Two bodies retrieved from landslide-hit orphanage, Malaysia - 21st May 2011

KAJANG, MALAYSIA: A landslide hit an orphanage and the bodies of two children from the Rumah Anak Yatim Hidayah, Madrasah Al-Takwa, FELDA Semungkis, 14th mile, Hulu Langat, near here have been pulled out.

Four, believed to be caretakers, are still trapped in the building.

Firemen and villagers managed to pull out several others who were critically injured and have been rushed to the Kajang Hospital, said Fire Department Chief Asst Comm Morni Mamat.

According to initial reports, the orphanage, with about 30 residents, was partially buried by a landslide at about 2.30pm on Saturday. Source

Nuclear plant workers suffer internal radiation exposure after visiting Fukushima - 21st May 2011

The government has discovered thousands of cases of workers at nuclear power plants outside Fukushima Prefecture suffering from internal exposure to radiation after they visited the prefecture, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Most of the workers who had internal exposure to radiation visited Fukushima after the nuclear crisis broke out following the March 11 quake and tsunami, and apparently inhaled radioactive substances scattered by hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

The revelation has prompted local municipalities in Fukushima to consider checking residents' internal exposure to radiation.

Nobuaki Terasaka, head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told the House of Representatives Budget Committee on May 16 that there were a total of 4,956 cases of workers suffering from internal exposure to radiation at nuclear power plants in the country excluding the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, and 4,766 of them involved workers originally from Fukushima who had visited the prefecture after the nuclear crisis. Terasaka revealed the data in his response to a question from Mito Kakizawa, a lawmaker from Your Party.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it received the data from power companies across the country that measured the workers' internal exposure to radiation with "whole-body counters" and recorded levels of 1,500 counts per minute (cpm) or higher. In 1,193 cases, workers had internal exposure to radiation of more than 10,000 cpm. Those workers had apparently returned to their homes near the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant or had moved to other nuclear power plants from the Fukushima No. 1 and 2 nuclear power plants. Read More

Public Warning - Cougar spotted eating a deer in Lithia Park, Oregon - 20th May 2011

City of Ashland officials are warning residents and tourists to take precautions after a man walking his dog spotted a cougar feeding on a deer carcass on a Lithia Park trail at about 7 a.m. today.

"This is a the fifth kill of a similar nature in the past few weeks, but the first in which a confirmed sighting was associated with a kill," Ashland Parks and Recreation Department Director Don Robertson said.

The man walking his dog this morning saw the cougar on a dirt trail that links the end of Pioneer Street near the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to the parks department office in the middle of Lithia Park. He reported the cougar sighting to parks staff. An Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division trooper examined the remains of the deer and confirmed that it had been killed by a cougar, city officials said.

Other recent kills in the park include deer and a few turkeys, officials said. Robertson said city workers aren't sure whether the other dead animals recently found in Lithia Park were all killed by cougars, or by other animals such as dogs, coyotes or bobcats.

"People need to be aware and alert when they're out there in Lithia Park," Robertson said. "It is part of the forest interface, just like many homes in town. As we are approaching Memorial Day weekend, we thought the prudent thing was to let people know what they should do in Lithia Park."

Children and adults should not run away if they see a cougar.

"That will trigger the chase instinct in a cougar," Robertson said.

Although there have been no confirmed reports of cougars injuring or killing humans in the past 100 years in Oregon, officials offered these safety tips for dealing with cougars:

• Be especially cautious at dawn and dusk when cougars are most active.
• Hike in groups and make noise to avoid surprising a cougar.
• If you spot a cougar, stay calm and back away slowly from the cougar while talking to it. Leave it an escape route.
• Do not crouch down or turn your back.
• Make yourself appear bigger through actions like raising your arms.
• Pick up any small children and hold them.
• If the cougar becomes aggressive, shout, wave your arms and throw rocks to convince the animal that you are a potential danger.
• Fight back if attacked. Do not "play dead."

If another dead animal is found, officials want to determine as quickly as possible whether it was killed by a cougar, Robertson said. Anyone spotting a dead animal should leave the area immediately and contact the Ashland Police Department at 541-488-5211 and the Ashland Parks Department at 541-488-5340. Both numbers are monitored 24 hours a day, so leave a message if a someone doesn't answer the phone in person. Source

Syrian Regime Responds To Obama Criticisms - 21st May 2011

Syria has given its response to Barack Obama's call on President Assad to lead his country to democracy or stand aside.

Tanks have been sent into a number of towns and a number of people are reported to have been killed, according to human rights activists.

And new video seems to reveal Assad loyalists running amok with guns in civilian areas.

Syrian state media accused the American President of incitement and meddling after his speech that accused the regime of "pursuing the path of murder".

Obama's criticism was the sharpest yet of the Syrian leader and coincided with new US sanctions for the first time targeting Assad himself in addition to a number of his family members and closest aides.

It may have emboldened Syrians in their protests.

A number of clashes have been reported in towns that have already been the focus of intense crackdowns by the Syrian military.

This week protests continued in Syria's biggest city, Aleppo but only it seems among students.

Tanks were reported to have entered the town of Maarat Numan to the south of Aleppo to put down protests there. Read More

Meet the family Haddad, who truly believe it is their last moment on Earth... but, so far, nothing has happened on the day of rapture - 21st May 2011

Joseph, Faith and Grace Haddad appear like any other American teenagers - except for the fact their parents Robert and Abby believe the world is about to end.

Two years ago their father Robert and mother Abby gave up their regular jobs to preach for the Family Radio church at the centre of the May 21 Judgment Day campaign.

In a last ditch effort to spread the word before the Armageddon that they believe will happen tomorrow, Robert and Abby took their children to a New York street fair.

Speaking to the New York Times, 16-year-old Grace Haddad said: 'My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven. At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly believes.'

But while the followers of radical evangelist Harold Camping prepare to meet their maker at 6pm on Saturday, no rapture reports were heard from Christmas Island in Kiribati - where the earthquake was set to hit first at 6pm local time.

However, the local newspaper, television and radio websites were all not working - probably more due to the fact that the world's media was inundating them with calls than Armaggedon having indeed begun.

Two earthquakes of magnitudes over 2.5 were reported shortly after 6pm local time (midnight Eastern Time) hit Christmas Island.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Solomon Islands region and a 3.1 in the Hawaii area between 00:30am and 00:45am Eastern Time.

But before you start preparing for the Armaggeddon, there are usually 30 to 40 earthquakes measuring more than 2.5 every day worldwide. Read More

Honeybees are dropping like flies in the Okanagan, leaving bee keepers baffled - 20th May 2011

Honeybees are dropping like flies in the Okanagan, leaving bee keepers baffled .

A number of bee farms are reporting they've lost a number of hives and according to Owner of Planet Bee Honey Farm, Ed Nowek, they have no explanation.

"There's still a lot unexplained losses. It would be one thing to go in there and be like these because of A or these ones died because of B, but we go in there and we don't know what's causing it. It's pretty disconcerting."

Nowek says both honeybees and native bees are dying off, and it could have something to do with the environment, pesticides, or even the weather. Source

Police evacuate airport and seize 'terrorist' with fake bomb... pity TSA forgot to tell them it was just a drill - 20th May 2011

It was a routine bomb drill that had actually gone very well - it was just a shame the TSA failed to tell the police.

So when a man posing as a terrorist was caught going through scanners with a fake bomb at St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, police thought it was real.

They immediately evacuated the area before drawing their guns and stopping the now terrified faux bomber.

'I think a lot of people were alarmed,' Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airport Commission, told the Star Tribune of the incident.

'There is always a danger that someone could have gotten hurt. It was unfortunate.'

The routine drill conducted by the Transportation Security Administration began last Thursday afternoon.

A man with a fake bomb in his carry-on bag was instructed to try and get through scanners undetected, Mr Hogan explained.

The TSA official saw what appeared to be an explosive and immediately notified authorities sparking a huge terror alert.

Within seconds TSA official told the poised officers the bomb was a fake and they were in the midst of a drill to test the response of screeners and rather ironically the communication system.

TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon said there had been a 'miscommunication' between the administration and police. Read More

Michael Devlin One of America's most notorious child kidnappers stabbed by another prison inmate with a knife named for his victim - 20th May 2011

One of America's most notorious child kidnappers was stabbed by another prison inmate with knives named after his two young victims.

Evil Michael Devlin is recovering from his injuries after being attacked at a prison in Missouri.

He was repeatedly stabbed by Troy Fenton, who called his two home made knives 'Shawn' and 'Ben' - the names of two boys kidnapped by Devlin.

The restaurant manager made international headlines in 2007 after a boy who went missing when he was 11 years old was found living with him.

Devlin had snatched Shawn Hornbeck as he cycled to a friend's house and kept him prisoner at his flat in the town of Kirkwood, Missouri.

The young boy was brainwashed by Devlin into believing his parents were dead and was repeatedly sexually abused by his abductor.

His parents never gave up hope of finding their son and had posted fliers in Kirkwood - unaware he was living about 60 miles from their own home.

Police found Hornbeck while they were looking for another missing boy, Ben Ownby, who had disappeared on his way home from school.

The 13-year-old was found with Devlin and Hornbeck then told police he had been kidnapped in 2002. Read More

Al Qaeda was planning to blow up oil tankers to provoke an 'extreme economic crisis' in the West - 20th May 2011

Al Qaeda wanted to hijack and blow up oil tankers to provoke an 'extreme economic crisis' in the West, it has been revealed.

According to documents seized from Osama Bin Laden's Pakistan compound, the terror group sought information on the size and construction of oil tankers.

It determined that blowing them up from the inside would be easiest due to the strength of the tankers' hulls.

U.S. government officials say there was no specific or imminent threat, and that they didn't know whether Al Qaeda had continued plotting since last year.

But the group headed by Osama Bin Laden had recommended test runs of the plot, it was revealed.

Department for Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said: 'We are not aware of indications of any specific or imminent terrorist attack plotting against the oil and natural gas sector overseas or in the United States.

'However, in 2010 there was continuing interest by members of Al Qaeda in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea.'

The government warning went to federal, state and local law enforcement and companies in the oil and gas industries.

The DHS said it was not raising the U.S. terror alert level. Read More

Now U.S. plagued by stink bug epidemic, causing $37m in damage as one-fifth of apple harvest is ruined - 21st May 2011

Brown stink bugs are causing millions of dollars in crop damage, with the apple industry being hit the hardest.

Growers in the mid-Atlantic region have reported the worst problems with about 18 per cent of the crop ruined.

The industry has reported $37million in damage to apple growers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia this spring.

The bug, a three-quarter-inch invader native to Asia, has a huge appetite and has no domestic natural predators.

It is believed to have been brought first to the Allentown area of Pennsylvania in 1998.

The bug began appearing in mid-Atlantic orchards in 2003-04 and exploded in number last year.

They have now been seen in 33 states, including every one east of the Mississippi River and as far west as California, Oregon and Washington.

Research entomologist Tracy Leskey, who works at the U.S. Agriculture Department's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia, said: 'All that we do know for certain is that a tremendously large population went into overwintering in fall 2010.

'So, if they survived, there could be a very large population emerging.'

Mark Seetin, the association's director of regulatory and industry affairs, called it the worst threat to farmers he's see in his 40 years in agriculture.

America's biggest apple producer, Washington state, has yet to report serious so far.

Aside from apples, the bug, named for the foul smell it gives off when crushed, will feed on nearly anything, including cherries, tomatoes, grapes, lima beans, soybeans, green peppers and peaches.

It uses a needle-like mouth to pierce the skin of its host fruit or vegetable, leaving behind a spot that is disfigured and discolored.

Stink bugs wiped out up to 40 per cent of Tom Haas's peaches last season at his Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Mr Haas, the owner of the family-run orchard, said: 'This is the worst, probably, that I've dealt with in 25 years. The damage they do to fruit is horrendous.' Read More

Bill Carney a Paedophile priest expelled from Catholic Church found living yards from children’s play area - 20th May 2011

A paedophile priest expelled from the Catholic Church over his vile sex crimes has been found living just yards from a children's play area.

Bill Carney was described as a 'serial sex abuser of children' after being named in the Murphy Report into clerical abuse in Ireland. The Irishman - convicted of indecent assault and linked to 32 other complaints - became one of the most notorious cases in the church's history.

Now, worried parents have spoken out after Carney was found living 100 yards away from a park in a pretty Cotswolds town.

They expressed serious concerns after his back gate was found to lead straight onto the children's area.

One father-of-two from Northleach, Gloucester, who did not want to be named, said: 'I think it is important people know he is living here.

'There's a lot of whispering, but someone needs to speak up.

'This is the first summer I would have allowed my two children to walk out to the play area on their own - but now I can't.'

Carney was convicted of two counts of indecent assault in 1983. In 1992 he was defrocked after church authorities convicted him of child sex abuse.

The Murphy Report, which investigated paedophilia in the Catholic Church and was published in November 2009, pinpointed Carney as one of the worst perpetrators. Read More

'Man Overboard' From Channel Cruise Ship - 21st May 2011

A search and rescue operation has been launched in the English Channel following reports that a person had fallen overboard a cruise ship.

Solent Coastguard Maritime Rescue said it had received information that a person onboard the Celebrity Eclipse cruiser had plummeted into the channel around eight miles north of Cherbourg.

A spokesman said that that French authorities were currently dealing with the incident, which occurred late on Friday night.

The liner, owned by travel company Celebrity Cruises, is believed to have been travelling between Cherbourg and Southampton.

French officials said they had deployed teams of emergency workers to the incident, but said they were unsure of the exact details and refused to confirm if a person had fallen into the sea. Source

Is Iran culpable in 9/11? It 'knew about terror attacks before they happened and trained hijackers' - 21st May 2011

Iran knew about 9/11 before it happened and helped train hijackers, court papers say.

Lawyers representing September 11th victims’ families claim new evidence shows Iranian officials assisted in training hijackers and had advanced word of the attacks.

There is ‘clear and convincing’ evidence for damages and a federal judge should find Iran culpable in the terror attacks, according to papers filed in Manhattan, New York.

Three defectors from Iran's intelligence service testified they worked in positions giving them access to sensitive information about Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism, the lawyers said.

The testimony supports a claim that Iranian officials had advanced word of the attacks and that Iran helped train those who carried it out, they allege.

Iran has not responded to the lawsuit - first filed in Washington D.C. and transferred to New York.

The Shiite regime in Iran and Sunni group Al Qaeda are natural enemies, though they have had a relationship of convenience based on their shared hatred of the U.S.

The lawyers said Iran and ‘its proxy terrorist organization’, the Lebanese group Hezbollah, entered into a terrorist alliance with Al Qaeda in the early 1990s.

This continued throughout the preparations for the 2001 attacks, they allege. Read More

Dark energy DOES exist and it's increasingly driving our universe apart, scientists claim - 20th May 2011

Dark energy is driving our universe apart at accelerating speeds, according to a five-year survey of 200,000 galaxies, stretching back seven billion years in cosmic time.

The study offers new support for the favoured theory of how dark energy works - as a constant force, uniformly affecting the universe and propelling its runaway expansion.

Its findings are based on results from Nasa's space-based Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Anglo-Australian Telescope on Siding Spring Mountain in Australia.

But they contradict an alternate theory, where gravity, not dark energy, is the force pushing space apart.

According to this alternate theory, with which the new survey results are not consistent, Albert Einstein's concept of gravity is wrong, and gravity becomes repulsive instead of attractive when acting at great distances.

'The action of dark energy is as if you threw a ball up in the air, and it kept speeding upward into the sky faster and faster,' said Chris Blake of the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

Blake is lead author of two papers describing the results that appeared in recent issues of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

'The results tell us that dark energy is a cosmological constant, as Einstein proposed. If gravity were the culprit, then we wouldn't be seeing these constant effects of dark energy throughout time.'

Dark energy is thought to dominate our universe, making up about 74 per cent of it. Dark matter, a slightly less mysterious substance, accounts for 22 per cent. So-called normal matter, anything with atoms, or the stuff that makes up living creatures, planets and stars, is only approximately 4 per cent of the cosmos. Read More

Two Dead,16 Injured Explosion rips through 'cursed' iPad factory in China dubbed 'Suicide Express' after string of worker deaths - 20th May 2011

The scandal-hit factory where Apple makes its iPads faced a fresh probe today after an explosion ripped through the building killing two people.

A blast rocked a compound at the building in southwest China earlier this evening, sending dozens of workers fleeing into the streets as flames engulfed the electronics inside.

The fire is the latest disaster to hit the cursed Foxconn factory - dubbed Suicide Express - where a string of workers have killed themselves amid appalling working conditions.

Flames engulfed the damaged building was in the Sichuan capital Chengdu and was where the new iPad was being made.

Employees who were inside the building at the time said the explosion, which happened early this evening, seemed accidental.

The workers said that several hundred people were working in the building at the time of the blast.

Calls to the spokesman for the Chengdu fire brigade, who is on the scene, went unanswered.

This is the latest incident to hit the embattled Foxconn, after at least 13 of its employees died in apparent suicides last year, which activists blamed on tough working conditions.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of computer components and produces items for Apple, Sony and Nokia. It employs about one million workers in China. Read More

Update: "At this point, we can also confirm that there were two fatalities with injuries to 16 other employees," a company spokesperson said. "We are working with medical officials to provide treatment to the injured employees and we are working with government and law enforcement officials to contact the families of all employees affected by this tragedy." Source

UK JUSTICE - Soft on rape: How 200 sex attackers were let off with just a caution - 20th May 2011

Shocking new figures released today revealed that over the past five years almost 200 rapists have escaped with just a caution.

The startling statistics, disclosed by 14 police forces in response to Freedom of Information requests, show one in 100 rape arrests resulted in a slap on the wrist.

Figures showed that 198 people arrested on suspicion or rape between 2006 and 2010 admitted the offence but only received a caution. The revelations come just days after Ken Clarke's gaffe that some rapes are less serious than others.

Last night, in an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time, broadcast from Wormwood Scrubs prison, the Justice Secretary finally offered an unequivocal apology after suggesting that not all rapes were ‘serious’.

One of the most shocking cases involved a caution given to a rapist who admitted abusing a girl under the age of 13 in Gwent, Wales, in 2008.

The maximum sentence for rape is life in prison but anyone who admits rape and receives a caution is only ordered to sign onto the sex offenders' register for two years.
A further 12,842 rape claims - or 65 per cent of arrests - were not taken any further by police in the same period because of a lack of evidence. Read More

Japanese superquake moved ocean floor 79 feet sideways and 10 feet up - and new data shows region is under more strain - 20th May 2011

The ocean floor shifted sideways by 79 feet in the Japanese earthquake in March - much further than scientists originally predicted.

And researchers are warning that immense amounts of seismic stress remain stored in the area, putting it at risk of further devastating earthquakes.

The journal Science has published three new papers about the effects and causes of Japan's March 11 mega-quake, which paints a picture of an earthquake hot spot much more complex and potentially dangerous than scientists had ever anticipated.

In one paper, the Japanese Coast Guard has released data from five geodetic instruments that in 2000-04 they had placed underwater along the fault line responsible for the colossal quake.

One of the instruments had actually been placed almost on top of the epicentre of the Magnitude 9.0 quake, at a station called MYGI.

Measurements taken in the week following the earthquake showed that at the MYGI site, the sea floor had moved about 79 feet to the east-southeast since the previous measurement in February. It had also risen about 10 feet.

Dr Mariko Sato, a geodesist with the Japan Coast Guard in Tokyo, believes almost all this movement happened during the quake.

'The scale is almost double that estimated only from the terrestrial data,' Dr Sato told BBC News.

Under the seabed, the movement may have been even greater - perhaps 160 to 200 feet, by some estimates.

In another study sure to raise alarm in Japan, scientists from the California Institute of Technology have reconstructed how the Tohuku-Oki earthquake unfolded using GPS data recorded at more than 1,200 sites.

Their data showed that - contrary to previous opinion - the area had built up massive amounts of strain prior to the earthquake. Read More

US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers raises spectre of second dotcom bubble

America may be facing a second dotcom bubble, according to former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

His warning came as shares in professional networking site LinkedIn surged for a second day in New York.

Shares in LinkedIn, the world's largest professional networking site, jumped more than 10pc on Friday after more than doubling on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

The flotation of LinkedIn, whose investors include Sequoia Capital, an early investor in Apple and Google, had been eagerly anticipated as the first of a slew of offerings that many expect to culminate in Facebook listing. At its peak price on Friday, LinkedIn was valued at $10.1bn (£6.2bn), or almost 27 times its projected sales for this year. Using the same multiple, Facebook would be worth just over $107bn.

"Who could have imagined that the concern with respect to any American financial asset, just two years after the crisis, would be a bubble?" asked Mr Summers at a conference in Beijing, according to Bloomberg. The chief economic adviser tp President Barack Obama during 2009 and 2010 added: "Yet that concern is increasingly raised with respect to American technology."

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's founder and chairman, now has a stake worth $1.8bn in a company that made profits of just over $2m in the first quarter of the year. While anyone can create a profile on the site for free, LinkedIn says that half of its $93.9m of first-quarter sales came from the subscription services it offers recruitment companies who use the site to help match candidates to jobs. About 30pc of the company's revenues were generated from advertising. (read more)

Britain Get ready for lots of dry summers as Government warns water companies of droughts - 21st May 2011

Areas of Britain left bone dry by near-drought conditions were yesterday warned they were experiencing ‘a taste of things to come’.

Environment minister Lord Henley said climate change would make parched springtimes more common and bring the threat of hosepipe bans.

England and Wales experienced a fifth of the normal rainfall in April, while March was the driest since 1961.

Rivers and reservoirs are lower than normal and in East Anglia the soil is as hard as concrete.

Lord Henley said: ‘The recent exceptionally dry weather is a snapshot of what we might expect from climate change.

‘Although there is no current need for drought measures, there has been understandable concern which underlines the importance of taking steps now to protect the water supply that could be under threat from a drier climate.’

His ministry, Defra, yesterday published reports from water companies on their plans to adapt to climate change and prevent hosepipe bans.

They say that less rain, changing rainfall patterns and increased demand in hot weather could affect water supplies and reservoir levels.

More treatment will be needed for poorer quality water during heatwaves. Lord Henley added: ‘I’m delighted that these reports show the positive action water companies are already taking to address the long-term risks of climate change. Read More

22 Hospitalized in Titusville after carbon monoxide evacuation at The Brevard County Sheriff's Complex - 20th May 2011

Workers were allowed back into the Brevard County Sheriff’s complex this afternoon, hours after 22-people were treated for carbon monoxide exposure.

Several employees reported feeling light-headed and were treated by paramedics and at one point Titusville Fire Department crews were preparing to evacuate the 9-1-1 dispatch center, a move that could have affected emergency calls throughout the county, officials reported.

Sheriff’s officials say calls were routed though the Titusville Police Department’s dispatch center.

“Calls were not disrupted. The calls are being funneled through the Titusville Police Department and we are bringing in our mobile command post,” said Todd Maddox, spokesman for the Brevard County sheriff’s office.

The incident was reported at about 9:30 a.m. today at the 700 S. Park Avenue. Read More