U.S. Units Attacking Al Qaeda In Pakistan

Covert Operation StraCovert U.S. military units have been conducting reconnaissance operations in Pakistan in recent weeks and participated in attacks on suspected al Qaeda hide-outs there, opening a new front in a shadowy war being waged by the United States along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border, according to U.S. military officials.

Some foodstuffs like crisps may be carcinogenic

Crisps and other fried or baked foods like rice, potatoes bread and cereals may in some cases cause cancer. That is what a panel of Swedish scientists has revealed. Research carried out at Stockholm University in co-operation with the government Food Safety Agency showed that acrylamide, known as a probable cancer causing agent is formed in high concentrations when carbohydrate-rich foods are fried or baked but not when they are boiled. Acrylamide is used in very small dose to treat water but it would seem many products we eat every day contain much more. The results of the research were deemed so important and surprising that the scientists took the rare step of going public with them before publishing them in an academic journal. Experts at the World Health Organisation say they will be looking into the report but that so far the findings were only preliminary and would not be acted upon.

Patatine fritte, pane, corn flakes, potrebbero provocare il cancro.

Molti degli alimenti di produzione industriale che contengono carboidrati potrebbero rivelarsi cancerogeni se cotti ad alte temperature. Lo ha rivelato una ricerca dell'Università di Stoccolma.Patate, pane, riso e cereali scaldati ad alti livelli sprigionano una sostanza riconosciuta cancerogena per gli animali e di riflesso anche per l'uomo. Si tratta dell'amido acrilico: l'Agenzia americana per la Protezione Ambientale ne vieta la presenza nell'acqua potabile e ritiene che la sua assunzione per un periodo prolungato possa provocare danni al sistema nervoso, paralisi e cancro.L'Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità convocherà presto una riunione internazionale di esperti per esaminare gli inquietanti risultati della ricerca svedese. Gli industriali del settore sono già in fermento sebbene non siano state ancora adottate misure restrittive. Il consiglio migliore, ribadiscono gli esperti, è sempre il piu' antico: sostituire fritti e grassi con frutta e verdura.

Carnage in the classroom, eighteen killed in German shooting

There was shock and total disbelief after what should have been a normal day for students in the Eastern German city of Erfurt, turned into a nightmare, with fourteen of their teachers and two fellow pupils shot dead. A nineteen-year-old student, expelled from the school last week, returned to wreak a deadly revenge. One eyewitness said, "the gunman burst into the classroom and started firing. Everyone rushed out into the corridor, including the killer. He then shot dead a female teacher standing just one metre from me". Police were quickly on the scene, but the gunman targeted them too, shooting one of them dead as he raced towards the school. An armed response unit surrounded the building. However when police approached the teenager shot and killed himself. The region's chief of police described the scene, which greeted his officers in the building as an image of horror. He said, "There were dead people in the corridors, in the classrooms, one was found in the toilet". With eighteen people dead in one day, it rates as Germany's worst mass murder since World War Two, and rivals the worst school killings anywhere in the world in recent years.

Germania: strage in un liceo. Ex allievo spara sui professori, 18 morti

È finito l'incubo al liceo Gutenberg di Erfurt, in Turingia, ex Germania dell'Est. Diciotto morti, il bilancio di una mattina di follia. Autore del massacro uno studente di diciannove anni, espulso dal liceo l'anno prima, e, che dopo aver sparato all'impazzata, si è tolto la vita. Una ragazza ancora sotto choc cerca di ricostruire i primi momenti: "È entrato in classe e ha sparato, a quel punto tutti sono usciti, io ero fuori, lo studente ha rivolto l'arma contro la professoressa e l'ha uccisa".Erano passate le 11, stamattina, quando è scattato l'allarme. Vestito di nero e con una maschera sul viso, il giovane ha fatto irruzione nella sua ex scuola armato di fucile e di pistola. In quel momento l'edificio ospitava circa 700 persone, fra studenti e personale docente. Secondo una prima ricostruzione dell'accaduto, l'assalitore ha sparato contro tutti gli insegnanti che ha incontrato lungo il suo tragitto. Il comandante della polizia locale descrive la scena agghiacciante che si è presentata agli agenti:: "I corpi di alcuni dei nove professori e delle cinque professoresse trucidati sono stati trovati nei corridoi e nelle toilette del liceo". Il giovane si e' quindi barricato in un'aula al primo piano dell'edificio, prendendo in ostaggio una ventina di allievi, mentre la polizia faceva sgomberare l'edificio.

Argentina's economy minister resigns

Argentina's political crisis has deepened. Jorge Remes Lenicov, the country's fifth economy minister in just over a year, has resigned, reportedly followed by at least two other ministers. President Eduardo Duhalde is said to be trying to form a new cabinet. It comes after politicians delayed a vote on a last-ditch package to prevent ...

Israel sets terms for UN mission

Israel has blocked UN plans to send a fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp. It decided it will not allow the team into the shattered West Bank city unless it includes military and counter-terrorism experts. The reason: Israel says it wants a fair hearing from the UN over its operation to crack down on militants amid Palestinian ...

Le Pen gives policy guide

"France for the French" - the message from extreme right wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen as he announced the moves he will make if he is elected President. Speaking at length on television for the first time since his shock qualification for the second round run-off vote, the head of the National Front outlined the propositions he would put to the ...

Spain detains suspected Al-Qaida finance chief

Spanish police have arrested a man suspected of being a member of the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaida in Madrid. An Interior Ministry statement said Muhammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi was alleged to have helped finance the Al-Qaida network using funds from Spain. The money, which came mainly from property development and sales, was allegedly ...

Pope says paedophile priests are criminals

The pope has given a strong indication that the Vatican is considering turning over paedophile priests to the civil authorities as soon as they are discovered. He was speaking at the end of the first day of a crisis meeting in Rome to discuss the U.S. catholic hierarchy's handling of child abuse cases. In his most forthright statement so far ...

Milan mourns

Thousands of mourners filed into Milan's Duomo Cathedral on Tuesday to take part in the funeral of two women killed when a plane crashed into the city's largest skyscraper. The lawyers died when a light aircraft flew directly into the landmark Pirelli Tower. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini told the congregation that the incident had "violated a ...

Italian

Pope condemns US church sex abuse

Only American cardinals have been called to Rome

The Pope tells US cardinals in his strongest message to date that there is no place in the church for priests who sexually abuse children.

Palestinians against Palestinians

Palestinians took to the streets of Hebron on Tuesday calling for revenge after what they described as another Israeli assassination. Following an Israeli missile attack hours earlier, Palestinian gunmen rounded up three Palestinian suspected collaborators. The men were executed at the scene of the bombing. In a pre-dawn strike Israeli helicopter gunships fired at a car apparently carrying a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. It is claimed Marwan Zuloum was behind several suicide attacks inside Israel. He and his body guard were killed instantly. As the violence continues in Hebron, in Bethlehem there was a glimmer of hope that there may soon be a peaceful end to the three-week standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Israeli and Palestinian delegations were meeting to discuss the siege. On Tuesday morning three Orthodox priests managed to escape from the compound. Israeli police were evicting Palestinians in Arab East Jerusalem. Several Palestinian families were been orderded out of their homes in a move criticised by the Danish Member of the European Parliament, Olisa Anbak. "I hope, if Israel really is a democratic state, that somebody will remove these settlers who have illegally occupied a house," she said. In many cases Palestinians in the area do not hold the deeds to their property. Some far-right Israeli groups have used that fact to put Jewish settlers in what the Palestinians claim are their own homes.

Italian