"A 73-year-old Austrian man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/04/28/sex-slave-father-confesses-to-locking-daughter-in-cellar-for-24-years-89520-20397801/
http://thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1097344.ece

>>	Junior Field Reporter 08/04/29(Tue)18:56 No.6344   File: 1209520560021.jpg -(36127 B, 466x333) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. >>6339

"Canada's age of sexual consent will be bumped up two years to 16 beginning Thursday.

The change means adults who have sex with boys or girls aged 14 and 15 years old could face criminal charges.

Canada's age of consent has been 14 since 1892.

The legislation was brought in by the Conservative government in part to deal with older internet predators who troll the web looking for younger victims."

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSeruMBTUnbpuwU3uP3QKmubBA9Q

"Advocates of better mental health care for troops say a new Pentagon policy aimed at reducing the stigma of getting psychiatric counseling could be a small but important step.

Under the new policy, troops won't have to reveal past job-related therapy when they apply for security clearances. The change was prompted partly by the finding that many don't get treatment because they fear acknowledging a mental problem could cost them their security clearance, harm their careers and embarrass them before commanders and comrades."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/troops_mental_health

"A board set up to review construction of the spaceship to return astronauts to the moon is loaded with employees of the very contractors they are supposed to scrutinize, breaking federal law, a government watchdog says.

The board chairman, former Skylab astronaut Ed Gibson, and five other members work for companies hired by NASA on the multibillion-dollar space shuttle replacement program."

"This is not just bureaucratic nitpicking, Light said. Independent oversight is crucial and that means separate from the contractors NASA uses so often, he said. He pointed out that NASA lost a $125 million Mars probe in 1999 because a contractor, Lockheed Martin, used English measurements while NASA had been using metric measurements for years."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_sc/nasa_conflict

"WASHINGTON - Some top international food scientists Tuesday recommended halting the use of food-based biofuels, such as ethanol, saying it would cut corn prices by 20 percent during a world food crisis."

"The three senior scientists with an international research consortium pushing a biofuel moratorium said nations need to rethink programs that divert food such as corn and soybeans into fuel, given the burgeoning worldwide food crisis."

""We need to feed the stomach before we need to feed our cars," said Rattan Lal, an Ohio State University soil sciences professor"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_sc/food_vs_fuel

Rarely though would you expect to find a medical miracle working behind the counter of the mall's hobby shop.

That however is what Lee Spievak considers himself to be.

"I put my finger in," Mr Spievak says, pointing towards the propeller of a model airplane, "and that's when I sliced my finger off."

It took the end right off, down to the bone, about half an inch.

"We don't know where the piece went."

The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he'd lost it for good.

Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.

Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.

"The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September."

"The latest fighting erupted at the end of March after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a crackdown against Shiite militias in the southern port city of Basra. But it quickly spread to Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling slum with about 2.5 million people that is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The militiamen have used the district as a base to fire barrages of missiles and mortar rounds at the U.S.-protected Green Zone which houses much of the Iraqi government and Western diplomatic missions, including the U.S. and British embassies.

They also have fought running street battles in which hundreds have died. The U.S. military says those killed have been mainly gunmen. But police and medical authorities in Sadr City say innocent civilians have frequently gotten caught up in the fighting."

"AP Television News footage showed that parts of the two-floor Baghdad Girls' School had pancaked as the result of an explosion. Desks were hanging down from the slanting classrooms where the outer walls were blown out by the blast.

Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.

"WASHINGTON - A government inspection of slaughterhouses found significant problems with the treatment of cattle and two of the nation's largest beef processors — both of which provide meat for the National School Lunch Program — were slapped with humane handling violations."

"FSIS conducted the audits after humane handling violations at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., led to the largest beef recall in the nation's history. That plant, which was a major supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program, was shut down after the violations were captured on video by an undercover investigator of the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed workers shoving and kicking sick, crippled cattle, forcing them to stand using electric prods, forklifts and water hoses."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/slaughterhouse_abuse

"A giant inflatable pig which floated away during a Roger Waters concert at the weekend has been recovered in tatters in California.

The pig, which measured the width of two buses, was found by two families on their driveways in La Quinta. "

"The animal's flanks carried the slogans "fear builds walls" and "don't be led to the slaughter", with a cartoon of Uncle Sam holding two meat cleavers."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7374994.stm

The first in-vitro meat symposium was held last week in Norway. Yes, in-vitro meat, as in meat grown in a lab, from cell culture.

That sounds pretty gross, but it's actually no more disgusting (and infinitely more humane) than many factory-farming practices.

Jason G. Matheny, of New Harvest, just got back from the symposium, and he agreed to answer all our burning questions about test tube meat.

"It should taste the same as regular ground meat..." after the jump.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2008/04/test_tube_meat_1.php

>>	Junior Field Reporter 08/04/26(Sat)20:03 No.6291   File: 1209265423599.png -(54626 B, 346x273) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. My way is faster