The next time this Ferrari owner is handed a parking ticket he’ll probably just accept it.
However, when the driver of a $257,000 Ferrari 458 returned to his car yesterday to find a policeman issuing him a fine he did just the opposite.
He refused to listen to the policeman, hopped behind the wheel and then seemingly drove over the officer’s foot.
WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium has been temporarily shut after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday.
WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is owned by the international security firm G4S, which was at the center of a dispute over security at the London Olympic Games.
Officials said the facility was shut down on Wednesday at least until next week after three activists cut through perimeter fences to reach the outer wall of a building where highly enriched uranium, a key nuclear bomb component, is stored.
The activists painted slogans and threw what they said was human blood on the wall of the facility, one of numerous buildings in the facility known by the code name Y-12 that it was given during World War Two, officials said.
While moving between the perimeter fences, the activists triggered sensors that alerted security personnel. But officials conceded the intruders were still able to reach the building’s walls before security personnel got to them.
NEAR ALEPPO, Syria: Syrian regime warplanes pounded rebel positions in second city Aleppo on Sunday ahead of a threatened ground assault by more than 20,000 troops assembled around the commercial capital.
Iran appealed for help from governments with ties to the Syrian opposition in securing the release of 48 of its nationals seized from a bus in Damascus, as an Arabic news channel aired footage it said was of the Iranians in the hands of rebel captors who charged that their hostages were Revolutionary Guards.
A high-level security official said Syria’s army completed its deployment of reinforcements to the northern city of Aleppo, ready for a decisive showdown.
“The war is likely to be long, because there will have to be street battles in order to get rid of the terrorists,” the source told AFP, declining to be named.
“All the reinforcements have arrived and they are surrounding the city,” he said. “The army is ready to launch its offensive, but is awaiting orders.”
The battle for presidential votes in the key state of Ohio is heading to court.
President Obama’s campaign has sued the state of Ohio over new rules for early voting designed to benefit members of the military, saying the extra hours should be available to all voters.
That lawsuit prompted claims by Mitt Romney and aides that the Obama campaign is targeting military voters — a false claim, Obama’s team quickly responded.
Said Romney in a statement: “President Obama’s lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state’s early voting period is an outrage.”
Boss of first privately run NHS hospital says its model is key for best patient care
The first NHS hospital to be run entirely by a private firm has slashed waiting times and drastically improved patient care.
Hinchingbrooke, a struggling trust in Cambridgeshire, was taken over in February.
But NHS figures show that since the company, Circle, stepped in to save the debt-ridden hospital from closure, it has gone from being among the worst-performing trusts in the region to one of the best.
Its accident and emergency unit is currently ranked first out of 46 NHS trusts in the Midlands and East Anglia region in terms of waiting times.
Before the takeover it was consistently near the bottom and many patients were forced to wait longer than four hours.
Ethan A. Huff
Natural News
Aug 5, 2012
Two former high-ranking officials at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), a federal bureaucracy that collects data and intelligence on foreign communications for national security purposes, have come forward with allegations that the NSA actively monitors Americans as well. According to testimonies from both Thomas Drake, a former NSA senior official, and Kirk Wiebe, a former NSA senior analyst, the agency actively monitors and collects intelligence on every single American as part of a massive spying operation.
RT.com first broke the story after Drake and Wiebe, on two recent but separate occasions, disclosed inside information about the NSA’s spying activities to reporters. During a recent interview with Eliot Spitzer, host of Current TV’s “Viewpoint” program, Drake explained how the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a catalyst for redefining America as a “foreign nation” in order to legitimize unwarranted surveillance of innocent Americans — and he says this backdoor spying program continues to this day.
Not funny!
Satirical newspaper the Onion is under fire for publishing a photo that simulates an airplane flying into the country’s tallest skyscraper.
‘Sears extremists fly a plane into Willis Tower,’ a narrator says as the image is shown in a weekly news recap video.
The image shows an airplane emblazoned with the Sears logo aiming directly at the company’s former Chicago-based headquarters, now named the Willis Tower.
As of Saturday morning, the picture generated more than 3,600 comments and more than 4,100 likes on the Onion’s Facebook page.
Britain secretly equipping Syrian rebels with latest satellite phones to help topple Assad
British officials are secretly equipping Syrian rebel groups with satellite phones in a bid to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The supply of the latest generation of handsets is part of the Foreign Office’s mission to mould militias into a coalition capable of governing the country. The phones, used by the Ministry of Defence, are designed for rugged environments and are shock, dust and water resistant.
Whitehall sources also confirmed the Foreign Office is teaching negotiation and ‘stabilisation’ skills to opposition leaders, and advising on how to address the Syrian people and international audiences.
The mission is complicated by the expansion of the conflict to all Syria’s major cities – from Aleppo in the north, to Homs in the centre, and the capital Damascus in the south.
Heavy explosions shook Damascus yesterday as rebels attempted to renew their offensive there. Witnesses reported hearing helicopters and outbreaks of gunfire.
The violence could mean that Assad’s position is weakening after his recent victories, as armed opposition forces reorganise themselves.
The biggest group he faces is the Free Syrian Army, made up of soldiers and officers who defected from his regime.
“Unfortunately America and regional countries … do not take steps to control the borders,” Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying.
DUBAI—Iran warned against foreign intervention in Syria on Sunday and said the conflict there could engulf Israel, Iranian media said.
Larijani accused the United States and regional countries he did not name of providing military support to rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, a key Arab ally of Iran.
Syria has accused Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia of backing rebels in Syria and fuelling violence there. Iran meanwhile has supported Assad’s efforts to crush the 17-month revolt.
“The fire that has been ignited in Syria will take the fearful (Israelis) with it,” Iran Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
“What really allows these countries to interfere in internal Syrian affairs?” Larijani was quoted as saying.
Larijani is considered a moderate conservative and a close follower of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful man in Iran who decides the country’s foreign policy. Larijani is also a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and widely expected to run for president in 2013.
It was one of the most memorable pieces of architecture at the Beijing Olympic Games four years ago.
Now the iconic blue ‘bubble-wrap’ building, known as The Cube, has been transformed from a 50m Olympic pool with spectator stands into a fantasy water-world open to the public.
The monochrome blue pool has now been replaced by a multi-coloured, adventure park, with numerous water-rides, including waves, a lazy river, and 13 water slides including the Bullet Bowl, Speed Slide and Tornado. It even has a Happy Spa.
