The world’s largest atom smasher conducted its first experiments at conditions nearing those after the Big Bang, breaking its own record for high-energy collisions with proton beams crashing into each other Tuesday at three times more force than ever before.
As part of the goal to get 15.4 percent of Britain’s electricity from renewable sources by 2015, the government has approved construction of the London Array, a wind farm to be positioned 20 kilometers off the coast of southeast England in the Thames Estuary. The region (Kent and Essex counties) has the highest demand for electricity in the U.K., with an estimated 750,000 homes consuming power every year. If successful, the wind farm will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, with about 300 turbines generating enough energy to power the entire area.
Police thought they had an open-and-shut case when they seized more
than two pounds of marijuana from a couple’s home, even though doctors
authorized the pair to use pot for medical purposes.
San Francisco police thought the same with a father-and-son team they
suspected of abusing the state’s medical marijuana law by allegedly
operating an illegal trafficking operation.
On my way to class, though I’m only above ground for about 10 minutes, I pass at least five newsstands.
These sprawling kiosks stock and advertise every type of publication imaginable, from a standard daily paper to magazines about African politics to uncensored porn.
Each newsstand always seems to have several people waiting in line to buy their daily print fix. Even as the economy continues to steady itself, they’re still regularly buying their papers and magazines.
FORT HANCOCK, Texas — When black SUVs trail school buses around here, no one dismisses it as routine traffic. And when three tough-looking Mexican men pace around the high school gym during a basketball game, no one assumes they’re just fans.
Fear has settled over this border town of 1,700, about 50 miles southeast of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, epicenter of that country’s bloody drug war. Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents say gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande to apply terrifying, though so far subtle, intimidation.
The message: We know where you are.
MOSCOW — Female suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 38 people and wounding more than 60, officials said. The carnage blamed on rebels from the Caucasus region follows the killings of several high-profile Islamic militant leaders there.
At least 321 civilians were killed in a previously unreported massacre in Congo in late 2009, while villagers that escaped were sent back with their lips and ears cut off as a warning to others of what would happen if they tried to talk, according to an investigation by a human rights group.
President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday.
After an overnight flight from Washington, the president landed in
Afghanistan for a stay of just a few hours, in darkness. He flew by
helicopter from Bagram Airfield to the capital, where he was greeted at
the presidential palace by Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, given just an
hour’s notice of Obama’s arrival.
Hundreds of people are suing New York City over cancer diagnoses they
received after working at ground zero on Sept. 11. A judge last week
rejected a $575 million settlement for thousands of ill responders in
part because he thought it should contain more money for cancer victims.
Hundreds of Scientology followers live on a gated, 500-acre campus and
work long hours for almost no pay reproducing the works of founder L.
Ron Hubbard and creating the church’s teaching and promotional
materials.
The church said its 5,000 so-called Sea Organization members are
religious devotees akin to monks who are exempt from wage requirements
and overtime. But two lawsuits filed by former Sea Org members, as they
are known, allege the workers are little more than slave laborers,
forced to work 100-hour weeks for pennies and threatened with manual
labor if they cause trouble.
Capping an epic struggle, congressional Democrats put the final touches Thursday to historic legislation enshrining health care as the right of every citizen. Republicans vowed to campaign for repeal in the fall election season, drawing a quick retort from President Barack Obama: “I welcome that fight.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday approved new rules that will
make it harder to discharge gays from the military, calling the changes
a matter of “common sense and common decency.”
Gates announced new guidelines for how the Pentagon carries out the
1993 law banning gays from serving openly in the military — rules that
essentially put higher-ranking officers in charge of discharge
proceedings and impose tougher requirements for evidence used against
gays.
Bricks have been hurled through Democrats’ windows, a propane line was cut at the home of a congressman’s brother and lawmakers who voted for a federal health care bill have received phone threats in the days before and after passage of the sweeping legislation.
Authorities are investigating incidents in Kansas, Virginia and places such as Rochester, N.Y., where a brick tossed through the window of a county Democratic Party office had a note attached that said: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,” roughly quoting the late Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee.
Prom’s still off at a high school that canceled it rather than let a
lesbian student bring her girlfriend, but a judge ruled Tuesday the
district’s actions did violate the teen’s constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused the American Civil
Liberties Union’s demand to force the school district to put on the
April 2 prom. However, he said canceling it did violate 18-year-old
Constance McMillen’s rights and he would hold a trial on the issue.
For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued for control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island’s gone.
The White House says it isn’t worried that 13 state attorneys general are suing to overturn the massive health care overhaul, and many legal experts agree the effort is futile.
Federal prosecutors are considering filing weapons charges against
former top officials of the Blackwater Worldwide private security
company over allegations they illegally stockpiled automatic rifles at
the company’s North Carolina headquarters, sources say.
Amid the talk about health care, you probably missed the sweeping student loan reform tucked inside the same bill.
Riding the coattails of a historic health care vote, the House on Sunday also passed a broad reorganization of college aid that affects millions of students and moves President Barack Obama closer to winning yet another of his top domestic policies.
MOSCOW — An AIDS outbreak at two children’s hospitals in Uzbekistan has killed at least 14 children and left 133 infected with HIV, according to a documentary posted on a respected Central Asian news Web site Monday.
Solutions by The State News