Thursday, February 19, 2009

By: Kathleen Gilbert (LifeSiteNews.com)

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OKLAHOMA CITY, February 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Oklahoma City police officer last week pulled over a truck displaying a sign that read "Abort Obama, not the unborn," confiscated the sign, and reported the driver to Secret Service.

The police officer said he had interpreted driver Hal "Chip" Harrison's sign as a threat to President Obama's life.

"I pulled over, knowing I hadn't done anything wrong," Harrison said in a recent phone interview with the McClatchy-Tribune. The officer informed him that the sign was the reason he had stopped Harrison.

"It's not meant to be a threat, it's a statement about abortion," said Harrison, who is pro-life. "I asked the officer, 'Do you know what abort means?' He said, 'Yeah, it means to kill.' I said, 'No, it means to remove or terminate.'"

The policeman then confiscated the sign and informed Harrison he would be subject to an investigation as a possible threat to the president.

"I thought, 'this is something from Nazi Germany, not in Oklahoma,'" Harrison told the Associated Press (AP).

Some time later, Harrison says he received a call from the Secret Service saying they were at his house to "make sure I wasn't a part of any hate groups." Harrison came home and allowed the agents to walk through the house. The agents reportedly questioned Harrison for about half an hour before leaving, convinced that there was no threat.

Captain Steve McCool of the Oklahoma City Police Dept. told an Enid, OK news service that the officer should not have confiscated the sign, and another local captain acknowledged that it was outside the officer's jurisdiction to have done so.

Harrison is not sure whether he will file a complaint. "I am trying to pursue it, because I've always been kind of a loudmouth," Harrison said. "If I can find a lawyer who will take the case, I probably would."

Adrian Andrews, head of the Secret Service's Oklahoma City field office, told the AP that the "Abort Obama" language would "get our attention every time."

"We'd rather be safe than sorry," he added.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Associated Press

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CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez's government has agreed to strengthen military ties with Iran.

Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar met with Chavez for an hour late Wednesday and said they discussed defense cooperation to "protect peace and tranquility in the region," Venezuela's Information Ministry said in a statement.

"There's a strategic alliance between Venezuela and Iran," Najjar was quoted as saying. "There's a great deal of economic and industrial cooperation, and we started cooperating in the area of defense five years ago."

The government said Najjar and Vice President Ramon Carrizalez signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen military cooperation, though it did not say what that would entail.

Chavez has built a close relationship with Iran, which has stepped up its presence in Venezuela and is helping to build public housing and manufacture cars, tractors and bicycles in the country.

Najjar said the military cooperation "doesn't represent any threat for any of the nations" in the region.

The defense minister arrived Monday for three-day visit, according to Iran's official IRNA news agency.

The 67-year-old Kim, who appeared frail but engaged at a gathering of the Supreme People's Assembly in Pyongyang on April 9, has wielded ultimate power in his country since 1994, but is now said to be making his first serious moves to establish a clear line of succession. The April gathering was his first public appearance before a large audience since the stroke he is believed to have suffered last August.

Kim's newfound emphasis on the military emerged in a series of recent personnel and organizational shuffles that give rare insight into his thinking about the people and institutions surrounding him, and into his possible plans for succession.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Associated Press

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MOSCOW — Russia will conduct at least five test launches of a new-generation intercontinental ballistic missile this year, the deputy defense minister was quoted as saying Tuesday.

Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said the Bulava missile needs thorough testing because "the reliability of all aspects of the rocket needs to be achieved" in comments carried by state news agency RIA Novosti.

The submarine-launched Bulava missile has a reported maximum range of about 6,200 miles and capacity for up to six individually targeted nuclear warheads. It has been hailed as a key future component of Russia's nuclear forces, although mixed results in testing have tempered enthusiasm.

Popovkin, speaking in Istanbul, said if the test launches were successful another five would be scheduled, the agency said.

The Bulava is to be test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi nuclear submarine this year, Navy Admiral Oleg Burtsev told RIA Novosti separately.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned Wednesday it will fire an intercontinental ballistic missile — or even carry out another nuclear test — unless the U.N. apologizes for condemning the regime's April 5 rocket launch.

By flaunting its rogue nuclear and missile programs, Pyongyang has raised the stakes in the escalating diplomatic tit for tat with the outside world. North Korea also said it would start generating nuclear fuel — an indication the regime will begin enriching uranium, another material used to make an atomic bomb....

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

FoxNews

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A Swedish robot nearly killed a man — but won't be prosecuted.

English-language Swedish news Web site The Local reports that the near-fatal incident took place at a factory north of Stockholm in June 2007.

A worker was about to fix a broken rock-lifting robot. He'd shut the power off, but the machine suddenly woke up and grabbed the man by the head.

"The man was very lucky. He broke four ribs and came close to losing his life," prosecutor Leif Johansson told the TT news agency.

This week, Johansson decided not to prosecute either the company that owned the factory or its robot.

Instead, the company will have to pay a $3,000 fine.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

FoxNews

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It could be the best Xbox 360 game ever, and a real kick in the ARSS.

The U.S. Army is testing the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) — a remote-controlled unmanned Vigilante robot helicopter equipped with a high-velocity sniper rifle.

Its RND Edge semi-automatic gun is mounted on a self-stabilizing turret with built-in zoom camera, and fires 7 to 10 precisely aimed .338-caliber rounds per second.

Back on the ground, a human directs it using a modified Xbox 360 controller, which plugs into a laptop so that the operator can see what the drone sees.

"Having the ability to accurately engage single point man sized targets with an airborne UAV will give the ground based soldier the ability to have a high-point survivable sniper at their disposal when needed," stated the Army solicitation notice when the project was announced in 2005.

The Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University developed the Precision Weapons Platform guided turret and rifle system.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Reuters

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BRUSSELS — Belgian scientists are developing a cuddly green robot to help ease the anxieties of children in hospital.

Probo the robot has a touchscreen on its stomach which is intended to explain operations to children. The robot also makes facial expressions intended to show how medical procedures will make the child feel.

"The main goal of this project is to have emotional communication with children," said Jelle Saldien, one of the researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) design team at Probo's unveiling on Tuesday.

Probo is the brainchild of Ivan Hermans, president of the Anty Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to design the robot. He had the idea after seeing the film "I, Robot."

Probo's fuzzy green head and short trunk are fully automated and the touchscreen displays emotions from pleasure to disgust. The robot will also detect faces and make eye contact.

When hugged or petted it purrs, and when punched or squeezed it says ouch, but the robot cannot yet hug back.

After further improvements it will be made available for hospitals and research institutes. The costs of the project have not been announced.

From the conscience clause to stem cell research, President Obama has shifted social policy to the left in his first 100 days in the White House. But the reversal of several of his predecessor's regulations has garnered hardly a whimper -- leaving many to wonder how much social issues matter to Americans amid two wars and an economic crisis.

-- Obama overturned George W. Bush's restriction on embryonic stem cell research last month when he signed an executive order authorizing expanded federal funding -- a decision he described as moral because it pursues research that will "ease human suffering."...

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Accossiated press

Monday, April 27, 2009

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U.S. Park Police say they have arrested 91 protesters in front of the White House, including some in wheelchairs who chained themselves to a fence.

The protesters are calling on the president to support legislation that would give people with disabilities in need of long-term care alternatives to nursing homes.

Sgt. David Schlosser says a large group gathered on a sidewalk outside the White House on Monday without a protest permit required for groups of more than 25 demonstrators.

He says some protesters are in wheelchairs and have chained themselves to a fence. Police may use a bolt-cutter to cut the chains.

The protesters are receiving written citations from officers, but are not being handcuffed or taken to a detention facility.

The arrival of a black First Lady in the White House might have been greeted with celebration around the world, but the similarly historic debut of Walt Disney’s first black princess has not been received so warmly.

The studio, known for its wholesome and predominantly white family values, has made several changes to its first African-American princess, Tiana, who will star in a new animated film this Christmas entitled "The Princess and the Frog," amid accusations of racial insensitivity....

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Progress in Iraq is still "fragile and reversible," Gen. David Petraeus warned Friday after back-to-back homicide bombings killed nearly 80 people one day earlier in Iraq's deadliest day in more than a year.

But the U.S. military is nevertheless set to withdraw from the war-torn country on schedule, he told a House appropriations subcommittee.

Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, addressed the lingering extremist threat in Iraq as he outlined his approach to the escalating campaign against extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan....

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