Group: Wal-Mart Violates Workers’ Rights

While Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is not alone in engaging in illegal anti- union tactics, the retailer “stands out for the extreme sophistication and aggressiveness of its anti-union strategies.”  – Human Rights Watch

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
Associated Press

April 30, 2007 – The Scrooge Report Post

NEW YORK—Wal-Mart’s exploitation of weak U.S. labor laws interferes with workers’ rights to organize and violates the human rights of its employees, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, an independent nongovernment organization.

In a 210-page report released Monday, Human Rights Watch said Wal-Mart uses an arsenal of sophisticated tactics—some of which it says are illegal_ aimed at thwarting union organization and creating a climate of fear for its 1.3 million U.S. workers.

The Human Rights Watch study was based on interviews with 41 current and former Wal-Mart workers, managers, labor lawyers and union organizers between 2004 and early 2007. The organization also said it analyzed cases against Wal-Mart charging the company with violating U.S. labor and employment laws.

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No Brainer: Pot Triggers Psychotic Symptoms, Doctors Say

We’ve long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works. – Dr. Philip McGuire

By MARIA CHENG
Associated Press

April 30, 2007 – The Scrooge Report Post

LONDON – New findings on marijuana’s damaging effect on the brain show the drug triggers temporary psychotic symptoms in some people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors say.

British doctors took brain scans of 15 healthy volunteers given small doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis, as well as a placebo.

One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said.

The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug’s damaging influence on the human brain.

“We’ve long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works,” said Dr. Philip McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King’s College, London.

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Global Survey: Terror Attacks Up By 25 Percent in 2006

“By far the largest number of reported terrorist incidents occurred in the Near East and South Asia,” says the 335-page report, referring to the regions where Iraq and Afghanistan are located. 

Associated Press

April 30, 2007 – The Scrooge Report Post

WASHINGTON — Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up 25 percent last year, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds.

In its annual global survey of terrorism to be released Monday, the State Department says about 14,000 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. These strikes claimed more than 20,000 lives – two-thirds in Iraq. That is 3,000 more attacks than in 2005 and 5,800 more deaths.

Altogether, 40 percent more people were killed by increasingly lethal means around the globe.

The report attributes the higher casualty figures to a 25-percent jump in the number of nonvehicular suicide bombings targeting large crowds. That overwhelmed a 12-percent dip in suicide attacks involving vehicles.

In Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, seen for the first time in a November 23, 2006 attack in Sadr City, also “signaled a dangerous strategic shift in tactics,” it says.

With the rise in fatalities, the number of injuries from terrorist attacks also rose, by 54 percent, between 2005 and 2006, with a doubling in the number wounded in Iraq over the period, according to the department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2006.

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Airport adds foot basins for Muslim cabbies

Why are we catering to their rituals? We don’t do it for any other religion. – MCI Airport Official

WorldNetDaily

April 30, 2007 – The Scrooge Report Post

KANSAS, Mo. – The Kansas City International Airport has added several foot-washing basins in restrooms to accommodate a growing number of Muslim taxicab drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer, WND has learned.

The move concerns airport police who worry about Middle Eastern men loitering inside the building. After 9/11, the airport beefed up its police force to help prevent terrorist attacks.

“Why are we constructing places of worship for them inside our airports?” said an airport official who requested anonymity. “Why are we catering to their rituals? We don’t do it for any other religion.”

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Working Replica of Noah’s Ark Opens

Just a few weeks ago we saw Al Gore on television .. saying that all Holland will be flooded due to rising sea levels.

AP

By TOBY STERLING
Associated Press

April 30, 2007 – The Scrooge Report Post

SCHAGEN, Netherlands – The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was thrown open Saturday – you could say it was the first time in 4,000 years – drawing a crowd of curious pilgrims and townsfolk to behold the wonder.

Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark, built by Dutch creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible.

Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan’s fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold.

“The design is by my wife, Bianca,” Huibers said. “She didn’t really want me to do this at all, but she said if you’re going to anyway, it should look like this.”

A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine – biblical scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been.

Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and occasional help from his son Roy. Construction began in May 2005.

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