As of this moment ...

4174 Men and women are dead in Iraq due to the cabal's greed.

UCLA group discovers humongous prime number

Mathematicians at UCLA have discovered a 13 million-digit prime number, a long-sought milestone that makes them eligible for a $100,000 prize.

The group found the 46th known Mersenne prime last month on a network of 75 computers running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm.

"We're delighted," said UCLA's Edson Smith, the leader of the effort. "Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds."

It's the eighth Mersenne prime discovered at UCLA.

Primes are numbers like three, seven and 11 that are divisible by only two whole positive numbers: themselves and one.

Mersenne primes - named for their discoverer, 17th century French mathematician Marin Mersenne - are expressed as 2P-1, or two to the power of "P" minus one. P is itself a prime number. For the new prime, P is 43,112,609.

Thousands of people around the world have been participating in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS, a cooperative system in which underused computing power is harnessed to perform the calculations needed to find and verify Mersenne primes.

The $100,000 prize is being offered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for finding the first Mersenne prime with more than 10 million digits. The foundation supports individual rights on the Internet and set up the prime number prize to promote cooperative computing using the Web.

The prize could be awarded when the new prime is published, probably next year.

Paul Newman dies at 83

Paul Newman, the legendary actor whose steely blue eyes, good-humored charm and advocacy of worthy causes made him one of the most renowned figures in American arts, has died of cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut. He was 83.

He died Friday, according to spokeswoman Marni Tomljanovic.

Teen wanted mom dead to pay for breast work

A Colorado teenager hired men to kill his mother so he could use her money to get breast implants for his girlfriend, police said.

Nikita Lee Weis, 18, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, said Fountain Deputy Police Chief Mike Barnett.

His girlfriend, Sophia Nicole Alsept, and two men police said he hired, Juan Antonio Velez Gonzalez, 18, and Brandon Michael Soroka, 19, were arrested on the same charge.

Weis' mother, Hyun Weis, was attacked Thursday with a small wooden baseball bat at her home but escaped, authorities said. She was released Friday from a hospital.

Barnett said Weis wanted to sell his mother's car and use money in her bank accounts to pay for breast implants for Alsept, 21.

Barnett also said the suspects discussed wrapping Hyun Weis' body in plastic and dumping it in the desert in New Mexico or Arizona.

All were being held on $50,000 bail. Officials did not know whether they had attorneys and said they couldn't get messages to them.

Fountain is about 10 miles south of Colorado Springs.

Freight brakeman in deadly LA train collision sues

The brakeman on the freight train in a deadly collision near Los Angeles is suing the other railroad and the companies that provide its engineers.

Dominick Fravola and his wife sued Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. They say the Sept. 12 crash happened because the defendants allowed dangerous conditions to persist.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages, medical and psychological expenses and loss of income. His wife also seeks damages for loss of consortium.

The lawsuit names the Metrolink service, as well as Veolia Transportation and a subsidiary. Metrolink and Veolia declined to comment.

In the accident, a Metrolink train ran a red signal and collided with the Union Pacific freight. Twenty-five people died.

It's much clearer now?

Found this on several websites and it rings true

*****

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a onstitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local sports reporter, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left
your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including
the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with
no other option in sex 20 education in your state's school system while
your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in
a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city
community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values
don't represent America's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI
conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote
until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Serbia probes Nazi charges against US man

Serbia's war crimes court is investigating genocide allegations against a man accused of serving as a Nazi officer before emigrating to the United States and retiring outside Seattle.

The court said Friday that 86-year-old Peter Egner, who lives in a suburban retirement community, is suspected of committing genocide and other war crimes against civilians in Belgrade while serving as a Nazi officer during the occupation of Serbia in 1941-44.

The court offered no more details about Egner's alleged role in the atrocities. The opening of an investigation is a key step toward formal indictment and a trial.

Serbia has said it would seek Egner's extradition from the United States. The head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center this month encouraged Serbia to try Egner and two more alleged Nazis here.

The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal court in July to revoke Egner's American citizenship because he had not disclosed details about his past when he applied for the citizenship.

Egner immigrated to the U.S. in 1960 and applied for citizenship, the complaint said. Officials say he falsely claimed that he served as a rank-and-file infantry sergeant in the German army, and he was granted U.S. citizenship in 1966.

Egner's lawyer Robert Gibbs this month asked a federal judge to reject the demand. He said Egner denies any involvement in wartime mistreatment and is being accused of atrocities committed by others.

Revoking Egner's U.S. citizenship would pave the way for his extradition to Serbia.

Egner is accused of being a guard and interpreter for a Nazi squad that killed thousand of Jews, Gypsies and political dissidents in Belgrade.

The Justice Department, citing Nazi documents, said that in the fall of 1941, Egner's unit executed 11,164 people - mostly Serbian Jewish men, suspected communists and Gypsies - and that in early 1942, it killed 6,280 Serbian Jewish women and children who were held as prisoners. In two months, those women and children allegedly were taken from the camp and forced into an especially designed van, in which they were gassed with carbon monoxide.

Serbian war crimes prosecutor's office has said it was working closely with American officials on Egner's case.

The war crimes court noted in its statement Friday that "any delay could prevent efficient conduct of this investigation" because of the advanced age of Egner and any possible witnesses.