TOKYO — The divine origins of Japan’s imperial family come under scrutiny as it allows limited access to two burial sites. Japan’s imperial household agency is to open the doors to some of the country’s mysterious imperial tombs early next year after decades of pressure from archaeologists, in a move expected to anger ultra-conservatives. Experts have long been denied access to the hundreds of imperial mausoleums and tombs, which the agency regards as not so much cultural relics as sacred religious sites. Some historians, however, put the agency’s reticence down to fears that close inspection of the burial mounds could unearth evidence that shatters commonly accepted theories about the origins of the Japanese imperial family. Members of archaeological and historical societies will be granted limited access to two tombs in February and March, the Kyodo news agency said, quoting imperial household sources. Excavation work will be prohibited and researchers will be permitted to enter only the tombs’ fringes. The mausoleums are those of the Meiji emperor (1852-1912) and Empress Jingu (170-269), wife of the Emperor Chuai, whose date of birth is unknown. While the move by the agency – the opaque bureaucracy that runs the […]
London has 10,000 crime-fighting CCTV cameras which cost ã200 million, figures show today. But an analysis of the publicly funded spy network, which is owned and controlled by local authorities and Transport for London, has cast doubt on its ability to help solve crime. A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any. In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average. The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act. Dee Doocey, the Lib-Dems’ policing spokeswoman, said: ‘These figures suggest there is no link between a high number of CCTV cameras and a better crime clear-up rate. ‘We have estimated that CCTV cameras have cost the taxpayer in the region of ã200million in the last 10 years but it’s not entirely clear if some of that money would not have been better spent on police officers. ‘Although CCTV […]
President Bush today called on Congress to make permanent a law that gives the government broad authority to eavesdrop without warrants on phone calls, e-mail and other communication between people in the United States and suspected terrorists abroad. The president wants Congress to extend the law, set to expire in February, that allows spy agencies to intercept the communications of suspected terrorists that pass through U.S. switching facilities. ‘It is the job of Congress to give the professionals the tools they need to do their work as effectively as possible,’ Bush said during a visit to the headquarters of the National Security Agency in Fort Meade. The Bush administration, facing harsh criticism over its warrantless eavesdropping program, has launched a new effort to win support for the law, which Congress temporarily extended last month. In recent days, the administration has sent top intelligence officials to Capitol Hill in an effort to assure Democratic lawmakers that the law will not result in domestic surveillance without a court order, as some critics have charged. In a letter to Capitol Hill last week, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein said the Protect America Act does not authorize physical searches […]
LONDON — Commodities prices on Wednesday rose with crude oil hitting its sixth consecutive record high above $82 a barrel and spot gold approaching a near 28-year high of $730 an ounce troy. Base metals registered rises of between 2 and 10 per cent. Agricultural commodities were down on profit-taking and signals that some food importing countries, such as India, had bought enough cereals for their inventories. Crude oil jumped to a $82.51 after a larger-than-expected fall in US crude oil inventories last week. Worries about a potential tropical storm heading to the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico; investor covering of previous bearish bets, and the US Federal Reserve interest rate cut also helped to push up prices. In New York, Nymex October West Texas Intermediate rose to an intraday record high of $82.51 a barrel. It later pared gains and traded 29 cents lower on the day at $81.23 a barrel. The October contract will expire at the end of today’s trading. The most active Nymex November WTI contract rose to an intraday high of $81.11 a barrel and later traded 28 cents down at $79.94 a barrel. In London, ICE November Brent […]
According to exclusive information obtained by Pajamas Media’s Washington editor Richard Miniter, the movement of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad has been all but shut down. Are we witnessing Iran’s counter-strike to the surge? Movements of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad-along with most State department diplomats and teams building police stations and schools-have been frozen for the second day in a row, according to a State department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Essentially, the CIA, State department and government contractors are stuck inside the International Zone, also known as ‘the Green Zone,’ in Central Baghdad. Even travel inside that walled enclave is somewhat restricted. Pajamas Media is the first to report that the CIA station is all but motionless-as meetings with informants and Iraqi government officials have been hastily cancelled. What caused the shut down? Following a firefight between Iraqi insurgents and a Blackwater USA protection detail on Sunday (12:08 PM Baghdad time), Iraqi officials suspended the operating license of the North Carolina-based government contractor. While the Iraqi government is yet to hold a formal hearing on the matter, Blackwater and all it protects remain frozen. ‘By jamming up Blackwater, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
