Support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy has fallen among the US armed forces to just 54 percent from 63 percent a year ago, according to a poll by the magazine group Military Times. In its annual survey of the views of military personnel, the group reported on its website that support for Bush’s overall policies dropped over the past year to 60 percent from 71 percent. While still significantly more supportive of the president than the broad US population, the fall in support by military personnel tracks a similar decline in the president’s popularity among the general public. “Though support both for President Bush and for the war in Iraq remains significantly higher than in the public as a whole, the drop is likely to add further fuel to the heated debate over Iraq policy,” Military Times said. “In 2003 and 2004, supporters of the war in Iraq pointed to high approval ratings in the Military Times poll as a signal that military members were behind … the president’s policy.” However, it said, the new poll “found diminished optimism that US goals in Iraq can be accomplished, and a somewhat smaller drop in […]
Microsoft windows graphicComputer security experts were grappling with the threat of a newweakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating system that could put hundreds of millions of PCs at risk of infection by spyware or viruses. The news marks the latest security setback for Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, whose Windows operating system is a favourite target for hackers. “The potential [security threat] is huge,” said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, an antivirus company. “It’s probably bigger than for any other vulnerability we’ve seen. Any version of Windows is vulnerable right now.” The flaw, which allows hackers to infect computers using programs maliciously inserted into seemingly innocuous image files, was first discovered last week. But the potential for damaging attacks increased dramatically at the weekend after a group of computer hackers published the source code they used to exploit it. Unlike most attacks, which require victims to download or execute a suspect file, the new vulnerability makes it possible for users to infect their computers with spyware or a virus simply by viewing a web page, e-mail or instant message that contains a contaminated image. “We haven’t seen anything that bad yet, but multiple individuals […]
Europe felt the chilling effects of Russia’s politically charged gas dispute with Ukraine as midwinter deliveries to major European nations fell markedly, prompting calls for a swift end to the row. With key importers such as Germany and France reporting a drop in supplies, Russian energy giant Gazprom, which had cut deliveries to Ukraine in the dispute over pricing, promised to increase exports westward to make up the gap. “We have taken all necessary measures to supply Europe with gas according to contracts,” Gazprom’s deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. “By tomorrow evening full supply to Europe in accordance with these contracts will be restored,” he added. Gazprom said it would raise supplies in its export pipeline by 95 million cubic metres (3.3 billion cubic feet) a day in order to make up for Ukraine “stealing” the natural gas bound for European countries further downstream. Late Monday the Hungarian economy ministry said that gas pressure returned to normal levels on pipelines running from Ukraine to Hungary, the MTI national news agency reported. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko met Monday with ambassadors of the European Union, Japan and the United […]
Fertility tourism WANT to choose the sex of a child you’re having by IVF? Don’t look to UK clinics to help. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) imposes strict rules on what is and isn’t permitted, which is why increasing numbers of couples are choosing to go fertility-shopping abroad. With concerns about everything from cost to egg- and sperm-donor anonymity, more and more British couples are choosing cheaper, more flexible clinics in Eastern Europe and beyond. The HFEA has serious reservations about the ethics and health risks, but some specialists are forecasting a boom in fertility tourism over the rest of the decade. Autistic licence DO YOU still see autism as a disability? A burgeoning rights movement aims to convince you otherwise and to remove the stigma surrounding autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Just as society learned to accept homosexuality, organisations such as the Autism Assembly and Aspies for Freedom say it should accept neurodiversity as something to celebrate rather than cure. In June, the organisations launched the first annual Autistic Pride Day, with events around the world, to persuade the rest of us the neuro-typicals that autistic people are unique individuals who should not […]
Dust down the slogan, it’s needed once again: Save The Whale. Twenty years on from the introduction of the international whaling moratorium that was supposed to protect them, the great whales face renewed and mortal dangers in 2006. A double threat is looming for the world’s largest mammals, many of them endangered species, in the coming year. In the biggest whale slaughter for a generation, more than 2,000 animals are likely to be directly hunted by the three countries continuing whaling in defiance of world opinion, Japan, Norway and Iceland. And in a crucial political move, this year the pro-whaling nations look likely to achieve their first majority of votes in whaling’s regulatory body, the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The first development will be brutal, bloody and shocking to many people who might be under the impression that whaling is a thing of the past. But the second may be even more significant for whale welfare in the long term, for it would pave the way for an eventual resumption of commercial whaling, which the 1986 moratorium put on indefinite hold. Japan is leading the way on both counts. Its whaling fleet is firing harpoons right […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
