned on Aug. 12, Republicans have stepped up their calls for him to leave office immediately. At a press conference in Hackensack on Wednesday, the New Jersey Republican State Committee, along with the Republican National Committee (RNC), unveiled a new 30-second television ad urging McGreevey to step down and allow voters to choose the state's...

>>> John Collomosse research pages >>> Video demo of the technology [may be slow for dial-up users] The family portrait is set to become a great work of art thanks to new computer software that can turn photographs into cubist artworks in the style of Picasso.The Picasso-effect software is part of a unique suite of imaging technologies developed by computer scientists at the University of Bath that turns photo albums, videos and movies into drawings, paintings, and cartoons. The software could also revolutionise the way that animations are made.In order to create the software, the researchers had to teach...

PARIS - Ceremonies that drew thousands of people into the streets culminated with a solemn tribute to the heroes of the liberation at Paris City Hall — followed by a jubilant outdoor ball. The liberation "shook France and renewed hope in the world," said President Jacques Chirac in an address at City Hall, where he decorated veterans and Resistance members. The liberation was "an essential step in the capitulation of the Nazi regime," and through it, "France found its place in the world," Chirac said. Before a crowd of thousands, and intermittent rain, he stressed the need to transmit the...

Bank president fights for soldier after robbery Published Monday, June 14, 2004 FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Seven hours from his Army post and thousands of miles from the Iraq war he left behind, Master Sgt. Kenneth Schweitzer confessed to walking into an Iowa bank, firing shots into the ceiling and walking out with a bag of cash. He drove straight to a police station and turned himself in, saying he didn’t need the money, he just wanted to live in an 8-by-8-foot cell, authorities said. The case has baffled police and acquaintances of Schweitzer, a 38-year-old father and decorated...

Ohio gay GOP official turns Democrat Thu Feb 26, 8:25 PM ET Tom Musbach, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network SUMMARY: Saying he can't stomach President Bush's support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, a gay Republican leader in Ohio announced on Thursday he is becoming a Democrat. Saying he can't stomach President Bush's support for the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), a gay Republican leader in Ohio announced on Thursday he is becoming a Democrat. In a letter to the chair of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County, John Farina, a former official in the county's party organization and former president of the...

Clovis Man turns 75, plus 13,000 By MICHELLE SEEBER Clovis News Journal CLOVIS, N.M. — He lived among saber-toothed cats, hunted giant mammoths and bison and was smart enough to dig water wells. Other than that, even thousands of years later, we still don't know much about the people known collectively as Clovis Man. Last week marked 75 years since a local amateur archaeologist discovered Clovis Man at Blackwater Draw, about 14 miles southwest of Clovis in eastern New Mexico. Clovis people lived between 11,500 and 13,000 years ago. Since Clovis Man's discovery, evidence has surfaced that prehistoric man's first...

Ananova: Iraqi wedding celebration turns into gun battle US soldiers have killed a 14-year-old Iraqi boy and injured six others after hearing gunfire which was part of a wedding celebration. Neighbours in Fallujah said the incident started after wedding guests fired guns into the air to celebrate. A passing US military patrol opened fire believing it was under attack. Adel Hmood said the Americans opened fire in a circle around themselves. He said the dead boy was on his way to buy cigarettes when he was killed. Bullet holes in homes and buildings in the area suggested there was heavy...