HD-DVD Players, Films Dumped on eBay - Buyers Flock

When a technology format succumbs the story usually ends right there as the marketplace has no need for dead technology. Shortly after the priests gave last rights to Toshiba's HD-DVD format I thought I would monitor that harbor of market fluidity known as eBay to see how low - and presumably how ignored - HD-DVD player units and movies would go. I guess it is a morbid curiosity on my part to watch those who invested in the technology - some as recently as this past holiday season - bite the bullet and dump their once coveted item for the victorious Blu-ray. I was correct in my assumption that HD-DVD owners would dump the technology. Here is something I did not expect; these players and films are finding many takers. Huh? Did these people miss the memo that Blu-ray won the war? Considering that high definition player technology is still the domain of the early adopter - in other words the savviest consumer who is purchasing home electronics - I find it hard to believe there are that many naive people out there. As I thought about a reason to explain this energetic activity for a condemned technology it dawned on me that the post-mortem HD-DVD market may just be benefiting from the rules of a disposable economy. These are consumer actions where if a product is cheap enough it is worth it for the buyer to commit to it for the short run even if all they will do at the end of that run is dispose of it in the trash. I'll explain this logic and why it might offer a possible reason for what is happening on eBay.

Source: http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/8002/hd-dvd-ebay.html

Carlyle fund faces liquidation after missed margin calls

Carlyle Capital Corp, an investment fund managed by the US private equity giant Carlyle Group, said yesterday it had received additional margin calls from banks that could cause it to run out of cash. The fund's shares were suspended in Amsterdam after they lost more than half their value on Thursday when it announced it had missed margin calls. Analysts said liquidation of the fund had become a possibility. The fund said: "Although the company believed last week that it had sufficient liquidity, it was informed by its lenders this week that additional margin calls and increased collateral requirements would be significant and well in excess of the margin calls it received Wednesday. The company believes these additional margin calls and increased collateral requirements could quickly deplete its liquidity and impair its capital." If margin calls erode its capital and the fund is liquidated, shareholders would end up with nothing. The fund's annual report said that at the end of 2007 its lending counterparties included Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS, three of the banks hit hardest by credit crunch losses. The shares were suspended at $5 after dropping 58 per cent on Thursday. Carlyle Capital sold shares in the fund for $19 in July in a $300m initial public offering on the Euronext exchange. The fund, which invested in mortgage debt, raised its cash when fears about the US sub-prime market. Those fears forced it to reduce the size of the IPO from a planned $400m. Carlyle Capital added the $300m IPO money to a separate $590m pool of cash. It then borrowed from banks against the money to buy almost $22bn of top-rated mortgage debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed US mortgage finance agencies. With what Carlyle Capital describes as an "implicit guarantee" from the US government, its investments would normally be classed as highly secure. But panic about mortgage-backed bonds has spread, causing the spread between agency bonds and US Treasuries to hit levels not seen since 1986.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/carlyle-fund-faces-liquidation-after-missed-margin-calls-793242.html

'NYPD Blue' star won't face rape charge

Former NYPD Blue star Esai Morales has been told that no criminal charges will be filed against him over allegations that he sexually assaulted his ex-girlfriend. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office has confirmed that the case has been rejected due to lack of evidence. Elizabeth Mazzocchi claimed that Morales had raped her in April 2006. She has also sued the actor in civil court and the case is awaiting trial. "I'm happy that my client was vindicated," Morales' attorney, Richard Charnley, explained. "He was never questioned by the police, never taken into custody, there were never any charges brought against him." Nader Pakfar, an attorney representing Mazzocchi, said: "She stands by her allegations, absolutely." He also claimed that evidence which has yet to come to light could result in the district attorney's office reviewing its decision. Morales played Lt Tony Rodriguez on NYPD Blue. He has also appeared in the movies Bad Boys and La Bamba.

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/a91084/nypd-blue-star-wont-face-rape-charges.html

Chinese hackers: No site is safe

They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island. They are intelligent 20-somethings who seem harmless. But they are hard-core hackers who claim to have gained access to the world's most sensitive sites, including the Pentagon. In fact, they say they are sometimes paid secretly by the Chinese government -- a claim the Beijing government denies. "Xiao Chen" is his online name. Along with his two colleagues, he does not want to reveal his true identity. The three belong to what some Western experts say is a civilian cyber militia in China, launching attacks on government and private Web sites around the world. One hacker says he is a former computer operator in the People's Liberation Army; another is a marketing graduate; and Xiao Chen says he is a self-taught programmer. CNN decided to withhold the address of these hackers' Web site, but Xiao Chen says it has been operating for more than three years, with 10,000 registered users. The site offers tools, articles, news and flash tutorials about hacking. Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks of on-again, off-again e-mail exchanges. When they finally agreed, CNN was told to meet them on the island of Zhoushan, just south of Shanghai and a major port for China's navy. The apartment has cement floors and almost no furniture. What they do have are three of the latest computers. They are cautious when it comes to naming the Web sites they have hacked. But eventually Xiao Chen claims two of his colleagues -- not the ones with him in the room -- have hacked into the Pentagon and downloaded information, although he wouldn't specify what was gleaned. Xiao Chen says after the alleged Pentagon attack, his colleagues were paid by the Chinese government. Again, CNN has no way to independently confirm if that is true.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/07/china.hackers/?iref=mpstoryview

Whistleblower: Cellular carrier giving FBI unfettered access

Computer security analyst Babak Pasdar says that a major mobile telecommunications carrier has a built-in backdoor that provides an undisclosed third-party with unfettered access to its internal technical infrastructure, including the ability to eavesdrop on all calls through its network. In an affidavit that describes the circumstances and basis for the allegations, Pasdar provides evidence which could indicate that the FBI is on the other side of the secret line, engaging in warrantless surveillance of mobile communications. Pasdar discovered evidence of the backdoor when he was part of a rapid deployment team that was brought in to facilitate a large-scale network security hardware migration for the mobile carrier. During the migration, Pasdar was instructed not to migrate the traffic for one particular DS-3, which was referred to as the "Quantico Circuit" by consultants who worked closely with the carrier (the FBI Academy is based in Quantico, Virginia). Wired's Threat Level blog connected the pieces and points us to the 2006 wiretapping lawsuit against the telcos, which alleges that Verizon "has engaged and maintained and still does maintain a high speed data transmission line from its wireless call center to a remote location in Quantico, Virginia, the site of a U.S. government intelligence and military base." The lawsuit also asserts that "the transmission line provided the Quantico recipient direct access to all content and all information concerning the origin and termination of telephone calls placed on the Verizon Wireless network as well as the actual content of calls." Providing any third party with unfettered network access to such a broad spectrum of sensitive consumer data would seem to constitute a very clear violation of the Communications Act, which broadly forbids disclosure of such information. The lack of access controls and logging undermines safeguards against abuse by enabling the recipient of the data to operate entirely outside the realm of accountability. This is particularly disturbing if the recipient of the Quantico Circuit is the FBI, because the agency has a long history of intelligence abuses and has been found to have a serious lack of meaningful internal oversight.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080306-whistleblower-cellular-carrier-giving-fbi-unfettered-access.html

FAA proposes record $10 mln fine for Southwest Air

U.S. aviation regulators on Thursday proposed to fine Southwest Airlines Co a record $10.2 million for allegedly failing to inspect planes for structural cracks. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Southwest continued to fly uninspected aircraft even after the carrier notified the agency that it had missed a mandatory deadline to complete the work. "The FAA is taking action against Southwest Airlines for a failing to follow rules that are designed to protect passengers and crew," said Nicholas Sabatini, the agency's associate administrator for safety. The FAA said there were no safety incidents related to the missed inspections of Boeing Co 737 aircraft but the allegations and the fine amounted to a startling mark against the airline that has been an industry model for efficient operation for nearly 40 years. "This is going to hurt Southwest in the image of the public," said Richard Gritta, a professor of finance and transportation at the University of Portland. "This is not just a toilet that's not functioning. This is serious." Southwest said it acted promptly and responsibly and that flight safety was never compromised. It said the inspections were routine and redundant. After discovering the missed inspection area, Southwest said it promptly reinspected the aircraft. It said the FAA approved of its actions, which were supported by Boeing. Shares in Southwest, the biggest U.S. carrier by market value, closed down 3.8 percent to $12.50 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, burdened by soaring oil prices.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080307/us_nm/southwest_faa_dc

French women 'are the sexual predators now'

French women are becoming increasingly assertive in their sexual habits, while one-in-five younger French men "has no interest in sex", according to one of the most comprehensive surveys of the nation's love lives. "Are women just like men?" asked Le Nouvel Observateur yesterday, which released extracts of the Study on Sexuality in France, a 600-page tome that brings together 12,000 in-depth interviews with people of all ages conducted during 2005-06. One of the biggest changes in recent years, according to the report, was that male and female sexual behaviour had become increasingly similar. The proportion of French women who claim to have had only one partner has dropped from 68 per cent in 1970, to 43 per cent in 1992 and 34 per cent in 2006. Female sexual emancipation has been a hot topic in France ever since President Nicolas Sarkozy met Carla Bruni, the Italian model and singer. The couple married last month. Ms Bruni recently declared monogamy "terribly boring" and spoke in relaxed fashion about her numerous past conquests, including Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. One of the more surprising findings was that one-in-five French men aged between 18 and 24 "manifests no interest in sexuality", while abstinence rates for men under 35 was twice as high as for women. The two sociologists who compiled the research said that the French had fewer sexual taboos and inhibitions than before, but were more anxious about lovemaking.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/07/wfrance107.xml

Infamous malware group calls it quits

The shutters are being pulled down on old school virus writers' group 29A. 29A, hexadecimal for 666, is an underground VXer collective known for creating the first Win 2000 virus, the first 64bit virus, and early examples of mobile malware that infected devices such as PDAs. The group also published information on how to create viruses through an irregular magazine, seven editions of which were republished on its website. The magazine contained examples of virus source code and tutorials on how to write malware. The group has been in decline since its heyday at the turn of the century. A steady exodus of members over recent years accelerated early this year as it emerged that GriYo, Vecna, and Z0MBiE left the collective. This "pretty much sounded the death knell for the group", Symantec notes, as the group itself has recently acknowledged. One of the last remaining members, VirusBuster, has posted what appears to be the group's valedictory. "I tried to contact ValleZ for some time in order to take a decision together about the future of 29A with no luck therefore I decided to take the decision alone. And my decision is that 29A goes officially retired. I feel this is fair because I am kinda the alpha and the omega of the group. 29A was born in Dark Node, my BBS, and I am the last active member of the group," VirusBuster writes. "29A has left the building!" As previously reported, other less well known VXer groups are dying the death, a development symptomatic of changes in the malware market. Profit has replaced mischief, intellectual curiosity, or a desire to make a name for yourself as the motive for creating malware. Traditional virus writers have drifted away from the scene to be replaced by more shadowy coders creating sophisticated Trojans aimed at turning an illicit profit. Enforcement action against virus writers has acted as a further disincentive for hobbyists, at least. Instead of getting proof of concept malware from the likes of 29A, we're dealing with the Storm Worm Trojan and other sophisticated "professionally developed" botnet clients. The days of malware that deletes Romanian gypsy music, talks to victims, or creates a game that allows users of infected PCs to throw coconuts at anti-virus expert Graham Cluley have become relics of another era.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/07/29a_rip/

Pentagon slaps a ban on Google Street View

GOOGLE'S GONE and blown it with the Pentagon after posting photo and video footage of US military base Fort Sam, in Houston, Texas. The images reportedly showed the entry gates, barriers and buildings in great detail, including the position of the base's guards. The captured footage of the base was for Google's new Street View service, a feature of Google maps, allowing users to see streets from ground-level, with 360-degree panoramas in 30 U.S. cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. It allows users to virtually drive down a street. But since its launch, the Street View service appears to have caused nothing but trouble, with the Search Engine giant being accused on a daily basis by the "innocent" bystanders caught in its lens, of violating their privacy. People have been caught having a pee by the side of the road, sunbathing topless, being arrested, and one unfortunate man was seen by his (soon to be ex) wife emerging from a strip club. In the case of the Fort Sam military base, Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the US Northern Command, wrote in a statement, that the photographs –taken by a camera mounted on a vehicle sent by Google – showed "where all the guards are, how the barriers go up and down, and how to get in and out of buildings". The Pentagon, getting its knickers in a twist, hurriedly sent out letters to all Defence Department bases and installations in the US, reminding them that people driving into military bases and videoing everything, may, just possibly, not be a very good idea for security reasons. Google, which removed the sensitive photos at the firm behest of the Pentagon's powers that be, reckoned that it was usually against company policy "to request access to military installation for the purpose of capturing imagery in Street View" and that they had made a mistake in this case. But that being said, Google had in fact requested permission from the base to enter and photograph it, and that permission had been granted. General Renuart's statement did not make it clear why Google had been given access to film the base in the first place.

Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/07/pentagon-blows-google

Belgian police hunt for missing campaigner Waris Dirie

Belgian police were seeking a Guinea-born campaigner against female genital mutilation, Waris Dirie, on Friday after she failed to show up to receive an award the same day. Dirie, 43, who was appointed a UN special ambassador against genital mutilation in 1997, is a former fashion model. Police were concerned she may have suffered harm. She was last seen at 4 am Wednesday in Brussels, when she had an argument with hotel receptionists and then got into a taxi. She then failed to show up for appointments with European Union and United Nations officials or to receive the Martin Buber Badge for 2007 on Friday in the Dutch town of Kerkrade, on the German border. Werner Janssen, president of Euriade, a cross-border association that administers the prize, said the argument at the hotel was evidently a result of her becoming lost and not being able to find her own Brussels hotel.

Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/190821,belgian-police-hunt-for-missing-campaigner-waris-dirie.html

White killer whale spotted near Aleutian isle

Scientists aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson in the North Pacific have sighted a creature of great rarity and even myth: a white whale. Scientists aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson in the North Pacific have sighted a creature of great rarity and even myth: a white whale. The white killer whale was spotted with its pod about two miles off Kanaga Volcano, part of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, on Feb. 23. At the time, Kodiak-based Oscar Dyson was on a research expedition for NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, assessing pollock fish stocks near Steller sea lion haulout sites. The white whale is a fish-eating type of killer whale, as were all the killer whales photographed on the expedition. Fish-eating killer whales are the most frequently seen whales around the Aleutian Islands during the summer. The winter sightings represent important evidence that they may be common year-round. Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist at NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, was able to photograph the whale’s white fin and back. “With hundreds of killer whales documented around the Aleutian Islands, this was equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack,” she said. Few white killer whales have ever been seen, according to Fearnbach, much less scientifically documented. This whale is likely not a true albino because it still has signs of darker pigmented areas on its body. However, because of its prominent coloring, the white whale serves as an indicator for movements of killer whales in the North Pacific.

Source: http://thetundradrums.com/news/story/1623

Kelly Rowland: I had a secret boob job

Kelly Rowland has revealed she secretly went under the knife last year. The former Destiny's Child singer, 27, admits she had a breast enlargement in October, but was afraid of going too big. 'I simply went from an A cup to a B cup,' she tells the Daily Star. 'I didn't want DDs and be a little bitty size 2 – that would look nuts!' Kelly's latest video, Work, sees the star flaunting her assets in a skintight mini-dress.

Source: http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/celeb_news/Kelly_Rowland_I_had_a_secret_boob_job_article_196593.html

Golfer Kills Hawk - Gets a Lesson in Anger Management

Should pro-golfer, Tripp Isenhour, be charged with cruelty to animals? Isenhour was apparently annoyed with the loud shrieking of a red-shouldered hawk during the taping of his video at Orlando's Grand Cypress Golf Club. So, he took aim and after 9 attempts, he finally hit it on the 10th and killed the bird. Orange County prosecutors have filed 2 misdemeanor charges against the 39-year-old golfer - cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird. Considering how many shots it took to his mark and the fact that he's considered a pro-golfer, maybe they should add false advertising charges to the list. The incident took place in mid-December while Isenhour was shooting his new video, "Shoot Like a Pro." Anyone else see the irony in this? Apparently, Isenhour was so enraged by the bird's singing that he took a golf cart around a lake and drove shot after shot into the tree while the crew looked on. After 10 shots, the bird fell 30 ft to the ground. "The bird was on his back, bleeding from his nostrils, his mouth was opening and closing slowly, and it was looking up at me as people ran over," sound engineer, Jethro Senger, told wildlife officials. Senger then picked up the bird and put it on a golf cart. "I saw its eyes slowly close and I was pretty sure that the bird had died."

Source: http://www.gogirlfriend.com/travel-news/golfer-kills-hawk-gets-lesson-anger-management-8200

Busted: online escort ring was a real gem - Emperor's Club VIP

US authorities have smashed an online escort service that gave its prostitutes a one to seven diamond-ranking, with a "seven diamond" woman costing $US5500 an hour. Four organisers and managers of the international ring were arrested by US authorities and charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution laws, Newsday.com reported. Another two of the men were also accused of attempting to launder more than $1.08 million in illicit proceeds from business. The ring was known as the Emperor's Club VIP and offered 50 prostitutes in New York, Paris, Washington, Miami and London, The New York Times reported. The United States attorney's office said the leader of the ring was Mark Brener, 62, of New Jersey, who delegated operational duties to Cecil Suwal, 23, also of New Jersey, the newspaper reported. The group's website, which can be access through an internet archiving service, described its services in an indirect manner. A section of the site, Portfolio, had a selection of photos of women, all with their faces obscured. Under each photo and mononym was a rating using diamond symbols that ranged from three to seven.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/busted-online-escort-ring-was-a-real-gem/2008/03/07/1204780030605.html

Colin Farrell Rejected by Model Meghan Lowther!

Colin Farrell is probably the last man on earth who would expect to strike out while hitting on a girl, but that's exactly what happened when he tried to sweet talk model Meghan Lowther at Rose Bar in New York. Colin made his way over to Lowther when he bumped into a man standing next to her. "He's my boyfriend," Meghan replied. Farrell, charming as he is, looked to Lowther's boyfriend and said "you have the most beautiful girl in the place, and you can't blame a guy for trying." The boyfriend, probably quite threatened considering Colin is one of Hollywood's hottest men, ended the conversation abruptly. "You tried. Now get out of here," he said as Colin walked away with a bruised ego and no date.

Source: http://www.egossip.com/celebrity/colin-farrell-rejected-model-meghan-lowther-11450

Société Générale invokes special accounting rule to absorb Kerviel losses

It is not often that a major international bank admits it is violating well-established accounting rules, but that is what Société Générale has done in accounting for the fraud that caused the bank to lose €6.4 billion - now worth about $9.7 billion - in January. In its financial statements for 2007, the French bank takes the loss in that year, offsetting it against €1.5 billion in profits that it says were earned by a trader, Jérôme Kerviel, who concealed from management the fact that he was making huge bets in financial futures markets. In moving the loss from 2008 - when it actually occurred - to 2007, Société Générale has created a furor in accounting circles and raised questions about whether international accounting standards can be consistently applied in the many countries around the world that are converting to the standards. In its annual report, Société Générale says that applying two accounting rules - IAS 10, "Events After the Balance Sheet Date," and IAS 39, "Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement" - would have been inconsistent with a fair presentation of its results. But it does not go into detail as to why it believes that to be the case. Investors who read the 2007 annual report can learn the impact of the decision to invoke the "true and fair" exemption, but cannot determine how the bank's profits would have been affected if it had applied the full IAS 39. It appears that by pushing the entire affair into 2007, Société Générale hoped both to put the incident behind it and to perhaps de-emphasize how much money had been lost when the positions were closed out.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/06/business/norris07.php

Today's Natalie Morales Is Pregnant

The Today show's Natalie Morales is three months pregnant, she announced Thursday on the morning show. "We’re really excited!" Morales, 35, said. "It’s truly a blessing." The morning show cohost and her husband, Joe Rhodes, already have a 4-year-old son, Josh Added Morales: "He's excited to be a big brother. He says he'll share all his toys." NBC News confirms that Morales is due Sept. 16. While she will not be covering all the fall events – the political conventions this summer or the Olympics – she is already thinking about her post-maternity leave stories. "I'm inspired to do all the getting-fit-after-the-baby segments," she said.

Source: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20182461,00.html

Scientists to Pay Volunteers Thousands to Be Exposed to Deadliest Form of Malaria

Within the next 18 months, medical researchers will be asking people in Seattle to volunteer to be exposed to the deadliest form of malaria to help them test the effectiveness of vaccine candidates. The Seattle Biomedical Research Institute is collaborating with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to accelerate malaria vaccine research by opening a new vaccine testing center in Seattle's south Lake Union neighborhood. Scientists at the center will use early testing of vaccines to weed out those that don't work so they can speed up research on the ones that are effective. Malaria vaccine testing has already begun at a second site in the United States, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland, and is also being conducted at labs in England and the Netherlands. "We're particularly excited by the center's location in Seattle, a community where many people have an interest in global health issues and, as a result, are willing to volunteer for such an important cause -- to help save the lives of young children in some of the world's poorest countries," said Dr. Christian Loucq, Malaria Vaccine Initiative director. Malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people each year, most of them children. Deaths doubled in Africa over the past 20 years due to resistance to existing drugs and insecticides. Seattle volunteers will be paid an estimated $2,000 or more to hold a paper cup containing infected mosquitoes against their arm, waiting for the insects to bite. Symptoms usually develop within nine to 11 days, and volunteers will be treated for malaria when the first parasites show up in their blood. The treatments last three days.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335430,00.html

Rare Helen Keller Photograph Discovered

A rare photograph of deaf and blind advocate Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, has surfaced — nearly 120 years after it was taken. Captured in 1888 on Cape Cod, the image shows an eight-year-old Helen sitting outside in a chair holding Sullivan's hand and a doll. Experts say it could be the earliest photo of the two together, and the only one showing the child with a doll. "Doll" is the first word Keller ever spelled for Sullivan. The image was discovered in an album belonging to a man whose mother was a childhood friend of Helen Keller's on Cape Cod.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87937873

NY Pub Bans 'Danny Boy' During March

It's depressing. It's not usually sung in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day. Its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil. Those are only some of the reasons a Manhattan pub is giving for banning the song "Danny Boy" for the entire month of March. "It's overplayed, it's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time, and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St. Patrick's Day celebration," says Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant, just off Fifth Avenue opposite the Empire State Building. The 38-year-old, who started bartending when he was 12 at his father's pub in County Cavan, promises a guest free Guinness if he or she sings any other traditional Irish song at the pub's March 11 pre-St. Patrick's Day karaoke party. On other nights, guests will be rewarded with a surprise.

Below are the lyrics to "Danny Boy."
Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountainside. The summer's gone, and all the roses falling. 'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide. But come ye back when summer's in the meadow Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow, For I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow. Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
But if you come, and all the flowers are dying And if I'm dead, as dead I might well be. Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying And kneel and say an Ave there for me. And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me, And o'er my grave shall warmer, sweeter be, And if you bow and tell me that you love me, Then I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

Source: http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5952696&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.3.1

'Magical Lizzy' Accused of Operating Bordello Out of Maryland Apartment

A Laurel woman is under arrest on charges she operated a house of prostitution at the apartment complex where she lived. Anne Arundel County Police say 35-year-old Elizabeth Harrison identified herself on a Website as "Magical Lizzy." She faces four criminal charges, including receiving money from prostitutes with the intent of promoting and profiting from a crime. The arrest followed complaints from residents of the Russett Green community about men and women showing up at all hours at an apartment in the 3400 block of Holly Creek Drive. Police learned the women were advertising sexual services on the Internet. Police say an undercover officer was solicited for sex acts, resulting in a raid and Harrison's arrest. A police spokesman says the other women allegedly operating out of the house are still under investigation and have not been charged.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335458,00.html

Introducing the world's smallest gun that fires deadly 300mph bullets - but is just TWO inches long

Meet the pistol that fits in your pocket - and packs a hell of a punch. The SwissMiniGun is the size of a key fob but fires tiny 270mph bullets powerful enough to kill at close range. Officially the world's smallest working revolver, the gun is being marketed as a collector's item and measures just 2.16 inches long (5.5cm). It can fire real 4.53 bullets up to a range of 367ft (112m). The stainless steel gun costs £3,000 although the manufacturers also produce extravagant, made-to-order versions made out of 18-carat gold with customised diamond studs which sell for up to £30,000. It cannot be imported into the UK, and buyers in Switzerland and Europe must produce an import permit from police to obtain one. The gun is banned from being imported into the US - because it's barrel is less than three inches, meaning it is deemed too small to qualify for sporting purposes. Jonathan Spencer, consultant forensic scientist and firearms expert, said that although the gun, which fires bullets at a speed of 399 feet a second, was tiny, it could still prove fatal and in the eyes of the law was as dangerous as a machine gun.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=526655&in_page_id=1770

Gnarls Barkley video fails epileptic test (harding test)

Gnarls Barkley's new video has been banned from US TV after failing the Harding Test, which monitors strobe effects that trigger epileptic seizures. The promo for 'Run', which features a cameo from Justin Timberlake, will only be available online until director Happy can make changes that meet guidelines established to prevent TV images from disturbing epileptic viewers. Gnarls Barkley star Danger Mouse tells Billboard.com: "We're having issues (with the video). I think it's cool. It works for me. But I'm not necessarily that easily seasick. "We can't predict how people are going to interpret it."



Source: http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=248323498&p=z483z4zx4

Patrick Swayze has Cancer

Patrick Swayze is dying from cancer and has just five weeks to live, according to The National Enquirer. The magazine says the star of Dirty Dancing and Ghost was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January and that it has spread to other organs. They claim Swayze has been having radical chemotherapy treatment recently but that doctors are not optimistic it will kill the disease. An insider told The National Enquirer: "He was told he could have two more treatments, but his cancer was not responding. In short - they held out little hope for a cure."

Source: http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/news/05032008/407106/is_patrick_swayze_dying

Meet Australia's geekiest geek

Some people are born with a chip on their shoulder, but Jonathan Oxer's chip is surgically embedded in his left arm. The 37-year-old from Melbourne's outer-east never has to worry about forgetting his keys because the tiny chip, typically used to tag pets, opens his front door. A swipe of his arm under a small scanner identifies Oxer with the house computer, which then unlocks the door. But that's just the tip of the iceberg for Australia's biggest nerd, whose entire house is connected to a central processor and can be controlled remotely via a computer or mobile phone. A magnetic switch installed inside his letterbox detects when mail is inserted and occupants are notified via either the house computer, email or SMS. Oxer's doorbell doesn't ring - instead, button presses are detected by the computer, which then activates a camera to stream video to TVs around the house showing who is at the door. If nobody is home, a picture message is sent to Oxer's mobile and he can choose to let the person in remotely. "You can go to bed and realise that you left the light on at the other end of the house and be able to turn it off without getting out of bed, using an interface on a mobile phone or using a telephone keypad," said Oxer. In the bathroom, lights and curtains are computer controlled and a keypad on the wall lets Oxer set the water temperature. Issuing the "shower" command turns all the lights on, closes the windows and curtains and sets the water temperature to 41C. Another plan for this year is to modify his car with a Linux-based computer to allow constant access to the internet. It could then talk to the house computer and "report back information from the engine management system and GPS data".

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/meet-australias-geekiest-geek/2008/03/03/1204402351058.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Tool makes mincemeat of Windows passwords

A security researcher has released an easy-to-use tool that accesses locked Windows computers in seconds without entering a password. The tool, which was released Tuesday by Adam Boileau, works by connecting a Linux machine to the Firewire port of the target PC and modifying the password protection that's stored in local memory. The attack exploits a well-known weakness in Firewire that makes it easy for connected devices to read and write to the memory of the host machine. Similar hacks work on machines running OS X and Linux. Of course, the attack depends on having physical access to the targeted machine. Then again, password protections have been a useful way to briefly secure a machine while a user runs to the bathroom. Until now. As Boileau's tool makes clear, such protections can be bypassed in a matter of seconds. The other potential shortcoming to the attack is that it requires the targeted machine to have an IEEE 1394 port, better known as Firewire. This might present a problem for those trying to attack an older machine, but as Firewire ports have grown in popularity (seven out of eight laptops had one in an informal survey of Reg machines), the requirement is becoming less and less of an issue.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/04/windows_password_bypass_tool/

Clinton scores crucial wins in Texas and Ohio

Hillary Clinton put her presidential campaign back on track on Tuesday, with Democratic primary victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, breaking Barack Obama’s month-long winning streak. John McCain officially sealed the Republican presidential nomination with commanding victories in all four states that voted on Tuesday, forcing Mike Huckabee, his last serious challenger, to acknowledge that the race was over. Speaking after her Ohio win, Mrs Clinton said the triumph showed that momentum had returned to her campaign and vowed to keep fighting for the Democratic nomination. “This country is coming back and so is this campaign,” she told supporters. “No candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary.” Mr Obama said the close nature of the results in Texas and Ohio meant he would maintain his lead in the hunt for nominating delegates. “We have exactly the same delegate lead as we had this morning,” he told supporters. “We are on our way to winning this nomination,” he added. Before Tuesday’s results were tallied, Mr Obama led Mrs Clinton by 1,386 delegates to 1,276 – with 2,025 needed to win the nomination. Many experts, including former President Bill Clinton, Mrs Clinton’s husband, had said that she needed victories in both Ohio and Texas to keep her presidential ambitions alive after 11 consecutive defeats to Mr Obama. With about 90 per cent of the vote counted, Mrs Clinton led by 12 percentage points in Ohio and 4 points in Texas. The results almost guaranteed that the Democratic race will continue for several weeks and possibly until the party convention in Denver in August.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3b5b4d7c-e9eb-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html

Toyota considers entering aircraft industry: official

Japan's Toyota Motor, which is widely expected to overtake General Motors this year as the world's top-selling automaker, is considering entering the aircraft industry, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Toyota may put up funds to a company to be set up by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for its passenger jet project, Toyota spokeswoman Kayo Doi said. "Mitsubishi Heavy has invited us to invest (in the venture) and we are considering it," she said, while adding nothing has been decided yet. The comment came after a report Wednesday in the Asahi Shimbun daily which says Toyota plans to put up 10 billion yen (97 million dollars) in the venture to be set up in April. Mitsubishi has been developing small passenger airplanes under its Mitsubishi Regional Jet project.

Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080305005602.a70nvwh4&show_article=1

EU begins crackdown against 'tax paradises'

In the shadow of the Lichtenstein scandal and under pressure from Germany, the European Commission will issue new proposals this year that are likely to widen the scope of tax evasion laws. Jolted by the Lichtenstein tax scandal, European countries on Tuesday took the first steps toward enacting a fresh clamp down on tax havens on their doorstep. Under pressure from Germany, the European Commission will draw up new proposals this year that are likely to widen the scope of legislation on tax evasion - and close a loophole under which trusts and some other savings escape the same controls as cash. European Union countries say they lose billions of euros in revenue because of tax evasion, with Germany alone claiming it loses up to €30 billion, or $45 billion, a year. However the newest initiative seems destined to re-ignite the long-running and bitter EU battle over banking secrecy. On Tuesday, Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria hinted that they would resist any moves to force them to provide information to other tax authorities on the savings of nonresident investors. Any revision of the legislation is likely to be difficult, but the scale of the new scandal in Liechtenstein, with German prosecutors pursuing hundreds of suspected tax dodgers, has given new impetus to efforts to clamp down on tax fraud. The current law, which came into force in 2005, was due to be reviewed this year and the European Commission said Tuesday that it would accelerate the process.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/04/business/tax.4-233690.php

Warner drops locks across Europe

Warner Music has signed a deal with media site 7digital.com to offer its music without copy protection. Customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany will be able to download albums by artists such as Madonna and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The MP3 files can be played on nearly all music devices including Apple's best selling iPod. 7digital.com is the first European site to offer Warner's music free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. The label had previously signed a deal with Amazon to sell its tracks in MP3 format. The service is currently only available in the US although this is expected to change later this year.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7277884.stm

Google Groups Grapples With Porn Spam

Over the weekend, pornographic images and videos began appearing on Google Groups pages, along with infectious malware. "These pages push other porn pages for profit," said Alex Eckelberry, CEO of security company Sunbelt Software, in a blog post. "While not all of the redirects go to malware sites, we did observe some redirects to a site which ultimately pushes a fake codec trojan, which if installed, results in a VirusHeat infection." Google Groups is a free, online discussion forum available to anyone with a Google Account. Google uses a Captcha challenge to prevent spammers from using automated methods to create and abuse new accounts. But about a week ago, Websense, an Internet security company, said that spammers have had achieved a 20% success rate cracking Google's Captcha system. It's possible the influx of porn spam is related. Sunbelt security researcher Adam Thomas said in an e-mail that it's likely that spammers are using bots to bypass Google's defenses. Eckelberry said in an e-mail that this apparently automated spam assault on Google Groups appears to be new. "We've seen similar types of things with other Google services (Blogger, Pages), but I believe this is a fairly recent phenomenon," he said. "One assumes with absolutely zero cost in setup, and automated systems doing the work, it's probably quite profitable."

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901462

Facebook Hires Sandberg to Make Microsoft's $240 Million Investment Pay Off

A senior executive jilted Google for another search engine - and it's not Yahoo or MSN Live. In the strange bedfellows game in tech, the Google exec will help Microsoft profit from the $15 billion Facebook valuation Microsoft's $240 million investment created. Facebook has hired Sheryl Sandberg as their new COO. Sandberg leaves Google after six years and a wealth of stock options. Formerly Google's vice president for global online sales and operations, Ms. Sandberg is expected to help solve the Facebook monetization challenge. If there's any question about her charge at Facebook, the answer lies in the Supernova Conference in San Francisco last year. Ms. Sandberg was featured in a Spotlight solo presentation. Her topic: "Google cracked the code on monetizing search advertising. Where is advertising heading next?" TechCrunch reported on a small exodus of Google and YouTube engineers to Facebook back in November of last year. Facebook hired Youtube CFO Gideon Yu, eCommerce Product lead Benjamin Ling and GDrive developer Justin Rosenstein. Ms. Sandberg was named to The Power 50: The 50 Most Powerful Women in business by Fortune magazine in 2006 and 2007. Currently number 29, there's no question she'll rise higher this year if she succeeds at Facebook. While Ms. Sandberg will be missed at Google, the company boasts a strong executive bench. Sandberg's Google team, led by David Fischer who will succeed her, oversees global sales for what the Wall St. Journal estimates is 99 percent of all Google's advertisers.

Source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080304-153645

Airborne settles lawsuit for $23.3 million

Airborne - the herbal supplement company that once claimed to help fight off colds - will pay $23.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against the company for false advertising, according to one of the groups that joined the suit. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit advocacy group, said the company will refund money to consumers who bought Airborne's product. It will pay for advertisements in major publications instructing consumers on how to get their money refunded. "There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," said CSPI Senior nutritionist David Schardt. "Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed." According to the company's Web site, Airborne was created by second-grade teacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell, who "studied the benefits herbal therapies used in Eastern Medicine." The site says Airborne "boosts the immune system with seven herbal extracts and a proprietary blend of vitamins, electrolytes, amino acids and antioxidants." A recorded message at the toll-free number of the class-action settlement administrator said that Airborne Health Inc. has admitted no wrongdoing. Airborne Inc., Airborne Health Inc. and Knight-McDowell Labs are among the defendants in the class action lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California in U.S. District Court.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/04/news/companies/airborne_settlement/?postversion=2008030413

Gary Gygax, 'Father of D&D,' Dies at 69

Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, according to Stephen Chenault, CEO of Troll Lord Games. Gygax designed the original D&D game with Dave Arneson in 1974, and went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels. "I don't think I've really grokked it yet," said Mike Mearls, the lead developer of the upcoming 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. "He was like the cool uncle that every gamer had. He shaped an entire generation of gamers." Gygax was not directly involved with Dungeons & Dragons after 1985, but he continued to create adventures to be used with it, which were published by Troll Lord Games. Gygax had been in poor health for some time, according to his wife Gail. Chenault says he will publish more information, including funeral arrangements, on the Troll Lord message board as it becomes available.

Source: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/report-gary-gyg.html

Mideast sovereign wealth funds may fail to save troubled U.S. banking giant Citigroup Inc.

Sameer Al Ansari, Chief Executive of Dubai International Capital told delegates at a private equity conference that it will take more than the combined efforts of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to save the bank. "It's going to take more than that to rescue Citi," Ansari said. He added that more write downs are expected and that Gulf investors would be required to bolster Citi. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, or ADIA, a sovereign wealth fund owned by the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, last year bought a 4.9% stake in Citigroup. The Kuwait Investment Authority also said in January it would invest $3 billion in Citigroup. Al Ansari said "it would take a lot more money to rescue Citigroup." A spokesperson for Citi was unable to comment immediately when called Tuesday. Dubai International Capital, an investment firm controlled by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, owns a stake in HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.LN), bought 3.12% in European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co last year. The company also owns a stake in Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN), according to Zawya Investor. The intervention of sovereign funds such as ADIA, which pumped $7.6 billion into Citi, has failed to stem a decline in the bank's share price that was first triggered by the emergence last year of an $11 billion sub-prime write-down that led to the resignation of the then embattled chief executive Charles 'Chuck' Prince. Citi's share price has fallen by more than 33% since late November, when the ADIA stake purchase was first reported, till date to close at $23.09 Tuesday. The bank said in January that it lost $9.83 billion in the fourth quarter spurred by $18 billion in write-downs. To stem the losses Citi said it planned to raise $14.5 billion in capital by selling stakes to investors including Saudi's Prince Alwaleed, the lenders largest single shareholder.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/gulf-investors-may-not-save/story.aspx?guid=%7B6C374435%2D5314%2D4A8E%2DB689%2DB8916D529B7B%7D

Food Network Fires Chef Robert Irvine

The star of Food Network's "Dinner: Impossible," Robert Irvine who rose to stardom by preparing impossible meals, encountered an obstacle that he can't overcome - a fake resume. Food Network, released a statement that they will not be renewing the contract of Chef Robert Irvine, because of the embellishments in his resume. Wendy La Torre, a Florida socialite shared with St. Petersburg Times that when Irvine arrived in Florida, he told her that he has a castle in Scotland and claimed that he has cooked for U.S. Presidents and royalties. La Torre also said that Irvine told her that he would like to be called as Sir Robert Irvine, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. "He said there were five levels of knights, and KCVO is the highest level of knight you could be. The Queen handpicks you." Irvine, 42, rose to fame when he hosted "Dinner: Impossible," the concept of which is to prepare food under the most challenging circumstances. He has also written, "Mission: Cook" which was published last year and owns a company that sells his own-brand cookware. "I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experience in the White House and the Royal Family," says Irvine in his written statement. "I am truly sorry for misleading the people and misstating the facts." The Food Network on the other hand said it might reconsider its decision but as of the moment they are looking for a new host. "We rely on the trust that our viewers have in the accuracy of the information we present, and Robert challenged that trust," says the Food Network in a written statement. Chef Robert Irvine first admitted the fabrications in a St. Petersburg Times' story on February 17.

Source: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010226213

'American Idol' Hopeful David Hernandez Performed At Male Strip Club

Like the rain showers and budding flowers, you can count on spring to bring an "American Idol" sex scandal. The show has endured everything from Frenchie Davis' adult Web site photos to Corey Clark's claim that he had an affair with Paula Abdul to Antonella Barba's lascivious pictures. This year's shocker, according to The Associated Press, is that 24-year-old semi-finalist David Hernandez used to work as a nude dancer at male strip club Dick's Cabaret in Phoenix. The manager of the club, Gordy Bryan, told the news service on Monday that Glendale, Arizona-native Hernandez had performed fully nude and gave lap dances to the club's mostly male clientele. "He had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here," Bryan said. A spokesperson for the show had no comment on the report and Bryan could not be reached for further comment at press time, but he told the AP that Hernandez worked at Dick's steadily for three years until September 30, 2007, well after he auditioned for "Idol" in San Diego on July 30, 2007. Bryan said that Hernandez did not renew his licensing with the state, which is why he hasn't performed at Dick's since that date. The alcohol-free club was named the "best gay male revue" in 2004 by the Phoenix New Times, which said that the cabaret's dancers "fit a flurry of fantasy roles, performing as sailors, construction workers, cowboys, and whatever else tickles their, uh, fancy." Though Hernandez has never discussed his stripping past on the show, rumors of his past were posted on VotefortheWorst.com last week, including images of a barely clothed Hernandez working as a bartender at the gay club Burn.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1582721/20080304/id_0.jhtml

Lufthansa pilots avert major crash at German airport

German airline Lufthansa has said its pilots had averted a crash at Hamburg airport after winds of more than 150 mph caused a plane with 130 passengers on board, to veer dangerously on landing. The airliner grazed its wingtip on the runway before the pilot wrestled it back off the ground. Amateur video footage shown below was played repeatedly on German television. It showed the Airbus A320 being battered by crosswinds. The incident happened on Saturday as the Lufthansa Airbus A320 approached the runway on a flight from Munich. "Just before landing, the plane was hit by a very strong gust of wind that led to the left wing touching the ground very briefly," said Juergen Raps, Lufthansa executive vice president of operations. The left wing grazed the runway for a moment, but the pilot was able to stabilise the aircraft and take off again in what a spokesman called an " absolutely professional manoeuvre." The plane landed safely shortly afterward on its second attempt.



Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article3487916.ece

Paris Hilton Poses Topless For 944 Magazine

Paris Hilton bares all for 944 magazine. Paris Hilton did what she does best and posed like a slut for 944 magazine. Don't ever expect a good, intelligent interview out of Miss Hilton. She does, however, do what she does well! In the enormous 944 spread (more photos after the jump), Paris appears to be topless. The socialite doesn't show any boobage though, but she does show plenty of skin in Calvin Klein undies and a swimsuit. Hilton, who now has to work hard for her money, was set to inherit a ton of money from her grandfather until Barron Hilton donated most of his dough to charity.

Source: http://gaysocialites.com/2008/03/paris_hilton_bares_all_for_944.html

US government forces military secrets on Brit webmaster

A website promoting the town of Mildenhall has been shut down after it unintentionally became the recipient of hundreds of classified emails, including messages detailing the planned flight path of President Bush. Over more than a decade, www.mildenhall.com received emails detailing all kinds of secret military information that were intended for official Air Force personnel. One detailed where Air Force One could be found in the air during a planned visit to the region by President Bush. Others included battlefield strategy and passwords. "I was being sent everything from banal chat and jokes, to videos up to 15mb in size," Gary Sinnott, owner of mildenhall.com, said in this article in EDP 24. "Some were classified, some were personal. A lot had some really sensitive information in them." As owner of mildenhall.com, Sinnott received every email that had that domain name included in the address field. The site was set up to provide information about the town of Mildenhall, which is about a half-hour's drive north east of Cambridge. Sinnott says he brought the SNAFU to the attention of Air Force officials but was never able to get the problem fixed. At first, they didn't seem to take the matter seriously, but eventually, they "went mental," he said. Officials advised Sinnott to block unrecognizable addresses from his domain and set up an auto-reply reminding people of the address for the official air force base. But still, the official emails continued to flow in to Sinnott's site. And to make matters worse, some people got angry after Sinnott told them they were sending email to the wrong address and gave his address to spammers. Sinnott was receiving 30,000 pieces of email per day, most of which was junk mail. So Sinnott pulled the plug on the website. Though he remains the owner of mildenhall.com, it may only be a matter of time before all those emails incorrectly addressed to Air Force personnel at mildenhall.com automatically begin to bounce. And that ought to make security conscious people everywhere breath a little easier. Alas, according whois records, mildenhall.net and mildenhall.org are in the hands of non-military individuals and mildenhall.us is available to anyone with $35. Given what we now know about the boobs who send confidential information, that ought to give us pause.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/03/mildenhall_website/

Black times ahead for fallen peer

For former media tycoon Lord Black of Crossharbour, it will be a rude awakening - at six in the morning - to his first day as an prisoner in a Florida jail. Lord Black - or inmate 18330-424 as he is listed on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website - will climb out of the bunk bed in his prison dormitory, don his regulation green shirt and trousers and join the queue for the communal washing and toilet facilities. Then, after a breakfast of "mediocre high-school cafeteria-type food", he is likely to begin a tightly regulated day of "work-calls", "controlled movements" and strictly defined "recreation time" before an early bedtime of 9pm. It is a far cry from what the 65-year-old former chairman of Hollinger International is used to. Before his six-and-a-half year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice last year, multi-millionaire Black and his wife, journalist Barbara Amiel, had led what jurors heard described as a lifestyle of almost unbelievable excess. Money stolen from Hollinger shareholders helped to finance a life so lavish that the Blacks owned two Park Avenue apartments in New York - one of these set aside solely for the use of their servants. Their butler even had his own American Express card to finance their spending sprees.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7275494.stm

Doctor accused of hastening death for patient's organs

A respected California transplant doctor faces charges he hastened a comatose man's death to retrieve his organs -- a far-reaching case that could impact the nation's organ donation industry. Ruben Navarro had suffered from a debilitating nerve disease since he was 9. He died at the age of 25. Hootan Roozrokh, 34, is accused of ordering excessive doses of drugs to expedite the death of Ruben Navarro, a 25-year-old man who had suffered from a debilitating nerve disease since he was 9, according to the criminal complaint. On February 3, 2006, Dr. Roozrokh hurried from San Francisco to the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center with a transplant team after receiving word Navarro would be a donor. In a pretrial hearing last week, Dr. Laura Lubarsky, a critical-care specialist, testified she would not have ordered morphine or the sedative Ativan as Roozrokh allegedly did. She said she was called into the operating room to monitor Navarro after he was taken off life support and to pronounce him dead. Lubarsky told the court she heard Roozrokh order a nurse to give Navarro more "candy," meaning additional drugs. Prosecutors have charged Roozrokh with three felony counts, including one charge of "dependent adult abuse" for allegedly administering excessive amounts of a drug cocktail that included morphine and Ativan, both of which are used to comfort dying patients. Roozrokh is also accused of injecting Betadine, a topical antiseptic, into Navarro's feeding tube. If convicted, Roozrokh -- a Stanford-trained doctor -- could face up to eight years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/03/transplant.trial/

Spurned Rachel Marsden selling 'ex-boyfriend's' stuff on eBay

Rachel Marsden is selling clothing on eBay that she claims belong to her ex-boyfriend -- Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. "Hi, my name is Rachel and my [now ex] boyfriend, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, just broke up with me via an announcement on Wikipedia. It was such a classy move that I was inspired to do something equally classy myself, so I'm selling a couple of items of clothing he left behind, here in my NYC apartment, on eBay. Jimbo was supposed to come visit me in a couple of weeks and pick up some of his stuff, but obviously that won't be happening now," Marsden wrote. The posting came with a photo of the 33-year-old Coquitlam native. Wales was responding to media reports he had favourably altered Marsden's Wikipedia web listing. "Rachel Marsden first approached me via e-mail two years ago with complaints about her bio. We had never met. I subsequently reviewed her bio and I found it not to be up to our standards," he states. "Gossipy stories suggesting that I have been in a relationship with her since last fall are completely false." Marsden has worked as a right-wing political commentator. She was fired last year by Fox News Channel. A weekly column she had with the Toronto Sun newspaper chain was also cancelled.

Source: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=b1c9eef3-679c-4f86-955e-aa7a7806475f&k=74787

Britney Spears dumps cheating Adnan Ghalib by 'iPhone' – Tabloid Hell

Britney Spears has broken up with paparazzi boyfriend Adnan Ghalib after a blazing row, according to today’s Sun newspaper. The couple apparently argued after was convinced Ghalib was cheating on her, and in the following altercation the pop star ended up throwing a brand new iPhone into her swimming pool. According to The Sun's insider, Spears discovered texts on the Brummie’s phone. “She (Spears) was demanding to know who sent the texts and shouting, ‘What’s this about? You’re cheating on me’,” explained the source, "before declaring “‘That’s it. It’s over’,” and then dispatched the brand new gadget to the bottom of the pool.

Source: http://www.nme.com/news/tabloid-hell/34843

Call Center Workers Sue American Airlines

When the American Airlines targeted its downtown call center for closure this summer, little did it imagine that this action would be challenged in court on the grounds of gender discrimination. The employees who sued the airlines included thirty employees, mostly women over 40. The employees have also accused the American Airlines of offering inferior severance and only half-hearted assistance in getting other positions with the company. The complainants are seeking a class-action status and the case has been filed in suburban Dallas-based airline in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. The shutting the downtown call center by American Airlines came at a time when the airlines have slashed similar facilities nationwide. After the disaster of 9/11, there were speculations in the industry that whether American or Delta, which operates its own facility downtown facility on Plum Street, might pull out. Although the speculation has been going on for years now, American Airlines has managed to employ just more than half the 850 it did in 2001. Delta cut the local jobs back to about 600 and closed similar centers in Boston and Los Angeles. When the American Airlines closed its downtown center, its roughly 450 employees were offered the option of transferring to another call center elsewhere in the country or doing their job from home. But Eric Deters, who is the lawyer of the employees, claims those options have been rigged to discourage most employees from selecting them. According to a report in Enquirer, Deters said, “It's an option being offered knowing it's not an option. It is believed (the) defendants intentionally crafted this proposal as a deceitful disguise to eliminate plaintiffs and the class from employment and replace them with younger and less costly alternatives.” The clauses stated that home-based employees would have to take pay cuts and reduced benefits and also required to travel to Dallas in person at their own expense if their equipment failed until the problem was solved.

Source: http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/analysis/articles/21953-call-center-workers-sue-american.htm

The Earth Liberation Front: How They Can Move from Attention-Seeking Ecoterrorists to Legitimate Organization

The Earth Liberation Front is suspected of the arson of several luxury homes outside of Seattle on March 3. A sign with the groups ELF initials was found in front of the development of multi-million dollar houses, and the fires themselves had multiple set points. The Earth Liberation Front is a leaderless group of anonymous individuals who proclaim that the destruction of the environment is bad and want to take out the profit motive for it through any means necessary. This is typically accomplished by setting fire to housing developments and car dealerships that they feel have a negative impact on nature. The idea of protesting the destruction of the environment by hurting the environment even more is a puzzling one. It's hard to give much credence to any group that lurks in the shadows and believes that destruction of property is a legitimate way of seeking change. If the Earth Liberation Front wants to become anything more than an attention-seeking terrorist group, here's what it needs to do.

Source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/636075/the_earth_liberation_front_how_they.html

Is Winona Ryder engaged to Blake Sennett?

Who knows?! While Winona Ryder's reps say she is NOT engaged to Blake Sennett, the web is a buzz reporting the opposite. The Getty Blog is reporting that Ryder and Sennett are getting hitched. Evidently Winona and Blake announced their engagement at Fall 2008 Valentino show in Paris. For those of you who don't know, Blake Sennett is a guitarist in the indie rock band Rilo Kiley. Everyone knows who Winona Rider is... if you 'Google' Winona and engaged, you can track all of her crazy engagements and relationships. She was even once engaged to Johnny Depp. Happy Googling!

Source: http://gaysocialites.com/2008/03/is_winona_ryder_engaged_to_bla.html

Daisy De La Hoya from "Rock of Love" with racy photo

Following in the footsteps of her boxing uncle Oscar De La Hoya, Daisy De La Hoya, who is currently a contestant on VH1's "Rock of Love," came out with her own racy photo. On the pictures posted on her MySpace page, Daisy De La Hoya is posing with a bottle of whiskey, partially nude, next to a table on what appears to be a few lines of cocaine. According to Daisy, the lines were just flour, none the less we get the idea. Last year photos of Oscar De La Hoya dressed in fishnets flooded the internet, prompting a lawsuit against De La Hoya by Milana Dravnel, an ex-stripper who claimed she had taken pictures. Dravnel is suing the boxer for suffering emotional distress as a result of De La Hoya’s comments that the pictures are fake...Nothing fake about Daisy De La Hoya's pictures, though.

Source: http://www.ogpaper.com/news/news-01745.html

Dmitri Medvedev succeeds Vladimir Putin

Russia’s voters dutifully endorsed Dmitri Medvedev as Vladimir Putin’s successor today in a presidential election boycotted by Western observers as undemocratic. Mr Medvedev won a runaway victory in a contest carefully stage-managed by the Kremlin and in which he faced no serious opposition. Preliminary results showed him winning almost 65 per cent of the vote, with the Communist, Gennadi Zyuganov, trailing in second with 19.8 per cent. Mr Zyuganov condemned the election as “cynical” and said that it had been marred by “mass falsification” of results. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an anti-Western nationalist, won nearly 13 per cent, while the little-known Andrei Bogdanov of the Democratic Party got just 1.5 per cent. Turnout was estimated at 64 per cent, amid suggestions that regional governors had been under Kremlin pressure to give Mr Medvedev a “mandate” by getting two thirds of Russia’s 100 million voters to the polls. Many regions created a holiday atmosphere around polling stations, offering cheap food, concerts, flowers and prize draws to persuade voters to turn out. Government employees, including teachers and hospital staff, complained that officials were forcing them to vote at their workplaces to guarantee a high turnout. Some said that they had been threatened with the sack if they did not vote.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3471573.ece

Russia Votes for Putin's Successor

Russia's voters are expected to endorse Vladimir Putin's choice of a successor in Sunday's presidential election, allowing Putin to retain a measure of power in his nation, whose wealth and global voice have grown even as democratic freedoms diminished. Dmitry Medvedev, a 42-year-old lawyer and loyal Kremlin aide, is expected to take over from Putin, whose eight years as president have left a deep imprint on the world's largest country. Medvedev has said he would offer Putin the prime minister's post. "I'm in a good mood. Spring is here," Medvedev said as he cast his ballot in Moscow, where rain and wet snow sprinkled the streets. "The season has changed." Some voters complained of pressure to cast ballots in his favor, and critics called the election a cynical stageshow. Few international observers were monitoring the vote. Two election day bomb explosions targeting a police convoy near Chechnya served as a reminder of the tensions around the once-breakaway republic, one of the challenges the next president will face. Two people were reported wounded. Some 450,000 police and troops deployed nationwide to ensure the voting proceeded calmly. If Medvedev wins, the world community will be watching closely to see how he and Putin share power. Some in the West have welcomed Medvedev's reputation as a moderate after years of tense ties with Putin over his crackdown on domestic dissent, U.S. plans for a missile defense and Kosovo's independence, among other things. Analysts predict, though, that Medvedev could face opposition from Kremlin insiders hostile to the West.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5in0vrmFUvvjcryMGPcmtHB99YatwD8V59K402

A Big-time Burmese Drug Trafficker’s Singaporean Connection

In an action that Burma watchers view as long overdue, the United States earlier this week slapped financial sanctions on wealthy Burmese businessman Lo Hsing Han, his US-educated son, Steven Law and Law’s wife, Cecilia Ng, a Singaporean businesswoman. At least 10 Singaporean companies owned by Law’s wife have been targeted by the sanctions. Among other things, the sanctions point up the often-unhealthy way the Singaporean government chooses to ignore relationships between its financial community and unsavory Burmese businessmen. Because of the ties to Lo’s main corporate vehicle, Asia World Co. Ltd, the story also illustrates graphically the narco-state that Burma’s rulers have visited upon the world stage. Asia World is considered to be Burma’s biggest and most diversified conglomerate. In a 1997 article, The Nation, a US magazine, described a web of connections between Asia World and the Singapore government, which “is directly connected to key business ventures of drug kingpin Lo” through a series of investments in the Myanmar Fund, including some by the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). Lo and Steven Law were refused visas to travel to the US as long ago as 1996 for suspected drug trafficking activities. According to the Treasury Department, “In addition to their support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history of involvement in illicit activities. Law enforcement officials say indications are that since the mid-1990s Lo has stepped back from direct involvement in the drug trade, although he does reportedly maintain contacts, and that has not stopped western law enforcement agencies from trying to find evidence of his continued role, so far without success. Lo’s business empire, international observers believe, is built on the profits from his drug trafficking activities. These businesses and his money have proved invaluable to the junta.

Source: http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1076&Itemid=31

Toxin mystery at Las Vegas motel deepens

As police tried to piece together how a rare, deadly poison ended up in a motel for transients, the 57-year-old man who could hold the key lay unconscious in a hospital.
Adding to the mystery, police said firearms and an "anarchist type textbook" were found in the same room where the ricin was discovered two days later. Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Police found the firearms and books on Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel called police upon discovering weapons, he said, without elaborating. After authorities seized the book and weapons, tests for ricin were conducted but came back negative, Lombardo said. He said a 53-year-old friend or relative of the sick man contacted motel management on Feb. 22 to inform them about pets in the room. Earlier Friday, police Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the friend or relative found two vials of ricin on Thursday after going to the motel to retrieve the hospitalized man's belongings. Authorities on Friday confirmed that the vials contained ricin. It was unclear how long the vials were in the unoccupied motel room, and whether they might have been overlooked when ricin tests were conducted on Tuesday. Lombardo did not address such questions during the brief news conference. Lombardo said precautionary tests were also done in a room at the Excalibur hotel-casino, on the Las Vegas Strip, where the friend or relative had been saying. He said they came back negative. The only legal use for ricin is cancer research. A pinprick is enough to kill.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-02-29-599135498_x.htm

Online Scrabble craze leaves game sellers at loss for words

The latest bane of office productivity is Scrabulous, a virtual knockoff of the Scrabble board game, with over 700,000 players a day and nearly three million registered users. Fans of the game are obsessive. They play against friends, co-workers, family members and strangers, and many have several games going at once. Everyone seems to love the online game — everyone, that is, except the companies that own the rights to Scrabble: Hasbro, which sells it in North America, and Mattel, which markets it everywhere else. In January, they denounced Scrabulous as piracy and threatened legal action against its creators, two brothers in Calcutta named Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla who run a software development company. Both Hasbro and Mattel said they were hoping for a solution that would not force them to shut down the game. Jayant Agarwalla, 21, said they did not create Scrabulous to make money, even though they now collect about $25,000 a month from online advertising. They just wanted to play Scrabble on their computers, and their favorite (unauthorized) site had started charging, he said. Scrabulous, which most users play on the Facebook social-networking site, has a board that looks just like Scrabble, and the same number of letter tiles with the same point values. Players can send invitations to others on Facebook or search for strangers to play with by posting messages. The threat of legal action has not gained the companies many admirers. Many Scrabulous fans, some of whom say they bought the board game for the first time after playing the online version on Facebook, call their approach heavy-handed and out of touch.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/02/business/02game.php