Bomb kills 7 in Oslo and several dead in shooting

http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-rocks-central-oslo-norway-pms-office-134903379.html

OSLO (Reuters) - A bomb killed seven people in Norway's capital Oslo on Friday and a gunman opened fire at a youth camp on an island, police said.

Police said they believed the bombing and the shooting were connected, but could not immediately confirm Norwegian media reports that several people at been killed at the youth camp.

A Reuters witness said several army soldiers had taken up position around the center of the city.

With police advising people to evacuate central Oslo, apparently in fear of more attacks, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian TV2 television in a phone call that the situation was "very serious." He said that police had told him not to say where he was speaking from.

The bomb ripped through the main government building in the normally sleepy Norwegian capital in mid-afternoon, killing seven people, police said, and injuring many more.

"It exploded -- it must have been a bomb. People ran in panic...I counted at least 10 injured people," said bystander Kjersti Vedun, who was leaving the area of the blast in Oslo.

Shortly afterwards, a gunman opened fire at the island of Utoeya north-west of Oslo, where Stoltenberg's Labour party youth section's annual gathering was taking place.

Daily newspaper VG said on its website a man dressed as a policeman had been shooting wildly and had hit many people.

Norwegian commercial broadcaster TV2 said several people had been killed in the shooting spree.

There was no clear claim of responsibility and while the attacks appeared to bear the hallmarks of an Islamist militant assault, analysts said it was too early to draw any conclusions.

NATO member Norway has been the target of threats before over its involvement in conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya.

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Wildfire triggers evacuation for Los Alamos laboratory - Yahoo! News

Image via Wikipediahttp://beta.news.yahoo.com/wildfire-triggers-evacuations-near-los-alamos-002006674.html
SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Voluntary evacuations have been issued for Los Alamos, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is threatened by a fast-moving wildfire that broke out in northern New Mexico on Sunday, authorities said.
The Las Conchas Fire flared early Sunday afternoon around 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos, charring about 3,500 acres and endangering the nation's nuclear weapons laboratory and its surrounding communities, said Lawrence Lujan, a spokesman for the Santa Fe National Forest.
"We have homes and we have the labs, so it's a very, very big concern, not only locally but nationally and globally," Lujan said.
"This fire is very complex. We have a national type one team coming in because of the nature of the fire," he said.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has ordered the New Mexico National Guard to Los Alamos to provide support for the ongoing efforts to protect lives, property and critical infrastructure threatened by the fire.
"My administration will make every effort to provide support for local emergency response crews," said Governor Martinez.
"With evacuations in place and the fire burning quickly, it is important that residents in the surrounding communities remain attentive to the local emergency operations' alerts and orders," she added.
Martinez said she had requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issue a Fire Management Assistance Declaration for the Las Conchas Fire to provide further assistance.
The blaze continued to throw flames a half mile ahead of the fire pushed by high winds and hot dry conditions. It remained zero percent contained late Sunday.
Bandelier National Monument has been evacuated, as have the communities of Cochiti Mesa and Las Conchas. Voluntary evacuations have been issued for Los Alamos and nearby community White Rock.
Jeff Berger, a spokesman for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the world's first atomic bomb was developed, said the fire was rapidly advancing but had not yet reached lab property.

Los Conchas fire spreads to over 43,000 acres

 

In less than 24 hours the Los Conchas fire burning in Los Alamos County has grown from a couple thousand acres to over 43,000 acres.

The blaze broke out around 1 p.m. Sunday, about 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos near Highway 4 and is said to have burned 43,597 acres by Monday morning.

In 2000 the historic El Cerro Grande Fire burned 47,000 acres but took nearly two weeks to grow to that size.

The fast moving blaze moved within a mile of Los Alamos National Laboratory overnight but officials say as of Monday there was no fire on lab property.

The lab cut natural gas to some areas overnight as a precaution and officials say all hazardous and radioactive materials are being protected.

On Sunday officials decided to close the lab Monday and issue a voluntary evacuation for all of Los Alamos County.

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Is Hillary Clinton going to the World Bank?

Image via Wikipediahttp://beta.news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-going-world-bank-130106540.html
Reuters reports: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about leaving her job next year to become head of the World Bank, sources familiar with the discussions said Thursday."

Clinton's longtime communications aide, Philippe Reines, is denying the story and a senior administration official tells TIME the Reuters "rumor" is false.

But logic and experience supports Reuters and its three sources, who all claim Clinton wants the job. Clinton has said she only wants to serve one term; she's deeply committed to development; and the current head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, finishes his term next year. (See pictures from behind the scenes with Hillary Clinton.)

Normally the leadership of the World Bank and IMF would get sorted out closer to the end of the incumbents' terms. In a complicated but well-choreographed pas-de-deux, the U.S. and Europeans simultaneously decide whom they'll back for the heads of the two institutions. By tradition, the Europeans get the IMF and the U.S. gets the World Bank.

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Alabama governor signs nations toughest immigration law

Image via Wikipediahttp://beta.news.yahoo.com/alabama-governor-signs-nations-toughest-immigration-law-160234529.html

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) - Republican Governor Robert Bentley on Thursday signed into law a crackdown on illegal immigration in Alabama that both supporters and critics consider the toughest in the nation.

Under the new measure, police must detain someone they suspect of being in the country illegally if the person cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason.

It also will be a crime to knowingly transport or harbor someone who is in the country illegally. The law imposes penalties on businesses that knowingly employ someone without legal resident status. A company's business license could be suspended or revoked.

The law requires Alabama businesses to use a database called E-Verify to confirm the immigration status of new employees.

"We have a real problem with illegal immigration in this country," Bentley said after signing the law. "I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws and I'm proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country."

Alabama is the latest state to follow the lead of a controversial measure passed in Arizona last year. The courts blocked implementation of a provision allowing Arizona police to check the immigration status of people there.

But the U.S. Supreme Court recently endorsed a separate Arizona law requiring employers to use E-Verify. The court also ruled that Arizona could suspend or revoke business licenses of those companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Alabama's law is unique in requiring public schools to determine, by review of birth certificates or sworn affidavits, the legal residency status of students.

"We fear that it will, in effect, ban the student through fear and harassment," said Shay Farley, legal director of Alabama Appleseed, a nonprofit policy and legal advocacy organization.

Farley said there is also concern about the increased financial burden on schools to collect the information.

"We definitely believe this is the nation's toughest immigration law," said Jared Shepherd, a law fellow with the Alabama American Civil Liberties Union.

The Alabama bill passed the state House of Representatives and Senate by large margins before landing on Bentley's desk. Republicans took over majority control of both chambers of the Alabama legislature last year for the first time in 136 years.

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BBC News - N Korea and Iran 'sharing ballistic missile technology'

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13402590

North Korea and Iran appear to have been exchanging ballistic missile technology in violation of sanctions, a leaked UN report shows.

The report, obtained by Reuters, said regular transfers had been taking place through "a neighbouring third country", named by diplomats as China.
The sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang by the UN after it conducted a series of nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
They ban all trade in nuclear and missile technology with North Korea.
They also imposed an arms embargo and subjected some North Korean individuals to travel bans and assets freezes.
North Korea has twice tested nuclear devices and said in September last year that it had entered the final phase of uranium enrichment.
The country is believed to have enough plutonium to make about six bombs, but is not thought to have developed a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
'New challenges'
The report was written by a UN panel of experts monitoring Pyongyang's compliance with the sanctions.

It said that "prohibited ballistic missile-related items are suspected to have been transferred between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] and the Islamic Republic of Iran", using regular scheduled flights on national carriers Air Koryo and Iran Air.

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The Death Photos at Osama Bin Laden’s House | UNCOVERAGE.net

I will not post these on my page here. But SOME, new pictures just released. Problem is none of them are Bin Laden. See the link only if you can stomach it.
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/05/the-death-photos-at-osama-bin-ladens-house

The Death Photos at Osama Bin Laden’s House

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Jane Jamison| Leave a comment

Piece of the crashed U.S. helicopter: Source: Reuters

Of course, Barack Hussein Obama doesn’t want to offend the MUSLIMS….so he won’t release any photos to prove the world’s most notorious terrorist is dead.
NATURALLY, a Pakistani “security” official [ part of the deaf/dumb/blind brigade that supposedly didn't know bin Laden was living a few hundred feet away from the nation's military academy for six years]….has SOLD pictures of dead guys to Reuters.  So the Pakistani no-see-ums made bank protecting a terrorist and make bank again selling pictures of the “circus.”  What a disgusting culture Islam is.   [ Warning: graphic....but what we saw on 9/11 is much worse.]
Reuters:
Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the U.S. assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons.
The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.
The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters.
None of the men looked like bin Laden. President Barack Obama decided not to release photos of his body because it could have incited violence and used as an al Qaeda propaganda tool, the White House said on Wednesday.
Based on the time-stamps on the pictures, the earliest one was dated May 2, 2:30 a.m., approximately an hour after the completion of the raid in which bin Laden was killed.

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Indiana lawmakers pass immigration curbs like Arizona - Yahoo! News

Image via Wikipediahttp://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110223/us_nm/us_immigration_indiana;_ylt=AqXGZxJ07.AGW.6zSszafd5vzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTJuaHJocW10BGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMjIzL3VzX2ltbWlncmF0aW9uX2luZGlhbmEEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2luZGlhbmFsYXdtYQ--

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – The Indiana senate passed a sweeping immigration bill that echoes Arizona's tougher measures on illegal immigrants and despite opposition from some of the largest employers and business groups in the state.
The measure, passed on Tuesday night by a vote of 31-18, would allow state and local police to ask a person stopped for infractions like traffic violations for proof of legal residency if the officer has a "reasonable suspicion" they may be in the country illegally.
Another provision would call for, with some exceptions, the use of English only in public meetings, on Web sites and in documents.
The bill still needs to be adopted by state's House of Representatives, where opponents say they will now turn.
The vote "was a key step in the legislative process," the bill's author Sen. Mike Delph said in a statement, adding that the bill will "send a clear message that Indiana will no longer be a sanctuary for people who are in our state and country illegally because of our federal government's failure to act on illegal immigration."

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Tunisia frees prisoners, unity government row rumbles - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110119/wl_nm/us_tunisia_protests
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia said it freed the last political prisoners of its fallen strongman on Wednesday as the new caretaker leadership faced more calls for a fuller purge of the old guard from the fledgling national unity coalition.
Najib Chebbi, whose move this week from marginalized opposition leader to a ministerial appointment in the new cabinet is emblematic of the new Tunisia, told Reuters: "All the political prisoners have been released today."
They included members of the banned Islamist movement Ennahda. But figures were not available of how many people had been released.
Secrecy under veteran former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia, meant that the number of those detained for political reasons was never made public.
While authoritarian Arab rulers have long cited the threat of radical Islam to justify repressive rule to their Western allies, Tunisia's Islamist opposition has been less visible than those in poorer and less secular states of the region.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in the Tunisian capital on Wednesday to demand the dismissal of former Ben Ali loyalists from the new government headed by Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who was himself premier under the old leadership.
He is due to hold a first cabinet meeting on Thursday.

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Look out, your medicine is watching you | Reuters

Image by The Rocketeer via Flickrhttp://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A754720101108
(Reuters) - Novartis AG plans to seek regulatory approval within 18 months for a pioneering tablet containing an embedded microchip, bringing the concept of "smart-pill" technology a step closer.The initial program will use one of the Swiss firm's established drugs taken by transplant patients to avoid organ rejection. But Trevor Mundel, global head of development, believes the concept can be applied to many other pills.
"We are taking forward this transplant drug with a chip and we hope within the next 18 months to have something that we will be able to submit to the regulators, at least in Europe," Mundel told the Reuters Health Summit in New York.
"I see the promise as going much beyond that," he added.
Novartis agreed in January to spend $24 million to secure access to chip-in-a-pill technology developed by privately owned Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City, California, putting it ahead of rivals.

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Ecuador rocked by 6.9 quake, no major damage

Ecuador rocked by 6.9 quake, no major damage

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• Alexandra Valencia, Reuters · Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010
  QUITO — A strong 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador near the center of the Andean OPEC member nation on Thursday, but there were no reports of deaths or serious damage, authorities and media said.
  State-owned oil company Petroecuador said production was normal and there was no impact on its infrastructure after the quake in an Amazonian jungle region.
  Though its magnitude was strong enough to cause major damage, the quake occurred deep beneath the earth’s surface, making its impact far less than a shallow quake.
  Local radio with reporters in the area said buildings swayed. Some residents in the capital Quito felt the quake as did residents in northern parts of neighboring Peru, witnesses and local media reported.
  The quake struck at 1154 GMT and was centered 87 miles (140 km) east of Ambato, at a depth of 115 miles (185 km). That is about 140 miles (225 km) southeast of the capital, Quito.
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Internet piracy taking big toll on jobs

Image via Wikipedia

And so many wonder why the music isn't as good as it used to be. Just imagine, If Artist's don't start getting paid for all that hard work. Why would they want to create more music?
Fact is, If you like the music enough to download it. Pay for it as well. The artist's need to eat too.

clipped from news.yahoo.com BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Plenty of people download music from the Internet every day, but illegal downloading has a huge economic impact and could put more than one million people out of work by 2015, experts say. A study into Internet piracy by a Paris-based consultancy published on Wednesday showed that 1.2 million jobs in the European Union could be lost over the next five years if more is not done to clamp down on illegal downloading. The study by TERA Consultants for the International Chamber of Commerce focused on piracy in Europe's music, film, television and software industries. ARTISTS SUFFER The bulk of illegal downloading targets music, television and video sites, with consumers using "peer-to-peer" formats to download songs and video clips onto their laptops and home computers from websites without paying a fee.

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U.S. missionaries go before judge in Haiti child case | Reuters

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

• U.S. missionaries go before judge in Haiti child case | Reuters

  "The missionaries were arrested on Friday trying to cross into the Dominican Republic from Haiti with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the January 12 quake. They denied charges they were engaged in child trafficking, insisting they were trying to help vulnerable orphans. Haitian police have said some of the children have living parents. The case could be diplomatically sensitive at a time when the United States is spearheading a huge relief effort to help hundreds of thousands of Haitian quake victims, and as U.S. aid groups pour millions of dollars of donations into Haiti. The five missionaries were questioned behind closed doors at Haiti's judicial police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where they are being held behind bars. They were escorted from their cells by uniformed Haitian National Police officers to a separate room where the judge awaited along with a clerk and a translator. "I heard five of them. Then I will hear the other five tomorrow," Judge Ezaie Pierre-Louis said. "After the hearing tomorrow, I will make a report to the prosecutor, then he will decide what he does next." Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Lassegue said the missionaries did not have lawyers present. One of the missionaries, a woman, was returned to the police building on Tuesday after being treated at a hospital for hypertension. Before the hearing, prosecutor Mazarre Fortil said authorities were in the preliminary stages of the investigation. "I am here to hear the Americans, to know more about the case, about what were their intentions," he said. "We are looking deeper into what happened to determine the next steps." SOME PARENTS GAVE UP CHILDREN Haitian authorities have repeatedly expressed concerns that child traffickers could prey on children in the chaos that followed the earthquake that killed up to 200,000 people."

  tags: missionaries, Haiti, trafficking

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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