] WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Wednesday to lower
] taxes for some married couples, part of an election-year
] push to lock in some of President Bush's most popular tax
] cuts.
]
] The bill, passed 323-95, would permanently change three
] parts of tax law that cause some married couples to pay
] higher taxes than they would as single individuals and
] reduce their taxes $105 billion over the next decade.
] Some married couples face a tax increase next year if the
] changes expire as scheduled.

Always letting the single working people pick up the tab.

CNN.com - House passes tax cuts for married couples - Apr 28, 2004

BEIJING (AFP) - China has shut down 8,600 Internet cafes in the last two months as part of an ongoing crackdown on the media.

"Since our video conference on this issue on February 19, we have banned 8,600 underground Internet bars," the People's Daily quoted Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng as saying.

Yahoo! News - China shuts down 8,600 Internet cafes in two months

] BERLIN (Reuters) - Half of Germany's 83 million
] population is overweight, according to the Federal
] Statistics Office, citing results of a survey of 370,000
] people.
]
] Based on their height, age and sex, 49 percent of
] Germans' "Body Mass Index" exceeded ideal levels
] prescribed by the World Health Organisation.

They need more Light / Ultra Carb beer in their diet. =)

Yahoo! News - Half of Germans too fat

] Hey, George Soros! You're sending sackloads of cash to
] all sorts of groups dedicated to defeating President Bush
] this November. But by so ruthlessly exploiting one
] loophole in campaign-finance law”the one that allows
] unlimited donations to the political nonprofits known as
] 527 committees ”you're ignoring a different, equally
] large loophole. And it's one that affects a medium no one
] seems to be taking advantage of yet: the Internet.
]
] 1. The Internet is the only place where political parties can still
] spend soft money on the presidential election.
] 2. On the Internet, you can run things that look like TV ads.
] 3. There are fewer disclosure requirements.

McCain-Feingold's Internet Loophole

] RSA Security on Tuesday said that over three months of
] consistent effort helped a team of mathematicians from
] Europe and North America solve the company's latest
] encryption puzzle.
]
] The multinational team of eight experts used about 100
] workstations to crack the code that won them a $10,000
] prize.
]
]
] The contestants' task was to determine the two prime
] numbers that have been used to generate eight "challenge"
] numbers, which are central to RSA™s 576-bit encryption
] code.

Multinational team cracks RSA 576-bit encypted code

] The day is coming, most likely later this year, when all
] will sink below their longer averages, some technical
] analysts say.
]
] Though analysts aren't exactly calling for a repeat of those dark days,
] some believe it's likely that another period of underwater markets is on the way.
]
] "The correction is likely to go on for another month or two," said Ken Tower,
] chief market strategist at CyberTrader, "before there's really a compelling
] reason for investors and traders to move more money from the s
] idelines into the markets."  

Sinking below average?

] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today
] called for a Pentagon investigation of a photograph
] circulating on the Internet that apparently shows an
] American soldier mocking an Iraqi child.
]
] The photo sent to CAIR seems to be of an American soldier
] standing next to two Iraqi children who are giving the
] thumbs-up sign. One child holds a hand-lettered sign in
] English that reads: "Lcpl Boudreaux killed my Dad, th(en)
] he knocked up my sister!" ("Knocked up" is American slang
] for making someone pregnant out of wedlock.)
]
] See: http://www.cair-net.org/images/lcpl11.jpg

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

] The Cybercrime Convention does three major things:
]
] It includes a list of crimes that each member country
] must have on its books. The treaty requires
] criminalization of offenses such as hacking, the
] production, sale or distribution of hacking tools, and an
] expansion of criminal liability for intellectual property
] violations (Articles 2-11).
]
] It requires each participating nation to grant new powers
] of search and seizure to its law enforcement authorities.
] They include the power to force an Internet Service
] Provider (ISP) to preserve a citizen%u2019s internet
] usage records or other data, and the power to monitor a
] citizen%u2019s online activities in real time (Articles
] 16-22).
]
] It requires law enforcement in every participating
] country to assist police from other participating
] countries. US police would be required to cooperate
] %u201Cmutual assistance requests%u201D from police in
] other participating nations %u201Cto the widest extent
] possible%u201D (Articles 23-35).

American Civil Liberties Union : Seven Reasons the US Should Reject the International Cybercrime Treaty

] FAILURE OF WILL? In an article in the spring issue of The
] National Interest, the former president of the liberal
] Carnegie Endowment for International Peace weighs the
] costs and benefits of both staying and leaving. Of course
] success with a policy is always better than failing. But
] he concludes that a U.S. pullout wouldn't be crippling,
] partly because it's so uncertain that staying would
] achieve any of the goals the Bush Administration has laid
] out. Here's his argument:

The Case for Leaving Iraq Pronto

] A radio station that crank-called Cuban President Fidel
] Castro and broadcast the recording should be fined
] $4,000, the Federal Communications Commission said.
]
] The Spanish-speaking hosts of "The Morning High Jinks"
] used snippets of an earlier prank involving Venezuelan
] President Hugo Chavez to move the call from a
] receptionist up the chain to Castro in a five-minute
] broadcast June 17.
]
] The hosts of the show on WXDJ-FM, Joe Ferrero and Enrique
] Santos, fed pleasantries to Castro before breaking in and
] calling him an assassin. The conversation ended after
] Castro denounced the callers with a stream of
] vulgarities.

hahaha....

CNN.com - $4,000 fine for station that cranked Castro - Apr 24, 2004