Baby murderers

"Babies stashed in freezers. A tiny skeleton found in a fish tank. Infants suffocated in plastic bags.

Germans are reeling over a recent string of cases involving mothers accused or convicted of killing their babies. The grisly killings have come at a time when the country's low birthrate has left the government searching for ways to encourage people to have more children.

Many of the mothers have been struggling single women who hid their pregnancy from friends and family, gave birth alone and killed the newborn out of fear or desperation — increasing calls for support programs for single mothers.

And while experts say the rate of German mothers killing their children is no higher than elsewhere in Europe, the recent slayings have stunned the nation and prompted questions about cracks in Germany's much-lauded social welfare system.

Mom accused of freezing baby
In the latest case, police in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said Wednesday that a 20-year-old woman confessed to putting her newborn infant in the freezer about three or four weeks ago, thinking it was dead.

An autopsy showed the child was alive when placed in the freezer and the woman, who was not identified, has been taken into custody."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24859570/

This is absolutely sick. I can' imagine anyone being able to kill their own child. Not only are these people killing their children, but they are killing them in sick ways. I have never heard of freezing a baby until now, and it disgusts me. I understand that times are tough, but that is no reason to kill a baby. At least give it up for adoption. These people should be committed.

Zimbabwe opposition: 50 killed over election

"More than 50 people have been killed in political violence since Zimbabwe's disputed March 29 elections and 25,000 have fled their homes, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.

Official figures showed Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the election, but failed to garner enough votes to avoid a second round poll, which has been set for June 27.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change says Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party has launched a violent campaign against its supporters since the March elections in a bid to avoid another defeat next month. The ruling party denies the charge, and in turn blames the opposition for the violence."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24839297/

It seems like the people in Zimbabwe take their politics a little too seriously. It is ridiculous that 50 people have been killed in order to prevent them from voting in the election. It makes me wonder how many people would've been killed back in 2000 if Bush and Gore were to have a 2nd election.

Yahoo CEO claims that the company is not "under siege"

"Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang rejected the image of his company as "under siege" Wednesday, telling conference goers that executives are rallying to streamline Yahoo's offerings and make it more relevant to consumers and to advertisers.

Yahoo faces the threat of mutiny from shareholders unhappy with the way its board handled a takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. that was ultimately withdrawn this month.

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California, Yang stood by his handling of the deal and painted a bright future for the Internet pioneer he co-founded."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24864318/

Yang handled the Microsoft situation well. He avoided a large corporate merger that could result in disaster for us, the consumer. Yahoo! is his baby, and he obviously didn't want it to be eaten up by a big corporation like Microsoft.

NASA puts rush order on space toilet fix

"NASA rushed Wednesday to get a special pump on board the shuttle Discovery to fix a balky toilet at the international space station, even as the launch countdown got under way.

The space station’s Russian-built toilet has been acting up for the past week. The three male residents have temporarily bypassed the problem, which involves urine collection and not solid waste.

Russian space officials are providing the pump to launch aboard Discovery on Saturday. The shuttle’s seven astronauts arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center a few hours ahead of the start of the countdown Wednesday afternoon."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24859800/

This sucks! I wouldn't want to know what it is like to be up in space with out a toilet. At least the part for the solid waste still works. You would think that NASA would upgrade their toilets a little more than once every seven years.

Sales of Spam rise as consumers trim spending

"Love it, hate it or laugh at it — at least it's inexpensive. Sales of Spam — that much maligned meat — are rising as consumers are turning more to lunch meats and other lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food budgets.

What was once cheeky, silly and the subject of a Monty Python musical, Spam is now back on the table as people turn to the once-snubbed canned meat as costs rise, analysts say.

U.S. food prices rose 4 percent last year, the fastest pace in nearly two decades, according to the Agriculture Department. Many staples are rising even faster, with white bread up 13 percent last year, bacon up 7 percent and peanut butter up 9 percent.

There's no sign of a slowdown. Food inflation is running at an annualized rate of 6.1 percent as of April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The price of Spam is up too, with the average 12-ounce can costing about $2.62. That's an increase of 17 cents, or nearly 7 percent, from the same time last year. But it's not stopping sales, as the pork meat in a can seems like a good alternative to consumers."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24861341/

The world is going crazy. First it's gas prices, and now its food. When will these rising prices stop? I guess as gas prices go up, then the prices of everything else goes up. I really hope it stops. The cost of living has gone up way too much in recent years.

SPAM IS OUTLAWED IN ISRAEL!!

"Advertisers who send unwanted solicitations by telephone, text messages (SMS), e-mail (spam) or fax may be fined as much as NIS 200,000, according to a bill the Knesset approved Wednesday. The new law takes effect in six months.

In addition to being a nuisance for private e-mail users, spam has become a heavy burden on Internet suppliers and other companies, whose bandwidth and storage capabilities need to be constantly expanded to deal with the ever-increasing bulk of spam being sent every day - estimated at more than 100 billion e-mails worldwide. The bill also refers to mass solicitation by fax."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211872842504&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

I hope the US follows Israel and starts slapping fines on spammers. I absolutely HATE spam. It fills my email inbox with absolutely NOTHING. Not only that, I waste countless minutes deleting this junk. I think internet suppliers in America should start getting on the governments backs about putting in laws to enforce the ban of spam.

Israel concerned over Hizbullah legitimacy

"As Israel struggles to prevent Europe from talking to Hamas, the recent inclusion of Hizbullah in the new Lebanese government has created a new challenge: how to stop Europe from meeting Hizbullah ministers.

Diplomatic officials said that in recent days, a number of meetings have been held in the Foreign Ministry with the aim of developing a strategy to prevent meetings between European and Hizbullah ministers.

So far, no operative decisions have been made, one official said. The official said Israel's concern - and something Israel has been trying to prevent for years - was the legitimization of Hizbullah through high-profile political meetings.

In the brief period in 2005-2006 when Hizbullah was represented in the Lebanese government, Israel waged a relatively successful campaign against meetings between Western officials and the Hizbullah ministers.

This time, however, the chore is expected to be much more difficult, because so many more ministers affiliated with the group will be in the government."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1211872830974&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

I really hope that Israel is successful at convincing the West to not meet with Hizbullah . Even if Hizbullah is elected into the Lebanese government, they are still Anti-West.