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http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/8347049-418/former-irish-president-robinson-climate-change-deniers-should-see-what-ive-seen.html

http://news.yahoo.com/hockey-shock-russian-jet-crash-kills-43-185622176.html


TUNOSHNA, Russia (AP) — A private Russian jet carrying a top ice hockey team slammed into a riverbank moments after takeoff Wednesday, killing at least 43 people in one of the worst plane crashes ever involving a sports team. Two other people on board were critically injured.

Both Russia and the world of hockey were left stunned by the deaths of so many international stars in one catastrophic event. The International Ice Hockey Federation said 27 players of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team were killed, along with 2 coaches and 7 club officials.

Russian NHL star Alex Ovechkin tweeted: "I'm in shock!!!!!R.I.P ..."

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42 plane crashed into the shores of the Volga River immediately after leaving the airport near the western city of Yaroslavl, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow. The weather was sunny and clear at the time. Russian media said the plane struggled to gain altitude and then crashed into a signal tower, shattering into pieces.

Russian television showed a flaming fragment of the plane in the river as divers worked feverishly to recover bodies.

The plane was carrying the team from Yaroslavl to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where they were to play Thursday against Dinamo Minsk in the opening game of the Kontinental Hockey League season. It had 45 people on board, including 37 passengers and eight crew, the ministry said.

Officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.

"Their state of health is very grave. But there is still some hope," said Alexander Degyatryov, chief doctor at Yaroslavl's Solovyov Hospital.

Among the dead were Lokomotiv coach and NHL veteran Brad McCrimmon, a Canadian, as well as Pavol Demitra, who played for the St. Louis Blues and the Vancouver Canucks and was the Slovakian national team captain. Also killed were Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, Latvian defenseman Karlis Skrastins and defenseman Ruslan Salei of Belarus, the Emergency Ministry said.

"Though it occurred thousands of miles away from our home arenas, this tragedy represents a catastrophic loss to the hockey world — including the NHL family, which lost so many fathers, sons, teammates and friends," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.



The crash comes on top of an already mournful year for the NHL in which three of the league's enforcers were found dead: Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and recently retired Wade Belak.

The cause of Wednesday's crash was not immediately apparent, but Russian news agencies cited unnamed local officials as saying it may have been due to technical problems. The plane was built in 1993 and belonged to a small Moscow-based Yak Service company.

In recent years, Russia and the other former Soviet republics have had some of the world's worst air traffic safety records. Experts blame the poor safety record on the age of the aircraft, weak government controls, poor pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality.

Swarms of police and rescue crews rushed to Tunoshna, a ramshackle village with a blue-domed church on the banks of the Volga River 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Yaroslavl. One of the plane's engines could be seen poking out of the river and a flotilla of boats combed the water for bodies. Divers struggled to heft the bodies of large, strong athletes in stretchers up the muddy, steep riverbank.

Resident Irina Prakhova saw the plane going down then heard a loud bang.

"It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong," said Prakhova. "I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on."

More than 2,000 mourning fans wearing jerseys and scarves and waving team flags gathered in the evening outside Lokomotiv's stadium in Yaroslavl to pay their respects. Riot police stood guard as fans chanted sport songs in honor of the dead athletes.

Yaroslavl governor Sergei Vakhrukov promised the crowd that the Lokomotiv team would be rebuilt from scratch, prompting anger from some fans at a perceived lack of respect for the dead.

Lokomotiv is a leading force in Russian hockey and came third in the KHL last year. It was also a three-time Russian League champion in 1997, 2002 and 2003.

McCrimmon, who took over as coach in May, was most recently an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, and played for years in the NHL for Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Calgary, Hartford and Phoenix.

"We will do our best to ensure that hockey in Yaroslavl does not die, and that it continues to live for the people that were on that plane," said Russian Ice Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretyak.

A cup game between hockey teams Salavat Yulaev and Atlant in the central Russian city of Ufa was called off in mid-match after news of the crash was announced. Russian television showed an empty arena in Ufa as grief-stricken fans abandoned the stadium.

The KHL is an international club league of teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia.

Russia was hoping to showcase Yaroslavl as a modern and vibrant city this week at an international forum attended by heads of state, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, so the crash came as a particularly bitter blow.

Many in the Czech Republic also took the news hard.

"Jan Marek, Karel Rachunek, and Josef Vasicek contributed greatly to the best successes of our ice hockey in the recent years, first of all to the golden medals at the world championships in 2005 and 2010," said Tomas Kral, the president of the Czech ice hockey association. "The were excellent players, but also great friends and personalities. That's how we will remember them."

Fans planned to gather Thursday at the Old Town Square in the Czech capital of Prague, where national team players usually celebrate, to commemorate the three Czech players. Vasicek was on the Carolina Hurricanes' 2006 Stanley Cup team.

In the western Slovak city of Trencin, where Demitra started his career and where he played during the NHL lockout 2004-05 season, hundreds fans gathered outside the ice hockey stadium Wednesday night to light candles in his memory.

Medvedev has announced plans to take aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year. The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980 and about 100 are still being used by Russian carriers.

In June, another Russian passenger jet, a Tu-134, crashed in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk, killing 47 people. That crash has been blamed on pilot error.

In past plane crashes involving sports teams, 75 Marshall University football players, coaches, fans and airplane crew died in Huntington, West Virginia, on Nov. 14, 1970, coming home from a game. Thirty-six of the dead were players and 5 were coaches.

Some 29 people were killed when a plane carrying the Uruguayan rugby club Old Christians crashed in the Andes in 1972, including five crew and some family members.

The entire 18-member U.S. figure skating team died in a crash en route to the 1961 world championships in Brussels, and 18 members of the Torino soccer team died near Turin, Italy, in a 1949 crash.

In 1993, another plane crash claimed 18 members of Zambia's national football team and five team officials in Libreville, Gabon.

For all you music fans, Lollapalooza 2011 in Chicago is sold out for the 3 day music festival.

But the festival will broadcast live 8 hours a day on 2 channels on Youtube.

go to this link            http://www.lollapalooza.com/   

I didn't see this posted, My apologies if it was. This could go under the WTF thread but I think it needs its own.

The girl Is ACTUALLY 16   


http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b252627_green_mile_actor_16-year-old_bride_open.html?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/89326/saxophonist-clarence-clemons-dead-at-69/

Saxophonist Clarence Clemons Dead at 69
Posted 55 minutes ago by Caryn Ganz in Amplifier


The "Big Man," saxophonist Clarence Clemons, has died in Palm Beach, Florida, from complications of a stroke he suffered last week. The beloved 69-year-old musician met his most famous collaborator, Bruce Springsteen, at an Asbury Park, New Jersey bar during a lightning storm in 1971 and became a member of the E Street band the following year when the Boss began recording his debut album. For three decades, Clemons provided the soulful blasts that helped define Springsteen's signature sound. .

Before he joined the E Street Band, Clemons was a gospel fan and gifted athlete whose chance at a professional football career was ended by a car accident. Outside of the band, he duetted with Jackson Browne on 1985's "You're a Friend of Mine" and played sax on Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love." The gregarious rocker guested on Diff'rent Strokes and in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and took more serious roles in The Wire..

But he was best known as one of Springsteen's most trusted sidemen, a literally towering presence onstage and off. Earlier this week, Bruce asked fans to "share in a hopeful spirit that can ultimately inspire Clarence to greater heights." Tonight he issued a statement on his friend's death that reads, "Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly 40 years. He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band." .

Lady Gaga, who asked Clemons to play on her latest album Born This Way, released a video this week that will likely be considered the Big Man's last piece of work. In the pared-down clip for "The Edge of Glory" Clarence simply sits on a tenement stoop and blows his horn the best way he knew how -- with stylish, glorious soul..

IMF chief jailed without bail in NY hotel-sex case

REUTERS/Mike Segar
ShareretweetEmailPrint AP – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, is arraigned Monday, May 16, 2011, in ...
NEW YORK – Haggard and unshaven after a weekend in jail, the chief of the International Monetary Fund was denied release on bail Monday on charges of trying to rape a hotel maid as allegations of other, similar attacks by Dominique Strauss-Kahn began to emerge.

In France, a lawyer for a novelist said the writer is likely to file a criminal complaint accusing Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her nine years ago. A French lawmaker accused him of attacking other maids in previous stays at the same luxury hotel. And in New York, prosecutors said they are working to verify reports of at least one other case, which they suggested was overseas.

Strauss-Kahn's weekend arrest rocked the financial world as the IMF grapples with the European debt crisis, and upended French presidential politics. Strauss-Kahn, a member of France's Socialist party, was widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Making his first appearance on the sex charges, a grim-looking Strauss-Kahn stood slumped before a judge in a dark raincoat and open-collared shirt. The 62-year-old, silver-haired Strauss-Kahn said nothing as a lawyer professed his innocence and strove in vain to get him released on bail.

The judge ruled against him after prosecutors warned that the wealthy banker might flee to France and put himself beyond the reach of U.S. law like the filmmaker Roman Polanski.

"This battle has just begun," defense attorney Benjamin Brafman told scores of reporters outside the courthouse, adding that Strauss-Kahn might appeal the bail denial.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking a maid who had gone in to clean his penthouse suite Saturday afternoon at a luxury hotel near Times Square. He is charged with attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The most serious charge carries five to 25 years in prison.

Strauss-Kahn, who has headed the international lending agency since 2007, was in New York on personal business and was paying his own way, so he cannot claim diplomatic immunity, the IMF said. He could seek that protection only if he were conducting official business, spokesman William Murray said. The agency's executive board met informally Monday for a report on the charges against Strauss-Kahn, its managing director.




The French newspaper Le Monde, citing people close to Strauss-Kahn, said he had reserved the $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel for one night for a quick trip to have lunch with his daughter, who is studying in New York.

The 32-year-old maid told authorities that she thought the suite was empty but that Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway, pulled her into a bedroom and dragged her into a bathroom, police said.

He grabbed her breasts, tried to pull down her pantyhose, grabbed at her crotch and forced her to perform oral sex on him during the encounter at about noon, according to a court complaint. She ultimately broke free, escaped the room and told hotel staffers what had happened, authorities said. She was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

"The victim provided a very powerful and detailed account of the violent sexual assault," Assistant District Attorney John "Ardie" McConnell said. He added that forensic evidence may support her account. Strauss-Kahn voluntarily submitted to a forensic examination Sunday night.

Brafman said defense lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter." Defense lawyers wouldn't elaborate, but Brafman said "there are significant issues that were already found" that make it "quite likely that he will be ultimately be exonerated."

Prosecutors asked the judge to hold Strauss-Kahn without bail, noting that he lives in France, is wealthy, has an international job and was arrested on a Paris-bound plane at Kennedy Airport. He had left the Sofitel hotel before police arrived, leaving his cellphone behind, and appeared hurried on surveillance recordings, authorities said.

At one point, Strauss-Kahn called the hotel "in a panic" about the phone, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Hotel security officers hadn't found a phone. But they were instructed by NYPD investigators to set a trap by informing him they had it and asking where they could get it to him, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed.

Strauss-Kahn told them he was about to board a flight — unknowingly tipping off authorities to his whereabouts, the official said.

Prosecutors said they couldn't force Strauss-Kahn's return from France if he went there.

"He would be living openly and notoriously in France, just like Roman Polanski," said Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel Alonso, referring to the film director long sought by California authorities for sentencing in a 1977 child sex case. Swiss police arrested him in 2009, but he was freed last year when Switzerland declined to extradite him to the United States.

Defense lawyers suggested bail be set at $1 million and promised that the IMF managing director would remain in New York City. His lawyers said Strauss-Kahn wasn't trying to elude police Saturday: The IMF head rushed out of the hotel at about 12:30 p.m. to get to a lunch date with a family member, then caught a flight for which he had long had a ticket, according to Brafman and fellow defense lawyer William W. Taylor.

"This is not a case of someone who commits a crime, runs to the airport and jumps on the first available plane," Brafman said.

Still, Criminal Court Judge Melissa C. Jackson, who was an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn for nearly 22 years before being appointed to Manhattan Criminal Court in 2003, said the fact that Strauss-Kahn was on a plane when arrested "raises some concerns." She ordered him jailed at least until a court proceeding on Friday.

Strauss-Khan will be held in protective custody in the city's Rikers Island jail because of his high profile, said city Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello. Unlike some inmates, who share 50-bed barracks, Strauss-Kahn will have a single-bed cell and eat all his meals alone there. Also, when he is outside his cell, he will have a guard escort.

Strauss-Kahn makes an annual tax-free salary as head of the IMF of $420,930, plus an annual "scale of living" allowance of $75,350, according to a 2007 IMF press release.

According to the 2000 biography "Les Vies Cachees de DSK" by Vincent Giret and Veronique Le Billon, Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, was one of France's highest-paid TV journalists before she gave up her job to avoid a possible conflict of interest when her husband became a government minister in 1997. The biography says Sinclair is also a wealthy heiress, whose grandfather Paul Rosenberg was a prominent modern art dealer before the Second World War.

French newspapers have inventoried the couple's real estate holdings, which reportedly include a six-room apartment in Paris' chic 16th arrondissement; a 240-square-meter apartment on the luxurious Place des Vosges; a home in Marrakech, and a house in Washington.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for 31-year-old French novelist Tristane Banon said she will probably file a complaint alleging Strauss-Kahn sexually attacked her in 2002. Lawyer David Koubbi told French radio RTL that Banon hadn't pressed her claim earlier because of "pressures" but would do so now because "she knows she'll be taken seriously."

The Associated Press is identifying Banon as an alleged victim of sexual assault because she has gone public with her account.

Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, a regional Socialist official in Normandy, said she had advised her daughter at the time against pursuing her claim.

A French lawmaker from a rival political party also alleged, without offering evidence, that Strauss-Kahn had victimized several maids during past stays at the Sofitel near Times Square.

The hotel issued a statement calling conservative lawmaker Michel Debre's claims "baseless and defamatory." Sofitel management "has had no knowledge of any previous attempted aggressions," the hotel said, adding that it had set up a hotline for workers to report incidents more than a year ago.

McConnell, the assistant district attorney, said in court Monday that New York authorities are working to verify at least one other case of "conduct similar to the conduct alleged." When the judge asked whether the potential other incident occurred in the United States, McConnell said he "believed that was abroad."

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they had no immediate response to the allegations emerging from overseas.

In France, defenders of Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister who had topped the polls as a possible candidate in presidential elections next year, said they suspected he was the victim of a smear campaign.

The 187-nation IMF provides emergency loans to countries in severe distress and tries to maintain global financial stability.

___

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Paris, Chris Rugaber in Washington and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.

There is a test now that will help determine your life expectancy by measuring your telomeres which are the end part of your DNA chromosome..........would you do it?


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/blood-test-determine-quickly-body-aging/story?id=13613344

http://mashable.com/2011/04/17/japan-tsunami-video/

3 online poker houses face fraud charges in NYC


By LARRY NEUMEISTER and OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Larry Neumeister And Oskar Garcia, Associated Press – 1 hr 3 mins ago
NEW YORK – Federal authorities busted the three largest online poker websites in the United States on Friday with charges of bank fraud and illegal gambling against 11 people, accusing them of manipulating banks to process billions of dollars in illegal revenue.

Prosecutors in Manhattan said they've issued restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts in 14 countries used by the poker companies, interrupting the illegal flow of billions of dollars.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the defendants "concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits."

The companies, all based overseas, were identified as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. The indictment sought $3 billion in money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the defendants.

The indictment said the companies ran afoul of the law after the U.S. in October 2006 enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which makes it a crime for gambling businesses to knowingly accept most forms of payment in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling.

Authorities said Absolute Poker responded by saying in a release after the new law was enacted that it would continue its U.S. operations because "the U.S. Congress has no control over" the company's payment transactions.

Early Saturday, PokerStars posted a statement to its players through its computer software and on Twitter. The company said it has had to suspend real money play to customers based in the United States.

"Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern," the company said. "For all customers outside the U.S. it is business as usual."

An attempt to look at the website for PokerStars.com was met with a message from the FBI saying the domain name had been seized as part of a criminal probe. In all, authorities said they had seized five Internet domain names used by the poker companies to operate illegally in the U.S.

Full Tilt Poker released a statement late Friday defending its executives named in the indictment, including Nelson Burtnick and its CEO, Raymond Bitar.

"I am surprised and disappointed by the government's decision to bring these charges," Bitar said in a statement. "I look forward to Mr. Burtnick's and my exoneration."

Bitar is accused of arranging for money received from American gamblers to be disguised as payments to online merchants that didn't exist.

The company said it has suspended play for real money on its site in the United States but would continue offering gambling on poker in other countries.

Efforts to reach Absolute Poker were not successful.

The indictment said the defendants turned to fraudulent methods to trick financial institutions into processing payments on their behalf after the law was passed.

It said they sometimes arranged for money from U.S. gamblers to be disguised as payments to hundreds of non-existent online merchants purporting to sell merchandise such as jewelry and golf balls.

Prosecutors said about a third or more of the billions of dollars in payment transactions that the poker companies tricked U.S. banks into processing went directly to the poker companies as revenue. They said the money represented the "rake" charged to players on almost every poker hand played online.

Two arrests occurred Friday in Las Vegas and Utah, while another man was expected to surrender in Utah on Monday. Eight others were not yet arrested. Chad Elie, 31, arrested in Las Vegas, was freed Friday on his own recognizance. Prosecutors said he obtained accounts at U.S. banks for the poker companies after lying to banks about the nature of the financial transactions they were processing.

Prosecutors said Elie and others in September 2009 approached John Campos, the vice chairman of the board and part-owner of SunFirst Bank, a small private bank based in Saint George, Utah, about processing Internet poker transactions. The government said Campos expressed "trepidations" but agreed to process the transactions in return for a $10 million investment in SunFirst by Elie and an associate. Authorities say Campos also received a $20,000 "bonus" for his assistance. It was not immediately clear who was representing Campos in court. The bank referred questions to the bank president but said he would not be available for comment until Monday.

Authorities say Elie's associates bragged about buying the bank and said they were looking to buy as many as three more to process poker revenue.

Elie's lawyer for the court appearance, Craig Denney, said Elie planned to fight the charges. The lawyer said Elie was arrested at a home, where he lives with his fiancee.

Meanwhile, the casino companies that once partnered with the poker companies in online poker have backed away.

Wynn Resorts Limited and Fertitta Interactive had deals in place with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, respectively, in the hopes of partnering on online poker if it were made legal in the United States.

Michael Weaver, a spokesman for Wynn Resorts, a major casino company run by billionaire Steve Wynn, announced Friday that it had terminated its alliance with PokerStars as a result of the criminal indictment.

Caren Bell, a spokeswoman for Fertitta Interactive, owned by brothers who own Station Casinos Inc., said the deal between Full Tilt Poker and Fertitta Interactive was contingent upon the passage of federal legislation legalizing Internet poker, along with its internal due diligence and a finding of suitability for gaming licensure.

Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive of the American Gaming Association, the commercial casino industry's main trade group, said the prosecution shows a "clear need to strengthen laws to address illegal online gambling in the U.S."

He added: "Tough law enforcement is the key to making such a system work, and the AGA supports strong enforcement against illegal online gambling activity in this country. But illegal activity — and the risk of consumer fraud, money laundering and underage gambling — will continue until the U.S. passes laws ensuring that only licensed, taxed and highly regulated companies can operate in the U.S. market."

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said the allegations made by federal prosecutors against the three companies were of "grave concern." But he added that he remained committed to the possibility that federal legislation will eventually permit Internet gambling in a way that matches the same rigorous standards that apply to traditional gaming institutions.

___

Garcia reported from Las Vegas.

How many are using green technology for their house or business?

A show on here in the states, "Real Green" , highlights products or services that promote "green" living/contributions to enhance mans existence to the planet.

One product that was featured was Solasyphon by Willis Renewable Energy Systems of Belfast.

I believe energy consumption could be cut by at least 70% if more homeowners/businesses used more green products

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110118/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse

Vatican warned Irish bishops not to report abuse

           AP – This image shows a copy of a newly revealed 1997 letter from the Vatican, obtained by Irish broadcasters ... By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press – 1 hr 56 mins ago
DUBLIN – A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police — a disclosure that victims' groups described as "the smoking gun" needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.

The newly revealed letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican's rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests following Ireland's first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits.

The letter undermines persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in U.S. lawsuits, that Rome never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence or suspicion of crimes from police. It instead emphasizes the church's right to handle all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments in house rather than give that power to civil authorities.

Signed by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, Pope John Paul II's diplomat to Ireland, the letter instructs Irish bishops that their new policy of making the reporting of suspected crimes mandatory "gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature."

Storero wrote that canon law, which required abuse allegations and punishments to be handled within the church, "must be meticulously followed." Any bishops who tried to impose punishments outside the confines of canon law would face the "highly embarrassing" position of having their actions overturned on appeal in Rome, he wrote.

Catholic officials in Ireland and the Vatican declined AP requests to comment on the letter, which RTE said it received from an Irish bishop.

Child-abuse activists in Ireland said the 1997 letter demonstrates that the protection of pedophile priests from criminal investigation was not only sanctioned by Vatican leaders but ordered by them.

"The letter is of huge international significance, because it shows that the Vatican's intention is to prevent reporting of abuse to criminal authorities. And if that instruction applied here, it applied everywhere," said Colm O'Gorman, director of the Irish chapter of human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Joelle Casteix, a director of U.S. advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, described the letter as "the smoking gun we've been looking for."

Casteix said it was certain to be cited by victims' lawyers seeking to pin responsibility directly on the Vatican rather than local dioceses. She said investigators long have sought such a document showing Vatican pressure on a group of bishops "thwarting any kind of justice for victims."

"We now have evidence that the Vatican deliberately intervened to order bishops not to turn pedophile priests over to law enforcement," she said. "And for civil lawsuits, this letter shows what victims have been saying for dozens and dozens of years: What happened to them involved a concerted cover-up that went all the way to the top."

To this day, the Vatican has not endorsed any of the Irish church's three major policy documents since 1996 on safeguarding children from clerical abuse. Irish taxpayers, rather than the church, have paid most of the euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) to more than 14,000 abuse claimants dating back to the 1940s.

In his 2010 pastoral letter to Ireland's Catholics condemning pedophiles in the ranks, Pope Benedict XVI faulted bishops for failing to follow canon law and offered no explicit endorsement of Irish child-protection efforts by the Irish church or state. Benedict was widely criticized in Ireland for failing to admit any Vatican role in covering up the truth.

O'Gorman — who was raped repeatedly by an Irish priest in the 1980s when he was an altar boy and was among the first victims to speak out in the mid-1990s — said evidence is growing that some Irish bishops continued to follow the 1997 Vatican instructions and withheld reports of crimes against children as recently as 2008.

Two state-commissioned reports published in 2009 — into the Dublin Archdiocese and workhouse-style Catholic institutions for children — unveiled decades of cover-ups of abuse involving tens of thousands of Irish children since the 1930s.

A third major state-ordered investigation into Catholic abuse cover-ups, concerning the southwest Irish Diocese of Cloyne, is expected to be published in the next few months documenting the concealment of crimes as recently as 2008.

Irish church leaders didn't begin telling police about suspected pedophile priests until the mid-1990s after the first major scandal — involving the Rev. Brendan Smyth, who had raped dozens of children while the church transferred him to parishes in Dublin, Belfast, Rhode Island and North Dakota — triggered the collapse of the Irish government. That national shock, in turn, inspired the first victims to begin suing the church publicly.

In January 1996, Irish bishops published a groundbreaking policy document spelling out their newfound determination to report all suspected abuse cases to police.

But in his January 1997 letter seen Tuesday by the AP, Storero told the bishops that a senior church panel in Rome, the Congregation for the Clergy, had decided that the Irish church's policy of "mandatory" reporting of abuse claims conflicted with canon law.

Storero emphasized in the letter that the Irish church's policy was not recognized by the Vatican and was "merely a study document."

Storero warned that bishops who followed the Irish child-protection policy and reported a priest's suspected crimes to police risked having their in-house punishments of the priest overturned by the Congregation for the Clergy.

The 2009 Dublin Archdiocese report found that this actually happened in the case of Tony Walsh, one of Dublin's most notorious pedophiles, who used his role as an Elvis impersonator in a popular "All Priests Show" to get closer to kids.

Walsh was kicked out of the priesthood by a secret Dublin church court in 1993 but successfully appealed the punishment to a Vatican court, which reinstated him to the priesthood in 1994. He raped a boy in a pub restroom at his grandfather's wake that year. Walsh since has received a series of prison sentences, most recently a 12-year term imposed last month. Investigators estimate he raped or molested more than 100 children.

Storero's 1997 letter — originally obtained by the RTE religious affairs program "Would You Believe?" — said the Congregation for the Clergy was pursuing "a global study" of sexual-abuse policies and would establish worldwide child-protection policies "at the appropriate time."

Today, the Vatican's child-protection policies remain in legal limbo.

The Vatican does advise bishops worldwide to report crimes to police — in a legally nonbinding guide on its website. This recourse is omitted from the official legal advice provided by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and updated last summer. That powerful policymaking body continues to stress the secrecy of canon law.

The central message of Storero's letter was reported secondhand in the 2009 Dublin Archdiocese report. The letter itself, marked "strictly confidential," has never been published before.

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It is estimated that between 2010 and 2011 more than 120,000 people will leave Ireland.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8844000/8844959.stm

For some of the older fellas on the board and maybe some of the young ones.

The Six Million Dollar Man is now available on a complete DVD set


http://www.tvaddicts.tv/movie/action/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man.html

Might make a good Christmas present.

[Note: The Epoch Times in no way endorses the use of the "Twinkies Diet."]

Twinkies Diet: Nutrition Prof. Loses 27 Pounds Eating Junk Food (Video)By Jack Phillips

Epoch Times Staff Created: Nov 8, 2010 Last Updated: Nov 8, 2010

Mark Haub ate only Twinkies, donuts, and other junk food for 10 weeks.A nutrition professor lost 27 pounds eating almost nothing but powdered donuts, Twinkies, Doritos, Oreos, and other junk food items, according to his Facebook page.

Mark Haub, for 10 weeks, endured and enjoyed the junk-food goodness, eating one of the aforementioned items every three hours instead of meals.

Haub, who is a professor at the University of Kansas, said that pure calorie counting is the most important aspect of losing weight, not nutrition.

He dubbed the experiment the "convenience store diet" and limited himself to less than 1,800 calories per day, according to CNN.



His body mass index (BMI) went down from 28.8 to 24.9, and he now weights 174 pounds.

"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub told CNN. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"

His LDL cholesterol dropped from 153 to 123, and his HDL cholesterol raised from 37 to 46, according to his Facebook page.

"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he told CNN. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer."

Haub added that he also downed a protein shake, took a multivitamin every day, and ate a minimalist amount of vegetables, according to CNN.

Note: The Epoch Times in no way endorses the use of the "Twinkies Diet."

[NOT]

I was shown this at work tonite, a hospital Emergency Room, and it is NOT for the timid or person with a weak stomach. Nurses & Doctors I work with (level 1 trauma center, worst of the worst accidents) were a little green after watching this!!!!

My reason to post this video is simple, if you see children, young adults or adults doing something dangerous please try to stop them.

Watch at your own risk

http://robert-lindsay.blogspot.com/2009/10/face-split-diving-accident-video.html?zx=fe145d632f5088bc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-10980110

Ran across this link, thought it was interesting

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/Religion.swf

UFO over China shuts down airport


http://abcnews.go.com/International/ufo-china-closes-airport-prompts-investigation/story?id=11159531

Thoughts go out to the people of Chile.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100227/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_earthquake

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/02/24/andrew_koenig_mystery/index.html?source=rss&aim=/mwt/feature

Strange story and I think the ending will not be too pleasant.