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Jetliner crash-lands in Peru A Peruvian jetliner carrying between 94 and 100 people crashed near Pucallpa, Peru on Tuesday at 21:20 UTC. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said 70 to 80 had been killed. Massive floods in Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland Heavy rainfalls have caused massive floods in Southern Bavaria, Western Austria and Central Switzerland.

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Google Talk released in beta form Google today released Google Talk (link) in beta, an Instant Messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) product using the Jabber protocol.

Wikipedia Current Events
At least 17 people have been killed following a series of Gun battles and a Suicide car bomb that targetted the Iraqi Police in Baghdad. The Government of Israel has issued orders to seize Palestinian land close to the jewish Settlement of Maale Adumim so as to construct a wall. At least four Palestinians have been killed in a gun-battle following an Israeli raid on the Palestinian refugee camp of Tulkarm in the West Bank. Heavy floods hit Switzerland, Austria and Germany forcing thousands of people to abandon their homes. Chinese railroad workers laid rail tracks on the Tanggula Mountain Pass in Tibet at 5,072m above sea level, surpassing the altitude of the highest Peruvian railway by 255m. This section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is now the highest railway in the world. The railway also includes the highest railway station in the world at Lhasa, 5,068m above sea level. The railway is expected to open later in 2005.

Google provides Gmail access to American cell phone customers

Gmail, Google's popular e-mail service launched earlier last year, is now available to any American cell phone user via text messaging.

Cell phone owners can send Google their phone number, and are then sent an access code via SMS that enables them to open an account. Google has stated that the number is only used to "manage the number of accounts created per phone", and that it "will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes" without the user's permission.

The service is not necessarily free - cell phone service providers may charge for the delivery of the code.

While the system currently only works in the U.S., Google says it has plans to add more countries.

Canadian woman faces 234 counts of double-doctoring

Brampton, Ontario woman Wendy Grant, 41, is facing 234 charges of double-doctoring after obtaining prescriptions for 6000 pills. The Ontario Provincial Police also charged her with fraud charge after allegedly obtaining false prescriptions for a narcotic.

From February to May, Grant obtained pills from 28 doctors and 22 pharmacies in Peel and Halton regions.

Mixed success for Brampton Day at Ontario Place

Held Sunday, the first annual Brampton Day at Ontario Place let hundreds of Brampton residents have fun in Toronto, while experiencing some of their own community.

Entertainment on the stage included local rock band Frayed, Cuban singing by Alexis Martinez, blues and folk from Gayle Ackroyd, Carmen Spada's smooth jazz, bhangra dancing by the Koonja and the Punjabi Virsa Art & Culture Academy, and a Brampton Theatre performance of Man of La Mancha.

Many groups and community organizations were at the event, from the Farmers' Market to the Brampton Stallions football team. Visual Arts Brampton offered kids the chance to create artwork for their Snail Mail World Postcard Art Show, while the Brampton Arts Council gave away pink sand buckets with Region of Peel water bottles. Young visitors were noticeably enthralled by Sassy the Squirrel, the City's mascot.

People who bought passes to the Brampton Day event through the City were encouraged to wear blue wrist bands around the park, for a chance to get spotted and win a prize. A draw was held for prizes including green fees for four at the Peel Village Golf Course, Heritage Theatre tickets, and restaurant gift certificates.

Festival Square's proximity to Lake Ontario caused its share of trouble, particularly for the arts groups displaying in the south. Tents were blown on their sides, becoming veritable wind sails. Luckily no guests or volunteers were injured by the mishaps. One painting infused with a sculpture, at the Beaux-Arts Brampton tent, was destroyed early in the day after catching a gust of wind.

Clothes from China piling up on European borders

Clothes worth millions of euros are being blocked in European warehouses after the European Union imposed quotas on ten types of textiles from China.

The European Commission agreed to the quotas with China in July and many of them, including jumpers (sweaters) and trousers were quickly exceeded.

Retailers across Europe are now claiming they face massive losses. The European consumer's organisation, BEUC, has said that most of the clothes were ordered before the agreement was made and that their blockage is "ignoring the basic laws of economics".

A representative warned: "The new quotas will lead to higher prices and less choice for European consumers when they try to buy trousers, pullovers, women’s blouses, brassieres and other textile products in the coming months."

The Commission is sending a representative to China to try and find a solution to the crisis, but according to the news website Euractive, the quotas are unlikely to be dropped as most EU member countries are in favour of them.

Australian governments to partially fund Forbes conference

The Australian government and the New South Wales State goverernment are going to fund the Forbes Global CEO Conference, to be held at the Sydney Opera House next week. The State government has said that the contract prevents it from revealing how much taxpayers money will be spent.

A spokesman for the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, said that they could not divulge the costs "under the contract arrangements". A government source suggested to the Sydney Morning Herald that the state and federal governments are spending up to $1million each.

The State government has been criticised for providing free police protection at the conference. Security will require 200 police a day, at an estimated cost of more than $500,000.

According to the government, the large police presence is required because ASIO has assessed the event as "medium risk". A number of Global justice and peace groups have pledged to protest at the conference. The number of protestors is currerntly projected to be around 2,000.

Google Talk released in beta form

Google today released Google Talk (link) in beta, an Instant Messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) product using the Jabber protocol (built from XMPP).

At this early stage the service is only available to users with a Google Gmail account. The official client, required for the VoIP functionality, is only available for Windows XP/2000 although existing IM clients such as Gaim and iChat on Mac and GNU/Linux platforms can be used for text chatting.

This positions Google to compete with the popular service Skype. Like Google Talk, Skype's PC-to-PC communications are free. Skype also offers gateways to and from various regional phone services for which it charges. It is not known at this stage if Google intends to enter that market.

The largest search engine on the web, Google receives over 200 million queries each day through its various services. Other recent releases include the Gmail email service and Google Earth, which lets users view satellite photos and other map information.

Update: U.S. Army intelligence had detected 9/11 terrorists year before, says officer

On Thursday, it was reported at Wikinews that "[a] year before the 9/11 attacks, through data mining a U.S. Army intelligence group had identified two terrorist cells, [which included] Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers." An Able Danger contractor, J.D. Smith, has added that the techniques included examination of data related to mosques and religious ties connected to Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader in New York City of a militant Islamic terrorist organization.

Another "Able Danger" operative,Captain Scott Phillpott, gave a statement stating;"I will not discuss this outside of my chain of command. I have briefed the Department of the Army, the Special Operations Command and the office of (Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence) Dr. Cambone as well as the 9/11 Commission. My story has remained consistent. Atta was identified by Able Danger in January/February 2000."

Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita said;"There appear to be more memories than there is information to substantiate those memories. We're reviewing the matter carefully, but thus far have not found what it is these handful of individuals seem to remember."

Other Fox News sources have said that DiRita is wrong. Since it was a classified project, it would be illegal for project participants to retain documents for personal use.

English FA rescinds red cards, FIFA backlash probable

The Football Association of England risked a backlash and possible disciplinary action from football's world governing body FIFA on Tuesday when it rescinded the suspensions due from red cards that had been given during the past weekend's matches to FA Premier League players Andrew Welsh of Sunderland and Paul Konchesky of West Ham United.

The FA's decision permitted Welsh to play for the Black Cats in their 2-1 loss at home to Manchester City Tuesday evening. Konchesky will also be available for the Hammers' next game on Saturday when West Ham host Bolton Wanderers. However, the FA's actions contravene FIFA regulations, which demand that any player sent off be suspended for his team's next match, with no right of appeal except for mistaken identity.

FIFA House had already been in contact with Soho Square over the past week after the FA downgraded a red card that had been given to Newcastle United's Jermaine Jenas to a yellow card on the advice of referee Steve Bennett. The FA had indicated it would eventually issue a reply to FIFA, but the decision to overturn two more cards less than a week after the FIFA communication is likely to displease FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

For the past three years especially, Blatter has been adamant that a red card in a football match must result in the player who was sent off missing his team's next game in the same competition. Blatter has clashed with the FA on this issue during that time, going so far as to threaten the English association with expulsion from FIFA. As a result, the FA agreed in 2004 to change their disciplinary process, in particular ensuring the process was expedited so that a player who was sent off did indeed miss his next match. However, it is now apparent that the FA has chosen to also allow for expedited appeals of red cards on grounds other than mistaken identity, which is not provided for in the FIFA regulations.

Although the FA has now permitted Jenas, Welsh and Konchesky to play after being sent off in a previous match, it also extended an automatic three-match ban imposed on Southend United's Freddy Eastwood by one additional match after its disciplinary panel deemed his appeal of a red card received the previous weekend to be "frivolous." The FA also rejected the appeal of Luton Town's Steve Howard, but did not extend his three-match suspension.

Unlike with Jenas, the red cards issued to Welsh and Konchesky will remain on their disciplinary records because the referees involved did not agree that they made mistakes. This means they will still receive an additional one-match ban should they be sent off again this season. Following Tuesday's decisions, half of the six red cards shown in the Premiership this season have been overturned. And in an interesting footnote, it was Jenas who Konchesky was sent off for fouling this past weekend.

Jetliner crash-lands in Peru

A Peruvian jetliner carrying between 94 and 100 people crashed near Pucallpa, Peru on Tuesday at 21:20 UTC. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said 70 to 80 had been killed, and other authorities have said at least 40. The Boeing 737-200, operated by military-run airline Tans Peru had attempted an emergency landing on Federico Basadre road in Peru's central jungle. The crash is said to have been caused by bad weather.

"Until now, there are 40 cadavers that rescue teams are pulling from the wreckage. There could be more deaths, we assume some 60 people in total, since we've rescued 20 injured people," said a police office in the nearby town on RPP radio.[1]

The pilot contacted the Pecallpa airport saying he could not land because of strong winds and a heavy storm, said Norma Pasquel, an airport receptionist. When the plane crash-landed, its landing gear had not been released, according to firefighter Ilda Pineda.

The plane was on a flight from Lima to Pucallpa to Iquitos.

Five of the deaths have been confirmed by Berta Garcia, a secretary at Pucallpa's municipal hospital, on RPP radio. She said the bodies of four adults and a small boy had been brought to the hospital.

Tans Peru confirmed the emergency landing, saying several people had been killed or injured.

100 people—92 passengers and eight crew members—were on the plane, said Tans spokesman Jorge Belevan on CPN radio, and his figures were echoed by BBC News. Speaking on the same station, Transportation Minister Jose Ortiz said the plane carried 93 passengers and five crew membmers. Xinhua reported that 94 people were on the plane.

Today in History
1814 - Washington, D.C. was burnt down during the War of 1812. The walls of the White House were subsequently painted white to cover the smoke damage.

1835 - The New York Sun perpetrated the Great Moon Hoax.

1912 - The Kuomintang was founded in China.

1920 - In the Polish-Soviet War, the Battle of Warsaw ended with a Russian defeat.

1989 - The Voyager 2 spacecraft reached Neptune, the last planet it could visit before leaving the solar system.

August 25 is Independence Day in Uruguay (1825)

Quote of the Day

"We have met the enemy and he is us." ~ Walt Kelly

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