Islam group urges forest fire jihad Sept. 12, 2008 AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror. US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands". The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine. The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time". "Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia." With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern. theage.com.au

Bullet analysis casts doubt on lone gunman in JFK assassination 08:15 PM CDT on Saturday, September 13, 2008 The Dallas Morning News Use the latest scientific techniques to poke a hole or two in official findings on the Kennedy assassination and suddenly you have lots of new friends – and lots of enemies. Forty-five years after President John F. Kennedy was killed in a Dallas motorcade, the details surrounding his death remain topics of endless debate for those who see conspiracies and those who disagree. Cliff Spiegelman will testify to that. The professor of statistics at Texas A&M University organized a six-member team that compared the composition of bullet fragments from the JFK shooting with other bullets from the same manufacturer. The group found that those fragments weren't nearly as rare as the government's expert witness concluded in 1976, when Dr. Vincent P. Guinn determined that all five fragments came from two bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. A third shot missed. "The claim was made that those five fragments could only have come from two bullets," Dr. Spiegelman said. "Our research showed it could have been two or more. "And if it is more than two, there is an increased likelihood that someone else provided one of them." Many of the test bullets showed the same "chemical composition," and one matched fragments from the assassination bullets, he said. Hence the title of the group's paper: "Chemical and Forensic Analysis of JFK Assassination Bullet Lots: Is a Second Shooter Possible?" The team was honored by the American Statistical Association with its 2008 Statistics in Chemistry award. The study doesn't say there were two or more gunmen, only that the single-gunman theory can't be supported by science.

'Fat Man' sues top casinos for millions Fouad al-Zayat, a 20-stone billionaire who lost £191m at roulette, is taking six top British clubs to court, claiming they illegally allowed him credit. He was one of the world's most prolific and secretive gamblers. The arrival at casinos in London of Fouad al-Zayat, the high roller know as the Fat Man, created panic and excitement and not a little rubbing of hands by management in their dinner jackets and black ties. Over 15 years, the 20-stone Syrian billionaire lost more than £191m on the spin of the roulette wheel. But now he is biting back by taking six prestigious British casinos to court, claiming they illegally allowed him credit. The move follows his recent victory in the High Court when his lawyers successfully argued that a £2m debt with Aspinalls of Mayfair should be wiped out because they allowed him credit. In a rare interview in his marbled floor office in Nicosia, Cyprus, the Fat Man, a big beast even among the big spending gamblers known as 'whales', said he was now looking to claw back £67m. Zayat, 67, who said he no longer gambled in casinos, claimed that while he was never an addict, his habit had been a form of escapism that wasted nearly a quarter of a billion pounds. 'When I looked at the table, and the wheel was spun, it took my mind away from anything else I was thinking about. All worries disappeared, except the game. The amount of money was not important. Today, I see my behavior as very stupid whereas before I thought it was something.'

Court says police illegally taped nursing home sex Associated Press 09/11/2008 12:30:05 PM CDT MADISON, Wis.— Police illegally videotaped a Wisconsin man having sex with his wife while she was in a coma in her nursing home room, an appeals court ruled Thursday. David W. Johnson, 59, had an expectation to privacy when he visited his wife at Divine Savior Nursing Home in Portage, the District 4 Court of Appeals ruled. Therefore, police violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches when they installed a hidden video camera in the room, the court said. "We are satisfied that Johnson's expectation of privacy while visiting his wife in her nursing home room is one that society would recognize as reasonable," a unanimous three-judge panel wrote. The ruling means prosecutors cannot introduce the video tapes as evidence in their case against Johnson, who is charged with felony sexual assault for having intercourse with his wife without her consent at least three times in 2005. Johnson's wife, Leah, was admitted to the nursing home after suffering a stroke, unable to speak or sit up. Nursing home staff members fed, cleaned and turned her, checking on her at least every two hours. Prosecutors say she was comatose. Johnson's attorney Christopher Kelly said his client would visit the woman he married in 1988 every day, reading her the Bible and moving her arms and legs so her muscles wouldn't atrophy. The woman's sister, who is now her legal guardian, is upset that prosecutors brought charges against him, Kelly said. "She believes her sister's husband was merely expressing his love for his wife and was trying everything he could to bring her back to consciousness," Kelly said.

Bodybuilder Ray Moon (R), who is turning 80 this year, competes in the Victorian Bodybuilding Championships in Melbourne September 14, 2008. Aged almost 80, Moon has overcome polio, open-heart surgery, prostate problems and financial ruin to become an Australian body building champion. Photo taken September 14, 2008.

First pic on the internet Back in 1992, after their show at the CERN Hardronic Festival, my colleague Tim Berners-Lee asked me for a few scanned photos of “the CERN girls” to publish them on some sort of information system he had just invented, called the “World Wide Web”. I had only a vague idea of what that was, but I scanned some photos on my Mac and FTPed them to Tim’s now famous “info.cern.ch”. How was I to know that I was passing an historical milestone, as the one above was the first picture ever to be clicked on in a web browser!” Silvano de Gennaro

5 year old Mother (1939) One of the photographs meanwhile that changed medical history is that of Lina Medina, the youngest mother who gave birth at the age of five. Born in Peru in 1933, Lina was brought to the local hospital by her parents because of an increasingly enlarged belly, which they first thought of a tumor. After a series of tests however, the doctors confirmed that she was seven months pregnant. A month later Lina gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Gerardo, after her doctor. Lina Medina is the first known case of precocious pregnancy, and based on studies it was shown that she had an advanced menarche development resulting to menstruation at the age of 8 months, prominent breasts upon turning four, and bone maturation at age 5. Her son Gerardo was first raised knowing that Lina was his sister, but eventually he found out that she was his mother at the age of 10. In 1972, Lina married and gave birth to her second son, 33 years after Gerardo was born. Gerardo soon died seven years later at the age of 40, due to a bone marrow disease. Lina, who is now aged 74, continues to live with her husband in Chicago, Chico, in Lima, Peru.

The Power of One Lone Woman defying Israeli security forces Settler woman struggling with Israeli security officers at Amona outpost in the West Bank February 1, 2006. Oded Balilty, Israel, The Associated Press.World Press Photo Contest.

This Afghan girl, whose identity was revealed in 1992 to be Sharbat Gula, is now married and mother of three girls. She and her family lives in Pushtun, an ethnic region in Afghanistan.

Known as the World’s First Photograph but actually this is the earliest surviving photograph, c. 1826. It required an eight-hour exposure, which resulted in sunlight on both sides of the buildings. It represents the view of the courtyard of Niépce’s house at Gras, France, taken from the window of his workroom. On the left side of the image is the pigeon-house (an upper loft in the Niépce family house), to the right of it is a pear-tree with a patch of sky showing through an opening in the branches. In the center of the image is the slanting roof of the barn; the long building behind it is the bake house, with chimney. On the right side of the image is another wing of the house.

The picture and its story have been circulated on the internet so often that some question whether they are authentic. They are. Clancy describes the famous picture this way: “Samuel thrusts his tiny hand out of the surgical opening of his mother’s uterus. As the doctor lifts his hand, Samuel reacts to the touch and squeezes the doctor’s finger. As if testing for strength, the doctor shakes the tiny fist. Samuel held firm. At that moment, I took this ‘Fetal Hand Grasp’ photo.” Samuel was born on Dec. 2, 1999, weighing 5 pounds 11 ounces–four weeks premature. By all indications, he appeared healthy. Today, he’s a “chattering, brown-eyed 3½-year-old.”

Sep 12, 5:36 PM EDT Dad chases nude boy from daughter's room with pipe DELTONA, Fla. (AP) -- An angry Deltona father whacked his teenage daughter's boyfriend with a metal pipe after finding the boy naked in his daughter's room. Authorities say the father, 45, didn't even know his daughter had a boyfriend or that the youngster had been sneaking into the home for more than a year. When he heard noises coming from his daughter's bedroom Thursday morning and saw a stranger standing naked on the girl's bed, he swung a metal pipe. He then chased the teen out the front door and called police. The boy was taken to the hospital where doctors closed a head wound with staples. The father was charged with aggravated battery on a child and bonded out on $10,000.

German jailed for selling partner for beer September 15, 2008 A GERMAN man has been sentenced to three years in prison for selling his partner as a sex slave to his neighbour for a crate of beer. The bizarre deal between the 39-year-old man from Hersfeld-Rotenburg and his 60-year-old neighbour was revealed after a 32-year-old woman told police about her ordeal. The court in Fulda established that the woman was forced by her alcoholic partner to have sex with the elderly neighbour for several weeks. The neighbour paid with a crate of beer for every visit. The neighbour was sentenced to a two-year suspended jail sentence and a single payment of €2000 ($3463) to the victim. The Sydney Morning Herald

'Blue Collar' Comic Blames Former Employee For Drug Arrest Ron White Says Doctor Prescribes Marijuana To Him September 15, 2008 ATLANTA -- Ron White of the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" said a former employee angry over not getting a severance tipped off Florida police that he was carrying marijuana. The Atlanta-based comedian described the incident that led to his arrest last week on the tarmac of a private air strip in Vero Beach as "extortion, plain and simple." The 51-year-old White told The Atlanta Journal Constitution that his former pilot, Scott Wolcott of Conyers, Ga., made the call to police. Wolcott denied the allegations in a phone interview with the newspaper. White didn't deny he was carrying marijuana. He said his California doctor prescribes him the drug for medical use, though he did not say for what condition.

Fish found in boy's penis September 16, 2008 12:00am A 2cm long fish apparently found it's way into the penis of a 14-year-old boy from India in a bizarre medical case. The patient was admitted to hospital with complaints of pain, dribbling urine and acute urinary retention spanning a 24-hour period. According to the boy, the fish slipped into his penis while he was cleaning his aquarium at home. Professor Vezhaventhan and Professor Jeyaraman, who treated the boy and later wrote a paper on the case, explained: "While he was cleaning the fish tank in his house, he was holding a fish in his hand and went to the toilet for passing urine. When he was passing urine, the fish slipped from his hand and entered his urethra and then he developed all these symptoms." After detecting the fish in the boy's bladder, Vezhaventhan and Jeyaraman used a technique known as cystourethroscopy to insert a special set of forceps down the patient's penis. Unfortunately, the fish was just too slippery to grip, so they resorted to using a rigid ureteroscope with a tool attached that is normally used for removing bladder stones. The fish the urologists removed, which Practical Fishkeeping believes to be a small member of the Betta genus, measured 2cm long and 1.5cm wide. He was later admitted into counseling to help him overcome any trauma. Daily Telegraph

Court acquits sick man with homegrown cannabis Tue Sep 16, 1:29 PM ET The Dutch high court on Tuesday acquitted a man charged with illegally growing marijuana who said the drug helped ease pain from his multiple sclerosis. Growing marijuana is illegal in the Netherlands but sales of it and other cannabis-related soft drugs in coffee shops have been tolerated for decades, making them a major tourist attraction. Pharmacies are allowed to sell limited quantities of cannabis only if the buyer can provide a doctor's prescription. The man suffered some negative side-effects after taking pharmacy cannabis, and then decided to grow his own marijuana, the Dutch high court said in a statement. Citing the unusual circumstances, the court said it was acceptable for the man to grow the drug without a licence.

An Italian model who swears she has never had sex plans to sell her virginity for one million euros, or £792,000. 16 Sep 2008 Showgirl and men's magazine model Raffella Fico, 20, told an Italian magazine: "I can't wait to see who's going to pull out the money to have me." Miss Fico, who appeared in the Italian version of Big Brother earlier this year, said she would use the cash to buy a house in Rome and pay for acting classes. "I don't know what it's like to have sex," she told the magazine, Chi, adding that if the man who bought her virginity was ugly then she would quickly get over it. "If I don't like him I'll just have a glass of wine and forget about it," said the aspiring actress from Naples - hometown of screen siren Sophia Loren. Her family insisted that despite her good looks and sexy image, she remained a virgin. "She's never had a boyfriend. I swear on my mother's grave. She's a devout Catholic and prays to Padre Pio every night," her brother told the magazine. She is the not the first woman to auction her virginity for a large sum. An 18-year-old US student in San Diego, Natalie Dylan, recently told the Howard Stern show she would have sex for the first time for $1 million to pay her college fees. In 2005 a Peruvian model, also 18, put herself up for sale to help pay her family's medical bills but ended up having second thoughts and turning down $1.5 million.

McPhalin