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Today's news: US nuclear weapons scare

January 15th 2010 23:22
security scare

There has been a security scare at the super-sensitive Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas.

Officials locked down the plant, which maintains the safety, security and reliability of the US nuclear weapons stockpile, and initiated security procedures after receiving a report that two men wearing camouflage gear and carrying weapons had been seen across the road from the factory.


The plant was briefly shut down as a "precautionary measure", an official said.

The full force of local security and law enforcement then swung into action, and quickly determined that the two men were duck hunters.

"There was not a threat to the Pantex plant assets, workers, or the public, and the plant is now returning to normal operations," Pantex said in a statement.

The men "were just doing what people do around here", said Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry.

The two men suddenly "had a lot more company than they were planning on", Sheriff Terry said. No charges were laid as the men both had permission to hunt from the local landowner.
Reuters


flying duck


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Today's news: Fare's fair

January 14th 2010 02:52
new york cabs
There are an estimated 13,000 taxis in New York city
It's an ongoing saga: person leaves valuables in New York cab, cab driver finds person and returns valuables.

The latest involves a 72-year-old Italian tourist named Felicia Lettieri, a young taxi driver named Mukul Asadujjaman, and a large purse containing about US$21,000 in cash, jewellery worth several thousand dollars and some passports.

Asadujjaman, who is a native of Bangladesh and is studying medicine in the US when he isn't driving taxis, found the purse on the back seat of his cab, and inside it found an address for the Italian tourist group of which Ms Lettieri was part. Asadujjaman borrowed a friend's car and drove about 80 kilometres to the address, only to find no-one there. He left his phone number, drove home, was contacted, and drove all the way back to return the purse.

He then declined to accept a reward, saying his Muslim faith prevented him doing so.

In 2007, Osman Chowdhury, another Bangladeshi driving cabs in the US, returned a bag containing diamond rings worth $500,000. He had to track down the owner in Texas.

And in 2008 Mohamed Khalil, of Egyptian background, dropped a passenger at Newark Liberty Airport, and later discovered the passenger had left a violin in the cab. When he tracked down the owner and returned the violin, he learned that the man was Philippe Quint, a world-famous violinist, and that the violin was a Stradivarius, made in 1723, and worth about US$4 million.

As well as a cash reward, Quint gave Khalil a 30-minute private performance and then invited his entire family to Quint's next performance, which was at Carnegie Hall.


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Obama gets it right

November 19th 2009 02:09
obama bow

When US President Barack Obama met Japanese Emperor Akihito in Tokyo last week, he both shook hands and bowed.

It was a deep bow in the Japanese style, and immediately had wags calling it “stoop-id” and others questioning such an obsequious gesture by a US president to anyone, let alone the son of Japanese war-time Emperor Hirohito.

It was an opportunity for newspaper headline writers and anyone with a political agenda against President Obama.

It is a regrettable, and boring, fact of political life that anything you do will have its critics. To hold your handkerchief in one hand while blowing your nose is to instantly insult, wound and disenfranchise the majority of honest citizens who use two hands. Or so someone will claim.

Obama’s bow to the 65-year-old Emperor was a gracious, graceful and dignified gesture. It was as appropriate as it was civilised.

It is telling that it went almost unnoticed in Japan, where the bow is as ubiquitous as the handshake in the US. Indeed, the Japanese would only have had cause for comment if Obama had not bowed, or not bowed deeply enough.

In a way, it was an unremarkable thing that the President did, no more or less than most thinking people would have expected. But it didn’t stop negative knee-jerks from self-serving knockers who wouldn’t recognize a gracious act if it bit them on the nose.


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Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize

October 9th 2009 09:24
US President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

We look forward to SL Bradish's refutation.
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Hanging out their dirty Washington

October 1st 2009 23:56
senator john ensign
US Senator John Naughty Boy Ensign

Sex scandals have been around almost as long as politicians, and American Senator John Ensign has just added his name to a long list of parliamentarians who followed elect with erect.

[ Click here to read more ]
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William Safire, 1929-2009

September 27th 2009 23:39
william safire
William Safire receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006

William Lewis Safire, Pulitzer Prize winner, language expert, long-time columnist for The New York Times and speech writer for President Nixon, has died at the age of 79. The Baltimore Sun newspaper described him as a conservative columnist and word warrior who feared no politician or corner of the English language.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Jacko nominated for Nobel Prize

August 11th 2009 05:22
michael jackson

A petition seeking to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Michael Jackson — yes, that one — has been signed by more than 15,000 people.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Bra 1 Bullet 0

April 23rd 2009 22:00
bra

In another strong argument for the right to carry guns, a burglar in Detroit has shot a woman watching him from a neighbouring window. Why not? After all, she might have rung the police. Just goes to show how good guns are for preventative action.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Record breaker

February 15th 2009 07:03
lee redmond long nails
Lee Redmond and her record finger nails

Breaking a nail shouldn't break your heart, but in Lee Redmond's case it came close.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Daring to win

January 24th 2009 07:02
basketball womens

Sport, like politics, is about daring to win.

[ Click here to read more ]
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George W Bush, who in 2000 started his forceful march to the US presidency by asking, "Is our children learning", leaves the public stage shortly, which is sad because he will now have fewer opportunities to mangle the language.

Debate may rage forever over relative merit of the gaffs which have come to be known collectively as Bushisms, but The Global Language Monitor, an organisation which tracks language trends, has just published its Top 15 list of Bushisms, and coming out on top is "misunderestimate


[ Click here to read more ]
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God bless America

October 19th 2008 04:12
ernie chambers
Senator Ernie Chambers

One is led to wonder at the amount of cynicism and scepticism being aimed at American politicians at the moment. Are we all getting complacent? Aren't these democratically elected citizens our natural leaders and guides in questions of community values and behaviour?

[ Click here to read more ]
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Bumble's guide to US law

July 19th 2008 08:15
Mr Bumble
Dickens' Mr Bumble, the first to claim that the law can be an ass

Is it naďve to suggest that America is the land where litigation is the domain of the inventive? If you dream it, they will sue it.

[ Click here to read more ]
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2008 All-Star game logo
Oh my, the Americans do it well, don't they? It was a celebration of baseball, and it was a celebration of sport. It was a privilege to see the living Hall of Famers, it was moving to see the tribute to Yankee Stadium, and it was fascinating to watch and witness the history and lore and love for this game of baseball of Americans.

It's a global game, and many other countries were represented in the All-Star game, but it's an essentially American day, a window to its culture


[ Click here to read more ]
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