Rumsfeld apologises for Iraq prison abuse

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has taken responsibility for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, offering his "deepest apology" to the victims, but says he will not resign just to satisfy his political enemies.
"These events occurred on my watch as secretary of defence. I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.
Warning that he had seen new photographs and a videotape not yet made public that were hard to believe, Rumsfeld said: "I feel terrible about what happened to these detainees. They are human beings, they were in U.S. custody, our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't. That was wrong.
"To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of the U.S. armed forces, I offer my deepest apology."
The tense hearing, broadcast live in the Arab world as well as the United States, carried major implications for Rumsfeld's future but also for U.S. support for President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld, lacking his trademark bravado, said he had created a special commission to investigate the actions. But Arizona Senator John McCain said Americans needed all the available information at once, adding he was concerned that images of abuse would erode domestic support for the war.

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Cleric’s threat to female troops

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics, Religion

Iraqi worshippers have been told that anyone who captures a female British soldier can keep her as a slave. A...

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Can AOL Ever be EhOL?

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

Despite the obvious closeness of the two countries, the US and Canada have some big differences.
For example, here in Edmonton, let's check out the local TV news on cable channel KTLA, where hockey is often the last item on the sportscast; right after women's college diving and WWE highlights. Likewise, north of the 49th, we think Karl "the Mailman" Malone was the Canada Post official that Prime Minister Martin just canned. Here hockey rules but in the US, basketball is far more important.
Now let's put some hi-tech spin on this.
Even with a name like AOL Canada Inc. we hosers still believe the company is AMERICA Online. Officially, AOL Canada is a strategic alliance between America Online, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner, and RBC Royal Bank, the personal and commercial banking division of RBC Financial Group.

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Wife hires hitmen to kill pet

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Weird

A Chinese woman found herself a divorcee after she hired a group of men to kill her husband's pet dog, state media said.
Xiao Fang, a housewife in eastern Nanjing city, took the unusual step as she was afraid the dog, a wolfhound, would make a mess of their newly furnished apartment, the Xinhua news agency reported on its website. She tried to send the dog away but it always returned, leading her to eventually hire four men to kill it while her husband was away on business, according to the agency. When her husband returned, he declared he could "no longer live under the same roof with a murderer" and decided that divorce was the only way out, Xinhua said.

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“But I want it now…”

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sex

Fast, rather long-lasting results are more important for many men using anti-impotence treatments and Levitra, a new rival to Viagra, can work in just 10 minutes, researchers say.
The drug made by GlaxoSmithKline produced results in 10 minutes in some men and worked within 25 minutes for most participants in a study of 724 impotence sufferers in Europe and North America.
"It is a very, very fast acting drug," said Professor Francesco Montorsi, a professor of urology at the Universita Vita Salute San Raffaele, in Milan Italy, lead author of the study.
"Ten minutes is very short. The drug is given by mouth and it takes time for absorption," he added.
Montorsi, who will present his findings at the 7th Congress of the European Federation of Sexology in Brighton next week, said the drug was also well tolerated and safe.

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British troops face abuse claims in Iraq

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The Ministry of Defence is investigating fresh charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners after a newspaper paraded a soldier who said he had witnessed savage beatings.
The Daily Mirror said on Friday the soldier, attached to a regiment already under a cloud, had given military police full details of the attacks, including names and ranks of those involved.
He said the violence was led by three ringleaders.
The Mirror has already printed pictures apparently showing British soldiers urinating on a hooded prisoner and beating him with a rifle butt, but their authenticity has been questioned.
Politicians and human rights groups said there appeared to be less doubt about the new allegations which, if proven, would make life even more difficult in the tinderbox of Iraq as the British government considers deploying more soldiers there.

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California woman bites bullet in hotdog

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Weird

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California woman says she swallowed a live bullet and bit into a second round while eating a hotdog and that she has the X-rays to prove it.
Police said on Thursday they were investigating the bizarre incident the 31-year-old woman said happened at a Costco store in Irvine, California, about 47 miles (76 km) southeast of Los Angeles.
"She said she had swallowed one bullet and felt another in her mouth," Irvine police Lt. Jeff Love said. "She showed us the bullet and we took it as evidence. We had them cut up all the other hot dogs and found nothing in the buns."
A spokesman for Seattle-based Costco Wholesale said the company had no comment on the incident, which occurred on Sunday and was still being investigated.
The woman showed local television news an X-ray of her stomach with a bullet lodged in it.
Love said the Hebrew National brand hotdogs served at Costco were prepared under Kosher laws with a high standard of cleanliness, and were X-rayed before leaving the factory.
He said it appeared "highly unlikely" that a hot dog would leave the factory with an undetected bullet in it.

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Disney bans September 11 film

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Film

Disney has banned its film company subsidiary from distributing controversial director Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which criticises President George Bush's handling of the September 11 terrorist attacks and connects the Bush family with Osama bin Laden's.
Disney chief executive Michael Eisner said yesterday the company "did not want a film in the middle of the political process where we're such a non-partisan company and our guests, that participate in all of our attractions, do not look for us to take sides".
Moore, behind the Oscar-winning Bowling For Columbine documentary that challenged America's gun culture, claimed The Walt Disney Co was worried the documentary would endanger tax breaks the company received from Florida, where Bush's brother Jeb is governor and where Disney World is located.
But Jeb Bush said: "What tax break? We don't give tax breaks, that I'm aware of, to Disney.
"I appreciate the fact that Disney creates thousands and thousands of jobs in our state."
Moore said he officially found out on Monday that Miramax Films, owned by Disney, would not be allowed to distribute the film, but his agent learned this a year ago.
"They had told my agent last year -- Eisner himself told my agent, Ari Emanuel -- that there was no way they were going to release this film, and he told him why. Because he did not want to anger Jeb Bush in Florida," Moore told The Associated Press.
"He wasn't going to let a little documentary upset the Bush family."
But Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein wanted to go ahead with the film, and spent �4 million finishing it, Moore said.
"Harvey thought he'd change their minds. We went ahead and made the movie anyway," he said.
Moore said only when it was announced that Fahrenheit 9/11 would make its world premiere as one of 18 films screening in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which begins on May 12, did Disney "finally decide to deal with it".

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Back Online

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Geek

Finally got the system back online, albeit temporarily. the main problem was finding all the stuff to put the system...

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Iraqi Prisoners Mistreated

May 6, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

A group of naked men are bound together on the floor of the prison; a hooded, naked man is handcuffed to a cell door, and another man is bound naked and arched with his arms behind him over the top bunk in a cell. That individual is wearing women's panties over his head.
The new collection included more than 1,000 digital images ranging from scenes of mundane military life to pictures showing crude simulations of sex among soldiers.
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