Memorial Mass yesterday for sergeant killed in Afghanistan

A memorial Mass in memory of a Shiloh soldier killed in Afghanistan last month held in Belleville.
The Mass for Army Staff Sgt. Edwin H. DazaChacon, 38, was held at 11 a.m. at St. Teresa Catholic Church at 1201 Lebanon Ave. and was open to the public.
His remains were cremated and a funeral held on Feb. 23 at Fort Bragg, N.C.
The Colombia-born soldier was a member of the Army's 7th Special Forces Group based out of Fort Bragg. DazaChacon was killed Feb. 13 when the Humvee in which he was riding ran over a bomb in the mountainous area near Deh Rawod in the southern part of the country. After the vehicle was disabled by the bomb, insurgents peppered the soldiers with rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire. Four members of DazaChacon's unit died in the incident.
He had only been in Afghanistan for about a month when he was killed. He is the first soldier from the metro-east to die in Afghanistan.
DazaChacon joined the National Guard after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Before he left for Afghanistan, he was a fleet director for Southwestern Bell in St. Louis.....Click title for link

Afghan man prosecuted for converting to Christianity....

KABUL, Afghanistan An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday. The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country's Islamic laws.
Rahman, who is believed to be 41, was charged with rejecting Islam when his trial started last week, the judge said.
During the hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago when he was 25 and working as a medical aid worker for Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Mawlavezada said.Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death....Click title for the rest of the story.......

World Scrambles to Feed China's Appetite for Metal

YONGKANG, China About once a month, Ying Guangwu tucks some cash inside his black shirt, slings a knapsack over his back, and hits the road.The square jawed 33 year old doesn't always know where he's headed or when he'll return. But he knows exactly what he's looking for: tons of scrap metal.A pen-shaped magnet in his pocket helps him determine the quality of some metals. In December, Ying spent two weeks in Guangdong province, a 20 hour bus ride away, rummaging through factory warehouses and scrap yards. He bought 10 tons of tin ingots, lead cables and imported scrap, shipping them by truck to his wife, Lin Li. She sorted the stuff inside their two story home before reselling it to metal traders and recyclers in town.

New Orleans campaign trail stops in Georgia

Candidates vie to be first mayor elected after Katrina

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Saturday his city has made progress in rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina, while other mayoral hopefuls questioned the advances and stressed that their hometown's pre existing troubles need to be confronted.
Seven of the 24 mayoral candidates attended the Atlanta forum meant to give displaced residents an opportunity to hear from them before the April 22 election. More than half of New Orleans' pre Katrina population of 500,000 has been dispersed to other states, meaning candidates must campaign nationally.
Nagin, who alienated many voters after his "chocolate city" speech, in which he said God intended New Orleans to be a black majority city, discussed levee rebuilding and evacuation procedures if another powerful storm threatened the city.....Click title for link

Airport Screeners Fail Bomb Test

Since 9/11 there has been no higher aviation security priority than keeping bombs off airplanes. All checked bags are now screened for bombs. Some carry ons and even some passengers are being sniffed for traces of explosives. But a new investigation by the General Accountability Office shows a gaping vulnerability remains, reports CBS transportation correspondent Bob Orr. The failure was across the board. Sources tell CBS News that 21 airports were tested and in all 21, screeners were unable to find component parts which could be used to make home made bombs. Between October and January teams of undercover federal investigators walked through various airport checkpoints carrying....Click title for link

Bush says Iran bombs used in Iraq

President Bush yesterday blamed Iran for helping kill American troops in Iraq, saying they are supplying some of the ever more lethal explosives that insurgents are using against coalition forces. "Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shi'a militia with the capabilities to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," Mr. Bush said, adding that troops have seized IEDs "that were clearly produced in Iran." In the first of a planned series of speeches designed to steel Americans' resolve three years after the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Bush continued to build a case against neighboring Iran as a destabilizing force in the region. The White House has planned two more speeches this month and at least one speech next month on U.S. policy in Iraq to serve as bookends to the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion on March 20. Yesterday's speech at George Washington University, to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, was an update on the training of Iraqi security forces and a discussion of IEDs.....

Anti-Castro sign sparks uproar at WBC

Cuban official then gets free-speech lecture after confronting man.....
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - While Cuba played the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, a spectator in the stands raised a sign saying: "Down with Fidel," sparking an international incident that escalated Friday with the velocity of a major league fastball.
The image of the man holding the sign behind home plate was beamed live Thursday night to millions of TV viewers including those in Cuba. The top Cuban official at the game at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan rushed to confront the man.Puerto Rican police quickly intervened and took the Cuban official Angel Iglesias, vice president of Cuba's National Institute of Sports to a nearby police station where they lectured him about free speech....Click title for link to article

CYOUINCOURT007: .......While on the subject of Cuba and Fidel.....as I sat today watching my(former) faivorite FBI detective stories show when a new story began like this................................"As FBI Agents hunted down terrorist in Miami Florida plotting to kill Fidel Castro".............I immediately turned off the TV and said WTF(what the fuc$ )?.......Let me get this straight when the CIA trained exiled Cubans..... Reference...Bay of Pigs invasion and the endless stories of blowing up cigars and CIA efforts to take Castro out.......we were the terrorists?........This kind of crap gets under my skin.....akin to folks who say Hugo Chavez was elected to office legally while Bush "stole the white house"...........Who's the terrorist ......Castro or the CIA and those of us who want his head on a platter......

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Colorful Light Pillars ...................

Credit & Copyright: Walter Tape (Alaska Fairbanks), Figure 8-1, Atmospheric Halos

Explanation: How can an aurora appear so near the ground? Pictured above are not aurora but nearby light pillars, a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually these ice ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not unlike a Sun-pillar. In the above picture, the colorful lights causing the light pillars surround a ice-skating rink in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Click picture to enlarge,Click title for link to main page of astronomy pics.......

A Few More of the Cartoons Deemed Offensive By Muslims....

According to their rule book it's ok for them to create a cartoon depicting Allah destroying the space shuttle Columbia upon re entry yet, any cartoon offending them........ results in burning flags and outright violence..............The cartoon came forth shortly after Columbia went down....I shall find the link and post......anyone who finds it first let me know...Cyaaaaaaaaaa