Author: Sunfire

RT News

A Dutch scientist is offering the world’s first cultivated beef made of stem cells to taste. He believes the lab-grown meat will feed the world and help save the environment. The tasting event happens amid UN calls to invest more in food innovation.

The 5-ounce burger which costs $332,000 to produce was fried and taste-tested by volunteers at an event in London on Monday, Bloomberg quotes the creator of the burger scientist Mark Post of Maastricht University.    Continue reading “World’s first $332,000 lab-grown burger to change the global diet”

RT News

The 7- and 10-year-old children of a Pennsylvania couple that reached a settlement following a lawsuit involving health issues brought on by fracking have been barred from discussing details of the case for the rest of their lives.

Though a gag order is not unusual in itself when large corporations reach a settlement with plaintiffs in court, the August 2011 case of a family that went to court with Range Resources Corporation, Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream, and Markwest Energy due to the environmental and health impact caused by gas fracking operations has raised eyebrows for its inclusion of the couple’s young children.   Continue reading “Lifelong ‘frack gag’: Two Pennsylvania children banned from discussing fracking”

RT News

A strong undersea earthquake has hit the same northeastern region of Japan that was devastated by a deadly 2011 tsunami. No damage or injuries have been reported in the affected area, including the Fukushima prefecture.

The 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Miyagi prefecture on Sunday. The epicenter was 50 kilometers below the seabed.  No tsunami warning was issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency.   Continue reading “Fukushima shaken by 6.0 magnitude quake”

RT News

The British, German and French embassies in Yemen will be closed over ‘increased security concerns’, the European countries have announced. They blamed an ‘increased threat’ from al-Qaeda.

France will close its embassy in Yemen for several days, while Germany and Britain will close theirs for two days on Sunday and Monday.    Continue reading “UK, Germany and France close embassies in Yemen over possible terror threat”

Mail.com

DALLAS (AP) — Hundreds of unarmed soldiers, some about to deploy to Afghanistan, were waiting inside a building for vaccines and routine checkups when a fellow soldier walked inside with two handguns and enough ammunition to commit one of the worst mass shootings in American history.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan climbed onto a desk and shouted “Allahu Akbar!” — an Arabic phrase meaning “God is great!” Then he fired, pausing only to reload. Hasan doesn’t deny that he carried out the November 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead and more than 30 others wounded. There are dozens of witnesses who saw it happen. Military law prohibits him from entering a guilty plea because authorities are seeking the death penalty. But if he is convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that starts Tuesday, there are likely years, if not decades, of appeals ahead.   Continue reading “Fort Hood and the rarity of military executions”

Mail.com

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Many saluted, some cried and a few held signs.

But for 70 miles, hundreds of people paid their respects to a World War II airman who died in combat in the South Pacific almost 70 years ago and was finally returned to his upstate home on Friday. Funeral director Vincent Iocovozzi, who escorted Sgt. Dominick Licari’s remains from the Albany airport to the small town of Frankfort, said there’s “only one word that describes this: unbelievable.”   Continue reading “NY WWII airman’s remains arrive home decades later”

Mail.com

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The nation’s most active death penalty state is running out of its execution drug.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Thursday that its remaining supply of pentobarbital expires in September and that no alternatives have been found. It wasn’t immediately clear whether two executions scheduled for next month would be delayed. The state has already executed 11 death-row inmates this year, and at least seven more have execution dates in coming months.   Continue reading “Texas prison system running out of execution drug”

Mail.com

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Old Faithful it’s not.

Yellowstone National Park’s Steamboat Geyser — the world’s tallest — has erupted for the first time in more than eight years. The nine-minute blast sent steaming hot water an estimated 200 to 300 feet in the air, park geologist Hank Heasler said Thursday.

Unlike the park’s popular and famous Old Faithful geyser, which spews water like clockwork every hour-and-a-half, no one knows when Steamboat will erupt next. In the past, it’s gone as long as 50 years without a major event. In 1964, it erupted a record 29 times. The last blast came in 2005.   Continue reading “Rare eruption at Yellowstone geyser”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Chinese sculptor has removed a disputed inscription from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue that he designed on the National Mall and said Thursday that he is working on a new finish for the side of the artwork.

Plans call for sculptor Lei Yixin to carve grooves over the former words to match existing horizontal “striation” marks in the memorial. Lei said he is working to deepen all the memorial’s grooves so that they will match.   Continue reading “Disputed inscription removed from MLK Memorial”

Mail.com

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Food safety advocates say they are alarmed by a lack of information being disseminated about the spread of a nasty intestinal illness that has sickened nearly 400 people nationwide, including cases in two states that have been linked to prepackaged salad.

The outbreak of the rare parasite cyclospora has been reported in at least 15 states, and federal officials warned Wednesday it was too early to say that the threat was over. But if you’re looking to find out exactly where it came from, you may be out of luck.   Continue reading “Critics: Consumers should know more about outbreak”

RT News

Hawaii is set to embark on an unusual new program for reducing the size of the state’s homeless population by offering them a one-way ticket back home.

Under a program dubbed ‘return to home’ the Aloha State is looking to cut back on the expenditures currently going to food, shelter and other services for its homeless population, currently numbering some 17,000.   Continue reading “Aloha! Hawaii to offer homeless one-way ticket out of state”

RT News

As a US military judge decides the fate of former army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, activists in dozens of cities across the world are calling for the Convening Authority on the case to free the whistleblower.

Protests are taking place in dozens of cities throughout the US and the world, in what has been dubbed the “International Day of Action.”   Continue reading “Protesters in 40 cities take part in Bradley Manning ‘International Day of Action’”

Mail.com

VIENNA (AP) — Like many others in Austria’s countryside, a tower bell above the red-tiled rooftops of Wolfpassing village marks the passing of each hour with an unspectacular “bong.” But this bell is unique: It is embossed with a swastika and praise to Adolf Hitler.

And unlike more visible remnants of the Nazi era, the bell was apparently overlooked by official Austria up to now. Ensconced in the belfry of an ancient castle where it was mounted by fans of the Nazi dictator in 1939, the bell has tolled on for nearly 80 years. It survived the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, a decade of post-war Soviet occupation that saw Red Army soldiers lodge in the castle and more recent efforts by Austria’s government to acknowledge the country’s complicity in crimes of that era and make amends.  Continue reading “Austrian flap over bell dedicated to Hitler”

RT News

A Pennsylvania family has filed a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh police department, claiming that two dozen SWAT team members raided their home and terrorized their two children in retaliation for a prior incident involving an officer outside a local bar.

Surveillance video captured in December 2010 outside a Pittsburgh bar shows Michael Murray, an off-duty police officer, trying to help a bartender escort an unruly patron out of the establishment. A fight breaks out in the process, with another customer – later identified as William Moreno – jumping into the fray and throwing Murray to the ground.  Continue reading “Pittsburgh SWAT sued for ‘terrorizing’ young family at gunpoint”

RT News

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has used drones for domestic surveillance purposes in the United States at least ten times without obtaining warrants. In three additional cases, drones were authorized but “not actually used.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday published a letter from FBI Assistant Director Stephen D. Kelly, who admitted that the agency used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) domestically, without gathering any warrants.   Continue reading “FBI admits to flying drones over US without warrants”

Mail.com

PANMUNJOM, North Korea (AP) — Some Americans call it the “Forgotten War,” a 1950s conflict fought in a far-off country and so painful that even survivors have tried to erase their memories of it.

The North Koreans, however, have not forgotten. Sixty years after the end of the Korean War, the country is marking the milestone anniversary with a massive celebration Saturday for a holiday it calls “Victory Day” — even though the two sides only signed a truce, and have yet to negotiate a peace treaty.   Continue reading “Korean divide lives on 60 years after end of war”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Allegations surrounding Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann and her brief presidential campaign are getting further examination from the House Ethics Committee.

The panel said in a brief statement Friday it is extending until at least September a review of Bachmann’s case, which was referred to it by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative body. The panel said it would announce any further action by Sept. 11.   Continue reading “Ethics committee extends Michele Bachmann probe”

DNA Info – by Murray Weiss and Gustavo Solis

WILLIAMSBURG — The NYPD officer at the wheel of a police van that hit and killed a middle school teacher Saturday was seen talking on her cell phone during the accident, police sources said.

Officer Paula Medrano, who was assigned to the 88th Precinct, was making a left turn onto Broadway from Hooper Street at 4:30 p.m. Saturday when she struck Felix Coss, 61, a Spanish teacher at a charter school who was just a few blocks from home.   Continue reading “Brooklyn Teacher Fatally Hit By Cop Using Cell Phone Behind Wheel: Sources”