SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has fired a missile into the Sea of Japan, escalating a tense standoff on the peninsula as world leaders gather in Seoul for the inauguration of South Korea's new president.

In a provocative move ahead of Roh Moo- hyun's inauguration, Pyongyang fired a missile into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, South Korea's Ministry of Defense said.

CNN.com - N. Korea test fires missile - Feb. 24, 2003

quoted:
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The 1988 birth of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization is carefully chronicled in a cache of remarkable documents seized last year during a raid on the Bosnian offices of an Illinois-based charity that covertly raised funds for the terrorist group. A description of the seized material is contained in a 106-page proffer unsealed this month by federal prosecutors in Chicago. The government filing was prepared in connection with the criminal case brought against Enaam Arnaout, the 41-year-old Syrian who headed Benevolence International Foundation, the alleged charitable front group (Arnaout pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge on February 10). Included in the seized material, the proffer discloses, were minutes from a three-day meeting in August 1988--held at bin Laden's home--during which al-Qaeda was hatched. The minutes note that future group members were required to be "listening and obedient" and had to possess "good manners." An excerpt from the government proffer follows. (4 pages)

The Smoking Gun: Al Qeada

How To Fly Without ID

It's Easy If You Know How!

In the last two years, everyone flying on a commercial airline has stepped up to an airline's ticket counter and heard the agent recite a familiar litany. The monologue goes, "has your bag been unattended; have you accepted gifts from a stranger; can I see your identification please?" The traveler docilely murmurs answers, and produces a driver's license or some equivalent.

As a die-hard Constitutionalist, I believe that we still have an absolute, unfettered, God-given right to travel from point A to point B without permission from the state -- in the air, as well as on land. This Nazi procedure of "your papers, please" has never been appropriate for our country. I have had occasion to travel a good deal in the last several months, and on those trips I decided to research and test this issue about the necessity for producing identification. I have talked with agents, and their supervisors, of several major airlines in cities across America, and have gradually pieced together a rather complete picture of the real legal situation regarding our right to travel.

How to fly without ID!

quoted material :

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On Jan. 26, a bomb exploded on the road between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion.

As terror attacks go, this one was minor. Most of us didn't hear about it because, with the exception of one bus passenger treated for shock, no one was injured.

Thank G-d.

Palestinian terrorists delivered the bomb to its destination by donkey. They strapped explosives and a remote device to the animal and detonated the bomb by cell phone as an Israeli bus passed by.

The donkey, of course, was killed.

You know where this is going, don't you?

That's right. PETA, the group that never before expressed concern about the carnage in Israel, is suddenly outraged.

Arafat gets ass-inine plea from PETA on intifada

] LONDON, Feb. 11 %u2014 Hundreds of British troops backed
] by armored cars took up position at Heathrow Airport
] today to guard against what the police called a potential
] Al Qaeda attack related to a major Islamic festival.
] The deployment, the first of its kind in the nine years
] since Irish republican guerrillas launched a mortar
] attack on the same airport, coincided with a growing
] sense of alienation between Britain and some of its major
] European partners over what is depicted in many parts of
] the Continent as Washington's headlong rush toward war
] with Iraq.

British Troops Deploy at London Airport Over Fear of Attack

Nobody loves Winnie the Pooh more than Shirley Slesinger Lasswell. The 79-year-old widow wears Pooh pajamas, Pooh watches, and Pooh polo shirts. A Pooh waves at other drivers from the rear window of her Mercedes as she is chauffeured around Beverly Hills. But these days, some of her most treasured Pooh merchandise languishes in boxes in her lawyer's office. It breaks Shirley's heart. "I never wanted Winnie the Pooh to go through anything like this,'' she says. "It's just not right."

Pooh would no doubt scratch his fluff-stuffed head in disbelief at what's going on. Shirley and her daughter, Pati, are embroiled in an epic legal battle with the Walt Disney Co. over the merchandising rights to the world's most beloved bear.

Fortune.com - Magazine - The Curse of Pooh

] WASHINGTON, Jan 21 - Recording companies won a victory in
] their fight against online piracy on Tuesday, when a U.S.
] court ordered Verizon Communications to turn over the
] name of a customer suspected of downloading more than 600
] songs in one day over the Internet.
] The decision could set an important precedent as the
] recording industry asks schools, businesses and Internet
] providers to help them track down the online song
] swappers that they believe are cutting into their sales.

For logging into NYTIMES, use cpunk1:cpunk1

Federal Judge Says Verizon Must Reveal Internet Song Swapper

AWESOME. The helicopter photos are finally here. You're not going to believe them. Especially the last couple that show Market St absolutely packed for blocks and blocks!

Helicopter Pictures of SF Demo : SF Indymedia

] "Rock star Pete Townshend of The Who has been arrested on
] suspicion of possessing indecent images of children,
] police said Monday. "

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Pete Townshend is arrested in child pornography case

A MILLION Americans will be given smallpox vaccinations under the first wave of a mass inoculation order being prepared by President Bush.

The initial stage of the decision would see 500,000 military personnel and 510,000 civilian medical workers receive the jab.

...

The Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA) has been making the ratification rounds across the states, you can check the current map here:

http://www.alec.org American Legislative Exchange Council

I hope this has been reported before by some of the UK journos but this is the first general fluff piece that caught my eye.

Vaccination for 1 million in US