| REUTEMAN: Dots worth connecting: beetle kill to motor fuel
A flurry of announcements in recent weeks about combating the pine beetle has to make you wonder. Why now? It's already infested 1.5 million acres of Colorado lodgepole pine forest, laying waste to a goodly chunk of the state's scenic beauty. Mostly we've heard that nature was allowed to take its course. It's tempting to say the devastation finally got people's attention when it began showing up along the populous Front Range. But that's only partly true. "It's about time," said Gary Severson, executive director of the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments. "We've been hitting this problem real hard for the past three years." In 2007, the affected areas grew by half a million acres in one year's beetle flight, he said. "The wind currents blew the beetles up over the Continental Divide.
Talking to the Taliban
The suspicion is that they have actually become caught in a political battle, perhaps involving the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. Faced with the probable arrival of Paddy Ashdown as a UN envoy, the president may have wanted to show he retains sovereign authority by expelling officials from the bodies Lord Ashdown is supposed to oversee, the UN and the EU. The Afghan president is unlikely to have been shocked by the fact that the men were in contact with Taliban leaders, since he has done the same thing. Nor is Lord Ashdown opposed. Writing in the Guardian in July, he argued that "success is not measured in dead Taliban ... modern war is fought among the people ... the battle for public opinion is the crucial battle". Indeed, the idea of an opposition force that can clearly be identified as the Taliban, and which should either be attacked or talked to, according to preference, is misguided.
Gun Report on Calif. Campus False Alarm
CARSON, Calif. (AP) -- A report of a man armed with an assault weapon prompted police to shut down the California State University, Dominguez Hills, campus Thursday before they learned the person was an ROTC student carrying a fake rifle. Police swarmed the sprawling campus 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles shortly after 8 a.m. Some students and faculty fled and others locked themselves in buildings. "We were just blind-sided," said university spokeswoman Amy Bentley-Smith. "Someone came in and said, 'There's a gunman on campus. Lock all your doors.'" Although ROTC policy is to put training rifles in duffel bags when not in use, the student walked back from practice carrying his rifle, Bentley-Smith said. He was not in uniform and was wearing a dark sweat shirt.
Murano improves on style, safety
When Nissan Guam location sales manager Enzo Turrini first bought the second generation of the Nissan Murano back in 2004, his wife hadn't yet bought in to the idea of vehicle's futuristic look. The trend of massive sports utility vehicles was changing for a market looking for style and road comforts. A few models later, Nissan has again struck gold with its style, Turrini says, also improving on many safety features. .
Official Website of the New Car Buyer(TM)
When she takes to the track on Friday, the 21-year-old will become the fifth female to drive an A1GP car during a race weekend. Home nation Malaysia's Alex Yoong is the most experienced driver in A1GP and, despite a tough start to the season, the 31-year-old from Kuala Lumpur remains upbeat about his team's chances at his home race. Malaysian rookie Aaron Lim, who knows the Sepang circuit well, will get his first taste of his home circuit in an A1GP car when he takes to the track this weekend. Current championship leader New Zealand will have its sights firmly set on extending its one-point advantage over South Africa while Oliver Jarvis will be aiming to keep Great Britain, currently lying third, in title contention. Jarvis will arrive in Malaysia fresh from taking a dominant victory at the Macau F3 Grand Prix.
Combat Crime & Drug Abuse Urges Sultan
Out of the 732 people, 649 of them were locals; another 35 were permanent residents while the rest were foreigners. "The most shocking fact in the statistics was that a majority of them were drug abusers with 664 of them being Malays, with only 27 Chinese and the rest made .
Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella, German Adrian Sutil to lead new ...
MUMBAI, India (AP) -Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella and German Adrian Sutil will lead Force India team in its debut Formula One season. Fisichella joins the team from Renault, while Sutil was last season's most successful driver of the team previously known as Spycar. The team was renamed Force India after being bought by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol. "We had to choose our drivers very carefully, because we are a team that needs to benefit from the drivers' experience," Mallya said Thursday. "I'm personally proud that an Indian has put a car with an Indian flag on the Formula One grid." Vitantonio Liuzzi will be the team's test and reserve driver. .
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