BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda wants to build a political operation in Iraq to broaden its campaign against the U.S.-backed government, a top U.S. general said on Wednesday. Citing intelligence mostly gathered since the death of al Qaeda’s former leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June, Major General William Caldwell said the militant group appeared to be refining its approach beyond bombings and beheadings. ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq wants to present itself as a legitimate organization and is striving to increase its operational power by building a political base with a military wing,’ Caldwell told a news briefing. He did not give specific examples. Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 7 and was quickly replaced by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who al Qaeda said would continue the Jordanian-born militant’s bloody campaign. But Caldwell said the group was also developing more subtle ways to undermine the government and drive U.S. troops from Iraq, in addition to bloody sectarian attacks. He said the militant group was producing propaganda to exploit Iraqi anger over high unemployment, poor security and unreliable supplies of electricity and fuel, and turn it against the government and its U.S. backers. ‘Al Qaeda […]
TORONTO — Circumcision could have a ‘staggering’ effect on the control of HIV worldwide, but the challenge will be convincing men to have it done, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said yesterday. Scientists at the world’s largest AIDS gathering in Toronto reported more evidence that removing the male foreskin appears to dramatically reduce the risk of HIV infection. An ongoing study of tea plantation residents in Kericho, Kenya, found dramatically lower HIV rates among circumcised men versus uncircumcised men after two years of followup. Other researchers reported that circumcision would cost $181 for every HIV infection averted and that 32,000 to 53,000 infections could be prevented in Soweto alone over the next 20 years if more men were circumcised. And, despite serious concerns that men who are circumcised would adopt more risky sexual behaviours, a study of 324 recently circumcised men in Kenya found no excess of reported risky sex. Mr. Clinton told delegates that, if it works, circumcision could be a powerful means to reduce the devastating global burden of HIV. ‘We should all be prepared for a green light that could have a staggering effect on the male population.’ A randomized […]
Southern California home sales fell to their lowest level in nine years last month as price appreciation continued to take a haircut, data released today showed. In July, 22,712 homes closed escrow in the six-county region, according to La Jolla-based research firm DataQuick Information Systems. That was a 27% drop from the year before and was the fewest number of homes to close escrow in a July since 1997. Waning sales coupled with a rising supply of unsold homes is weighing on price appreciation. In July, the median price of a Southern California home rose 4.9% to $492,000 – the slowest rate of growth in more than six years. The price also edged down 0.2% from the record median of $493,000 set in June. The latest figures will undoubtedly rev up the debate over whether the Southland’s housing sector will be able to navigate a ‘soft landing’ that produces only moderate price declines. Regardless, the statistics further underscore the changing nature of the region’s real estate market. ‘Current trends suggest that the market is heading into a lull,’ said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. How long the lulls lasts will depend ‘on a host of […]
NEW YORK — Venture capital investing in alternative energy and other clean technologies rose 64% to a record $843 million in the second quarter, moving ahead of medical and telecom to become the third most investment lucrative field, the Cleantech Venture Network said Thursday. It’s the eighth consecutive quarter of growth for the sector. The energy segment made up the biggest component of clean tech investing with $594 million, up 69%. The only sector ranking ahead of clean tech are biotech and software. The surge comes along with a rise in oil prices, which have moved up above $75 a barrel from about $50 a barrel in the past year. Cleantech Venture Network defines the category as ‘services, products and technologies that use energy, water and other raw materials more efficiently and productively, while delivering equal or superior performance compared to incumbent technologies.’ The biggest clean tech investment in the quarter went to Current Communications, an energy infrastructure company that deploys Internet communications over power lines to both boost efficiency and deliver Web services. Nanosolar, Inc. drew $75 million to support its energy generation business and ramp up production of its solar electricity technology. […]
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Ancient plant remains recovered in recent Arctic Ocean sampling cores shows that during a period of carbon dioxide-induced global warming, humidity, precipitation and salinity of the ocean water altered drastically, along with elevated global and regional temperatures, according to a report in the August 10 issue of Nature. The Arctic Ocean drilling expedition in 2004 allowed scientists to directly measure samples of biological and geological material from the beginning of the Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), a period of rapid, extreme global warming about 55 million years ago. It has given researchers a direct resource of measurable information on global warming - from a time when the overall global temperature was higher and more uniform from the subtropics to the arctic. The researchers measured carbon and hydrogen isotopes in fossil plants remains and reconstructed the pattern of precipitation and characteristics of the ancient arctic water. ‘Our results told us a lot about the way that the large-scale water cycle is affected during global warming,’ said Mark Pagani, professor of geology and geophysics at Yale and principal author of the study. The large-scale water cycle refers to the way water vapor is transported from the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
