`They say money talks, and a new report suggests Canadian currency is indeed chatting, at least electronically, on behalf of shadowy spies.
Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada, says a branch of the U.S. Department of Defence.
Security experts believe the miniature devices could be used to track the movements of defence industry personnel dealing in sensitive military technology.’
‘As Mariana Todorova stares at the ugly scar running down her side, her eyes fill with tears.
It is an agonising reminder of how organ traders tricked her into selling her kidney.
Now Mariana is ill and ashamed at being conned into losing her organ for just £689. [..]
Last night Mariana, 27, said: “I wanted to buy a home and clothes for my two children. All I got was a colour TV. We have nothing. I was desperate but I was tricked. [..]
“Every day I look down at the eight-inch scar and I�m reminded I sold my kidney. I have cried and cried with frustration.” [..]
Mariana is one of an ever-growing number of victims preyed on by organ traders who are selling body parts to the wealthy.’
`But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it “the cough.” People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. [..]
The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.’
‘An Australian family mortgages their house to pay for their frumpy daughter’s plastic surgery. She goes from swamp donkey to a smokin hot after several surgeries. Too bad there’s no surgery to remove awful accents.’
(4.3meg Windows media)
see it here »
`An opera singer has filed a $6 million lawsuit against the Hilton Hotels Corp., complaining that bedbugs bit her over her arms, chest, neck and face when she stayed in one of its Phoenix hotels in November.
Soprano Alison Trainer says in court papers she had 150 bites all over her body, a “horrific” experience that left her afraid to sleep in a bed, caused her to lose weight and made her uncomfortable about her physical appearance.
Trainer’s lawyer, Kenneth J. Glassman, said that because of the bites his client suffered at Phoenix’s Hilton Suites between Nov. 20 and Nov. 26, “She looks like a piece of wood that has been attacked by termites.”‘
`ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.
The report by the science-based nonprofit advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain’s leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change.”
ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the scientific advocacy group’s report.’
`A man upset about a Cyclone Larry insurance payout threatened staff at an Innisfail bank with a piece of fibro that contained asbestos.
The man, wearing a respiratory mask, marched into the Commonwealth Bank branch carrying a piece of fibro and a bottle of water yesterday afternoon.
He shouted at staff, splashed water onto the ceiling and threw the fibro onto the floor, shattering it.
Tests later confirmed the fibro contained asbestos.’
`A trailer park just south of Palm Beach, Fla., sits on 43 of the best oceanfront acres in the state. The owners of the 488 trailers are selling, and each household is likely to receive more than $1 million. [..]
With residents whose median age is just over 70, the place has plenty of history, from a shuffleboard court and a Quonset hut to 600 feet of pristine white-sand Florida beach. [..]
But recently, a developer sent an uninvited bid to Briny Breezes residents, proposing to buy the entire town for $500 million. That’s more than a million dollars for each of the 488 mobile homes — residents at Briny Breezes are also shareholders.
Rather than accept the proposal, the town sent it back — and opened the bidding to other potential developers.’
`A woman who falsely accused two men of rape while retaining her anonymity has been ordered to pay them nearly £700,000 in compensation, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The 48-year-old married mother of two is facing bankruptcy after a judge branded her a cold-blooded liar who ruined lives with a string of fabricated allegations.
In a landmark High Court ruling, the woman, who still cannot be named, was ordered to pay £615,711 damages to Raman Kumar, and a further £58,000 to Baldev Singh for “falsely and maliciously” accusing them of rape.
`The owner of Sydney’s controversial Cross City Tunnel has been placed into receivership with debts of $560 million.
Receivers and managers have been appointed to Cross City Tunnel Motorway Ltd, owner and operator of the tunnel.
The cash-strapped tunnel consortium was due to make a massive interest payment by Saturday.
With barely one-third of the expected 90,000 cars passing through each day, the tunnel did not earn enough to cover the interest payments.’
`A Montana man who gave a woman $170,000 as he tried to rid himself of “bad karma” that the psychic said was ruining his love life filed a lawsuit to get his money back. [..]
The lawsuit claims that Roberts told Strating she needed thousands in cash and merchandise to help him, and that she promised not to spend it.
In one instance, Roberts asked Strating to give her $22,000 to “raise his energy level,” while another time she asked for $30,000 because her daughter had been “contaminated” with his bad karma, the lawsuit claims. The Daily Times Call also said that Strating allegedly bought clothing and other items for Roberts’ daughter, which she promised to pay back.’
`For years, activists in the marijuana legalization movement have claimed that cannabis is America’s biggest cash crop. Now they’re citing government statistics to prove it.
A report released today by a marijuana public policy analyst contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion — far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops.
California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state’s grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states, the report states.’
`Underground hackers are hawking zero-day exploits for Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system at $50,000 a pop, according to computer security researchers at Trend Micro.
The Windows Vista exploit—which has not been independently verified—was just one of many zero-days available for sale at an auction-style marketplace infiltrated by the Tokyo-based anti-virus vendor.
In an interview with eWEEK, Trend Micro’s chief technology officer, Raimund Genes, said prices for exploits for unpatched code execution flaws are in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, depending on the popularity of the software and the reliability of the attack code.’
`The Bush administration on Tuesday asked a federal court to overturn a lower-court ruling requiring the federal government redesign the nation’s paper money to help blind people differentiate between denominations of bills. [..]
In its appeal, the Bush administration disagreed with Robertson’s ruling that blind people were denied “meaningful access” to money by the same-sized bills because portable currency readers exist to help distinguish the bills. The government also said blind people can use credit and debit cards instead of cash.’
Follow up to: Judge rules paper money unfair to blind
`There is very little that sums up the record of the U.S. Congress in the Bush years better than a half-mad boy-addict put in charge of a federal commission on child exploitation. After all, if a hairy-necked, raincoat-clad freak like Rep. Mark Foley can get himself named co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, one can only wonder: What the hell else is going on in the corridors of Capitol Hill these days?
These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula — a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.’
`A number of Ontario’s public sector workers can’t account for millions in charges on taxpayer-funded credit cards, the province’s auditor general finds. [..]
The report highlights include:
* A litany of spending abuses at the Children’s Aid societies, including all-inclusive trips to Caribbean resorts and questionable overtime. (One employee was paid $21,000 to catch up on paperwork);
* $127 million charged to Hydro One credit cards without receipts. (One secretary charged $50,000 in goods that went to her boss, who signed the expenses);
* $6.5 million charged on Ontario Power Generation credit cards without any receipts;
* 300,000 more OHIP cards than Ontarians;
* Teachers and staff at four school boards charged thousands for questionable lunches, trips and gifts; and
* Workplace Safety Insurance Board patients receiving quicker access to high-tech diagnostic exams than non-WSIB workers.’
`A thief used a hook and line not to snag fish, but to remove bags of cash from a bank’s night deposit box, police said.
Police would not say how much money they believe was taken, but think the thief made off with 11 deposit bags, Bloomington police Sgt. David Drake said. [..]
Authorities found the deposit box had been damaged, with one of the metal security pieces sheared off.
“It would’ve taken a lot of force to take that off,” Drake said.
Next to the piece of broken metal, police found a dowel rod with fishing line and a hook.
Drake said authorities believe whoever broke into the deposit box dangled the hook and line into the box and fished out the deposit bags, one by one.’
`The richest one per cent of the world’s population owns 40 per cent of the total household wealth, while the bottom half of the world makes do with barely one per cent, according to a research report released Tuesday.
The study, which further underlined the continuing disparity between rich and poor, is by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research, part of the United Nations University. [..]
In contrast, 50 per cent of adults owned barely one per cent of the household wealth.’
‘JUBILANT car salesman Steve Moseley went berserk and told his boss to stick his job – after MISREADING a £1million scratchcard.
Ecstatic Steve, 36, DANCED on his desk, THREW all the money in his wallet at colleagues and sent a junior out for CHAMPAGNE thinking he had won a fortune.
He then phoned his girlfriend to tell her he had quit and was rushing off to buy an Aston Martin.
But 45 minutes later his celebrations were cruelly cut short when he phoned the National Lottery’s claim hotline – and was told to take another look.
Shocked Steve saw he had mistaken a 16 for a 15 on his 24 Karat Gold scratchcard – meaning he had NOT matched two 15kg ingots.
And instead of becoming an instant millionaire he was broke and jobless.’
`For nearly 20 years – ever since Pete Costello was 8 – his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn’t read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car.
But now prosecutors say it was all a huge fraud, and they have video of Costello contesting a traffic ticket to prove it.
“He’s like any other person trying to get out of a traffic ticket,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said Tuesday.’
`We are entering a season of increasingly powerful evangelism and a time of the most widespread, massive global harvest in the history of Christianity. As a result, we as a ministry made a decision recently to purchase an airplane—a significant, needed ministry tool to fulfill the vision God has given us to go to the nations of the world, declaring the Gospel to lost humanity. [..]
As a result, we have recently taken delivery on our Gulfstream G4SP plane, which we call Dove One. I have enclosed a beautiful photo-filled brochure to explain more about this incredible ministry tool that will increase the scope of our abilities to preach the Gospel around the globe. Now we must pay the remainder of the down payment, and I am asking the Lord Jesus to speak to 6,000 of my precious partners to sow a seed of $1,000 in the next ninety days. And I am praying, even as I write this letter, that you will be one of them!’
`The design studio behind the famed Optimus keyboard, Artemy Lebedev, has unveiled the initial price of the cut-back Optimus-103. It will cost US$1,200.
“RIP,” states one participant of the official Optimus keyboard log. “You mean $120?” one hopeful suggests.
Others seem to echo these feelings of doubt, one fan saying “I am in total shock,” and another declaring this as the last straw “That’s it. I’m out.”‘
Followup to Optimus keyboard.
`A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Treasury Department is violating the law by failing to design and issue currency that is readily distinguishable to blind and visually impaired people.
Judge James Robertson, in a ruling on a suit by the American Council of the Blind, ordered the Treasury to devise a method to tell bills apart.
The judge wrote that the current configuration of paper money violates the Rehabilitation Act’s guarantee of “meaningful access.”
“It can no longer be successfully argued that a blind person has ‘meaningful access’ to currency if she cannot accurately identify paper money without assistance,” Robertson wrote in his ruling.’
`Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to curb crime, the deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire has said at a drugs conference.
Howard Roberts told an Association of Chief Police Officers’ conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed.
He said the treatment would cost £12,000 a year per addict but added that drug users steal property valued at an average of £45,000 a year.’
`Iran will offer cash incentives to travel agencies to encourage Western tourists to visit the country, giving a premium for Americans, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The Islamic republic’s political leadership has been trying to reach out to ordinary Americans to show that a standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions is with the Bush administration — not U.S. citizens. [..]
“Iran’s tourism department will pay $20 per person to those who attract European or American tourists to the country,” the agency on Tuesday quoted Mohammed Sharif Malakzadeh, deputy head of the department, as saying.’
`The four customers left Peking Palace without paying for their meal.
Waiter Bobby Aru noticed; he would be stuck paying their $40 dinner tab Monday night at his mother’s restaurant, 1261 S. Rock Road.
He ran into the parking lot and hollered at the three men and one woman to stop. When they got into a red pickup, he impulsively jumped into the bed of the truck as they drove away. [..]
He said he yelled at them again to stop, but it didn’t matter. The driver swerved and made sharp turns in an effort to “shake me loose.”
But Aru hung on.
“It looked like a kung fu movie,” he said.’
`Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That’s the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage. [..]
“The bottom line is that our hunger for food and our hunger for oil are not independent. There is a relationship between the two,” said University of Illinois researcher Sheldon Jacobson, a study co-author.’
‘The Kazakhstan central bank has misspelled the word “bank” on its new notes, officials said Wednesday.
The bank plans to put the misprinted notes – worth 2,000 tenge ($15) and 5,000-tenge – into circulation in November and then gradually withdraw them to correct the spelling.
The move has drawn the ire of the Central Asian state’s politicians who urged the bank to abandon the notes altogether.’
`Police said an Iowa woman wanted a wedding gown so badly that she would have traded her child for it.
Davenport, Iowa, police charged 31-year-old Marcy Gant with one felony count of sale of an individual. She is accused of trying to sell her 4-year-old son.
They said Gant bought a wedding dress from a local street vendor, paid part of the tab, and offered her son to make up the rest of the balance.’
`A secret sexual relationship with his daughter was not enough.
There had to be a wedding.
And it had to be a grand celebration befitting a Fisher Island, Florida, multimillionaire who controls billions from Wall Street to Bermuda, from London to Dubai.
So on a sunny June day two years ago, father and daughter exchanged rings at Westminster Abbey.’
