Death of ‘mad scientist’ sends temporary relief; attack to U.S. feared
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The killing of an al-Qaida chemical weapons expert in a missile strike two weeks ago on a Pakistani border village has dealt a heavy blow to the terrorist group's ambitions to build weapons of mass destruction, a former CIA case officer says.
Abu Khabab al-Masri was dubbed by terrorism analysts as al-Qaida's "mad scientist." His most notorious work, recorded on videotape, showed dogs being killed in poison gas experiments in Afghanistan when the Taliban ruled.
"If he is out of the picture, al-Qaida's weapons of mass destruction capability has been set back, which would make this one of the more effective strikes in recent years," Arthur Keller, an ex-CIA case officer in Pakistan, told The Associated Press. Keller led the hunt for al-Masri in 2006.
Iraq demands 'clear timeline' for US withdrawal
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A suicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.
Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting that the agreement include a "very clear timeline" for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, but he refused to talk about specific dates.
"We have said that this is a condition-driven process," he added, suggesting that the departure schedule could be modified if the security situation changed.
But Zebari made clear that the Iraqis would not accept a deal that lacks a timeline for the end of the U.S. military presence.
"No, no definitely there has to be a very clear timeline," Zebari replied when asked if the Iraqis would accept an agreement that did not mention dates.
Pack your bags for Baghdad? Iraq looks to tourism
Yet, now that insurgent attacks and sectarian bloodshed have ebbed over the past year, Iraq's government is beginning to promote tourism. It will be a tough sell — and even if officials can grab the attention of the adventuresome, Iraq's tourism facilities are shabby.
The opening of a new airport Sunday in the southern city of Najaf is expected to help boost the number of religious pilgrims, mostly Iranians, visiting Shiite shrines
to 1 million this year, double the number that came in 2007.
Pilgrims are admittedly a special kind of visitor. "They do not consider any kind of danger or harassment. They have a religious ideology that considers any difficulty they face as a merit and mercy for their piety," said Abdul Zahra al-Talaqani, spokesman for Iraq's tourism ministry.
Iraq is thinking about more than pilgrims, though. Last week, officials displayed
tourism posters and said they are intent on attracting visitors to Iraq's fabled
archaeological sites, many of them looted and damaged in fighting. But they offered few specifics about how they would do that.
Look for Iraq to rebuild and continue to assert itself.
Food price inflation spirals to 9.5 per cent
Food price inflation has surged to a record 9.5 per cent in the year to July as supermarkets pass on higher energy and transport costs to their customers.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) today said that shop prices rose by 3.2 per cent across thehigh street in July — the highest rate since it started the index two years ago and up from 2.5 per cent in June.
Food prices were 9.5 per cent higher compared with July last year, against 7 per cent in June.
Experts said the figures would put more pressure on the Bank of England to control inflation. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, which begins its two-day rate setting meeting today, is widely expected to keep borrowing costs on hold at 5 per cent.
For some, energy prices are threatening lives
BARROW, Alaska (AP) -- A gallon of unleaded gasoline: $10.
Heating fuel: $9.10 a gallon.
Electricity: $1.17 per kilowatt hour -- 11 times the national average.
Some heavily taxed European nation or a time in the future when global fossil fuels have grown dangerously sparse?
Try right now in the most remote villages of America's 49th state.
Soaring oil prices that swelled Alaska's treasury have come back to slam the state,
particularly its 170 rural villages.
Gov. Sarah Palin has proposed checks of $1,200 for each resident to help relieve some of the burden using a surplus from the oil-rich state treasury. Lawmakers are
debating that proposal right now.
But in far-flung villages, the people expect things to get much worse. The seasonal barge shipments of fuel have yet to arrive, meaning villages are still paying last year's prices, already a minimum of 60 cents higher than the U.S. average.
(What is that the governor is wearing?! )
Shares Rally as Oil Continues to Fall
In what has become a familiar pattern on Wall Street, stocks surged Friday, a day after falling sharply.
The immediate impetus for the rally appeared to be a big drop in commodity prices, including a 4.1 percent fall in crude oil, which settled below $116 a barrel for the first time since early May. The dollar also continued to gain strength, rising 1.7 percent against a basket of six major world currencies.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 30.25 points, or 2.39 percent, to 1,296.32, its biggest one-day gain since April. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 302.89 points, or 2.65 percent, to 11,734.32; the Nasdaq composite jumped 58.37 points, or 2.48 percent, to 2,414,10.
That was Friday. Dunno what the war in Georgia will do to prices yet, if anything.
Soaring heating oil prices ignite firewood demand
DURHAM, Maine—On a recent scorching-hot summer day, workers at Reed's Firewood used heavy equipment to cut and split logs into firewood until it was too dark to see.
Despite its relentless pace, the family-run business is failing to keep up with demand as homeowners shellshocked by the price of heating oil look to old-fashioned
firewood as a way to lower their bills this winter.
The cost of seasoned firewood in Maine has jumped roughly 50 percent from a year ago, but it remains a relative bargain when compared with heating oil, which is nearly $2 per gallon more than last year. Many customers are doubling their usual orders and some firewood dealers are turning away customers.
"We've really never seen anything like this before," said Lloyd Irland, who teaches forestry economics at Yale University and runs a consulting business in Maine.
Rising Food Prices Hit Hard in West Africa
Food is getting harder to find in West African cities as prices skyrocket and people hoard supplies waiting for the best selling price. Senegalese shopkeeper, Naw Sow, talked with Naomi Schwarz about what it is like to survive the world food crisis in one of the world's poorest countries.
...
Besides, he says, it is not like rice is the only problem. Even if you have rice, he says
water cuts and gas shortages mean it is not easy to cook it."Sometimes you get gas, but you do not get water to cook it with. Or sometimes you get water, but no gas," he said.
38 dead after being bitten by vampire bats
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats.
Laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, according to two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts.
The two UC Berkeley researchers -- the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs -- said the symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis, and an extreme fear of water. Victims tend to have convulsions and grow rigid before death.
Cloned Puppies May Have Exposed 31-Year Mystery
Did cloned puppies expose a 31-year-old mystery involving Mormon sex slave?
A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She may be the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon
missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave.
A paper trail of court documents and jail booking information uncovered by The Associated Press suggests 57-year-old dog-lover Bernann McKinney is Joyce McKinney, who in 1977 faced charges of unlawful imprisonment in the missionary case. She jumped bail and was never brought to justice.
Well, anyone who would spend over $50k to clone a dog named "Booger" probably isn't the brightest bulb in the fixture.
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Relative of US Olympic volleyball coach killed in Beijing
BEIJING -- Todd Bachman, father-in-law of US men’s volleyball head coach Hugh
McCutcheon, was fatally stabbed today around 12:30 p.m. (local time) inside a major tourist site by a knife-wielding Chinese man who was also visiting the site, the United States Olympic Committee confirmed.
Beijing authorities say a Chinese man attacked two American tourists on the opening day of the Olympic Games, killing one of them before committing suicide.
Bachman was visiting the ancient Drum Tower with his wife Barbara, who was seriously injured, and a female Chinese tour guide, who also suffered injuries from the attack by the same man, officials said.
Barbara Bachman was transported to a local hospital for emergency treatment. Her injuries are considered life threatening.
...
Chinese officials identified the assailant as Tang Yongming, 47, who comes from the eastern city of Hangzhou. Authorities and the USOC said the man jumped to his death from the second floor of the tower after the attack.
Deadly violence hits west China
Seven militants and a security guard have been killed after a series of bombings in China's north-western region of Xinjiang, state media says.
The pre-dawn violence in southern Kuqa county targeted a police station and other
government buildings.
The explosions were followed by gunfire in the area, which is 3,000km (1,860 miles) from Beijing, witnesses said.
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