There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers. Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it rained crimson, turning local people's clothes pink, burning leaves on trees and falling as scarlet sheets at some points. Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. 'If you look at these particles under a microscope, you ...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk
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Editor - 23:40:00 03-04-06
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 Abizaid: Iraq Can Expect More Bombings |
Iraq can expect more bombings like the one at a Shiite Muslim shrine that set off fighting between Shiites and Sunnis, the chief of the U.S. Central Command said Saturday. Gen. John Abizaid blamed Al-Qaida terrorists for the blast and said it marked a clear and successful change in tactics by the group in its campaign to ignite civil war among Iraqis. "They got more of a reaction from that than they had hoped for," Abizaid told The Associated Press in Qatar after a two-day trip to Iraq, where he discussed the Feb. 22 attack's implications with top U.S. and Iraqi leaders. "I expect we'll see another attack in the near future on another symbol," he said. "They'll find some other place that's undefended, they'll strike it and they'll hope for more sectarian violence." ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030400665_pf.html
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Editor - 23:21:00 03-04-06
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| Bush signs up to Boogieman pact with Pakistan |
Bush cemented his anti-terrorism pact with Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf yesterday during a 24-hour visit marked by intense security and a crackdown on anti-American protest.Musharraf was 'committed to bringing the terrorists to justice', the US president said after meeting the army general at the presidential palace in Islamabad. 'He understands the need to make sure our strategy is able to defeat the enemy... We will win this war together.'As the two leaders met, Black Hawk helicopters circled over the palace. Tension was high after a suicide bombing killed a US diplomat and three Pakistanis outside the US consulate in Karachi 48 hours earlier. The visit probably brought Bush closer to Osama bin Laden than at any time since 2001. Western intelligence believes the al-Qaeda leader is sheltering among sympathisers in the northern tribal zone, as little as 100 miles away....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1723934,00.html
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Editor - 23:07:00 03-04-06
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| Many Defendants' Cases Kept Secret. The computer will falsely reply, "no such case" — rather than acknowledging that it is a sealed case. |
Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years. Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005. An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government. Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases. Some of these cooperating witnesses are among the most unsavory characters in America's courts — multiple murderers and drug dealers — but the public cannot learn whether their testimony against confederates won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/secret_justice;_ylt=AiCSPHNmOeR30gfUUbmhrPSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
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Editor - 22:58:00 03-04-06
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| Catholic bishop calls for protection of Christian sites |
A Roman Catholic bishop called for better protection of Christian sites Saturday after an Israeli couple set off a series of explosions in a church in Nazareth. Israeli Arabs, meanwhile, filled the streets of the biblical city to protest Friday's attack on the Basilica of the Annunciation, which apparently was driven by personal distress and not extremism but still heightened religious and political tensions in northern Israel. The couple and their 20-year-old daughter used a baby stroller to smuggle firecrackers and small gas canisters into the church on Friday evening. They threw the explosives from the balcony and were beaten by worshippers before police arrived. After a three-hour standoff between police and thousands of protesters, the suspects were led away through a back exit, disguised as police officers. Club-wielding police fired stun grenades to keep back the mob. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-03-04-nazareth-church_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 22:26:00 03-04-06
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| Thousands of Muslims Protest in Indonesia, Demand U.S. Pullout From Iraq, Afghanistan |
Several thousand Muslims demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia's capital Sunday to protest the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hizbut Tahrir, the group organizing the rally, had predicted tens of thousands would attend, but the crowd appeared to number about 5,000, roughly half of them women and children. About 2,000 policemen kept the protesters away from the embassy compound, which is ringed by two concrete walls and barbed wire. The mission's main office block is set about 100 yards away from the outer wall, behind a courtyard and parking lot. "U.S.A. out of Iraq," chanted the demonstrators. They also carried placards condemning Israel and a U.S. mining company New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. which is accused of causing an environmental disaster at its Grasberg mine in Papua province. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1688455
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Editor - 22:10:00 03-04-06
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