Smoke in cabin forces plane evacuation in Boston

BOSTON — A flight from New York was evacuated today after landing in Boston because the pilot saw smoke in the cockpit and cabin.

About 40 passengers and five crew on Delta Air Lines Flight 1908 from LaGuardia Airport were evacuated on inflatable chutes at about 7:30 a.m., Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella said.

The plane made a "routine landing" and had nearly reached the gate when the pilot saw the smoke and ordered the evacuation, Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin said.

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Tags: Smoke | Pilot | FORCES | flight | evacuation | crew | cockpit | cabin | New York | LaGuardia | DELTA | Boston

Intel aiming for 80-processor chips

San Francisco (dpa) - Intel on Tuesday said it would start selling a computer chip with four processors in November, reclaiming the lead in chip development from its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker also plans to manufacture chips with 80 processors on board within five years, Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini told several thousand attendees at the Intel Developer Forum.

Displaying an early prototype of the 80 processor chip Ottelini said the chips would be capable of exchanging data at a terabyte a second, and will be between 50 and 70 per cent faster that the current dual-core chips, Otellini said, according to the computer news website, Cnet.com.

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Tags: Development | Computer | chipmaker | CHIP | San Francisco | intel

Colorado gunman leaves suicide note

DENVER, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Colorado police say the gunman who killed a Platte Canyon High School student molested all six of the females he held hostage.

According to Park County, Colo. Sheriff Fred Wegener, gunman Duane Morrison, 53, had asked for each of his victims by name, CNN reports.

As a result, Wegener said investigators are looking into reports Morrison may have researched the girls by using the Website MySpace.com and looking at the home pages for students at the high school.

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Tags: Park County | suicide | police | leaves | Hostage | Gunman | Website | Platte | MySpace | morrison | Denver | Colorado | canyon

Pressure mounts for Microsoft to patch IE flaw

Hackers are intensifying their attacks on Internet Explorer users, increasing the chances that Microsoft will patch a critical flaw in the software ahead of its regularly scheduled 10 October security update.

On Sunday, hackers released sample code showing how to exploit the IE flaw on a fully patched version of Windows XP, a move that security experts believe will step up the attacks. Criminals have been taking advantage of a previously unknown vulnerability in cPanel software, widely used by web hosting providers, to install the IE malware on servers.

The Microsoft bug has to do with the way IE processes web-based graphics code written in the Vector Markup Language (VML). It was first reported Monday 18 September by researchers at Sunbelt Software, who found that attackers were exploiting this vulnerability on a number of pornographic websites.

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Tags: software | Microsoft | internet | Pressure | Security | version | Windows | Explorer | Code | patch | Hackers | IE | flaw | mounts

Clinton supporters spar with Bush backers over blame for Sept. 11

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Clinton says she's not looking to play the blame game with the Bush administration over Sept. 11 - but someone had to set the record straight.

"I don't think it's a useful exercise," Clinton told the New York Daily News Wednesday. "But I also don't think it's appropriate to have the record distorted."

"My view is we should learn from the problems of the past and be prepared to defend our country," said a heated Clinton. "It remains my position, but I don't think you can learn from history if you distort it."

The White House and Clinton have traded barbs since her ex-President husband erupted in a finger-jabbing tirade on "Fox News Sunday," saying he tried to kill Osama bin Laden, while the Bush administration dropped the ball before Sept. 11.

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Tags: spar | supporters | blame | backers | Administration | York | Wednesday | Washington | sept | news | daily | Clinton | Bush

Little pressure on Hezbollah to disarm

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon - Six weeks after the end of the Lebanon war, the militant Hezbollah group is facing little on-the-ground pressure to give up its weapons and disarm — despite a U.N. cease-fire resolution demanding just that.

The leaders of a U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon say the job is not theirs. And Lebanon's ill-equipped army, some of whose soldiers wear tin-pot helmets and carry outdated M-16 rifles, shows no signs of diving into a confrontation with battle-hardened Hezbollah fighters.

For now, all sides say it's likely full disarmament will happen only in the future as part of a political solution — despite the U.N. resolution that ended the 34-day war on Aug. 14 and required disarmament.

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Tags: south Lebanon | Resolution | Pressure | DISARM | cease-fire | Marjayoun | Lebanon | Hezbollah

Gunman holds hostages at Colorado school

BAILEY, Colo. - A middle-aged gunman walked into the high school in this mountain town Wednesday, fired at least two shots and took six people hostage, authorities said. Hundreds of students were evacuated in a scene that recalled the horror at Columbine just a short drive away.

There were no immediate reports of injuries. Four hostages were released, but two girls remained inside the Platte Canyon High School more than three hours after the gunman arrived, said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County sheriff.

The gunman was believed to be an adult between 30 and 50 years old. Kelley did not release his name or identify the hostages, but said the girls were believed to be unharmed.

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Amid furor over Iraq report, calls to release another

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As political debate churned over an intelligence report released Tuesday, a top Democrat called for the release of a second, new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that she says "paints a grim picture."

The White House denied a charge by Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, that another intelligence report is being kept in draft form so that its contents won't be public until the midterm elections in November are over.

"I hear it paints a grim picture. And because it does, I am told it is being held until after the November elections. If this estimate is finished, it should not be stamped 'draft' and hidden from the American people until after the elections," Harman said in a statement.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday that Harman's claims about the new report are "flat wrong."

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Tags: Release | Intelligence | furor | Draft | Washington | Iraq | HARMAN | democrat

Bin Ladenism Lives, and So Probably Does Bin Laden

On September 23, the French newspaper l’Est Republicain reported, based on a leaked memo from France’s DSGE intelligence agency, that Saudi intelligence had uncovered information that Osama bin Laden had died of typhoid on August 23 in Pakistan. But a French security official quickly cautioned that the report is based on a single source, and a Saudi intelligence source told UPI on September 23, “We do not confirm bin Laden’s death. We don’t know.” For a variety of reasons, this report is likely false. But even if true, bin Laden’s death will have little impact on America’s prosecution of the war on terrorism.

The Facts on the Ground

The reported details of bin Laden’s death don’t add up. Typhoid, for example, is easily cured with antibiotics, and even if untreated it is fatal in less than 20 percent of cases, according to the U.S. government’s Center for Disease Control. And if Saudi intelligence officials did have information about bin Laden’s death, they probably would pass it on to American intelligence officials. That reportedly did not happen.

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Fear of offending Islam spurs hot debate in Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Four canceled performances of a Mozart opera have reignited an anxious and heated debate in Europe over free speech, self-censorship and Islam.

By canning its production of "Idomeneo," fearful of security threats because of a scene that might offend Muslims, Berlin's Deutsche Oper provoked front-page headlines across the continent and found itself fending off charges of cowardice.

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Tags: Spurs | offending | Debate | London | Islam | Idomeneo | Europe | berlin

Clinton's GOP challenger: This act is getting old

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's underdog Republican challenger accused the former first lady and her husband on Wednesday of engaging in time-worn theatrics with their criticism of President Bush's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

"Once again President Clinton is wagging his finger with righteous indignation and once again Hillary Clinton is rushing to his defense," said former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer. "This act is getting old and the American people realize it."

The broadside from Spencer, which harkened back to the Clintons' behavior during the early stages of the Monica Lewinsky White House sex scandal, came as the political world continued to buzz about former President Bill Clinton's testy interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that aired Sunday.

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Tags: getting | Rodham | Osama | Hillary Clinton | GOP

Clinton's GOP challenger: This act is getting old

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's underdog Republican challenger accused the former first lady and her husband on Wednesday of engaging in time-worn theatrics with their criticism of President Bush's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

"Once again President Clinton is wagging his finger with righteous indignation and once again Hillary Clinton is rushing to his defense," said former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer. "This act is getting old and the American people realize it."

The broadside from Spencer, which harkened back to the Clintons' behavior during the early stages of the Monica Lewinsky White House sex scandal, came as the political world continued to buzz about former President Bill Clinton's testy interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that aired Sunday.

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Tags: getting | Rodham | Osama | Hillary Clinton | GOP

Clinton's GOP challenger: This act is getting old

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's underdog Republican challenger accused the former first lady and her husband on Wednesday of engaging in time-worn theatrics with their criticism of President Bush's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

"Once again President Clinton is wagging his finger with righteous indignation and once again Hillary Clinton is rushing to his defense," said former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer. "This act is getting old and the American people realize it."

The broadside from Spencer, which harkened back to the Clintons' behavior during the early stages of the Monica Lewinsky White House sex scandal, came as the political world continued to buzz about former President Bill Clinton's testy interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that aired Sunday.

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Tags: getting | Rodham | Osama | Hillary Clinton | GOP

Surgeons perform zero-gravity operation

MERIGNAC, France (Reuters) - French surgeons performed the first zero-gravity operation on Wednesday aboard a plane free-falling to create weightless conditions in what they hope can be a trial run for surgery on astronauts in space.

Dominique Martin, head of Bordeaux university hospital's plastic surgery unit, removed a fatty cyst from the forearm of volunteer patient Philippe Sanchot.

"It happened in accordance with our expectations. Today we performed a feasibility test. We weren't seeking to achieve a technical exploit," Martin told a news conference at an airport near the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

The operation lasted around 11 minutes and was performed in 32 sequences, during which an Airbus 300 Zero G aircraft flew in arcs putting it into free fall and creating weightless conditions for 22 seconds each time.

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Intel: Still Chasing Chip Speed

SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite the industry's focus on efficient chips in recent years, Intel will continue to build new designs for high-speed processors, including a prototype teraflop chip displayed at the company's Intel Developer Forum here.

Video Demands Noted

The popularity of the video-sharing Web site YouTube demonstrates this growing need for speed, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said at the event Tuesday.

Downloading a 60-second video clip would have taxed more than 80 percent of the power of Intel's 2003-era Pentium M, and about half the power of its 2004-vintage Pentium 4, he told a crowd at the conference. That same clip calls for only a few percent of the Core 2 Duo, Intel's current top-of-the line PC processor.

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Tags: teraflop | prototype | Popularity | CHIP | YouTube | San Francisco | intel | chasing

Intel introduces quad-core chip

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini believes that the world's biggest chip maker can get its mojo back by putting more processor cores on a single chip than the competition can.

Starting in November, Intel will put four cores -- or computing brains -- on a single chip that will be as much as 70 percent faster than the company's fastest chips today, Otellini said at the opening of the Intel Developer Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Computers with these chips will be able to juggle more tasks at the same time, running security applications in the background while the user employs other programs.

The twice-a-year event at the Moscone West convention center has become Intel's best way to win over the hearts and minds of industry engineers and programmers. By using its manufacturing muscle and sheer engineering resources as an advantage, Intel is stepping up the pace of its product introductions. The company introduced a whole raft of chips during the summer, but now it is lining up customers for the ``quad core'' chips coming later this year.

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Tags: San Francisco | Intel | chip | executive | quad-core | November | maker | computing | introduces | mojo | opening