Obama to send troops to U.S.-Mexico border

Almost 1200 National Guard troops will be sent by the Obama administration to the U.S.A. and Mexico border today to improve security. Gabrielle Gilfords, the Democratic Representative, said that Obama will use $500 billion for securing borders alone. John McCain, Republican senator, will pay for half of the troops moving there. The governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, only recently found out about this move to her state. 4 years earlier, George Bush had sent in troops in a similar fashion for the arrestation of illegal immigrants but this plan had not worked ver efficiently. The plan had been to keep these troops there until professional agents arrived. The project had cost $1.2 billion at the time. After National Guard arrived, traffic rates dropped significantly at the border and politicians aspire to stop Mexico's illegal drug smuggling from spilling over in the United States. A small number of officers still continue to stay there.

This is very important for the overall protection of the Southern United States as due to the fact that Mexico has a very rate of poverty, it would seem certain that illegal immigration, law breaking, drug dmuggling, etc... would be bery common at the border. To end this both President Bush and Obama are doing the right thing. However, I feel that the use of such a large amount of money in excessive training is virtually useless and irrelevant to the situation of problems at the border. When simple police officer training is ideally enough for border guards, why spend more money for extra training that won't be used very commonly. It is as if President Obama expects special cases at the border. Otherwise overall, this is generally a good idea for the safety of the country.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/25/obama-troops025.html

Body In Barrel

Toronto Polic recently found a barrel containing a dead body in Lake Ontario. Homicide detectives and a police marine unit was called to investigate the steel drum which was removed from 6 meters of water at Queens Quay and Jarvis St. It is being called a murder and will take an estimated 72 hours to identify the victim. Homicide detective Justin Vander Heyden refused to guess or give any details on the case like another case he did about a missing teenage girl on September 2009. He believes this barrel murder was an organized act. Since the body is encased in concrete within the barrel it will be very hard to find out who it is.

This murder seems very disturbing as it involves the remains of a human body in a very strange alternative, a barrel. Usually a murderer leaves his victim in a place where he can't be found but the fact that he tried to go this far and put him in a lake is very strange. Additionally this case of using concrete with the barrel is another strange aspect. Whoever did this apparently had thought through the plan very well. The only matter that I feel for though is that this group of men or possibly even single man should immediately be found.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/05/23/14054501.html

U.S. man charged with faking his way into Harvard, duping school out of $45,000 in funds

In Woburn, Massachusetts, a 23 year old man origninally from Delaware was charged with faking into Harvard. Adam Wheeler became a student there in 2007 after he gave false claims of his pefect academic record in Philipps Academy and his one year of studying in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wheeler's will to do better and accomplish more is what got him caught. He went for the Rhodes and Fulbright Scholarship which is when Harvard started looking his writing. They found some connections with another colleague. He received 20 offences involving identity fraud. Wheeler was trying to transfer to Yale or Brown as an English student when he got caught. District Attorney Gerry Leone is concerned about the fact that many students must have lost unfairly in the competition to get into these schools. His transfer applications included fake recommendations from an employee at McLean Hospital and the Dean of Harvard. Harvard must keep this case under secrecy due to legal rights. Looking back into Wheeler's past, it was found that he was expelled from Bowdoin College in 2007 for cheating.

Why people still continue this disgraceful act of cheating strikes me honestly. It is not needed in the simplistic world of education where idealism should be prevalent. What doesn't make sense in fact is what sense of accomplishment does one get by cheating his way into one of the top schools in the world. It is a very true story and common tale that the more lies one says, the more he tangles himself in his web of lies and soon he is caught himself. The idea of this perfect academic record, SAT score, international scholarships, seemed a little strange to some authorities and in his will to do more, the violator, Wheeler, got himself caught. This leads onto the idea of greed runing someone. Ifhe had only cheated into getting into Harvard but hadn't made fake transfer applications and tried for scholarships, then he would not be in such deep trouble. However he carried events a bit far and I feel he should pay dire consequences for cheating on the numerous other honest students who could have taken his place at Harvard or Yale and Brown.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/a29366.html

Atlantis Astronauts Begin Spacewalk

Two astronauts on the shuttle Atlantis started a 6 and a half hour walk today outside of the ISS (International Space Station). Garreit Reisman and Stephen Bowen's mission is to install a dish antenna and a storage platform for Dextre, a Canadian robot. These two specialists also have two spacewalks scheduled for Wednesday and Friday. The camera inspection of Atlantis was limited due to a pinched cable which NASA says will be easy to free. Tomorrow the astronauts will attach a Russian compartment to the ISS. The ISS currently orbits 352 kilometers above the Earth's crust and is where the 6 member crew of the Atlantis will be for the next week. They need to do some experiments such as Hypersole which will tell Canadian researchers how sensitive the astronaut's skin is to the sole of the boots. This could help fix balance problems. Atlantis has served in 31 missions already and this one is its last so NASA has given it spare parts to deliver to the ISS.

My first thoughts to reading this article were about how this is affecting the environment, in other words the tons of carbon dioxide and rocket fuel being burned during take-off, the millions of space junk already floating around the Earth's atmosphere ready to fall in, etc... Satellites have fallen back to Earth in the past because they malfunction and not used anymore. Destability is very common and usually it takes the launch of another satellite close to an already broken one for it to drop to Earth spilling tons of chemicals and other metals such as lead which may harm the evironment in a significant way. But then again, space research does prove to be important in some ways as we are polluting this world and some scientists are giving ideas about moving to another planet. In this case it is helpful to know about how humans can accommodate to outer space. In that regard, I feel experiments like Hypersole which astronauts are carrying out from Atlantis, will help.


http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/17/shuttle-walk.html

Female Peacekeepers Reach Liberia

Liberia is a country currently in a great struggle of trying to recover after a 14 year civil war. In response, the UN sent the first all-female unit to Monrovia, Liberia to help. There are almost 100 women, all from India, that will help to train the local police in a 6 month period. In the upcoming local elections, these women will be the security. In total there are currently 15000 peacekeepers in Liberia to help with this cause. These women come from Kashmir and North-Eastern India and are fully experienced in handling insurgencies such as this one. Mark Kroeker, a UN police advisor in Los Angeles, says allowing the involvement of women allows more change in more vulnerable places. He also believes that this proves that women can be a strong part in a police force.

It is always amazing to be able to distinguish certain groups of people for their achievement and to take away any generalizations about them. Similarly women have once again proved to be a strong force in helping, which may prove to be a lesson for some countries where women do not yet have all their rights. It is also nice to see that the UN is trying to help in some way before it gets too late. For example in the Rwandan genocide, despite the fact that they arrived late already, they had a restraining order to not shoot which made the situation helpless. It destroyed the point of them ever going there. However this news leaves me one very broad question still. Why are women and men being trained in fighting and new arms being built when the hope is to avoid war and not engage in it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6314263.stm

India, Pakistan to hold talks in July

This July, former two rivals, India and Pakistan are going to meet to talk about peace. This has to be done to assure normality between the two countries after the Mumbai bombings which were done by Pakistani terrorists. The Foregin Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and the External Affairs Minister of India, S.M. Krishna, have both agreed to this meeting in the capital of Pakistan on July 15th, Islamabad. This is based on an earlier meeting in late April when both the Indian and Pakistani prime minister (Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani) met. Singh was discussing how anti-India terrorist groups in Pakistan remained a threat. Gilani responded with saying that Pakistan was trying to do a fast trial as possible for the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba who killed 160 people dead in the Mumbai attacks. The "composite dialogue" which was a peace process in 2004 called for discussion over the Kashmir terrorism and Indian river dams which block water from reaching Pakistan. Four rounds of diplomatic meetings have already proceeded over this.

Two wars have been fought between these countries since 1947 over Kashmir and the latest, being the terrorist attacks. I feel it is time for Pakistan to close this case up as fast as possible by capturing the extremist group in their country. This rash history has been destroying the once fruitful relationship that they shared before 1947. To some extent, it is a matter of religion and the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba being extremist Muslims wishing to expand their religion. If these hopes can be accommodated in another way other than violence, this history would be ceased.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/11/pakistan.india.talks/index.html

Concern rising over oil tankers n Vancouver waters

Vancouver's Burrard Inlet is getting more oil tankers every day and in light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, there is some rising concern amongst environmentalists. According to the Port Metro in Vancouver, the amount of oil on these tankers has tripled. Almost 65 tankers pass annually now. Bill Gannon, a retired environmentalist wants this to stop completely. Kinder Morgan in Alberta, sends the oil by pipe to a tanker terminal in Burnaby. The oil spill, according to Gannon, could kill all the fish, bad for the fishing industry, and the beaches would be gone. The harbour is deciding on now changing the pathway under the second bridge to reduce chances of an accident, but that will allow for more oil on each tanker. Kinder Morgan is saying they have a 50 year safety record and so he wants to double the amount of oil. Accidentally a construction crew broke one of the pipes spraying oil on 50 homes and sending oil into Burrard Inlet. Then much later, 200000 liters of oil came out of a storage tank on Burnaby Mountain and went into a containment bay where it was stopped before reaching the environment.

The idea of oil spills is not particularly not a good one for the enviroment. The least we can do is not to carry so much oil at once across vast stretches of water near residence. It can harm a tremendous amount of wildlife which affects the fishing industry as well. The same process can be carried out with less efficiency but with more environmental safety. Additionally some tankers should be removed. Less tankers and less oil on each one with more trips is a better equation.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/05/07/bc-vancouver-tankers-oil-spill.html

Greek Riots: Protests In Athens, Response To Austerity Bill

Following the sudden economic crisis in Greece, a commotion started amongst the public. These citizens commenced numerous riots and heavy protesting in streets in Athens and around the country as a whole. Riot police had to be called in by the government to break these groups apart by the use of pepper spray and tear gas as last resorts. Some officers even took the approach of using batons as shown in the video above. Approximately more than ten thousand people took to the streets in Athens at night in a very large protest against the newly passed austerity bill by the government. The austerity bill is part of the list of conditions given by the European Union. The EU is giving a bailout of $140 billion to Greece which must follow the austerity bill to be granted the money.

The austerity bill is clearly a way that the European Union wishes to compromise with Greece by. They will give money for the payments in return received from the austerity bill in function. The austerity bill raises taxes in Greece, cuts people's pensions, and civil servants' pay in an effort to save $38 billion dollars for Greece. The prime minister of Greece himself said it was a last resort for the country of Greece to stay out of bankruptcy. I feel that the public's riots and protests are not going to help their country in anyway. If anything, they should be trying to help by doing their share by following the higher stakes of the austerity bill as proposed by the Greek government. The Greek parliament is looking forward to the help of other European countries and needs the help of the International Monetary Fund as well. The citizens of Greece should, in my belief, also follow this and beleive that there is a way out through the austerity bill.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Greek_parliament_passes_austerity_bill?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campagin=Feed%3A+WikinewsLatestNews+%28Wikinews+Latest+News%29

http://www.nowpublic.com./tech-biz/greek-riots-protests-athens-response-austerity-bill-video-2614086.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZPQn7tsE3o&feature=player_embedded

Chilean boy kills brother in fight for PlayStation

An 18 year old boy turned on the PlayStation in their house without asking permission from his 16 year old brother, who became angry and stabbed his brother with a knife, telling police later that "things had gone out of control". Currently 5 years of prison may be granted to this youth today. The event took place last Thursday, on April 29th. A homicide investigator, Gilberto Opazo, found out that the boys had been orphans living for 10 years as wards of the state, because their mother had abandoned them. Then Valerie Michael, a Belgian woman, adopted them. According to sources, Michael was in Belgium, when this fight occurred.

It is truly shocking to see to what a negative position the media and techonology of today has gotten us to. In this age, when people fight over possessions, small or large, seems very childish and unnecessary. Especially when it is youth that fights over a small console that is worth much less than their blood relationship. It seems as if many children are more attracted to their possessions than their siblings. I feel that even having video-game consoles is very useless, especially in an orphanage. They should play more sports and outdoor games which socially connects people rather than raise anger amongst them over objects.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7648387/Chilean-boy-kills-brother-in-fight-for-PlayStation.html

If aliens call, they better wear armour

In 1911 a rock fell from space and killed a dog in Egypt. UFO sighting were reported often after that. The rock was found to be from Mars later on. Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most famous astrophysicists, said that he believed that aliens existed but having contact with them would be dangerous. He says, somehwat like Earth, their resources were diminishing and they had to build spaceships to roam space looking for more. Hawking beleives they can be considered nomads looking to conquer other planets. He compared it to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America which didn't go well for the native americans. According to numerous surveys done, 20% of people beleive that aliens exist. The survey was done on 23, 000 adults across 22 countries and 40% + of Indians and Chinese beleived they walked among them in disguise. Paul Davies, a distinguished physicist and cosmologist, beleives that the aliens would be in trouble if they landed on Earth because humans are very intolerable to differences, even minor ones such as race, color, ethnicity. "The Vatican's chief astronomer said that there was no contradiction in believing in God and the possibility of 'terrestrial brothers'." It is strongly now beleived that both God and extraterrestrials exist as God created aliens too.

The existence of aliens has been in global media for so long now it is remotely apprehensible. Movies such as E.T. try to depict what aliens look line but these are only vast generalizations like humans have on other humans themselves. Davies's idea that humans are intolerable to everything is interesting but I feel that it may not be correct in the idea of aliens vs. humans. Although humans can become violent based on minute differences, the idea of aliens would scare humans and now it's not about being different, its about imagining lasers, rays, huge spaceships and being abducted and so on. These fantasies take place in the form of fear and replace all differences. Instead of fighting more violently, I beleive we would be running while some major global economies like the United States would risk using nuclear technology to retaliate. Another interesting idea is that of the Vatican's astronomers. They beleive that although aliens may look different, they were still created and since all is created by God, aliens as well as God must exist.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sunday-heraldsun/if-aliens-call-they-better-wear-armour/story-e6frf92o-1225861032758

Vatican under fire for linking gays to pedophilia

Pope Benedict's number 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's, statement came out as a shock to the gay groups and politicans in Vatican city On April 12th, 2009. He stated that homosexuality was linked with pedophilia. On a visit to Chile, Bertone had said this and now it is in mainstream Italian newspapers. The French foreign ministry and some Catholic blogs are against the Cardinal's remarks. Some members of the Catholic Church are asking for a review of the rule that prohibits priests from marrying because they would have a healthy sex life. Bertone told a news conference in Santiago: Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia, but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia." Gay rights were outraged at this comment. The World Health Organization calls gayness a variation of human behaviour. Pedophilia is a crime, not homosexuality. This comment was made by Franco Grillini, a former parliamentarian in Italy. Meanwhile catholic blogs were saying that the French foreign ministry defined the link as unacceptable. Controversy was the last thing the Vatican needed. The Pope is now being told to clean up his man's job. Reverend Federico Lombardi tried to clean up the mess by saying Church leaders were not making general affirmations. He tried to prove it with statistics. The grand-daughter of Benito Mussolini, Alessandra Mussolini, criticized Bertone for his comments. ArcLesbica, Italy's main lesbian rights group said that the Vatican was using violent words. They said that Italian parents should not let their children attend Church-run institutions anymore. The Pope has decided to perhaps address the issue whe he visits Malta this weekend.

I think generalization like this is wrong. Bertone seemed to believe the negative side of what psychologists and psychiatrists were saying. And even if Reverend Federico Lombardi's statistics are proven to be scientifically right, there is no need to express it in front of the public. I feel Bertone should have thought about what gay activist rights and other people might think before speaking, even if this information was a fact. Additionally it is good to see people are changing for the better. For example Alessandra Mussolini has completely different views than those of her grandfather Benito Mussolini. She realizes this comment was wrong and hurts certain people unlike her father who would have supported this and actually in fact did send gay people to camps and further on.

http://www.canada.com/news/Vatican+under+fire+linking+gays+pedophilia/2905297/story.html

Toronto 18 trial hears of 'jihadi flavour' paintball

This past week, a trial in Brampton Ontario was told of militant training camp participants playing paintball in a "jihadi way". They also heard that an alleged terror cell videotaped its activities in hopes of getting more information from jihadi leaders across the world. Three people from the Toronto 18 Group are on trial for terrorism. Fahim Ahmad is their accused leader who wanted to attack Parliament, nuclear plants, and electrical grids. Mubin Shaikh, being the first witness, said that Fahim had a training camp in Washington DC in December, 2005 to which the other two accused, Asad Ansari and Steven Chand attended. They did target practice, used obstacle courses and played paintball. The whole thing was a substitute for combat. Zakaria Amara decided to videotape the whole training camp thing to send over to jihadi leaders who could send their best people suited for a higher level camp in spring. A total of 14 people attended the camp. The men are pleading against all charges and the trial is continuing.

In a scenario like this I feel that maybe the court and all the accusers may be taking this too seriously. I doubt that this small group of 18 men had any motives to blow up the Parliament. Nobody in there right minds would be so naiive of themselves to think they could pull of such a stunt. Additionally calling their paintball games substitutes for combat with Muslims without any evidence other than possible racial profiling is wrong. Another point is if they are completely guilty they should realize that pleading against charges is not smart because they will be figured out.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/04/13/toronto-eighteen.html

Proposed Refugee Law Would Speed Process

Jason Kenney, the minister of multiculturalism and immigration in Canada, passed a new legislation allowing refugees to have hearings more often in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board. It used to be every 19 months, a refugee would have a hearing in front of the council to give his reasons for seeking a place in Canada illegally. Now this process will occur every 60 days. Additionally for claimants who do not pass the hearing, they will be made to leave the country within an year. Whereas the same process used to take 4 and a half years for failed claimants. As Kenney said: "These changes would result in faster protection for those who need our help and quicker removals of those who do not." The status quo is 15000 or more failed claimants who will shortly be asked to leave the country and 38000 or more unknown claimants who have not had claimants yet. The Canada Border Services Agency is on currently on the job of removing these refugees from Canada. Taxpayers in Canada currently pay $50000 per claimant who has not passed his or her hearing. The government wants to reduce this cost to about $29000 per failed claimant. This legislation created by Kenney is titled C-11 and he is still waiting for the government to change it into a law.

Jason Kenney's legislation is a very good proposal as it gets the job done fast and easy. Why should there be a whole 4 and a half year formal process of waiting and "discussing" about the refugees before any action is taken. The one year idea is very good but it is still too long to make a refugee leave a country. I think that once a claimant has failed his hearing, he should be made to leave within the next couple of weeks or month, no later. This will easily get the job of sorting out the 38000 or so refugees with unverified statuses. That is I find, one of the only problems with a democracy. It takes too long because there are so many formalities to cover in making a law.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/30/immigration-refugee-proposals.html

Canada In The Olympics

Although Canada came in 3rd place in the Olympics overall. As usual, the United States were in first place. However more importantly, Canada won the most number of gold medals in the Olympics and additionally broke the record for the most gold medals any country has ever won. They summed up their 14 gold medal count with the help of number 87, Sydney Crosby, of Canada's men's hockey team. Yesterday against they beat the U.S. in the men's hockey finals 7 minutes and 40 seconds into overtime breaking the 2-2 tie. Crosby's wristshot went past Ryan Miller into the right corner of the net coming from the left side. Before this goal the nervousness that was spreading through the Canadian crowd since the tie goal by the U.S., was suddenly broken.

I think this final match right before the closing ceremony for the Winter Olympics was the ideal match filled with enthusiasm, immense patriotic spirit and support for the Canadian team especially. It gives a sort of new identity to the Canadians, something they can be proud about and stories can be told about in the future. The U.S.A. has been a very big rival in hockey for Canada and now they can prove that they're better in some sense. Overall I think the Olympics have gone very good for Canada as they have also gotten gold medals on homesoil which was something they'd never done before.

Nepalese Man, 22 inches, Seeks Title Of The World's Shortest Man

In Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, a man left the country to be recognized as the world's shortest man. He is going to apply for the Guinness Book Title in Europe. When he was 14 his parents filed a claim for him in Guinness but it was rejected because there was a chance of growth spurts any time. Now he is 18 and he has filed another claim but no response has come back yet. No doctors have been able to explain why this young man is indeed so small. Khagendra Thapa Magar is his name and his dad, Rup Bahadur Thapa Magar, told reporters recently that they were going to Italy to get Khagendra's name in the Guinness Book of World Records. They might even decide to be on an Italian show for an interview possibly. He left Kathmandu with bouquets and garlands being offered. The current record for the shortest man alive title is held by He Pingping of China who is 7 inches taller than Magar.

I find it a bit reasonable why Khagendra and his family would be so hasty or enthusiastic about trying to gain fame in some way through the Guinness World Book. It would be exactly what an average family from Nepal would want too; based on the fact that Nepal has a very low GDP and annual income per person per year. If Khagendra makes it in to the Guinness Book then it will be definitely a great pleasure for his family and him and maybe some pride for the city of Kathmandu (as they were seen giving him garlands and bouquets of flowers while he was leaving for Italy).

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/100221/K022102AU.html

Alberta Mother Charged In Slaying Of Sons

A mother recently killed her two boys in a house in Millet, Alta in Alberta. The RCMP found their bodies. The woman's name is Allyson Louise McConnell. She is 31 years old and charged with two cases of second-degree murder of her sons Jayden (10 months old) and Connor (2 and a half years old). Corporal Wayne Oakes of the RCMP said that the police was forced to wait 3 weeks before putting a charge on Allyson because they had to do the investigation diligently as a duty. For now McConnel is is custody and will attend court in Wetaskiwin on March 16th. Her custody is in a medical facility from where she will be put into a correctional facility once the doctors think she can be moved. Oakes said that McConnell has not given a consent to speak about her and privacy laws also do not allow the relase of ay further information. Curtis McConnell, Allyson's husband found his dead sons in the bathtub at the house. No other information is revealed.

This story is sadly a true reflection of human nature. The fact that a mother who should be caring and warm to the heart can become so upset in a way about something that would lead her to kill her own sons is astonishing. I believe women who have a potential anger problem or maybe other social aggrevating issues should think twice before giving birth or reproducing for that matter. It is very likely that a woman or man with high stress levels and social and job issues in their life will be more aggressive towards humanity or generally become so disconnected with society, that they get the urge to do things out of extreme feelings. Additionally the worst part about this murder is that the mother killed a almost newborn and a 2 and a half year child; that is highly sickening.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/02/23/edmonton-millet-boys-murder-charges.html

Fossil Fish Were Filter Feeders

New facts have neen unearthed about a 70 million year old fish kown as the Bonnerichthys by paleontologists. It is now thought that these fish fed by filtering small organisms from the water around them, much like the baleen whales of today. These several metres long fish opened their mouth to let everything come in, then would filter out the water through their gills with only the food left in their food. Modern aquatic animals such as the manta ray, whale sharks, and baleen whales use this process. Fossils of these fish have been found in Asia, Europe, and North America, where old seas used to exist. These fish lived from 170 million to 65 million years ago according to Matt Friedman of Oxford University. This was the middle of the Jurassic Era to the end of the Cretacious Era when the dinosaurs died out. The article appeared in this week's Science journal.

For some reason it does not make sense to me that fossils are still being discovered and cared about because they do not provide any help whatsoever to the modern global crisis. They are only adding to millions of documents worth of information on ancient prehistoric animals and other life. Learning about the prehistoric environment could be of some help to finding future problems by looking at nature's patterns. But problems aren't solving current problems. However there is potential in this type of work of finding some missing link between modern whales or fish and past ones. Maybe we can save today's animals and not let the same thing happen again.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/02/18/tech-fossil-fish-filter.html

Airport Body Scanners Violate the Teachings of Islam, Says Muslim Group

Muslim scholars are saying that body scanners at airports should not be allowed because it goes strictly against their teachings. The scanners show nude images of the human body which according to the FCNA (The Fiqh Council of North America) is against the teachings of decency and modesty in all religions and cultures. The institution said that it is very wrong in Islam for another man or woman to see other men or women naked. The Qur'an, the religious book of Islam, wants all followers of the faith to cover their private regions and dress modestly. If there is an extreme necessity then the body scans may be done, but they are now quite at that level yet. The institution wants scanners to be altered so only body outlines are produced instead of specific details. A better way they said is to use pat-down searches. The Fiqh Council helps teach the Islamic Law in North America along with the Islamic Society of North America.

This is unfair to some extent as people's privacy is at stake here. Unfortunately it is not only Muslims, but all brown skinned people who are being targeted at airports as suspects of terrorism. Their integrity, pride and now in this case privacy is being taken away when they are taken to full scanning and searching sessions. This is really ruthless in the case of Muslim women as it is clearly stated in the Qur'an that women must be covered at all time so much so to the extent that they are not even allowed to reproduce in some parts of extreme Islamic regions. When they get to the airport, they are suddenly completely uncovered.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/61231

Deterring Terrorists

Deterring terrorism in U.K. seems too be very serious. Unfortunately they have taken it into their consent to start a new program called Prevent which basically lets them spy on innocent Muslims who have no history of terrorism in their pasts. They have additionally started to pick out certain skin-colored people from classes and university lectures who they feel are showing signs of extremism. They want to drive fear and the feeling of failure into the hearts of suicide-bombers and others.

http://www.cnn.com/video/

Sri Lankan Political Protests Draw Thousands

The supporters of the opposition of the candidate who won the elections were protesting because their candidate had both lost and been arrested. This took place in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, before police had to use tear gas to break up the fights. Sarath Fonseka who had lost the elections was the candidate who all the supporters were behind saving. They filed an appeal in Supreme Court to let him go. Mahinda Rajapaksa who had won the elections was being constantly made fun of as citizens chose to burn lifesize posters of him and smah coconuts which was a religious intervention in hopes of letting God help. These keen men decided to further throw stones at supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Again the police was forced to use water and tear gas to silent the crowds. This was the first clash since the elections. Sarath Fonseka had crushed the Tamil Tigers dilemna, which is why he gained much support, and he was arrested by military police because he had planned to overthrow the government while still in control of the military. He was still an army chief. Unfortunately Sarath Fonseka's followers believed the police was doing this so that he would not be able to try for the next parliamentary elections. Amidst the clashes a total of only 6 people were injured: two policemen and 4 citizens. The protests will likely keep continuing until Fonseka is released.

There is something ver politically wrong going on with this country. The public is making assumptions about Sarath Fonseka's arrest and should be cleared on details. There was a reason he was arrested and that is because he wanted to take over the government in a violent manner. The majority of the public, his supporters, need to understand that he is not necessarily a very good elect for president. Just by noticing the fact that he was planning on taking advantage of his position as army chief and being in control of the army shows what he could do to literally "reign" over Sri Lanka. The likelyhood of Fonseka imposing military power and rule over the country if he released and he wins the April elections is high. However on behalf of the government, I think the public is taking this too far. It's just one election and the supporters have to be less paranoid about the fact that the government is doing this to block any chances of Sarath Fonseka winning the elections.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/10/sri-lanka-clashes.html

Pakistan Rocked by 2 Bombs

The Shi'a Muslims, one of the two types of Islamic people, were targeted in Karachi, one of the biggest cities in Pakistan. The second bomb blasted in front of the hospital where survivors from the first blast were. 22 people were killed and 50 were wounded. The police chief Waseem Ahmad had trouble calming the Shia's in the grand city down. The first bomb blasted on a motorcycle which was close to a bus that drove by full of Shi'a Muslims. The second one was in front of Jinnah Hospital as reported by witness Imran Ahmad. The effects of the first blast were a torn and twisted motorcycle, a broken bus, and nearby shattered windows in buildings. Another police official said that the bus had mainly women and children on their way to attend a religious festival. Of what is known from the doctors, around 11 bodies were brought to the nearby hospitals. The cause of these riots that have happened before is thought to originate from Sunni Extremists who are the other type of Islamic people and unfortunately a majority in the country. These two sects of Islam generally maintain peace however Extremists are always on the rise and do disturb relations. The Talibans, which are strongly Sunni, use this port city of Pakistan for their leisure and finance.

I simply think that it is one of the worst things that has ever been declared on the news channel or written about in an article. The Talibans like attention, like all other Extremists and occasionally is even what terrorists want. They don't care about their representation in the world but if their name is in fame, they will do anything to keep upto it. From another viewpoint, honestly the Pakistanis should cease this turmoil. In the past year they have also bombed Mumbai, one of the largest and most economically successful cities in India. The religion of Islam is steadily being destroyed due to what the Talibans and other Extremists have done to it. Arguments and violence to the point of bombs are being created because of the difference between two major sects in the same religion.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/05/pakistan-blast-karachi.html

China's Child In Chains

This happens to be unfortunately one of those things that is unfair to children across the world. It happens to be a fact that thousands of children like the one in the video above are stolen every day across China. This is very wrong of the general public because families out of sheer fear have to put their child in such conditions and steal his freedom to live his childhood like other boys in the world. If a father has to go to the extent to chain his very young almost baby to a street corner, there is something horribly wrong going on.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed In Southern Afghanistan

Yesterday, two american soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device (a purposely set hand made bomb) in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The location was a prime spot amidst the fight between the Taliban and the Western Continental troops. The deaths were only reported on Wednesday in Afghanistan but no other specific details were given. In another district in Afghanistan, Garmsir, on Tuesday, Talibans admitted to having killed 9 other soldiers and others as well. The only problem that there seems to be with this is that the Talibans usually tend to exaggerate with their reports over the telephone because no one can harm them for what they say or do over the phone. They are almost unreachable. The Afghanistan government officials are also saying they don't remember hearing about these "new" attacks. In the month of February, a total of 5 troops have been killed. In January, 45 troops were killed. These stats are much greater than last year's at the same time. However last year, there were a total of 520 troops killed, one of the worst times for the U.S and also for the Afghan civilians because of the danger of roadside bombs. They were provided by icasualties.org which is a organization keeping track of the army's casualties. This death increasing death toll is the cause of U.S.A. sending more and more troops for reinforcements. The Afghani government wants the Talibans to give up once in for all to end the fight.

The fact that the U.S. is even considering to keep deploying troops to the already beaten country of Afghanistan is not a good stand. The Western Hemisphere has power but that does not mean they can use it in excess. If the Talibans are not giving in to the Afghani government it is not the business of the Americans to come in and try and stop them. It is up to Afghanistan and neighboring countries who Afghanistan calls for help herself. Adjoining to this, the U.S. knows it is basically sending men on suicide missions then why continue this act of letting men, television reporters, and Afghan civilians die in terrible roadside bomb accidents. If the Western countries moved out, then the Talibans would not lay out roadside bombs anymore to kill them or innocent people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/world/asia/04afghan.html

More Than 300 People Linked To Suspected Case Of Citizenship Fraud

The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mountain Police) suspects something strange is happening after over 300 people claimed to live at the same address in Mississauga, Ontario. The address is in the same building as the Palestine House which helps new immigrants learn the languages they need and is also a lawyer in the favor of Palestinian and Arabic cases in the court. According to the Globe and Mail, citizenship judges were warned to look out for more applications for that address. This case of massive citizenship fraud is starting to be a problem for the Canadian government. The government thinks this is due to the fact that in some countries salaries vary on the passport someone may have. That is why some people want the Canadian passport and then might go back to for example Dubai where they would get paid more as they are an employee with a Canadian passport. The problem resides in the fact that the Palestine House is not a residential building. It is a learning centre to which the government paid a huge sum of money last year for helping teach English. The building manager said that the private offices on the upper floors are only sharing a roof with the Palestine House. It has nothing to do with those rooms. It is not known how many of the 300 or more applicants were actually accepted however it is possible they were simply using the Palestine House as an address to get citizenship.

This is simply an outrageous case on behalf of the Canadian government. What the 300 immigrants applying for Palestine House are doing could simply be a prank to warn Canada to tighten up its social security, or could be a address put in place meanwhile they are waiting for their 3 year residence before the granted citizenship to end. The RCMP should simply figure this out by individually somehow meeting with the 300 or more applicants and getting them to give a reason for why they applied for the Palestine House. If the cases turn out to be indeed a massive case of fraud immigration then the RCMP and the Canadian government has the right to deport these 300 people back to where they came from. It should be understood that the Western Hemisphere is not a place to be used for such as getting a passport and taking advantage of the status in an Eastern country for higher salary.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/more-than-300-people-linked-to-suspected-case-of-citizenship-fraud/article1451454/

India To Send Two Astronauts Into Space In 2016

In the state of Bangalore in India, an Indian Space Official stated that in the year 2016, it is hoped that two Indian astronauts will be able to go on a manned mission in space. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) is sending these two astronauts for a week in the Earth's lower orbit. The state department and several other officials are estimating this project to be a heavy cost. When they started preparing the pre-project status, they found that the infrastructure and equipment facilities required would be some 124 billion rupees. This money is the equivalent of 2.76 billion american dollars. The commission in charge had already approved this project last February. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman, said funds would be collected when needed in the future sections of the project. In advance, the government has already collected near 95 crore rupees, equivalent to 10 million dollars. This was done in the past two years in anticipation of starting this project and saving money. For the two astronauts that will be on this trip, a training facility is being built near the city of Chennai (80 km far) to be approximate. The training facility also hopes to have new technologies on board the spacecraft such as an entrance into the crew capsule and escape chute. The chairman of the organization has also written a book on this called: "Moon Mission: Exploring the Moon with Chandrayaan-1". To make this whole project more reassuring and safe, the ISRO has already tested a very miniscule version of it in 2007 and had brought the spacecraft back to Earth safely 12 days later.

I feel this is a very good chance for India to actually showcase itself in the potential it has in technology like the rest of the world. The cost the ISRO is putting into this is a bit too much but it could be worth the effort because the outcome of the project is a great learning experience for future reference to the country and obviously new data will be collected. This data is very useful as we need to know more and more about space nowadays. The rumor of the coming end in 2012 according to the Mayan calendar has made some scientists panic and they are feverishly trying to find new planets and other available resources to live with and on. Again basically the aerospace industry is also a recognition granting industry that can create new international relations based on its success in that country. I also think the smaller scale project version was a good idea because it is just double checking if the project is realistic and if it can be achieved.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-to-send-two-astronauts-into-space-in-2016/articleshow/5505513.cms

Global Warming: "Cooling" Forests Can Heat Too

The simple formula we've learned about forests helping the environment by eliminating greenhouse gases isn't the entire case. There's a bit more complication. The problem lies unfortunately in the fact that a specific type of forest, pine forests, capture heat and absorb it. This heat is enough to be the anti-equivalent of the world's efforts in lowering carbon dioxide emission levels. The Weizmann Institute has been researching these effects for the past 10 years in the almost barren forest of Yatir at the edge of the Negev Desert in Israel. This is part of a world-wide operation known as FLUXNET. The group is very happy about the fact that these trees are excellent "carbon sinks" meaning that they retain good amounts of CO2 as well. During experimentation it was found that they are not exactly well at reflecting sunlight that they do not need back into space. This just causes the general region to heat up. Scientists are now thinking about taking this case of these two retaining capabilities opposing each other's benefits into consideration for the future.

I strongly believe that there is a great potential to take over these forests heating issues by simply implementing more agriculture and fertilization in the arid area. For example, for say the edges of the deserts can be eliminated by simply growing plants. Of course however the plants must be suited to the climate. So cactus's, brittle bushes, the small Joshua trees, anything that can oppose the effects of the pine tree forests. This can maintain temperatures and flourish the plant life in that area. At the same time the pine tree forests will continue retaining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. I personally think this is a great combination.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121141112.htm