| Taliban
Kunduz Chief Says His Men Will Surrender
Recent
reports from Afghanistan are optimistic that the Kunduz Taleban
stronghold is on the verge of folding.
However,
it remains to be seen whether the end game in Kunduz will work
in a manner that meets with the expectations of the US and the
United Front (aka Northern Alliance). Excerpts from an article
reporting on the developments follow:
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All
Taliban forces in the besieged northern Afghan enclave of Kunduz
have agreed to surrender, a top Taliban commander said early
on Thursday.
Kunduz
Taliban commander Mullah Faizal was speaking to reporters in
the nearby town of Mazar-i-Sharif, which is under Northern Alliance
control, after talks with Alliance leaders in which he and his
colleagues agreed to surrender.
Faizal
said all the Taliban forces in the city, Afghans and foreigners
alike, were under his control and all would give themselves
up.
"There
will be peace," he told a Reuters Television correspondent,
one of several reporters allowed into the meeting room. "Nothing
(violent) will happen (in Kunduz)," he added. The talks
were continuing to work out details of the surrender.
Alliance
commander Abdul Rashid Dostum told reporters at the talks that
the Kunduz problem would be solved "without a fight"
and that the battle for the city was finished, Reuters Television's
Nikolai Pavlov reported.
...
Kunduz is the strict Muslim militia's last redoubt in northern
Afghanistan after its rout over recent days by Alliance troops,
backed by weeks of heavy U.S. bombing.
...
U.S. raids on Kunduz were relatively light for a second day on
Wednesday, with only two bombs being dropped.
Taliban
defectors and Alliance troops said earlier that Afghan Taliban
troops wanted to give up, but foreign al Qaeda fighters, with
nowhere to run, had vowed to fight to the death and were executing
Afghans who wanted to surrender.
The
Alliance suspended its ground offensive against the city but
said it would advance on Kunduz if the talks, which began in
earnest on Sunday, failed. ...
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Source:
FBI
Going to New Lengths to Eavesdrop
In
the interest of preventing the government from exceeding its
constitutional authority, one must wonder where the line is
to be drawn between efforts to prevent terrorism and invading
the privacy of citizens:
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The
FBI is going to new lengths to eavesdrop, building software
to monitor computer use and urging phone companies to help make
wiretaps more reliable.
The
FBI's "Magic Lantern" technology would allow investigators,
via the Internet, to secretly install powerful software that
records every keystroke on a person's computer, according to
people familiar with the effort.
The
software is similar to "Trojan horse" programs already
used by some hackers and corporate spies.
The
FBI envisions using Magic Lantern, part of a broad FBI project
called "Cyber Knight," to record the secret key a
person might use to encrypt messages or computer files.
The
bureau has been largely frustrated in efforts to break open
such messages by trying random combinations, and officials are
increasingly concerned about their inability to read encrypted
messages in criminal or terrorist investigations.
...
Earlier this month the FBI urged some of the nation's largest
telephone companies to change their networks so that investigators
can reliably eavesdrop on conversations using new data technology.
...
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Source:
|
Potential
Breakthrough in Fighting Cancer
Excerpts
from article detailing the potential of using a new type of
gene therapy to fight all types of cancer
...
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A
new type of gene therapy which fools cancer cells into committing
suicide has been developed by scientists. The technique, which
has proven effective on all types of cancer, is a potential
breakthrough in the fight against the disease.
Designed
by a team of scientists funded by the Cancer Research Campaign,
the gene therapy system appears to target cancer cells while
leaving healthy tissue unharmed.
Optimistic
Team
leader, Dr Nicol Keith, said: "I feel very strongly that
our research represents a potential breakthrough, with implications
for the treatment of a variety of common cancers.
"People
have discussed similar kinds of gene therapy system before, but
we have now made significant progress by moving from talking about
the theory to actually killing cancer cells in a very efficient
manner."
"With
a bit of genetic trickery, we have managed to fool cancer cells
to their doom without harming normal cells. I
am optimistic that we could soon have targeted treatments that
spare cancer patients the side-effects that many suffer today."
The
technique works by fooling a cancer cell into "switching-on",
or activating, a gene which will in fact destroy it.
Gene therapy could save
many lives from cancer
In
80% of human cancers the gene telomerase is switched on to ensure
the cell's survival and to allow it to divide beyond its allotted
time span. The scientists, from the Beatson Laboratories at
Glasgow University, took a copy of the "on-switch"
for telomerase and wired it to another gene, called nitroreductase.
The
cancer cells were then tricked into switching on the nitroreductase,
which is a very effective cancer treatment, thinking it was
telomerase. Nitroreductase
works by converting the normally harmless drug CB1954 into a
toxic product which rapidly kills cancer cells.
But
non-cancerous cells are not able to "switch-on" telomerase
and therefore are unable to switch on the genetic treatment
either - saving them from damage. ...
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Source:
Thank
Goodness and Praise Be
A
Thanksgiving version of a prayer I wrote on 032901 follows.
For
Americans apart from belief in god, the following prayer reflects
a pro-human interest in communing with fellow citizens on a
level not requiring suspension of doubt about an almighty creator,
but instead, treasuring the communion of those who enjoy the
treasures of freedom and liberty available to the most fortunate
beings on the planet, the citizens of the United States of America.
Long
may freedom and liberty reign over the forces of tyranny, deceit,
and denial of that which is the best that we can be, on this
earth, at this time, in this life ...
For
those Americans called to pray before a Thanksgiving meal, consider
the following prayer of a pro-human nature...
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to good food and good
company.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to enjoying life.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to the highest aspirations
of humanity.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to the science which
benefits us and opens our minds to a world of wonder.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to our informed ability
to disbelieve or believe, free from threats and hate (and may
those who violated our freedom on September 11th pay the ultimate
price for their heinous acts).
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to those in need, may
we help them in pro-human ways, for we are one with them.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to those who reach out
to love and nurture humankind.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and praise be to the best that humankind
can be.
-Thank
goodness I'm an American and let us rejoice in Freedom, Liberty,
Verity, and Joy.
Amen.
Source:
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