News

The Mew York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting is contemplating requiring anyone engaged in photography on public property, including sidewalks, for more than half an hour to have a permit and $1 million in liability insurance.

In the face of world-wide criticism of its product safety record, China closed 180 food plants that make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood due to problems in the manufacturing process.

You might want to put down that diet soda before reading any further.

Much loathed former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld also has the dubious distinction of being the man running a pharmaceutical company called Searle, the creators of Aspartame, or NutraSweet, when the FDA approved it. Now, a new Italian study suggests that Aspartame causes cancer in lab rats.

The Sun in the UK is reporting that elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have been seen entering Iraq and are believed responsible for bombings that have killed some British soldiers.

Another tangible non-benefit of the War On Terror has been the dramatic rise in opium in Afghanistan. 2006 brought a record 6,700 tons of it, or 92 per cent of the world 7,300 tons total production. Much of this production is helping heroine supplant other drugs, like cannabis, as the drug of choice.

Every five years, Congress must renew the legislation that provides subsidies to farmers. One has to wonder, given the election climate, if any serious consideration will be given to overhauling the system in the light of rising demand for Ethanol?

Earlier this week, as reported here, a Dutch Agency responsible for quantifying global greenhouse gas emissions identified China as the top emitter of CO2, passing the U.S. for the first time. China has come back with an official response.

While the administration denies it plans to close Guantanamo any time in the near future, the AP reports that a decision to do just that is coming soon.

Even in the face of Cheney's office's involvement in the leaking of information related to national security, such as the Valerie Plame incident, vice president Cheney has exempted his office from complying with a presidential order that sets out procedures for the safe handling of national security information.

Some labor unions hope to gain membership from the millions of workers likely to become citizens under the bill while others are concerned about having to compete with guest workers who may not be afforded the same protections as their American counterparts.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, significant parts of New Orleans are still at risk for flooding from a major storm like Katrina.

It seems that Nigeria, a major exporter of oil, is on the verge of a general strike. If that occurs, expect gas prices to rise at the pump as oil futures soar. Just the threat of a strike has oil futures at a 9-month high.

Following the Hamas take over of Gaza, U.S. president George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have pledged to lift aid embargos and to provide other assistance to the Fatah government of Mahmoud Abbas which is being reconstituted in the West Bank. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has publicly denounced Bush's taking sides in the conflict saying that Hamas was properly elected to share power in the government.

It didn't take long after Hamas took over Gaza before Israel attacked. They conducted air strikes against suspected rocket launch sites in northern Gaza after a rocket landed in Israel.

Over the last two years, the Department of Homeland Security has been hacked into over 800 times that they know of. They have been subject to virus outbreaks and even keyboard logging.