Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

I find a lot of interesting articles on websites like CNN, Antiwar, and NBC. I decided to make a thread where every once and a while, I could post an article without taking up too much space on the forum. So, here it goes. Feel free to add your own and discuss!!!

Soviet-era missile removed from eBay
Vehicle launcher remains for sale
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 4:13 PM EST (2113 GMT)

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A British man trying to sell a deactivated Soviet-era missile on eBay was forced to delete it after Web site staff contacted him for breaching company rules.

But eBay told Richard Moore, from Cambridgeshire, to remove the missile because he broke eBay regulations by listing it alongside its vehicle launcher, which should have appeared as a separate item -- and not because it was a weapon.

The online auctioneer bans the sale of any ammunition, replica guns or firearms on its sites.

Selling demilitarized missiles however is acceptable, an eBay spokesman said.

"There's a large market in demilitarized weaponry, and they're classified as museum pieces," the spokesman said.

The missile's fully operational launcher is still on offer, at 18,990 pounds ($35,660).

"I guess anything with the word 'missile' in it is sensitive, but as I keep saying to everyone, the missile in question couldn't cause any harm and is literally just the shell," Moore told Reuters.

On his eBay page, Moore describes the Zil 135 Free Range Over Ground (FROG) rocket launcher as the "mother of all toys."

"It's a hugely collectable piece of kit which should have been broken up so there's really not many of them around," he said. Although the missile itself is no longer on eBay, he would still sell it to interested parties.

But Moore stressed he was not an arms dealer just a Russian military vehicle specialist.

He bought both items two weeks ago from a specialist company that provides vehicles for film production.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/01/26/ebay.missile.reut/index.html

Please keep this on topic.

You've just ruined a perfectly good thread I hate people like you....




And the question that should be asked is where did he get said missile to start with?

cry

DALLAS - Sexual assaults in state prisons are up sharply, with hundreds of inmates reporting that they were attacked by cellmates or corrections officers.

The number of reported sexual assaults in Texas prisons has increased 160 percent, to 609 in 2004 from 234 in 2000, according to state records.

At least 129 Texas prisoners have alleged that they were raped or had sexual contact with corrections officers since 2000, the records show. Claims of inmate-on-inmate rape was even more frequent.

State officials said the increase in reported assaults resulted from their vigilance in punishing offenders.

However, inmate advocates said the problem is greater than the state figures show. They have begun a nationwide legal campaign against assaults and the complacency that they say allows them to flourish.

"I really have become convinced over the last three years or so that Texas is the prison-rape capital of the country," said Margaret Winter, a lawyer who represents two inmates who sued the prison system. "When prisoners report it, they are ignored, laughed at and often punished."

Former Texas inmate Roderick Johnson, who said prison officials did nothing as gangs bought and sold him as a sex slave, is suing seven administrators and staff members from the Allred Unit in Iowa Park, near Wichita Falls. Set for trial in July, the case involves whether prison officials violated the inmate's Eighth Amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

According to the lawsuit, prison administrators refused to protect Johnson because he is gay.

Cases such as Johnson's are described as common by prison-rape victims' attorneys who contend that corrections officers often don't bother to investigate the claims. Some officers even regard the crime as a natural byproduct of incarceration, the attorneys have said.

Most sexual assaults do not produce criminal prosecutions, according to records. However, prison officials say they take rape allegations seriously, adding that the number of claimed attacks is low for a prison population of 151,000 inmates.

"The message is hammered constantly that we do not tolerate rape in Texas prisons," said Mike Viesca, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "People are more comfortable reporting these incidents because they know we take them seriously."

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A worker sorting trash found a dead newborn on a conveyor belt at the Palm Beach County recycling center, police said.

Employees discovered the naked infant while separating metal and aluminum recyclables shortly after 9 p.m. Monday. There was no blanket, bag or other evidence found with the body that could help to identify him, Detective Charles Reed said.

Reed estimated that the baby was between a day and a week old.

The body was intact, but "it was not in the best of condition," Reed said. "It was mixed in with all the trash."

The infant could have come from anywhere in the county. More than 3,000 tons of trash are dumped daily at the facility and go through a series of machines before landing on the conveyor belt where workers separate the recyclables.

Detectives will try to track down the baby's mother by filing through hospital and doctor records and by combing through the trash for clues, Reed said.

John Booth, executive director of the solid waste authority, said it was unusual they found the baby at all.

"This would be the only place where the baby could be discovered," he said, because most of the process is automated.

10 Die, 180 Hurt After Train Hits SUV




Jan 26, 7:07 PM (ET)

By TIM MOLLOY

(AP) Emergency workers stand near the wreckage of a train derailment, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005, in...





GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) - A suicidal man parked his SUV on the railroad tracks and set off a crash of two commuter trains Wednesday that hurled passengers down the aisles and turned rail cars into smoking, twisted heaps of steel, authorities said. At least 10 people were killed and more than 180 injured.

The SUV driver got out at the last moment and survived.

The collision took place just before daybreak on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Employees at a Costco store rushed to the scene and pulled riders from the tipped-over double-deck cars before the flames reached them. Dazed passengers staggered from the wreckage, some limping. One elderly man on the train was covered in blood and soot, his legs and arms apparently broken.

"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said passenger Diane Brady, 56. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."

Dozens of the injured were in critical condition, and more than 120 people were sent to hospitals.

The wreck set in motion a huge rescue operation involving more than 300 firefighters, some of whom climbed ladders to reach the windows of the battered train cars. A triage center was set up in a parking lot, where the injured lay sprawled on color-colded mats - red for those with severe injuries, green for those less seriously hurt.

It was the nation's deadliest train accident in nearly six years.

Authorities said Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, of Compton, parked his sport utility vehicle on the tracks and got out before a Metrolink train smashed into it. The train then derailed and collided with another train going in the opposite direction. That train also jumped the tracks.

Alvarez was arrested and will face homicide charges, Police Chief Randy Adams said. Alvarez had also slashed his wrists and stabbed himself, but the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, authorities said. Adams said Alvarez had a criminal record that involved drugs.

This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," Adams said. "I think his intent at that time was to take his own life but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking this vehicle."

Alvarez's sister-in-law, Maricela Amaya, told Telemundo TV that he had separated from his wife, Carmelita, three months ago. She said the wife got a court order to keep him away, but he had tried to see his wife and son.

"He was having problems with drugs and all that and was violent and because of that he separated from her," Amaya said in Spanish. "A few other times he went around as if he wanted to kill himself. I said if you're going to kill yourself, go kill yourself far away. Don't come by here telling that to my sister."

She said he had also threatened suicide in front of his son.

The crash occurred at about 6 a.m. in an industrial area of Glendale, a suburb north of Los Angeles. One train was headed for Los Angeles' Union Station from Moorpark, a western suburb. The other train was outbound from Union Station to the San Fernando Valley

About a dozen employees from the Costco ended up playing an important part in the rescue after hearing the thunderous collision.

Costco employee Jenny Doll said trapped passengers - some severely injured - screamed for help as flames raced toward the front of the train car and smoke and diesel fumes filled the air. Forklift operators, truck drivers and stock clerks worked side-by-side to pull victims out, using store carts to wheel some of the most severely injured to safety.

"There were people stuck in the front. Everything was mangled," Doll said. "You could not even tell that it was a train cab at all."

Anguished relatives rushed to the area to find out what had become of their loved ones.

George Touma, 19, said he was called by his mother, who was on one of the trains.

"She told me she was bleeding in the head and her arm was really hurting," said Touma, who searched for her. "I'm really worried because she has vertigo and when I tried to call back she wouldn't answer.

It was the worst U.S. rail tragedy since March 15, 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration were sent.

"The magnitude of the incident requires a large team," Transportation Department spokesman Robert Johnson said.

Hugo Moran, one of Costco employees who rushed to the wreck, could not fathom the suicide attempt.

"There's a lot of ways to do it without hurting someone else," Moran said. "Was he mad at himself or mad at the world? I don't understand it."

5 more soldiers are killed in Iraq

isnt there a soldier killed in Iraq almost every day now cry


just horrible...

Wow Slipknot... that baby thing... wow. shock

R 2 many txt msgs bad 4 U?
Monday, January 24, 2005 Posted: 7:15 AM EST (1215 GMT)

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Excessive text messaging may be bad for you, or at least for your fingers.

That's what some Italian doctors think. They are telling people, particularly the young, that furious typing on mobile phones could lead to acute tendonitis.

Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Il Messaggero dedicated about half a page each to the problem on Monday.

A 13-year-old girl in the northern Italian city of Savona needed treatment from an orthopaedic specialist after typing at least 100 short message services (SMSs) a day.

She was prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine and ordered to rest her hands.

According to a recent study conducted for children's rights group Telefono Azzurro, some 37 percent of Italian children are "cell phone addicts." Irritability and mood swings were other symptoms linked to very frequent cell phone use among the young.

The message is clear: MayB U shd stop B4 its 2 L8.