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A British teenager who is accused of possessing material for terrorist purposes has appeared in court.

The 17-year-old, who was arrested in the Dewsbury area of West Yorkshire on Monday, was given bail after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

It is alleged he had a copy of the “Anarchists’ Cookbook”, containing instructions on how to make home-made explosives.

Look! I found a terrorist organization!

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Dizzying heights, mist and isolation seem to fuel humankind’s spiritual quests, and it is no surprise that we find monasteries suspended above deep valleys where the air is clearer even when it is foggier.

Partly castles, partly unconquerable fortifications, these ancient sites have one thing in common – there are built on steep cliffs, often accessible only by secret paths, and provide the utmost seclusion and serene surroundings, so valued in true spiritual devotion.

(great pictures at the link…)

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For six decades, they held their silence.

The group of World War II veterans kept a military code and the decorum of their generation, telling virtually no one of their top-secret work interrogating Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt.

When about two dozen veterans got together yesterday for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.

Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners’ cells with listening devices. They felt bad about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to soften them up. They played games with them.

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.

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In the global economy, today’s winners can become tomorrow’s losers in a twinkling, and vice versa. Not so long ago, American pundits and economic analysts were snidely touting U.S. economic superiority to the “sick old man” of Europe. What a difference a few months can make. Today, with the stock market jittery over Iraq, the mortgage crisis, huge budget and trade deficits, and declining growth in productivity, investors are wringing their hands about the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, analysts point to the roaring economies of China and India as the only bright spots on the global horizon.

But what about Europe? You may be surprised to learn how our estranged transatlantic partner has been faring during these roller-coaster times — and how successfully it has been knocking down the Europessimist myths about it.

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As one British political analyst said to me recently: “Europe doesn’t so much have a welfare society as a comprehensive system of institutions geared toward keeping everyone healthy and working.”

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‘s deputies have been competing in organized contests to see who could make the most arrests, who could impound the most cars and who could question the most gang members.
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The contests were meant to boost morale and motivate deputies, but some observers are crying foul, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

One of the competitions, outlined in an internal Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department e-mail, was “Operation Any Booking.” The object of the contest was to see who could arrest the most people in a 24-hour period.

“It’s just a friendly competition to have a little fun out here,” said Lt. James Tatreau, who helped organize the events. “It’s a morale booster.”

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INTERPOL is seeking the help of the public to try to identify this man, photographed sexually abusing children in a series of images posted on the Internet.
The photos shown here are from a series of around 200 pictures involving 12 different young boys, believed to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 or 2003.
These pictures have been produced by specialists from Germany’s federal police force, the Bundeskriminalamt, working from originals found on the Internet, which had been digitally altered to disguise the man’s face.
Extensive police efforts worldwide to identify the man have so far failed and Interpol is now enlisting the support of the media and the public to help identify him as a priority.
Anyone with information on his identity or whereabouts should contact their local police or INTERPOL’s Trafficking in Human Beings Unit via email.

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A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work.

The action against the Kwik-Fit Group has been brought by the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers.

At a procedural hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh a judge refused to dismiss the £200,000 damages claim.

Kwik-Fit wanted the case brought against it thrown out.

Lord Emslie ruled that the action can go ahead with evidence being heard.

The PRS claimed that Kwik-Fit mechanics routinely use personal radios while working at service centres across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers.

It is maintained that amounts to the “playing” or “performance” of the music in public and renders the firm guilty of infringing copyright.

A parable:

Nasrudin was walking down the street one day, and came upon a man arguing with a merchant who was selling stew out of a street stall. According to the merchant, the man spent all day hanging around next to the stall, inhaling the aroma of the stew, but not buying anything; the merchant was demanding compensation for the service that he provided.

Nasrudin, hearing this, took the man’s money purse, held it near the merchant’s head, and shook it gently for a few moments. Then he said: “Now you’re even. He’s smelled your food, and you’ve heard his money jingle.”

Apple has got a new series of tv ads here, and the format is just *begging* to be parodied – so expect iBricks, and third part software complaints on youtube soon.