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U.S. house majority leader DeLay indicted, steps down temporarily U.S House of Representatives majority leader Tom DeLay was indicted today by a Travis County Texas grand jury on conspiracy charges. He annouced that he will step down temporarily. Bomb explodes in Belarusian city A bomb exploded in the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, injuring about forty-six people.

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Einstein's equation turns 100 Albert Einstein's best known equation, and probably the best known aspect of all physics, E=mc2, turned one hundred on Tuesday.

Wikipedia Current Events
A U.S. federal judge denies extradition of Venezuelan citizen Luis Posada Carriles, stating he would be tortured. At least seven people die when a female insurgent suicide bomber attacks an Iraqi Army recruitment centre in Talafar, northern Iraq.

Wikipedia Current Events
Lynndie England is sentenced to three years in prison. She could have faced a maximum sentence of ten years. Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian areas continue. IDF planes and artillery strike Gaza knocking out power to parts of the city, destroy a bridge in Beit Hanoun, fire missiles at a Fatah Youth Centre, an office and a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Islamic Jihad had earlier offered Israel a truce. Israeli troops later raided offices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. According to reports, Asif Chotu, allegedly a leader of the al Qaeda-linked militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has been arrested in Pakistan.

Emerging technologists showcased at MIT
MIT this week plays host to the Technology Review's Emerging Technologies Conference (ETC)1. ETC is supported and organized by the Technology Review magazine, and features celebrated innovators and engineers from around the country.

The conference, like the publication, prides itself on fostering innovation. Two tables outside the main audience hall display information about many other programs at MIT to support innovation, including the world-famous Lemelson-MIT Prize and awards highlighting work by high school students across the country. This afternoon, they presented the winners of their annual young tech innovators award, this year issued to the 35 best innovators under the age of 35.

In addition to recognizing those 35 innovators, two special awards were presented, one for humanitarian design and the other for innovation in general.

This year's "Innovator of the Year" is Kevin Eggan, noted for his August publication in Science showing that cheek cells could be reprogrammed to become pluripotent stem cells. This could potentially end debates over whether it is moral to harvest stem cells from rarer sources.

And the "Humanitarian of the Year" is Saul Griffith, founder of Squid Labs, which pioneered a system to make customized glasses 'for $5 in 5 minutes' -- covering the complete range of prescription lenses. In prototype: a machine roughly the size of a desktop inkjet that produced the lenses, and a hand-held machine (basically a set of goggles) which determines your prescription. You can send instructions to the first machine like you would to a printer; a production model is expected to be out in two to three years.

Colorado parents burn books
Norwood, Colorado parents recently burned copies of Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima after having them pulled from the area high school's curriculum. Millie Davis, of the National Council of Teachers of English, said "I'm flabbergasted that something like this would be happening in this day and age". The Hispanic coming-of-age story is commonly included as part of high school curriculums, and won the Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award. The novel explores some minority religious views such as paganism.

The Colorado parents who burned the copies claim they "mainly" object to some profanity in the novel. Rudolfo Anaya, a professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico, said "The book should be judged in its entirety. There is some strong language in strong situations, but there is no flippant use of profanity."

"Bless Me, Ultima" has survived a challenge in New York without being banned. It came in 75th on the American Library Associations's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000. By comparison, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh positions are occupied by Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, respectively.

FCC extends 911 deadline for VoIP
The US Federal Communications Commission has extended the deadline for E911 compliance by VoIP providers till Oct 31, 2005. Last May, the FCC issued an order requiring VoIP providers to implement E911 within 120 days. This order also required providers to notify customers of the 911 limitations. Customers for whom an acknowledgment has not been received would have their service disconnected.

This extension gives providers extra time to continue to attempt to connect to the networks to 911 services and to warn users of the limitations. If the FCC had not granted this extension at least 10,000 users would have to been disconnected.

According to the FCC at least 21 VoIP providers have received an acknowledgment from all customers of the 911 limitations. 32 additional VoIP providers have received an acknowledgment from 90 percent or more of their customers. VoIP providers who have not met the 90% goal could face enforcement proceedings starting on Oct 31, 2005.

FCC said in a statement “it is evident that many providers have devoted significant resources to notifying each of their subscribers of the limitations of their 911 service and obtaining acknowledgements from each of their subscribers.”

ALA observes banned book week
The American Library Association (ALA) is observing Banned Books Week 2005 from September 24 until October 1, the last week in September. The ALA's list of suggested activities for members includes various activities which draw attention to the books that have been challenged or banned within the last few years (see 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000), such as posting lists, organizing readings, and assigning research papers on censorship in the U.S. to students.

Attempts to ban books from library shelves rose by more than 20%, to 547 formal challenges, in 2004. The most frequent attacked books included several with gay themes, including Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The most challenged book was Robert Cormier's classic novel "The Chocolate War". In Norwood Colorado, parents recently burned copies of Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima" after having them pulled from the High School curriculum.

U.S. house majority leader DeLay indicted, steps down temporarily
U.S House of Representatives majority leader Tom DeLay was indicted today by a Travis County Texas grand jury on conspiracy charges. He annouced that he will step down temporarily.

Mr. DeLay's attorney Steve Brittain said that DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme along with two associates, namely John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, the head of DeLay's national political committee.

According to the indictment, "the defendants herein, with the intent that a felony be committed, did enter into an agreement with one or more of each other with a general purpose committee known as Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (Political action committee) that one or more of them would engage in conduct that would constitute the offense of knowingly making a political contribution in violation of Subchapter D of Chapter 253 of the Texas Election Code..."

Mr. DeLay, upon announcement of the indictment, made a solitary public comment: "I have notified the speaker that I will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference and the actions of the Travis County district attorney today."

Earlier, DeLay denied all charges in the lengthy investigation. Bill White, another of DeLay's attorneys, said "it's a skunky indictment if they have one." DeLay's spokesman, Kevin Madden, called the indictment "nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan Democrat," refering to prosecutor Ronnie Earle, a Democrat.

According to House Republican party rules, DeLay must resign upon indictment. Party officals told the Associated Press that Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert R-Illinois, will likely recommend Republican David Dreier of California as replacement, while some duties may also go to Majority whip Roy Blunt, R-Missouri.

DeLay has previously been admonished three times by a Congressional ethics committee, for "objectionable behavior".

House Republicans earlier eliminated the rule requiring his resignation upon indictment, but reinstated it fearing voters' outcry.

DeLay's Political Action Committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, was earlier indicted on charges it accepted corporate contributions for use in state legislative elections. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used in elections, permitting it only for administrative expenses.

Having gained GOP control of Texas' legislature, DeLay masterminded a redistricting plan in 2004 that allowed the GOP to gain six seats in the U.S. House, formerly won by Democrats, and build a majority in Congress. In one case, one lawmaker switched parties, to maintain office.

9/11 Anthrax investigation quietly loses urgency

Anthrax Bacteria

In the past year, the FBI has sharply reduced the number of staff investiging the post-9/11 Anthrax probe attack from 31 to 21; and the post office has reduced the number of investigators from 13 to 9. The investigation has been one of the most extensive in FBI history but has yielded no arrests. The reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction remains at $2.5 million.

The FBI is preparing an internal report to take stock of the situation, as is usually done in high-profile cases which go unresolved for years, and are expected to remain so. The magnitude of the Anthrax probe parallels the 18-year Unabomber probe, which was only resolved because Theodore Kaczynski issued a public manifesto and his brother recognized his thinking and tipped off the FBI.

The prevailing theory in the Anthrax probe is that "the culprit is a U.S. scientist who had access to the high-grade anthrax and the knowledge of how to physically manipulate it and use it as a weapon", a theory which emerged early in the investigation. The attacks used a weaponized Ames strain almost surely produced in the U.S., most likely at Fort Detrick.

The purpose of the attack also remains unknown but many believe it was committed by conservative elements in American society, due to the existance of coordinated harmless attack, the choice of targets, and the choice of strain. Some believe the attack was aided by Lt. Col. Dr. Philip Zack, perhaps with the intent to frame ex-coworker Dr. Ayaad Assaad whom Dr. Zack harassed while at Fort Detrick.

The post-9/11 Anthrax attacks killed 5 people and temporarily infected another 17.

Today in History
61 BC: In Rome, Pompey the Great (pictured) celebrated triumphs over pirates in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and in the war against king Mithridates VI of Pontus in Asia Minor, with enormous parades of spoils, prisoners, army and banners depicting battle scenes. It was also his 45th birthday.

1829: The first official police force in the world, the Metropolitan Police of London, also known as the Met or Scotland Yard, was founded by Robert Peel.

1907: Construction work began on the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

1941: The Babi Yar massacre began in Kiev.

1964: Mafalda, a comic strip by Quino, was first published in newspapers in Argentina.

Quote of the Day

"There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery." ~ Enrico Fermi

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