China premier threatens Japan over boat dispute

BEIJING — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao threatened action against Japan if it does not immediately release a detained ship captain, in his first comments in a growing fight over disputed islands. Wen’s remarks Tuesday …Forbes · 54 minutes ago

US pushes for Chinese currency changes

Forbes

US Commerce secretary pushes for Chinese currency changes

San Francisco Examiner

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MSN UK News

25 militants killed in attack on Afghan-NATO camp

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents attacked a NATO and Afghan army outpost in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border and at least 25 of the militants were killed in the resulting skirmish, officials said Wednesday. …Troy Record · 2 hours ago

Battle Ground soldier confirmed dead in Afghanistan helicopter crash

Oregonian

Afghanistan helicopter crash kills nine NATO troops

Victorville Daily Press

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The Christian Science Monitor

Vatican says bank probe fueled by misunderstanding

The Vatican says the seizure by police of euro23 million ($30 million) from a Vatican bank account and the investigation of two top bank officials was due to a simple misunderstanding that should be clarified quickly. In a …AP – msnbc.com · 1 hour ago

Italian police seize $30 million from Vatican in probe

Morning Sun

Vatican: Bank probe due to misunderstanding, says matter should be clarified soon

Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Imemc.org

Violence in east Jerusalem clouds peace efforts

JERUSALEM — Crowds of Palestinian youths violently rampaged in east Jerusalem Wednesday after the shooting death of a local man, clouding fragile peace efforts even as the Palestinian president signaled he may back …San Jose Mercury News · 1 hour ago

Israeli official urges PT not to boycott products

Port Townsend Leader

Palestinian president Abbas indicates talks might continue despite Israeli settlement work

Cleveland Plain Dealer

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Everything Alabama Blog

TD Georgette moving in land in NE Mexico

Forecasters say Tropical Depression Georgette is moving inland across the northwestern coast of Mexico. A tropical storm watch was discontinued Wednesday for the coast of mainland Mexico. Georgette is located just …AP – msnbc.com · 1 hour ago

Tropical Depression Georgette moving inland across Mexico mainland

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Caribbean system could become tropical cyclone; Tropical Storm Lisa lingers in Atlantic

Everything Alabama Blog

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Politico.com

Rudy Giuliani criticizes President Obama’s handling of Afghan war

W ASHINGTON — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani used revelations in a new book about the Obama administ
ration to criticize the president’s handling of the war in Afghanistan, saying his insistence on an exit …Boston Herald · 1 hour ago

Book unearths divisions over Obama war plan

Forbes

Bob Woodward’s ‘Obama’s Wars’ reveals a White House at odds

USA Today

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Breaking News

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Tom Brokaw Involved In Fatal Car Accident

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and his wife say they were involved in a three-car accident on a New York City highway that killed one woman.

MORE DETAILS: <http://www.wlwt.com/tu/5LMtM3uBj.html>

HOUSTON – A charter school teacher is accused of secretly videotaping students while they were using the bathroom.

Craig McDonald, a 59-year-old instructor at Raul Yzaguirre School for Success in southwest Houston, was scheduled to be in court Wednesday, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Investigators say he put a miniature camera inside a fake smoke detector in the bathroom. The camera then sent images back to a monitor on McDonald’s desk.

Police seized several computers and other electronic equipment from his home, the paper said.

After being charged with improper photography/visual recording on Monday, McDonald posted $2,000 bail.

If convicted, McDonald could face up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

The school has about 1,250 students of elementary, middle, and high-school age, according to its web site.

View article…

DALLAS – Dallas police say a 2-year-old boy is now a witness in his grandmother’s homicide investigation.

A relative dropped the boy off Tuesday at the Southeast Patrol Substation on Jim Miller Road. Sources said his statements led police to believe that something had happened to his grandmother.

Officers later found 35-year-old Zulma Salmeron dead inside Room 11 at the Luxury Inn Motel along C.F. Hawn Freeway.

Police now believe Salmeron’s boyfriend, Jose Gonzales, dropped the boy off at the relative’s house. That relative instead took him to the police station.

“About that same time, there was a single car accident that occurred a few miles away. The driver [Gonzalez] was probably the last person to see the grandmother, who we were looking for,” said Sgt. Bruce McDonald.

Gonzalez was taken to a local hospital following the crash. He has since been charged with murder.

Police have not revealed details about a possible motive. But a report states that Salmeron was in the process of moving out of the couple’s apartment.

The boy is currently in state custody. His grandmother had been caring for him while his mother is in Houston.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/toddler_tells_police_of_grandma’s_deathView article…

“Don’t hate my father,” Mackenzie Phillips tells PEOPLE.

But in a tell-all book out Wednesday, the former childhood actress reveals that her dad, musician John Phillips of the ’60s band the Mamas and the Papas, engaged with her in a long-term incestuous relationship.

Phillips, 49, who has survived drug addiction, arrests and divorce, writes in the book “High on Arrival” that she was already a star playing a boy-crazy teen on the TV sitcom “One Day at a Time” when her father had sex with her on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones entourage, in 1979.

Mackenzie Phillips: I slept with my own father- msnbc.com

"They kicked me off," Mitnick says, noting he doesn’t begrudge Hostedhere.net, which he used for five years. But after a number of break-ins that targeted the former hacker, "they decided it wasn’t cost-effective to keep me around," Mitnick says, adding, "I’m a target," mostly for those who want to play "king of the hill" by hacking someone once known as a notorious hacker.

Reports surfaced during last week’s Black Hat conference that Mitnick and other security experts had their websites hacked.

But Mitnick hasn’t been left Webless. FireHost has stepped in to offer Mitnick a refuge for the basic advertising he does online for his consultancy, Mitnick Security Consulting LLC.

FireHost provides hosting that uses what CEO Chris Drake claims are better defence measures – provided to all its customers – than might be found at the typical web-hosting firm.

FireHost makes use of the Imperva application firewall to defend against SQL injection, cross-site scripting and other application-layer attacks. The firm also makes use of home-grown Snort-based tools and Top Layer’s security device to mitigate against denial-of-service attacks, intrusion-prevention and to scan for possible infected web pages.

Techworld.com – Kevin Mitnick dumped by ISP after attacks

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says a tsunami generated after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake off of New Zealand is small and poses no threat. The warning center says no destructive waves are headed for New Zealand’s western coastline after a tsunami warning was issued …

WTOP Radio · July 15, 2009, 4:25 AM (PST)

More on this story

I am glad that this did not happen, I hate to see another Tsunami disaster anywhere in the world.

The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong.

The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.

>> Click to read more on North Korea’s nuclear program.Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper Tuesday.

“Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means … as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country’s dignity and sovereignty even a bit,” said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as “offensive” in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls U.S. attempts to invade it.

The tough talk came as South Korea and the U.S. lead an effort at the U.N. Security Council to have the North punished for its nuclear test with tough sanctions.

Relations between the two Koreas have significantly worsened since a pro-U.S, conservative government took office in Seoul last year, advocating a tougher policy on the North. Since then, reconciliation talks have been cut off and all key joint projects except the factory park in Kaesong have been suspended.

Some 40,000 North Koreans are employed at the zone, making everything from electronics and watches to shoes and utensils, providing a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped North. The park combines South Korean technology and management expertise with cheap North Korean labor.A total of 106 South Korean companies operate in the park. That number will go down by the end of the month when Skinnet, the fur-maker, completes its pullout.

A Skinnet company official said the decision was primarily over “security concerns” for its employees, and also because of a decline in orders from clients concerned over possible disruptions to operations amid the soaring tensions.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

The industrial park’s fate has been in doubt since last month when North Korea threatened to scrap all contracts on running the joint complex and said it would write new rules of its own and the South must accept them or pull out of the zone.

The companies have also been concerned by the detention of a South Korean man working at the complex by North Korean authorities since late March for allegedly denouncing the regime’s political system.

The two sides are to hold talks on the fate of the park Thursday.

Intensifying its confrontation with the U.S., North Korea handed down 12-year prison terms to two detained American journalists on Monday.

foxnews.com