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The Worst Cover Songs

2007-07-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

911 Is A Joke - by Duran Duran

Who better to cover a song about the failings of the 911 emergency medical response system for inner city people, than...DURAN DURAN! I'm all for a group doing adventurous covers if they can pull it off, but their version of the Public Enemy classic (which is basically a Flavor Flav solo song, which makes it even more ridiculous for them to sing), is just flat out silly. The song comes from an entire album of covers they did called "Thank You" which is absolute crap from start to finish. The Durans were very good at the fun pop dance stuff they're famous for, but watching them flounder over songs so clearly out of their league like "Take You Higher", "Lay Lady Lady", and the inexplicable choice of Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" is enough to make you want to actually listen to "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" instead.

I Love Rock and Roll" by Britney Spears

Talk about ironic covers. Britney expressing her love for Rock and Roll is akin to Stryper covering Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast". From her lame "is this thing on" intro, to music accompaniment that has all the rock an 80s Casio keyboard can offer, this whole thing is a giant mistake. Does Britney even know what a jukebox is, let alone a dime? Your guess is as good as mine what these guys holding guitars in the video are even doing.

Piece of My Heart - by Faith Hill

Great job taking a song by one of the all time kick ass great rock vocalists and turning it into a sugar coated commercial for some new wonder drug. Is Faith Hill really even a country singer? She's pretty much just Amy Grant with a cowboy hat. I'd pay good money to watch Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker, and Dolly Parton beat the crap out of her. But I'd pay good money to see them beat up anyway, for that matter. Are you reading this Don King?

Downtown Train - by Rod Stewart

How could you take this cool gravelly Tom Waits classic and turn it into this empty piece of crap? I received no less than 30 emails from retroCRUSH readers begging to punish Rod for this sinful cover. I'm sure Waits had said that he would have never even recorded this had he known that Rod was going to wipe his ass with it like this. Hell, you can also throw every single one of Rod Stewarts cover songs in here as well, because they all suck so bad. What the hell happened to that guy? In the '70s and '80s he actually had some pretty good songs, but he turned into the total sell out whore with these bullshit "American Classics" collections that are so schmaltzy they'd put Wayne Newtwon to shame. Rod...take a few years off and just record an album of all original stuff again. Either that, or just be happy with your endless supply of hot young model wives that you won in a bet with the devil.

The Greatest Love of All - by Kevin Rowland

I couldn't dare put a list of 100 Worst Covers together without consulting Brian Ibbot who has produced more than 330 episodes (and counting) of Coverville, one of the coolest and most popular podcasts on the internet. He recommended Kevin Rowland's (of Dexy's Midnight Runner's fame), absolutely batshit insane and unlistenable take on Whitney Houston's hit "The Greatest Love of All".

Ring of Fire - by Olivia Newton John

Let me make it clear that I still have a super crush on Olivia Newton-John, and it pains me to speak ill of her, which should tell you her "Ring of Fire" cover must really suck hard for me to put it on this list. I saw this on iTunes years back and I laughed with a "there's no way in hell she actually recorded that." I wish I didn't let my curiosity get the best of me. Hell, how could this angel who brought us, "Magic", "Hopelessly Devoted To You", and even "Xanadu" (I told you I was a forgiving fan) give us this monstrosity? It's a song of pain and loss and agony that she turns into a goddamn square dance.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart - by ODB and Macy Gray

The original by Elton John and Kiki Dee is good silly fun, and so is this version, but in a completely different way. What was the point of even recording this? Old Dirty Bastard sounds like a drunken Bill Cosby and Macy like some cracked out witch. This is one of those Shatneresque truly awful covers that's so awful you can't help but love it. But they aren't getting any free passes from retroCRUSH, nonetheless.

American Pie - by Madonna

retroCRUSH reader Sara Harris writes, "This song is just pure crap and I love Madonna. I've been a fan of hers since I could walk, but this song almost made me ashamed of being her fan. Making a techno dance track cheapens the message of this song all together." This song also struck quite a chord with our readers, with over 40 suggestions to include it on the list. Personally, I hate the original, too, and think it's one of the most overbearing overrated songs ever recorded, but that doesn't make Madonna's version of excusable. Andrew Stephens added, "I don't normally subscribe to the Madonna Sucks school of thought, but her version of American Pie seems to miss the whole point of the original (and sounds terrible). Unless the idea was to deliberately augment the song's theme by proving that modern music is crap compared to the old stuff, in which case kudos to you Madonna." Anyway, Madonna shouldn't be singing a song called "American Pie" unless it's about her vag.

Behind Blue Eyes - by Limp Bizkit

A tremendous outpouring of hatred from our readers for Durst's shitty version of this Who song, and rightfully so.

"I was always pretty much uncaring of their band. They had the occasional good rock tune that sounded good in the car or in a bar, but this made me want to sacrifice Fred Durst to my God in ways that would make the Mayans flinch." - Robert Spear

"I've already announced my disdain for the bile-fest that is Limp Bizkit, so I should probably leave their attempt at "Behind Blue Eyes" alone. But, dammit, they make it so EASY! Fred Durst is SUCH a brain-dead egomaniac that maybe we should cut him a break for not seeing the irony of the beautiful Who classic - how could this whiny-ass cokehead ever understand a line like "my dreams, they aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be?" But no, Fred earns his stripes by 1) putting his own heavily processed but still sad, thin little voice right out front; 2) trying to create false tension with deeply out-of-place synthy noises; 3) that...bridge. Robot voices? Scratching? Wha? 4) NEW FUCKING LYRICS!!! FUCK YOU YOU WORTHLESS CRATER!!!. Well, at least he left out the REAL bridge...can you imagine this douche trying out the words "if I smile, tell me some bad news/before I laugh and act like a fool?" Ha ha! That'd be funny. You're all right, Fred." -Matt Casarino

"Behind Blue Eyes--Limp Bizkit--Not only did they make a horrible version of a great song, the middle sounds like time my sister got a See 'N Say caught in her hair--"The Cow Says Moorrrowrrrowowrrrowooo" - William Kiessling

Stairway to Heaven - by Dolly Parton

Wow! Here's another one that just pains me to include on the list because I think Dolly Parton is one of the most amazing singer/songwriters that's ever lived, but what the hell was she thinking taking on this uncoverable song? Nobody could do this song justice, and her sappy bluegrass arrangement is almost unbearable to listen to.

Every Breath You Take - Puff Daddy

Puff Daddy or whatever you want to call him reveals himself as the biggest dork in music history with this awful reworking of The Police classic to pay tribute to his buddy Notorious B.I.G. The video alone is one of the most ridiculous ever made. What was the point of showing him wipe out on a motorcycle repeatedly? And the new off meter lyrics are sloppy as hell, with such creative elements as rhyming "pray for you" with "pray for you." At least this song give us all hope that we're going to Heaven when we die, because if Biggie's there, you know damn well they'll take just about anyone. You know Diddy's really sad about his friend dying, by looking at the way he's dancing around in a giant golden shower at the end of the song.

Layla (Unplugged) - by Eric Clapton

Sorry, Eric. You're a guitar god and one of the greatest musicians that's ever walked the earth, but you totally cut the balls off of one the most rocking, beautiful, and anguish filled rock songs with this acoustic cover. It's the equivalent of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page doing a kazoo version of "Stairway to Heaven". When I think of "Layla" I think of Goodfellas. I think of a song to steal George Harrison's wife with. This take reminds me of riding a unicorn across a rainbow bridge while a gentle breeze of cotton candy blows through the air. And every dick with an acoustic guitar and a camcorder has to put their take of the unplugged version of YouTube now as a result!

Can a guy cover his own song? That's arguable, but I believe this to be the work of an shape shifter that kidnapped the real Clapton.

I'm sorry to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth with this whole thing, so rinse it clean with this gorgeous live version of "Layla" as it's supposed to be played.

Paris Hilton: Don't Drink And Drive

2007-07-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton is back from vacation and has a message for her fans: don't drink and drive.

"Happy 4th of July everyone, and remember to be responsible and have a designated driver!" the heiress writes in a blog entry on her MySpace Web page Tuesday.

Hilton, 26, was released from jail last week after spending about 23 days behind bars for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. The notorious party girl has since touted a new beginning — one that she says won't include going out as much.

"The past month has inspired me to move forward with some exciting new projects, so I will keep you all posted," she writes.

After getting out of jail, Hilton did a series of interviews, including one on CNN's "Larry King Live," then skipped town for some rest and relaxation in Maui.

War Fugitive Ratko Mladic Is In Serbia: U.N. Prosecutor

2007-07-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Fugitive former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic is in Serbia and should be arrested by the end of the year, chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said on Tuesday.

She said Mladic, wanted on genocide charges over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of about 8,000 Muslims, was probably moving around more than in the past because the recently appointed Serbian government is seriously trying to arrest him.

"Mladic is in Serbia because all the indications we have from the authorities, also in Serbia, are that he's there," she told a news conference at the European Policy Centre after talks with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.

Mladic was avoiding using mobile or fixed telephones after fugitive former Croatian general Ante Gotovina was located in the Canary Islands in 2005 after a cell phone call with his wife was intercepted by Croatian security services, she said.

That evidence, presented to her by Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, enabled the prosecutor to give the European Union the green light to open membership talks with Croatia.

Del Ponte repeated her plea to the EU not to sign an agreement on close relations with Serbia, currently under negotiation, before Mladic was handed over to the Hague International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

She confirmed that she had agreed to stay on an extra three months until the end of this year, partly in the hopes of bringing the four remaining indicted fugitives to justice before her term expires.

She said she had no current information on the whereabouts of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and was concentrating for the moment on bringing in Mladic.

"I don't know where Karadzic is. Since months we have received no information. Last year we received some information that he was in a monastery in Montenegro," she said.

"We will get him because we are not forgetting him."

Former Bosnian Serb General Zdravko Tolimir refused to enter a plea at the Hague tribunal on genocide charges on Tuesday and demanded an inquiry into the circumstances of his arrest, saying he had been illegally kidnapped and transferred from Serbia to Bosnia.

U.S. Marks 4. July With Fireworks And Parades

2007-07-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

The Fourth of July fireworks display billed as the nation's biggest is trying to up this year's oohs and aahs with a pyrotechnic novelty: exploding shells aimed at the water, not the sky.

The so-called nautical shells are supposed to explode on the surface of the East River, remaining illuminated for a few seconds before fading out, said Robin Hall, executive producer of the Macy's Fourth of July display.

The display of 40,000 fireworks is just one of the celebrations planned across the country on a day that will also include thousands of immigrants becoming citizens -- and plenty of caution.

In the nation's capital, security will be heightened on the National Mall as organizers seek to reassure visitors following recent attempted car bombings in Britain.

Park Police and 20 other law enforcement agencies will flood the area with officers and high-tech security devices, U.S. Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford said. A police helicopter will monitor crowds from above.

As with past July 4 festivities since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the mall will be fenced off and visitors will be required to pass through security checkpoints. Police said the 19 checkpoints will open at 10 a.m. and have been widened this year to eliminate potential bottlenecks.

Independence Day festivities in Washington include a parade on Constitution Avenue, a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra on the West Lawn of the Capitol and a 20-minute fireworks show.

Dry weather conditions have curtailed the use of fireworks in several areas around the country.

Breckenridge, Colorado, canceled its fireworks show because of the high-fire danger posed by dry conditions and stands of dead trees. In Washington state, private fireworks are banned in Seattle, Tacoma and parts of Spokane.

In Iraq, where the Fourth of July was business as usual for the nearly 160,000 U.S. troops, some said their service made them more appreciative of the holiday.

"This is a good place to celebrate the Fourth of July," Sgt. Jesse Jones, 24, of Olympia, Washington, who is serving with the 2nd Infantry Division in Baquba. "Not only are we celebrating independence, we're fighting for independence, too."

Before the fireworks begin, thousands of immigrants are expected to be sworn in as new American citizens during special ceremonies across the country.

At Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, officials plan to confer citizenship on 1,000 people at a "Dreams Come True" ceremony near Cinderella's castle. Singers Gloria Estefan and Lee Greenwood are expected to make appearances. Later, new citizens will head down Main Street USA for a parade in their honor.

In Boston, Massachusetts, some immigrants planned to take their oath on the USS Constitution, the Navy's oldest commissioned warship.

In Phoenix, Arizona, the ceremony is planned for a community college gymnasium. Mumford, New York, officials are planning a quiet ceremony for 35 prospective citizens at a museum. The library in Castroville, California, is slated to host its annual "Proud to be American Citizenship Ceremony."Although Fourth of July citizenship ceremonies are an annual event, officials have seen a surge in applications this year as the naturalization process has been streamlined and applicants race to beat fee increases, said Marie Sebrechts, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman.

There were more than 110,000 naturalization applications filed in April, nearly double the 66,039 applications filed in April 2006, according to federal statistics.

More than 4,000 people in all are expected to take their citizenship oaths this week, the government said.

Gay - Rights Leader Quits Homosexuality

2007-07-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

He was a rising star in the "gay rights" movement, but Michael Glatze now declares not only has he given up activism – he's no longer a homosexual.Although Glatze cut himself off from the homosexual community about a year and a half ago, he says the column likely will surprise some people.

"This will actually be news to anybody I used to relate to," he told WND.

The radical change in his life, Glatze recalls, began with inner "promptings" he now attributes to God.

"I hope I can share my story," he said. "I feel strongly God has put me here for a reason. Even in the darkest days of late-night parties, substance abuse and all kinds of things – when I felt like, 'Why am I here, what am I doing?' – there was always a voice there.

"I didn't know what to call it, or if I could trust it, but it said 'hold on.'" Glatze said he became aware of homosexual feelings at about the age of 14 and publicly declared himself "gay" at age 20. Finally, after a decade in which his leadership role in the homosexual activist world grew – but alongside it, a mysterious inner conflict – he says he finally was "liberated."

In fact, he writes in his WND column today, "'coming out' from under the influence of the homosexual mindset was the most liberating, beautiful and astonishing thing I've ever experienced in my entire life."

Before "coming out" in his column today, Glatze contacted WND Managing Editor David Kupelian after reading his book, "The Marketing of Evil, which Glatze said "has given me so much help in my process of healing from the profound influences of evil in our current society."

"There is nothing that would give me more pleasure," he wrote to Kupelian, "than to say the Truth about 'homosexuality' and atone for my sins in that regard."

Glatze's transformation calls to mind that of another prominent "gay" magazine publisher who also has renounced her former lifestyle. Lesbian activist Charlene Cothran, longtime publisher of Venus magazine, became a Christian and gave her magazine a new mission "to encourage, educate and assist those who desire to leave a life of homosexuality." She adds: "Our ultimate mission is to win souls for Christ, and to do so by showing love to all God's people."

In his column, Glatze doesn't mince words, calling homosexual sex purely "lust-based," meaning it can never fully satisfy.

"It's a neurotic process rather than a natural, normal one," he writes. "Normal is normal – and has been called normal for a reason." After becoming editor of Young Gay America magazine at age 22, Glatze received numerous awards and recognition, including the National Role Model Award from the major homosexual-rights organization Equality Forum. Media gravitated toward him, leading to appearances on PBS television and MSNBC and quotes in a cover story in Time magazine called "The Battle Over Gay Teens."

He produced, with the help of PBS affiliates and Equality Forum, the first major documentary film to address homosexual teen suicide, "Jim In Bold," which toured the world and received numerous "best in festival" awards. Young Gay America's photo exhibit, telling the story of young people across North America, toured Europe, Canada and parts of the U.S. In 2004, Glatze moved from San Francisco to Halifax in eastern Canada where his partner, Young Gay America magazine's publisher, had family. The magazine, he said, sought to provide a "virtuous counterpart" to the other newsstand media aimed at homosexual youth.

But Glatze contends "the truth was, YGA was as damaging as anything else out there, just not overtly pornographic, so more 'respected.'"

In 2005, Glatze was featured in a panel with Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Matthew Shepard, at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

"It was after viewing my words on a videotape of that 'performance,'" he writes, "that I began to seriously doubt what I was doing with my life and influence."

"Knowing no one who I could approach with my questions and my doubts, I turned to God," he says. "I'd developed a growing relationship with God, thanks to a debilitating bout with intestinal cramps caused by the upset stomach-inducing behaviors I'd been engaged in."

Toward the end of his time with Young Gay America, Glatze said, colleagues began to notice he was going through some kind of religious experience.

Just before leaving, not fully realizing what he was doing, he wrote on his office computer his thoughts, ending with the declaration: "Homosexuality is death, and I choose life."

"I was so nervous, it was like I wasn't even writing it myself," he said.

Inexplicably, he told WND, he left the words on the screen for others to see.

"People who looked at it were stunned; they thought it was crazy," he said.

But he left his co-workers wondering about where he stood, never having fully explained his decision to step down.

Looking back on his old lifestyle, Glatze told WND whenever he had a sense that he was doing something wrong, "I would I just attribute it to, 'that's just the way life is.'"

"If ever I were to question anything, [my colleagues] would say, 'You're such an idealist.'"

Glatze said he thought opponents of homosexual activism were "mean and crazy, and they wanted to hurt me."

"I thought they were out to get me," he said. "They made me really, really mad – and scared, I think. I wanted them to go away."

Glatze said he couldn't allow himself to think they were sincere in their beliefs.

But he now has deep respect for a Christian aunt who disapproved of his lifestyle.

She "was never judgmental, but always firm," he said.

Apple iPhone Activation Complaints Continue

2007-07-03T03:08:00.000-07:00

"We are working on any issues on an individual basis with customers who were impacted," said Michael Coe, a spokesman for AT&T, the Apple Inc. device's exclusive carrier. Nearly all customers have been able to activate their phones within five to eight minutes, he said.

Without activation, not even the phone's alarm clock works, leading some unhappy customers to joke that their inactive iPhones are little more than expensive paperweights.

AT&T attributed the problems to overloaded servers as large number of customers tried to activate their phones over the weekend. After being hit with the initial onslaught, AT&T made technical adjustments to its activation system so that new users wouldn't face the same delays, Coe said.

Customers with corporate accounts might also experience delays because AT&T needs authorization from the telecommunications manager at their company to switch them to an individual account, he said.

Timothy Johnson, 36, of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, said his phone was activated Sunday afternoon, about two days after he bought it.

"The experience of the activation is unacceptable," Johnson said. "It all just reeks of ill-preparedness to me."

Johnson said he was happy with the iPhone and credited Apple for acknowledging the problem. But he expressed concerned about the type of service he would get from AT&T in the future.

Rob Enderle, an industry analyst with The Enderle Group, said the activation problems probably won't hurt iPhone sales.
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"This kind of thing is not unusual when you have this number of people trying to buy something all at once," Enderle said.

Depending on how the companies handle customer's complaints, it could in fact help, he said. If customers feel the company has treated them well, they are more likely to buy and recommend its products in the future.

"It doesn't matter whether your product breaks or not," Enderle said. "It matters how well you treat your customers."

The iPhone, which also serves as an iPod media player and a wireless Web device, went on sale Friday evening after months of anticipation. Thousands of people lined up in front of Apple and AT&T stores across the country to be among the first to get one. Apple has been updating its Web site nightly to report which of its stores have iPhones in stock. Nearly all AT&T stores have sold out, Coe said.

Apple would not provide details about iPhone sales figures or customer activation problems, but a spokeswoman said the company was working hard to resolve any issues. "There are a small percentage of iPhone customers who have had a less than perfect activation experience," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.

Customers can activate the phones by logging on to Apple's iTunes software from their computers. Although many customers said they experienced no delays, others received a message saying activation "will take some additional time."

Many buyers said their troubles began when they tried to switch from their current cell phone provider to AT&T. The activation problem has affected both existing AT&T wireless customers and those signing up from another cell phone carrier, Coe said. As of Sunday afternoon, eBay Inc. said more than 2,700 iPhones had been sold on the online auction site at an average price of $740.18.

The iPhone retails for $499 for the 4-gigabyte version and $599 for the 8-gigabyte model.

UK terror probe spreads to Australia

2007-07-03T02:55:00.000-07:00

A second doctor in Australia was being questioned, but had not been detained, according to Queensland Premier Peter Beattie.

A 27-year-man -- identified by Scotland Yard only as "H" -- was detained at the Brisbane, Australia, airport Monday evening while waiting to catch a flight out of the country, Beattie said.

Australian police were executing search warrants at locations in the Brisbane area, including at the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport, Queensland, where the man worked as a doctor, according to Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock.

At a Tuesday news conference, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the man was an Indian national, who was working in the country under a temporary visa.

"He was sponsored by the Queensland Health Department," Howard said. "He was working as a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital."

Beattie said the both doctors were recruited from Liverpool last year, through an ad in the British Medical Journal, to work in Australia.

The doctor who was in custody was considered a good employee in the emergency department and was "regarded as a model citizen, excellent references," Beattie said.

Earlier, authorities identified Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, 27, as one of two men who rammed an explosives-laden SUV into a terminal at the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, Saturday, a British source said. British authorities said they believe those two men are the same ones who parked two car bombs in Central London on Friday. The cars, packed with fuel and nails, could have killed hundreds if they had been set off.

In addition to Abdulla, police also arrested Dr. Mohammed Asha, a Jordanian-educated physician who moved to England two years ago, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Asha, 26, was picked up late Saturday on a motorway in the Cheshire area of northern England, a source said. Police say he was arrested with a 27-year-old woman, identified by Asha's family as his wife.

Asha's house in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, has been searched since his arrest Saturday night. Neighbors there said that another doctor is also part of the investigation.

Police have sealed the home of the unnamed doctor and his wife, which is about two miles from Asha's home in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Forensic teams are searching the house, where the doctor and his wife have lived for about a year, neighbors said. Police would not confirm any details about their search. It is unclear if the doctor and his wife are in police custody.

Asha's family in Amman, Jordan, is distraught and has not heard anything from the British Embassy or from London, his older brother, Ahmed Asha, said.

Asha was not a religious person and was in the top of his medical class, focusing on neurosurgery, his brother said.

The family is especially worried about Asha's 2-year-old son, who was born in Britain shortly after the couple moved there. The family does not know who is taking care of the boy since both parents have been arrested, the brother said.

On Monday, a bomb disposal unit performed at least two controlled explosions on a suspicious device at a hospital where one of the suspects in Saturday's Glasgow attack is being treated for severe burns.

A CNN crew at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Glasgow heard two blasts, which occurred about an hour after a bomb disposal truck was spotted outside the medical facility.

Sources said one of the two suspects behind the Glasgow attack worked as a doctor at Royal Alexandra, although it is not clear which one.

On Sunday, police conducted a controlled explosion of a vehicle in the hospital's parking lot. Police said there was no indication the vehicle contained explosives.

Shortly after the suspect was admitted following Saturday's attack, police confiscated a suspicious item from his body and called for a partial evacuation of the hospital. Police later said the device was not believed to be an explosive.

The government said on Monday that police had searched at least 19 locations for evidence. Seven suspects had been detained in Britain, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told the House of Commons.

Police were tracking the two men suspected in the Glasgow attack even before it occurred, sources said.

It is believed that the two suspects shared a rental house in the village of Houston -- about two miles from Glasgow's airport. Police searching the house would not provide any details about who lived there or why it is part of the investigation.

No one else was seriously hurt in Saturday's incident at Glasgow.

Those who witnessed the flaming Jeep Cherokee smash into the airport Saturday said one of the passengers was shouting "Allah" as he fought with police and a second man set himself on fire.

Airport worker John Smitten, who ran to help police in the aftermath of the crash, said the second man who was "covered head-to-toe in flames" also tried to fight policemen after a taxi driver used a water hose to put out the fire.

The attack at Scotland's busiest airport came 36 hours after the two car bombs were found in London. British police and security sources said they believed the two London car bombs were to be remotely triggered, possibly by mobile phones, but failed to detonate.

The weekend's incidents came days before the second anniversary of July 7, 2005, when four Islamic extremist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system in the deadliest strike on the city since World War II.

Denied Service For Using Her Feet, Woman Says

2007-07-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

"I drank my baby bottle with my feet. Nobody ever taught me how to do it, I just did it," Larson said. "I can ride a regular 10-speed bike. I can swim. It has not been a problem in my life at all. It didn't stop me from having four boys. I've never dropped one of them."

On Nov. 3, Larson pulled up to the speaker at a McDonald's in Rockford and ordered food for her and her boys totaling $23.59. She drove to the first window and passed them her credit card, gripped with the toes of her left foot. The cashier took the card, processed her payment and handed the card back to her.

According to a lawsuit Larson filed against the restaurant's owner last week in Winnebago County, when Larson pulled up to the second window to get her food, an employee said "with a tone of disgust and repulsion," "What's the matter with you? . . . You ain't got no arms. ... Let me see your arms," and drew back the bags of food from Larson's outstretched foot. After making more allegedly rude statements, the employee closed the window and went to consult a manager, the suit states.

The manager appeared at the window and likewise stared in disgust at Larson while her children watched from their seats in the car, the suit states. Larson suggested that they hand the bags to her son, who has one full-size arm. He reached over and took them.

Larson later called a manager at McDonald's to complain and was told "corrective action has been taken" against the employees, the suit says. McDonald's sent her $10 in gift certificates.

'Oh, no, I'm not doing this'
On Feb. 15, Larson went to a different McDonald's in Rockford and the same thing happened, she alleges. The employee at the first window was happy to take her card from her foot, but the employee at the second window threw up her hands and said, "Oh, no, I'm not doing this," and closed the window, the suit states.

The employee would not hand the bags to her son, either, the suit says. Larson asked her friend to enter the restaurant and get the food, and they would not give it to him. After several minutes, an employee came out and handed the food to the friend.

A company spokeswoman first told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Under no circumstance was this customer denied any service at any of our locations," then later e-mailed this statement from Larry Taylor, director of operations for McDonald's Restaurants of Illinois Inc., which owns the two restaurants:

"We care very much about our customers and take this allegation seriously. We do our very best to serve our customers with the utmost care and respect. We have a strict policy prohibiting any form of discrimination in our restaurants. We have not seen the lawsuit and, as such, it would be inappropriate to comment."

Larson's attorney, Laurel Wykes Smith, said the two incidents add up to a violation of her civil rights.

"I felt discriminated against, harassed, embarrassed," Larson said. "All I wanted was the food I had paid for with my money card. I just wanted to feed my kids."

Cyprus Police Find U.S. Diplomat Dead

2007-07-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

The United States military attache in Cyprus was found dead on Monday, four days after he disappeared, the American embassy said.

The body of Lt. Colonel Thomas Mooney, 45, was found near his parked car in a remote mountainous region north-west of the island's capital, Nicosia.

Local media reported that foul play appeared to have been ruled out, but a police spokeswoman said the cause of death would be determined by a post mortem scheduled for later on Monday.

"With deep sadness, I announce that Thomas Mooney, who served his nation with distinction as our Defense Attache, was found dead by Cypriot authorities on Monday," U.S. ambassador Ronald Schlicher said in an announcement on the embassy website.

Mooney, whom fellow diplomats described as a "straight up military type", was last seen leaving the embassy compound on Thursday afternoon.

His body was found some yards away from his car which was parked on a dirt track. He was believed to have been dead for several days.

Mooney arrived in Cyprus on June 2006 for what was his second tour of duty on the island in the past five years. He lived in Cyprus on his own.

The American embassy cancelled an Independence Day reception scheduled for Monday evening.

"He just came across as a highly disciplined American official doing his job," one diplomat said.

iPhone Buyers Smash And Dissect New Gadget

2007-07-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Within hours of the first iPhones going on sale on Friday, enthusiasts scrambled to be the first to discover what makes the devices tick, posting photos and videos of disassembled phones on the Internet.

The information is more than just academic. Apple keeps a tight grip on information about parts suppliers so "tear downs" of its products are closely watched by investors keen to figure out how to place their bets.

In the past, word that a particular part was being used in Apple's popular iPod music players has sent that company's shares higher.

"With every new release of an Apple product, the hype and interest ratchets up a notch," said Andrew Rassweiler, an analyst with market research firm iSuppli.

Rassweiler and his team at iSuppli were working through the weekend to catalog the phone's guts for a report estimating the cost of every component, crucial for figuring how much it cost Apple to make each iPhone.

"We have had more people thrown at it this week than any other previous product," Rassweiler said.

Apple is offering the phone in two versions costing $500 and $600 depending on memory capacity, but the high price and limited availability wasn't enough to stop some people from giving into curiosity.

Some dissected the phones with the clinical skill of a surgeon while others resorted to brute force, enraging those swept up in the hype and winning praise from those gleefully resisting it.

By Sunday afternoon, a video on YouTube showing two guys banging away at an iPhone with a hammer and nail had garnered 56,000 views and was the 13th most-watched clip on the site, prompting some extremely angry comments. Watching the clip, it is difficult to see what was learned from the destruction.

The creator, whose user page identified him only as Rob in Miami, Florida, posted a second clip defending his unorthodox methods.

"We didn't smash it just to smash it. We smashed it to see what was inside. We were under a time limit," Rob said. "We resorted to extreme measures."

Ifixit.com, an Apple parts and repair guide site, conducted one of the most sophisticated dismantlings, posting dozens of high-quality photos alongside technical commentary.

"They've done some things that are above and beyond. They did some very innovative things," site cofounder Kyle Wiens said of the iPhone's manufacture.

Their efforts yielded a few nuggets of information. The iPhone boasts a main processor and memory chips from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., an audio-processing chip from Britain's Wolfson Microelectronics Plc and a Wi-fi wireless chip from Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

Opening the iPhone was the easy part. For many, the real prize is hacking the phone to get it to do things Apple never intended, such as run on networks other than that of AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. service provider.

Some programmers also want to find a way to run their own programs directly on the phone's operating system rather than being limited to programs run through the Web browser.

Pentagon Destroys Old Jets To Keep Parts Out Of Enemy Hands

2007-07-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Within a workday, a $38 million fighter jet that once soared as a showpiece of U.S. airpower can be destroyed at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., the military's "boneyard" for retired aircraft.

"There were things getting to the bad guys, so to speak," said Tim Shocklee, founder and executive vice president of TRI-Rinse Inc. in St. Louis. "And one of the ways to make sure that no one will ever use an F-14 again is to cut them into little 2-by-2-foot bits."

The Defense Department had intended to destroy spare parts unique to the F-14 but sell thousands of others that could be used on other aircraft. It suspended sales of all Tomcat parts after The Associated Press reported in January that buyers for Iran, China and other countries had exploited gaps in surplus-sale security to acquire sensitive U.S. military gear, including F-14 parts.

Among other tactics, middlemen for the countries misrepresented themselves to gain access to the Defense Department's surplus sales or bought sensitive surplus from U.S. companies that had acquired it from Pentagon auctions and weren't supposed to allow its export.

Investigators also found some sensitive items accidentally slipping into surplus auctions rather than being destroyed as they were supposed to be. In an unusual move when dealing with retired aircraft, the Pentagon is trying to shut off all avenues for Iran's parts purchasers by demolishing the F-14s, then combing through the scraps to make sure nothing useful remains.

Iran is the only country trying to keep Tomcats airworthy. The United States let Iran buy the F-14s in the 1970s when it was an ally, long before President Bush named it part of an "axis of evil."

Shocklee's company won a three-year, $3.7 million contract to render surplus equipment useless for military purposes. The work includes the recent demolition of 23 Tomcats in Arizona, accounting for about $900,000 of TRI-Rinse's contract. The military is considering using the same process on its other F-14s.

The company has developed portable shredding machinery so the Pentagon can have sensitive items destroyed on a base instead of shipping them long distances to be shredded.

The Tomcat was a strike fighter with a striking price tag: roughly $38 million. By the 1980s it was a movie star with a leading role in the Tom Cruise classic "Top Gun." But as the planes are mangled into unrecognizable metal chunks, the jets with a 38-foot wingspan appear small and vulnerable.

The shearing machine, which uses pincers to rip apart the planes, weighs 100,000 pounds. The shredder is 120,000 pounds. An F-14 weighs about 40,000 pounds.

Among the shredded victims in Arizona: a plane flown by the "Tophatters" squadron, which led the first airstrike in Afghanistan when the U.S. invaded in October 2001.

The Pentagon retired its F-14s last fall. At last count, the military's boneyard in Arizona held 165 Tomcats, believed to be the only ones left out of 633 produced for the Navy. The others were scavenged for parts to keep others flying, went to museums or crashed, said a spokeswoman for the air base, Teresa Vanden-Heuvel.

As powerful as the grinding machinery is, not all of the F-14 can be shredded. The landing gear — built to withstand the force of slamming onto an aircraft carrier's deck — must be cut by hand with a demolition torch. It's made from steel with parts of titanium, so the shears can't cut it and the shredder can't chew it.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., considers the F-14 demolitions a good effort, but wants to go further and outlaw the sale of F-14 parts to anyone except museums. Wyden sponsored legislation that also would ban export licenses for F-14 components, which he believes will be more effective than Pentagon policies that he said have changed over time.

"I don't think internal rules — these internal initiatives — based on the track record of the Department of Defense, are sufficient," Wyden said.

The House passed similar legislation in June; a Senate vote is expected later this summer. The White House hasn't said whether Bush supports the idea.

F-14 preservationists said the Pentagon is handling the Tomcats they obtain differently.

As a Navy pilot, retired Capt. Dale Snodgrass delivered an F-14 to Iran — flying nonstop from the United States with roughly No. 68 of about 80 planes that Iran ordered.

Snodgrass said only key computers were taken out and ejection systems disabled on planes delivered to museums in past years. This year, when an F-14 went on display at a Miami museum, virtually everything was removed, leaving only a shell with the canopy painted black, said Snodgrass, who lives in St. Augustine, Fla.

Snodgrass is part of F-14 history. He flew Tomcats for roughly a quarter-century and amassed the most flight time in them of any pilot: more than 4,800 hours. He was named Navy pilot of the year around the time "Top Gun" hit theaters.

Snodgrass said he understands the Pentagon's destruction of F-14s but said it would be nice to see some preserved. Pilots dubbed the Tomcat "the turkey" because of its ungainly, turkey-like look when landing on aircraft carriers.

"When I first started it," Snodgrass said, "it was the biggest, the fastest, the most impressive, the most maneuverable fighter on the planet Earth."

Yahoo Launches Customizable Ad Tool

2007-07-02T00:26:00.000-07:00

Yahoo on Monday launched a new display advertising product called SmartAds, whish allows marketers to offer ads that are customized based on the Web surfer's age, gender, location and online activities.

For instance, instead of just seeing a generic ad for a Toyota Prius, a woman in San Francisco who conducts research on hybrid cars on Yahoo Autos could be served an ad for a local San Francisco dealer with information on the types of Priuses that are in stock and the purchase price. The ad, which is configured on the fly, could also feature a background color targeted for women in her age range, as well as a Golden Gate Bridge logo.

Someone searching for flights between Dallas and Phoenix could be served an ad, for example, with specific up-to-the-minute fares from a particular airline along with a button that says "buy now," all within the ad, said Yahoo spokeswoman Gaude Paez

"We do behavioral targeting now," she said. "This makes display (advertising) more of a direct response vehicle than just branding."

Yahoo SmartAds combines Yahoo's demographic, geographic and behavioral targeting capabilities with a new patent-pending creative ad assembly platform that allows the company's ad system to create customized ads in real-time. Yahoo will get different backgrounds, logos and other features from the creative agencies that can be re-configured with ad copy based on who is seeing the ad and what they are interested in.

The company is launching ads with two of the three major airline companies as well as some travel aggregators, none of which wanted to be identified, Paez said.

The ads will appear on Yahoo's network of publisher sites and eventually will be expanded to the newspapers Yahoo has partnered with, as well as Yahoo partners Comcast and eBay. Once Yahoo's purchase of online ad provider Right Media is completed, the companies will work to display the SmartAds on sites on Right Media's advertising network. Yahoo has agreed to pay $680 million for Right Media.The move gives Yahoo, already the leader in online display advertising, an added edge over competitors and could, eventually, help offset slowing growth in display advertising. Executives warned recently that second-quarter results would come in at the low end of guidance.

Yahoo is in transition, struggling to reverse a slowdown in revenue growth and a stock price slide after losing the search and search advertising race with Google. Chief Executive Terry Semel stepped down in mid-June and passed the baton to co-founder Jerry Yang, shortly after getting blasted by shareholders at the annual stockholder meeting..

Yahoo's rivals aren't sitting still when it comes to display advertising. Google is buying online ad company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and Microsoft has agreed to pay $6 billion for Aquantive.

Box prompts alert at Ibiza airport

2007-07-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Spanish police acting on a telephoned bomb threat evacuated Ibiza airport in the Balearic islands, and later used a controlled explosion to detonate a suspicious package, airport officials and press reports say.

While authorities did not immediately say who they believed was behind the incident Saturday, reports on the Web sites of dailies El Pais, El Mundo and La Vanguardia's said three warnings had been received by Basque newspaper Gara, which violent Basque separatist group ETA often uses as a conduit for bomb warnings.

A spokeswoman for the AENA airport authority, which controls Spain's airports, said the airport had been evacuated and closed to outgoing and incoming flights.

Ibiza is one of Spain's best known holiday destinations and attracts tens of thousands of summer holiday-makers -- many of them young -- from Britain, Germany and northern Europe.

The bomb threat was made just weeks after ETA called off a 15-month cease-fire, blaming the government for refusing to make concessions in the peace process and warning it was once again becoming active "on all fronts."

Fears have been growing that renewed ETA violence was imminent, particularly after Civil Guards found a car near the southern Spanish town of Ayamonte, near the border with Portugal. It contained more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosive material, detonators, timers and a bomb-making manual in the Basque language.

ETA has attacked airports before, most recently in a December 2006 car bombing that killed two people at Madrid's Barajas airport. That effectively put an end to peace talks, though ETA insisted at the time that it had not meant to kill anyone and that its cease-fire continued.

ETA, whose name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its campaign for a separate Basque state. It is classified as a terrorist group by the United States and the European.

On Friday, two Mercedes cars loaded with gasoline, gas canisters and nails were found abandoned in London in what police believe was an attempt to kill scores or even hundreds of people. Terrorism experts said the signs pointed to a cell linked or inspired by al Qaeda.

Gay man, former lesbian on whether they can change

2007-07-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

After five years of trying to date girls and to conform and conceal his sexuality, 18-year-old Steven Field told his friends and family that he was gay.

"I wasn't being honest to myself," Field, now 25, said of his closeted high school years in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

Being gay was natural for him, Field, who lives in Washington, said in a Thursday phone interview. "I didn't choose to be gay anymore than straight people choose to be straight."

To those who would disagree with him, Field said, "You don't choose who you love."

Over the years, the genetically based argument has found increasing support among Americans, according to polls. More and more people now believe that homosexuality is a permanent, immutable part of a person, much like fingerprints or eye color.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday, 56 percent of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation even if they wanted to do so -- the first time that a majority has held that belief regarding homosexuality since CNN first posed the question nearly 10 years ago.

The sampling error for the results is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Six years ago, 45 percent of Americans responding to a CNN/USA/Gallup Poll said gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation. And in 1998, the number was 36 percent, according to a CNN/Time poll.

The latest poll results affirmed what many gay and lesbians see as a shift in attitude across the country toward homosexuality. Even in the face of state legislation that denies gays the right to marry or to form civil unions, more Americans are now accepting of homosexuality, gays and lesbians say.

For the Rev. Mel White, the founder and president of faith-based gay rights group Soulforce, the poll results were a "tremendous relief."

"The poll is such good news," White said Thursday. "Over half of America thinks we don't have to be healed from a sickness; suddenly we are OK as we are."

The change in thinking among Americans can be attributed to more and more people getting to know gays and lesbians as they come out, White said.

"Once they know us, they will support us," he said, adding that the idea extended to faith-based organizations that currently oppose gay rights, White said.

White, once a ghostwriter for the Revs. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham before coming out in a public sermon in 1993, said the church was the barrier to nationwide acceptance of gays and lesbians.

"Until the church changes, this debate will go on and on and on," he said. "Once the church changes, it'll be over."

But for organizations that say gays and lesbians can become straight, the poll results were discouraging.

This "shows that our reach is not as great as the mainstream media and entertainment industry," said Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy for the Family Research Council.

"People are believing what they are hearing, and it's not the truth," he said, adding that it was disappointing Americans had succumbed to what he called a "myth" that gays and lesbians cannot change. They can change, but it is difficult, he said.

For gay and lesbian organizations, the poll results came as affirmation for the work they do.

"We were really excited to see it," Jean-Marie Navetta, director of communications for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG, said of the poll.

"It's good to see that this message [being gay is not a choice] is moving to a large number of Americans."

Navetta said she and other PFLAG employees had sensed a swing in attitude toward gays and lesbians. "There are more people that are out as well as [straight] allies that are out," she said, explaining the shift. When people realize "this is about your neighbors and co-workers and friends and family ... the issue becomes a person," she said.

Melissa Fryrear, director of gender issues for Focus on the Family, said she found the results unfortunate -- not only because they run counter to the beliefs of her group but to her personal experience as well.

"I know that homosexuality can be overcome because that's the story of my life," she said. Fryrear said she lived as a lesbian for nearly a decade before becoming a Christian and later "overcoming" her homosexuality through a long process of change and self-examination.

"I'm changed. I'm a heterosexual woman now. I'm not sexually attracted to women. I am romantically and sexually attracted to men."

Like Sprigg, Fryrear attributed the poll's results, at least partly, to the media's coverage of the issue. "The truth that people can change has not been represented oftentimes correctly and fairly in the media," she said.

However, she said, people who want to try and become heterosexual would not be dissuaded by those do not believe change is possible. "They're going to make that personal decision to overcome homosexuality regardless," she said.

According to the poll released Wednesday, 36 percent of Americans agree with Fryrear and Sprigg that gays and lesbians can change their sexual orientation.

Britain at highest alert level

2007-07-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

British police searched houses and made arrests Sunday as the country remained on "critical" terror alert after an attack on a Scottish airport and the discovery of two car bombs aimed at killing hundreds of people in London.

Passengers are shown on Saturday stranded at a hotel close to Glasgow's airport.

In Scotland, officers searched "a number of houses" in an operation they said was linked to both Saturday's attack in which a blazing car was crashed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport and the London bombs.

Earlier Sunday, two people were arrested in Cheshire, England, in connection with the incidents, police confirmed. They also said the explosives-packed cars found in the capital Friday were traced to Glasgow.

The arrests brought to four the number of people in custody.

The United Kingdom raised its terrorism threat level to critical, the highest level possible, after Saturday's attack on Scotland's busiest airport.

Two men were immediately arrested at the airport. One was hospitalized with severe burns; early reports that he had died were erroneous. Watch flames spew from the car »

A third suspect is believed to have died in the Jeep Cherokee that crashed at the airport terminal's main entrance about 3:15 p.m. (10:15 a.m. ET). However, the vehicle was still "in highly unstable condition," and police were waiting to approach it.

William Rae, chief constable of the Strathclyde Police, said part of the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Glasgow was evacuated after a suspicious device was found on the injured suspect. The device was safely taken away and is being examined, Rae said.

Rae said one civilian was treated for a leg injury but there were no other known casualties.

Early Sunday, two people were arrested in Cheshire, England, in connection with the terrorist incidents in England and Scotland, officials at Scotland Yard said.

In the United States, President George W. Bush was briefed on the situation, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

"At this point, I have seen no specific, credible information suggesting that this latest incident is connected to a threat to the homeland," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

There are no plans to raise the U.S. threat level, he said, but security at the nation's airports and other transportation facilities will be increased, along with security on mass transit, for the July 4 holiday period. Some of the changes will be visible, Chertoff said, and others will not.

"We encourage the public to go about their business and recreational plans as usual, but remain vigilant to the events happening in your environment and report any suspicious activities to authorities."

In Glasgow, witnesses described the SUV in flames being driven at full speed toward the building, but Rae -- who is leading the investigation -- said the fire began after the impact.

Witness Jackie Kennedy told the BBC that after the crash, a passenger in the Jeep doused himself with fuel from a can and ignited it, then got out of the vehicle. Airport police used fire extinguishers on him, and he fell to the ground, she said.

"I realized that this was obviously deliberately done -- the fact that the guy was in flames and seemed to be enjoying himself, even smiling," Kennedy told the BBC.

She said another passenger tried to enter the terminal but was grabbed by police. She said the driver never got out.

Rae said police want to interview all of the 20 or 30 people believed to have been standing outside the airport entrance when the crash occurred.

The airport was evacuated and all flights diverted or canceled. A number of passengers remained in aircraft on the tarmac, Rae said. It was unknown when the airport would reopen.

John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, England, was shut down later in the day in response to the attack.

Witness Jim Manson said he saw a car "with a couple of guys in it trying to push their way into the airport terminal building."

The vehicle "suddenly caught fire" as one of the two -- himself on fire -- tried to open up the back of the car, Manson told British television.

There was then a small explosion, and the front of the terminal appeared to catch fire.

"Everyone just ran," Manson said. "We're absolutely terrified, you can imagine. The first thing on all our minds was: Is there an accident? Is there a terrorist attack?"

A witness told Sky News that a man fled from the car as it struck the building and was immediately wrestled to the ground by police.

"The Jeep is completely on fire, and it exploded not long after. It exploded at the entrance to the terminal," witness Stephen Clarkson told the BBC.

"It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank, because it was not a massive explosion."

In announcing the raised threat level, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "The first duty of the government is the security and safety of all the British people."

Brown, in office just three days, said Britons stand "united, resolute and strong."

Brown led a meeting of top intelligence officers, police and senior officials in COBRA, the government's crisis committee, his office said.

After the meeting, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said authorities were "doing all we can to protect the public."

"The police are clear that the most important contribution that the public can make is to carry on reporting anything suspicious and to be vigilant, and I'd ask them to do that," said Smith, the government's top law-and-order official. "But I must stress that we mustn't let the threat of terror stop us from getting on with our lives."

In London, police were examining two cars filled with fuel, gas canisters and nails and studying CCTV footage for clues about the identities of those behind a suspected terrorist plot that could have killed hundreds. See photos of the investigation in action »

Officers have a "crystal clear" CCTV image of a man "staggering" from the first car after parking it outside a West End nightclub, ABC News in the United States reported. Scotland Yard refused to comment.

British officials said hundreds of people could have been killed if the devices in the cars had been set off.

The first car was discovered parked near Piccadilly Circus; the second was found about an hour later, less than a kilometer away near Trafalgar Square.

London is hosting the Wimbledon tennis tournament, a gay pride march and a memorial concert for the late Diana, princess of Wales, this weekend.

Peter Clarke, deputy assistant commissioner for London's Metropolitan Police, was en route to Glasgow, Rae told reporters. He said the public is asked to be vigilant even though there is no intelligence to suggest further attacks might occur.

The weekend's incidents come days before the second anniversary of July 7, 2005, when four Islamic extremist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system in the deadliest strike on the city since World War II.

Five U.S. Troops Killed In 'Very Violent' Iraq Attack

2007-06-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

Five U.S. soldiers were killed when a "very large" roadside bomb exploded near their combat patrol in southern Baghdad, a U.S. general said Friday.

A combination of small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades followed the blast Thursday, said Army Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., who described the attack as "showing a level of sophistication that we have not often seen so far" during the period of the so-called "surge" in U.S. forces.

Fil said four soldiers were killed initially. Seven others were wounded, he said, and one of those later died.

The intensity of the attack, Fil said, goes to successes that U.S. and Iraqi forces have been making in clearing and holding Baghdad neighborhoods.

Attackers "are running out of maneuver space, and they are starting to fight very hard, and that's what we saw yesterday."

The attack puts the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month at 99, part of the deadliest three-month stretch since the war began -- 104 in April and 126 in May.

Overall Iraq war deaths for U.S. military personnel total 3,569. Seven civilian contractors working with the Pentagon also have been killed.

"Occasionally there's a spike" in overall casualty figures, Fil said. "But overall they've come down.

"They have not come down with our own forces here in Baghdad," he added.

Villagers allegedly killed in American air attack

A U.S. military air attack on insurgents last week in Diyala province is under investigation by American and Iraqi authorities after claims surfaced that the assault killed villagers who were defending their community.

The incident occurred June 22 in a village southwest of Khalis near Baquba, the U.S. military said.

"Iraqi police were conducting security operations" when helicopters and ground forces "observed more than 15 armed men attempting to circumvent the [Iraqi police] and infiltrate the village," the military said at the time.

The military said "the attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al Qaeda gunmen and destroyed the vehicle they were using."

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said that authorities received complaints that some of those killed were civilians.

Investigators sent to the site by the ministry heard from witnesses that some of the dead were civilians and others were militants, the official said.

The U.S. Army also received reports from people saying that some of those killed were villagers defending their town, said spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver.

Garver said an inquiry had begun looking into "the accounts of the Iraqi police, the villagers and all the other circumstances related to the incident."

The attack helicopters were from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade and ground forces were from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

Anti-American cleric delays protest

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Friday the postponement of a nationwide march to protest the recent bombing of the revered Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, according to Iraqi state TV.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office on Thursday indicated it would be better to postpone the July 5 march until after the road from Baghdad to Samarra is properly secured.

State TV reported that al-Sadr postponed the march to the mosque until further notice.

Al-Sadr had called on Shiite followers to march to the mosque, where twin minaret prayer towers were bombed June 13. Sunni militants are suspected in the attack, which followed a 2006 bombing at the shrine that sparked the current wave of nationwide Shiite-Sunni violence.

Al-Maliki said providing safety on the road between Baghdad and Samarra and "cleansing it of terror organizations will take a bit of time."

The Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential Iraqi Sunni group, warned that the march could spur violence. There have been threats from Sunni insurgent groups intent on targeting pilgrims planning to travel to Samarra.

Two U.S. Soldiers Charged With Murdering Iraqis

2007-06-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with the premeditated murders of three Iraqis killed in three separate incidents between April and June of this year, according to a U.S. military statement.

A woman and child sit beside a wounded man in the Sadr City hospital on Saturday.

In addition to the murder charges, the two enlisted men are accused of trying to cover up the crimes, committed in Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, by planting weapons next to the Iraqis' bodies, the military said.

The soldiers are identified as Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, of Candler, North Carolina, and Spc. Jorge G Sandoval, Jr., of Laredo, Texas.

Hensley was charged with three counts of premeditated murder, three counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of "wrongfully placing a weapon" next to a body. Hensley was arrested Thursday and taken to Kuwait to be held before the trial.

Sandoval faces one count of premeditated murder and one count of wrongfully placing a weapon next to a body. He was arrested Tuesday at his home in Texas and was also taken to Kuwait, the military said.

Both are assigned to the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 501 Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska.

The military statement said the investigation into the killings began when fellow soldiers reported wrongdoing to military authorities.

Also, U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 26 people they described as "secret cell terrorists" and captured another 17 during raids in Baghdad's Sadr City Saturday morning, the U.S. military said -- an operation that brought an angry response from Iraq's prime minister.

The U.S. military said the raids, conducted in the pre-dawn hours in the densely populated Shiite slum, targeted terrorists tied to "Iranian terror networks," which the military said are responsible for helping the flow of lethal aid into Iraq.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said local officials reported just seven people killed and that all of them were civilians.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks were carried out without the proper approval.

"The government will demand an explanation from the multinational forces about what happened in Sadr City earlier today," said al-Maliki, who deplored what he characterized as attacks on civilians under the guise of "fighting terrorists and militias."

The government "absolutely rejects any military operation by the multinational forces all over the provinces and cities of Iraq without a previous permission or coordination with the commandership of the Iraqi forces," he said.

He also said that the government also "prohibits any Iraqi special forces to comply or implement any military operations without the permission and approval of the Iraqi leadership in the military." Those who disobey such directives will face charges, he said.

In other raids on Saturday, coalition forces detained 16 people described as "suspected terrorists" during operations targeting al Qaeda in Iraq leaders in Nineveh and Anbar provinces, the U.S. military said.

The military also announced Saturday that an insurgent killed in fighting Friday near the Anbar province city of Falluja has been identified as a high-level al Qaeda leader.

An Egyptian, who is believed to have fought for al Qaeda in Afghanistan five years ago before moving into Iraq, was killed during fighting east of Falluja Friday, the military said.

The military said the man worked directly for the military emir of al Qaeda in Iraq, and is associated with other al Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders.

Also on Saturday: At least 15 civilians and police recruits were killed in Muqdadiya, Iraq, on Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated in the Diyala province town, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

Twelve people were wounded in the bombing that hit an outdoor market, near a police station.

Muqdadiya is one of the restive towns in Diyala -- which sprawls north and east of Baghdad and borders Iran.

The U.S. military has been conducting an offensive in the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba called Operation Arrowhead Ripper..

The military also said that the report earlier this week of 20 men beheaded in Iraq's Salman Pak area appears to be "completely false and fabricated by unknown sources."

The area is southeast of Baghdad, in one of the so-called Baghdad belts where U.S. and Iraqi troops have launched operations against insurgents.

World's Oldest Car For Sale

2007-06-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

A steam-powered car, billed as the oldest car in the world that still runs, will be sold in a Pebble Beach, Calif., auction in August.

The car was built in France in 1884, about a year before Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz of Germany built their first experimental gasoline-powered cars. (The two were working independently of one another.) Henry Ford, the man many Americans mistakenly believe invented the automobile, built his first car 12 years after this one.

The four-wheeled De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux, nicknamed "La Marquise," was originally built for the French Count De Dion, one of the founders of the company. The car has had only two other owners since, according to auction house Gooding & Company, which is handling the sale.

In an 1887 demonstration drive, the car covered a 19 mile course at an average speed of 26 miles per hour. The following year, it won the world's first car race, according to Gooding, beating a three-wheeled steam-powered De Dion-Bouton.

Fueled by coal, wood and bits of paper, the car takes about a half-hour to work up enough steam to drive. Top speed is 38 miles per hour.

"That's as fast as you want to go," said David Gooding, founder of the auction company. "It feels like going 80 or 90 miles per hour in a newer automobile. And, by newer, I mean 1910."

The car runs on thin tires of solid rubber wrapped around metal wheels.

Bob Casey, curator of transportation for the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, agreed that the De Dion-Bouton is, quite possibly, the oldest running automobile. (The definition of "automobile," in this case, excludes large steam-powered carriages that were, essentially, rail cars without rails.) Casey's museum has an American-made steamer dating from the 1860s but it's no longer safe to drive and probably wasn't even when Henry Ford bought it in 1930.

Gooding estimates the car's value at between $1. 5 million and $2 million. It will be auctioned on August 19 in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Laptop Thief May Go To Prison For Life

2007-06-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

The lesson for daters: If your inaugural encounter with an online paramour begins with a request for money and accolades for your laptop, move on. The lesson for thieves: If you steal your Net paramour's laptop, under California's three-strikes law you could be facing life in prison.

Earlier this week, a state appeals court in Los Angeles upheld a guilty verdict against a man named Ronnie Henning. According to court papers, he burglarized the apartment of a woman he met through an Internet personals site, made off with her laptop and certain accessories, and promptly sold them to a pawn shop for $250--but not before wiping her hard drive and changing the administrator's username to one identical to his online dating alias.

The court didn't take kindly to the reported repeat offender, who had been previously charged with felonies summarized as involving "moral turpitude." Henning now potentially faces 31 years to life in prison, thanks to a so-called Three Strikes law, which requires lengthier punishments to convicts with three or more prior felony convictions under their belts.

The episode that prompted the conviction dates back to February 2005, according to the court documents, when Rachel Daniels agreed to give Henning her mobile phone number and to meet him in person after they connected through an unnamed online dating site.

Henning went on to call Daniels at around 9:30 one night, tell her his truck had broken down, and request that she pick him up. Daniels obliged, and upon meeting her, Henning asked if he could borrow $70 to buy a truck part from a friend. Daniels realized she'd forgotten her wallet, so she drove both of them back to her house to retrieve it. There, she received what was arguably her first omen: Henning "commented favorably" on a laptop perched on the arm of her sofa, the court opinion said.

Daniels proceeded to drive Henning to the friend's house in purported quest of the auto part. But when he emerged with only a paper bag and asked her to drive him to another friend's house to get the "complete" part, she started to feel uneasy and drove him home, according to the court records. Still feeling apprehensive alone that night in her abode, she opted to stay at a friend's place.

Prompted by a call from her landlord the next morning, Daniels returned to her apartment to find that the door frame had been shattered, the door kicked in, and her laptop, modem and phone cord apparently stolen. A few weeks later, police informed her they had found a computer with her serial number at a pawn shop. Her files had been deleted, and the administrator's name had been set to "Baby Come Close"--Henning's username on the online dating sites.

According to court papers, it wasn't an isolated incident. At trial, another woman who had met Henning through the same site (and same username) a year earlier testified that he had stolen her car one night while she was asleep and given it up as "collateral" for gambling losses. (She ultimately recovered her vehicle; there were no charges against Henning in that episode.)

Henning denied wrongdoing in both incidents, according to the court papers. He said that he had instructed a friend to return the car and its keys belonging to the woman in the earlier incident. In the later case, he testified that he and Daniels had been dating for a week and that she had voluntarily given him her older laptop. He said he decided to pawn it after Daniels discovered Henning actually had a live-in girlfriend, blew up at him, and demanded that he return the machine.

he trial court didn't buy those arguments, and neither did the appeals body. There were too many similarities between the cases for anyone not to infer that Henning hadn't committed the laptop burglary, the appeals court wrote.

"Indeed, appellant testified he met them both through the same Web site," the court wrote. "He told both of them he had no children, when he in fact had nine children, and did not tell either of them he had a live-in girlfriend. He lied to each woman to obtain money from her."

Henning had appealed the verdict against him on several grounds: among other things, that the jury didn't have enough African-American members to provide a "representative cross-section of the community," that there wasn't enough evidence against him, and that the Three Strikes law was applied improperly. The appeals court, for its part, rejected all of those claims.

A burning car drove into the terminal of Glasgow Airport in Scotland

2007-06-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

A burning car has been driven into the terminal building of Glasgow Airport in Scotland.Images from Glasgow airport showed the SUV-type vehicle ablaze next to the terminal building.

Police and witnesses described an SUV-style vehicle in flames being driven at full speed towards the building.

The incident comes with the UK already on alert for terror attacks a day after two cars loaded with explosives were discovered in London.

An eyewitness at the airport speaking to a British TV network said there appeared to be injuries. Images showed black smoke and flames rising from the vehicle just outside the building. Sirens could be heard in the background.

A witness told Sky News that a man had fled from the car as it struck the building and been immediately wrestled to the ground by police.

Police said two people had been arrested, The Associated Press reported.

"The jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It exploded at the entrance to the terminal," one witness, Stephen Clarkson, told the BBC.

"It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank because it was not a massive explosion."

Airport authorities said the airport had been evacuated and all flights suspended.

In London police were examining the two cars and studying CCTV footage for clues about the identities of those behind a suspected terrorist plot that could have killed hundreds.

New Prime Minister Gordon Brown went to Scotland Yard on Saturday morning for an update on the investigation from senior police.

A Downing Street spokesman told the Press Association: "It was a private meeting. Mr. Brown was briefed on the current security situation and thanked frontline staff."

British officials said hundreds of people could have been killed if the devices in the cars had been set off.

The first car was discovered parked near Piccadilly Circus; the second was found about an hour later, less than a kilometer away near Trafalgar Square.

Scotland Yard authorities said they believed the two incidents were connected.

London police said the second car -- containing fuel, gas canisters and nails -- was "clearly linked" to the first explosives-packed car found outside a nightclub on Haymarket.

A "considerable" amount of fuel and gas canisters, along with a "substantial quantity of nails," was found in the blue Mercedes-Benz 280E, said Peter Clarke, Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner.

He said the second device, like the first, was "potentially viable" but was rendered safe by police explosives officers.

"These vehicles are clearly linked," he said.

The first car was discovered about 1:30 a.m. when an ambulance crew called to treat an ill person noticed what appeared to be smoke inside the car and notified authorities.

The car was parked in front of the Tiger Tiger club on Haymarket, and the discovery prompted the closing of several streets until the vehicle was hauled off nine hours later.

"In the car, they found significant quantities of petrol together with a number of gas cylinders," Clarke said. He could not immediately say how much fuel was there.

"I can tell you it was in several large containers," Clarke said. "There were also a large number of nails in the vehicle."

Previous plots

London has a long history of bomb attacks and alerts during decades of violence mounted by Northern Irish guerrilla groups. Lone attackers also have previously targeted the city's gay and immigrant communities.

Friday's incident came days before the second anniversary of July 7, 2005, when four Islamic extremist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system in the deadliest strike on the city since World War II.

While Clarke would not speculate that Tiger Tiger was the target, he said "some features of what's happened resonate with previous plots."

"In one previous case we heard talk about nightclubs potentially becoming targets. ... We, of course, saw reference to vehicles being filled with gas or fuel in order to create an explosion," he said.

There had been no intelligence warning of an attack, he said.

"It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life," Clarke said. "The vehicle was parked in one of the busiest parts of central London in the early hours of Friday morning when many, many people were leaving nightclubs and other places after the evening hours."

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "We're currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism."

The bombs were found just two days after Brown took office, and one day after he appointed members of his Cabinet.

Paris Hilton Released From Jail

2007-06-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton left jail Tuesday after a bizarre, three-week stay in which the hotel heiress was briefly released to her Hollywood Hills home, then sent screaming and crying back to a county lockup.
The 26-year-old celebutante walked out of the all-women's jail in Lynwood to an enormous horde of cameras and reporters after midnight. She had checked into the jail, largely avoiding the spotlight, late June 3 after a surprise appearance at the MTV Movie Awards.
Hilton smiled as she left the jail, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her parents, Kathy and Rick, met her in a black SUV as cameras snapped pictures and Hilton, wearing a gold blouse with white trim over a white shirt and black slacks, waved to the crowd.
She didn't say anything, and it wasn't immediately clear where she was going.
"She fulfilled her debt. She was obviously in good spirits. She thanked people as she left," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
Hilton will complete her probation in March 2009 as long as she keeps her driver's license current and doesn't break any laws. She can reduce that time by 12 months if she does community service that could include a public-service announcement, the city attorney's office has said.
Hilton began her 45-day sentence for violating her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. She was mostly confined to a solitary cell in the special needs unit away from the other 2,200 inmates.
She spent only three days there and was released with electronic monitoring by Sheriff Lee Baca for an unspecified medical condition that he later said was psychological. The following day Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer, who sentenced the hotel heiress, called her back into court and ordered her returned to jail, saying he had not condoned her release.
Hilton left the courtroom in tears calling for her mother and shouting, "It's not right!"
She was then taken to the downtown Twin Towers jail, which houses men and the county jail's medical treatment center, where she underwent medical and psychiatric exams to determine where she should be confined.
Hilton's stay there cost taxpayers $1,109.78 a day, more than 10 times the cost of housing inmates in the general population.
The move by Baca caused a firestorm of criticism over whether the celebrity was getting special treatment. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has launched an investigation into whether the multimillionaire received special treatment because of her wealth and fame.
At least one person has filed a claim against the county alleging she "had serious medical issues" but was treated much worse than Hilton.
A few days into her stint at the Twin Towers medical ward, the heiress revealed in a phone call to Barbara Walters a new outlook on life.
"I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute," Hilton said during the call, according to an account posted June 11 by Walters on ABC's Web site.
"It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me," Hilton was quoted as saying.
Hilton's path to jail began Sept. 7, when she failed a sobriety test after police saw her weaving down a street in her Mercedes-Benz on what she said was a late-night run to a hamburger stand.
She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.
In the months that followed, she was stopped twice by officers who discovered her driving with a suspended license. The second stop landed her in Sauer's courtroom, where he sentenced her to jail.

Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq

2007-06-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD - Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants in northern Iraq.

Separately, a predawn operation by U.S. forces working with Iraqi informants in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City netted three other militants suspected of ties to Iran, the military said.

The Americans have accused Iran of providing mainly Shiite militias with training and powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops in recent months.

Roadside bombs killed four soldiers northwest of the capital, a U.S. airman in Tikrit, and two U.S. soldiers in eastern Baghdad whose unit has recently targeted bomb networks, the military said. In addition, a British soldier died Saturday of wounds from a roadside bombing the day before in the southern city of Basra. A U.S. soldier also died Saturday of non-combat causes, the military said.

The U.S. military also cracked down elsewhere in Iraq, saying in a statement that seven other al-Qaida fighters were killed and 10 suspects detained in Tikrit, east of Fallujah, south of Baghdad and in Mosul.

It said the raid in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad, was targeting a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Two men were shot to death as they sped toward U.S. forces in a vehicle that was found to have a roadside bomb on the back seat, and two others suspects believed to have tied to the militant leader were detained, the military said.

An Iraqi commander in Diyala province, Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaie, said earlier Saturday that two senior al-Qaida militants had been detained there, but the U.S. military said he apparently was referring to the raid in Tikrit, which is in neighboring Salahuddin province.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said at least 55 al-Qaida operatives have been killed and 23 detained since the start of Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala. It also said 16 weapons caches have been discovered, and 28 roadside bombs and 12 booby-trapped structures have been destroyed.

Earlier this week, creeping house-to-house through western Baqouba, U.S. soldiers made a startling discovery: a suspected al-Qaida field hospital stocked with oxygen tanks, heart defibrillators and other medical equipment.

The find displayed al-Qaida's sophisticated support network in Baqouba, a mostly Sunni city of about 300,000 people.

Baqouba has received little aid or other services from the central government, which feared supplies would end up with al-Qaida. As the field hospital proved, much assistance did end up bypassing residents and found its way to the terrorist organization.

"There are a multitude of systematic functions that aren't working," said Maj. Robbie Parke, 36, spokesman for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. "The Iraqi government has to say, `Look, Baqouba is in trouble, and we need to help.'"

So far that has not happened, U.S. officials say. But there are signs of hope.

"The (Iraqi) government is very immature, but they're getting better and saying the right things. We've got to hold them to that," said Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the ground forces commander.

He spoke to AP during a trip to Baqouba on Thursday as American forces began in earnest to squeeze al-Qaida, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen after the arrival of the final brigade of an additional 30,000 troops dispatched by President Bush.

Conservative Wyoming surgeon becomes newest U.S. senator

2007-06-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Republican John Barrasso, a surgeon and conservative Wyoming legislator, was named as the country's newest U.S. senator Friday to replace the late Craig Thomas.

The temporary appointment, announced by Wyoming's governor, is immediate but won't change the Senate's party breakdown since Thomas was also a Republican. He died June 4 while being treated for leukemia.

Barrasso, 54, will serve in Thomas' place until the beginning of 2009. He said on his application that he also intends to then run in a November 2008 special election to serve out the remainder of Thomas' term, which ends in 2013.

"I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense," the orthopedic surgeon and state senator from Casper wrote in his application.

He said he has "voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life."

State Republican Party officials had given Gov. Dave Freudenthal a slate of three nominees from which he had to choose the temporary replacement for Thomas. Freudenthal, a Democrat, chose Barrasso over Cheyenne attorney Tom Sansonetti and former state Treasurer Cynthia Lummis.

"There are many factors that went into this decision, and it was the sum of these factors that led me to this choice," the governor said. "While I don't intend to indulge the speculation on why I made this decision, I will say that I hope I made the right choice."

Barrasso, a state senator since 2003, rose quickly in the Legislature and became chairman of the Senate Transportation, Highway and Military Affairs Committee.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in the 1990s, but lost the 1996 Republican primary to Mike Enzi, now the state's senior senator.

University of Wyoming political science professor James King said the state won't see much change in its political representation in Congress, though Barrasso's medical background will bring some practical knowledge to issues like heath care reform.

Blockbuster takes a side in DVD format war

2007-06-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

In what some have termed a "death knell" for HD-DVD, Blockbuster Video has announced that it will be moving almost exclusively to Blu-ray for its high-definition titles and away from HD-DVD. 1700 stores will be Blu-ray only, while 250 stores (and online) will carry both next-gen DVD formats. (Naturally, all will still carry regular DVDs and, I guess, VHS. That still exists, right?)

The news isn't quite a death blow for HD-DVD, though it isn't good. Blockbuster's power in the market has been fading for some time. The company's market capitalization, for example, is now 35 percent less than online-only renter Netflix. Blockbuster stock trades at $4.60. Still, Blockbuster buys an awful lot of DVDs and they won't be stocking many HD-DVDs going forward. That could be a big problem for the format in this early stage in its life.

The news is particularly sad because most users tend to feel that HD-DVD is the superior format, with people going ga-ga over its heavily interactive features and exceptional bonus content.

That said, Blu-ray has, according to many reports, been chipping away at HD-DVDs early lead. Though making predictions based on early results is difficult, Blu-ray undoubtedly has the momentum right now.

Personally, I am so unthrilled with both formats that I'm happy to see someone, finally, taking a stand in the marketplace one way or another. Even if Blu-ray is technologically inferior, it will evolve and improve. But the industry is just spinning its wheels while this format war rages on, and consumers continue to be the ones who lose while things get figured out as half the buyers are essentially wasting their money.

Still, Blockbuster is just one player, and Netflix could announce tomorrow that it is only stocking HD-DVD titles, who knows? And I hope all renters and retailers make similar decisions in the near future, one way or the other. The sooner the format war is ended, no matter who wins, the better off we all are.

U.S. mistakenly kills police officers

2007-06-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman labeled the shooting at a remote police checkpoint in the eastern province of Nangarhar "a tragic incident" caused by a lack of communication.

"The police forces were not aware of the coalition's operation," said spokesman Karim Rahimi.

"The police checkpoint in the area thought that they were the enemy, so police opened fire on the coalition, and then the coalition thought that the enemies were firing on them, so they returned fire back."

The commander at the post, Esanullah, who goes by one name, said U.S. gunfire and helicopter rockets killed seven policemen and wounded four.Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said a combined coalition-Afghan force was ambushed by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades from two sides while on the way to conduct an operation against a suspected Taliban safe house.

"I thought they were Taliban, and we shouted at them to stop, but they came closer and they opened fire," said Khan Mohammad, one of the policemen at the post. "I'm very angry. We are here to protect the Afghan government and help serve the Afghan government, but the Americans have come to kill us."Rahimi said the incident showed why Karzai has repeatedly called for increased cooperation and communication between Afghan and international troops. He said an investigation into the incident had been opened.

The killings of civilians by international troops has been an ongoing problem in Afghanistan, and several recent civilian shootings prompted the upper house of parliament to pass a bill last month that would prohibit international forces from launching military operations unless they are attacked or have first consulted with the Afghan army, government or police.In Nangarhar province in March -- the same province of Tuesday's police shootings -- 19 civilians were killed and 50 wounded by Marines Special Operations Forces who fired on civilians while speeding away from the site of a suicide bomb attack, casualties that sparked angry protests and denunciations of the U.S. presence there.A force of some 30 Taliban later attacked the same coalition convoy, and Western forces called in airstrikes on a compound and a vehicle. "During the eight-hour battle, over two dozen enemy fighters were killed," the coalition said.

Meanwhile, three Afghan civilians were killed and two wounded in the eastern province of Kunar on Monday after a car drove through a NATO checkpoint and soldiers opened fire on it, said NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The car drove through the checkpoint despite the use of hand gestures and flashing lights, ISAF said.A roadside bomb attack 25 miles north of Kandahar city on Monday killed a Canadian soldier. The soldier, identified as Trooper Darryl Caswell of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, was the 57th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan, the Canadian military said.

Violence has spiked in Afghanistan in recent weeks. More than 2,300 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on U.S., NATO and Afghan figures.

Google wins 'race to bottom' on privacy

2007-06-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

The London-based group released a report on Saturday entitled "A Race to the Bottom--Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies" that rates Google, alone among 20 sites, as having an "entrenched hostility to privacy."

With each search on Google, the company gathers information about a customer's tastes, interests and beliefs that could potentially be used by third parties such as advertisers. But the company says it never passes on personal data.While the preliminary report details a handful of specific concerns, the main threat Privacy International spells out is Google's growing size and scope as the world's largest provider of Web searches, along with the consumer data that the company collects as it delivers ever more personalized Web services.

"This is in part due to the diversity and specificity of Google's product range and the ability of the company to share extracted data between these tools, and in part it is due to Google's market dominance and the sheer size of its user base," the report finds.The rankings were arrived at after a six-month probe of privacy practices at key Web search companies, e-mail providers, and e-commerce and social networking sites. Privacy International promised to issue a fuller report in September, after further consultation with the companies involved.

Google said the latest report was mistaken.

We are disappointed with Privacy International's report which is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services," Nicole Wong, associate general counsel at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said in a statement.

The substance of the accusations against Google are that the company's privacy policy disclosures are incomplete and "possibly deceptive" and that Google has a poor history of responding to consumer complaints. Also it occasionally does not accept public input before introducing services.

"Throughout our research we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google's approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations," the report states.

"While a number of companies share some of these negative elements, none comes close to achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy," the report says in reference to Google.

Porn shown in 4th grade clasroom, teacher not blamed this time

2007-06-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

Fourth graders in Bedford County, Virginia were accidentally exposed to "hardcore pornography" in the classroom this week, but parents and the administration are reacting very differently than in another recent classroom porn case. A teacher was showing an educational video about tessellations to her fourth grade class when the video ended, the credits rolled, and then pornography came up on the screen. The teacher of the 20-student class "sprinted" across the room to turn it off, according to Bedford County schools spokesperson Ryan Edwards, but by that time, the students had already seen several seconds of the illicit video. "The children and the teacher were completely shocked," Edwards told the Arizona Republic.

This reaction comes in stark contrast to another incident in which children were accidentally exposed to pornographic images in the classroom. Connecticut substitute teacher Julie Amero was convicted for not doing enough to prevent her students from seeing pornographic pop-ups on a classroom PC earlier this year and faced up to 40 years in prison. The school admitted that the computer was not up to date with its virus and malware protections, but that didn't stop it from accusing Amero of intentionally showing the students porn. A local "computer expert" even testified that the browser's history indicated that Amero intentionally clicked on links to pornographic web sites. Luckily for Amero, computer forensics performed after her conviction contradicted the testimony of the "expert," and she was granted a new trial this week.

The tape was in possession of the school for four years, according to Edwards, but no one had ever played it that far past the credits before. It was produced by Teachers Video Co., formerly of Scottsdale, AZ, but the company claims that the master copy of the film does not contain the pornographic clips. They and the school suspect that the duplication facility that generated copies of the tape is responsible, probably by reusing old pornographic tapes without having fully erased them. Teachers Video's parent company, School Specialty, has apologized to the school district.