 A sliver of four-billion-year-old sea floor has offered a glimpse into the inner workings of an adolescent Earth. The baked and twisted rocks, now part of Greenland, show the earliest evidence of plate tectonics, colossal movements of the planet's outer shell. Until now, researchers were unable to say when the process, which explains how oceans and continents form, began. The unique find, described in the journal Science, shows the movements started soon after the planet formed. "Since the plate tectonic paradigm is the framework in which we interpret all modern-day geology, it is important to know how far back in time it operated," said Professor Minik Rosing of the University of Copenhagen and one of the authors of the paper. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 10:19:00 03-23-07
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 House approves deadline for war pullout Speaker Pelosi wins gamble with September 2008 withdrawal from Iraq |
A sharply divided House voted Friday to order President Bush to bring combat troops home from Iraq next year, a victory for Democrats in an epic war-powers struggle and Congress’ boldest challenge yet to the administration’s policy. Ignoring a White House veto threat, lawmakers voted 218-212, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill requiring that combat operations cease before September 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress. “The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “The American people see the reality of the war, the president does not.”...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17750825/
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Editor - 10:14:00 03-23-07
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| Holy row over troop colours |
Of all the second world war leaders, Pius XII remains the most enigmatic. Historians are still at loggerheads over whether he did as much as he might have done to prevent the Holocaust. Now the waters are being muddied still further. The Italian liberal daily La Repubblica has reported evidence to suggest that, even if the wartime pope was not anti-Semitic, he may have been colour prejudiced. Dated January 26, 1944, it reported the substance of a conversation with Pope Pius XII just days after the landings at Anzio and Nettuno, south of the capital. "The pope hopes that there will not be Allied coloured troops among the units deployed in Rome," wrote the ambassador. Sir D'Arcy seems to have been rather bemused by the request, for - with a hint of sarcasm - he went on to say that the pontiff "had hastened to add that the Holy See has not fixed a limit to the range of colours". ...
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/03/23/holy_row_over_troop_colours.html#more
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Editor - 10:04:00 03-23-07
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| Dems Kill Effort to Cut Taxes on Estates |
Senate Democrats killed a move to cut taxes on large estates as a $2.9 trillion Democratic budget outline neared a final vote Friday. The 51-48 vote came on an amendment by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to erase taxes on estates worth up to $5 million and impose a 35 percent top rate on larger estates, beginning in 2011. The current top rate is 45 percent but unless Congress acts the estate tax will revert to 2001 levels - a $1 million exemption and 55 percent top rate - at the end of 2010. Kyl's amendment mirrors a plan popular with moderate Democrats. But Democrats defeated Kyl's amendment because it would have swelled the deficit by $16 billion in 2012 - the year that the Democrats' budget seeks to achieve balance. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6503062,00.html
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Editor - 09:57:00 03-23-07
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| Europe-wide weather alarm system launched |
With climate change set to bring ever more frequent storms, floods and natural disasters, 21 European countries have created a unified weather alert system, its creators said on Friday.Meteoalarm, launched on Friday at the end of a week-long meteorological conference in Madrid, provides simple icon-based information on severe weather in 17 languages from a single web page, www.meteoalarm.eu. "Our job is to save lives and goods, and this project was needed in Europe," Tomas Molina, chairman of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorology, told a news conference. The new system should be simple and credible, so that on the rare occasions there is a red alert people will take it seriously, its backers said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2976216
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Editor - 09:50:00 03-23-07
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| Kremlin cracks down on opposition ahead of protests |
Russia's next parliament is likely to be entirely without any genuine opposition after a court in Moscow today banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections. Russia's supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had "violated electoral law". The party is one of very few left in Russia that criticises the country's president, Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Ryzhkov, the leader of the party, said the ban was part of a Kremlin-inspired campaign to crack down on dissent. "This is part of the Kremlin's policy of suppressing the opposition. It's being done to prevent opposition parties from taking part in elections," he told the Guardian. "This is the fate any opposition party in Russia." Mr Ryzhkov - one of a handful of independent MPs in the Duma and a leading critic of Mr Putin - said his party would appeal in Russia and to the European court of human rights....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2041493,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 09:20:00 03-23-07
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