Soxy

Link Police launch child porn raids in 13 countries Tue Jun 14, 8:36 AM ET AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Police in 13 European countries raided 150 locations in a child pornography crackdown on Tuesday, seizing computers, videos and other material, the European Union's police agency Europol said. Police carried out raids in Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden, questioning around 150 suspects. Arrests were made in some countries. The operation, codenamed "Icebreaker," targeted suspected members of Internet child abuse networks in an investigation into the downloading and exchange of pictures of molested children, the Hague-based police agency said. "Most of the suspects are subject to further investigation as large quantities of equipment including computers, laptops, videos and other materials containing images of child abuse were seized," Europol said. The operation was led by Italian police and supported by Europol. Italian police provided most of the evidence in the investigation into the possession and distribution of child abuse material over the Internet during which users hid their electronic identities and encrypted their communications. "I find it of the utmost importance to focus on this extremely terrible kind of crime, which involves the abuse of children, so it is my hope that today's operation will lead the investigators to some of the producers behind these evil deeds," Europol's director Max-Peter Ratzel said. German federal police said they seized large quantities of evidence in raids on homes of five suspects in three different German states, including child porn videos and pictures. A spokeswoman said no actual arrests had been made so far in Germany but the suspects were being questioned. (With additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan in Berlin)

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Jun 14, 2005 -> 10:01 AM) I received the Mariah Carey christmas album from my parents for some odd, godforsaken reason when I was like 12. QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jun 14, 2005 -> 10:12 AM) Obviously, they hate you. Funny, funny, funny!

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 14, 2005 -> 09:32 AM) that's the one!! "Pocket full.........LMAO. If it helps, I bought it in junior high to impress the boy I liked. :banghead

Not sure I can top Eye's Hanson revelation but, I am famous for my poor music taste: Pocket full of Kryptonite--Spin Doctors Greatest Hits--New Kids & Debbie Gibson Greatest Hits--Shakira (but it's in spanish....) Music Box & Greatest Hits--Mariah Carey Sitting on Go--Bryan White Blue--Leann Rimes Greatest Hits--Buck Owens A cd of awful 70 covers by Elton John My Perorgative--Britney Spears I'm sure there's more

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 04:40 PM) konerko should at least be second and iguchi should at least be third, but theres nothing we can do about it I agree about Gooch, but Konerko has not played well enough to merit an all-star spot....

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 03:16 PM) At least it's over!!!! Probably not, here's still the possible civil suit....

How is anyone surprised by this?

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 03:11 PM) 107.5 FM: "We stress, that if Michael Jackson is found guilty, no one breaks out in violence." 92.3 FM: "Please, don't overreact to this verdict. Stay in your houses." Sad this even has to be issued for listeners. This better not eff up traffic on my drive home.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 03:01 PM) Come on, I'm getting restless. I'm getting hungry.

QUOTE(Soxnbears01 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 03:00 PM) gotta love the crazy jesus people. we have those guys walking on our quad sometimes with their gigantic signs. Shoot, I had classes with those people!

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 03:00 PM) So a juror has a grandson, registered sex offender. Interesting... Ahhhh, grounds for a mistrial already. Sweet.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 02:56 PM) He had better be guilty or I will riot in my front yard. Can you take pictures of yourself doing that please?

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 02:41 PM) Iowa School for the Deaf and the Blind Insert off color joke about MJ at a school here....

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 02:40 PM) where the f*** is Jackson gonna go and not be recognized? Papa New Guinea?

I'll believe it when I see it... Paris Hilton Plans to Give Up Public Life 24 minutes ago NEW YORK - Paris Hilton plans to give up public life for family life. The 24-year-old hotel heiress, star of "The Simple Life" reality series, tells Newsweek magazine that when she was younger, "I thought it was cute to play a dumb blonde. On TV, I do it because it's funny. I consider myself a businesswoman and a brand." But Hilton says she plans to give up her public life in two years, by which time she expects to become a mother with her fiance, Paris Latsis. "I don't enjoy going out anymore," she says in the June 20 issue of the magazine, on newsstands Monday. "It's such a pain. It's everyone saying, `Let's do a deal! Can I have a picture?' I'm just, like, `These people are such losers. I can't believe I used to love doing this.'" Paris and her mother, Kathy, were the grand marshals Sunday at the Los Angeles Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual & Transgender Pride Parade. Kathy Hilton wore a large white hat; Paris wore a tiara. Kathy Hilton's new NBC reality series, "I Want to Be a Hilton," in which she coaches 14 contestants in taste and etiquette, premieres June 21. Newsweek says Kathy and her husband, Rick Hilton, didn't want their name on the show. "We thought it was too cheeky," Rick Hilton is quoted as saying. "It does sound a little obnoxious." Kathy Hilton says a sex tape of Paris and an ex-boyfriend that became a cyberspace novelty taught her a lesson. "Well, that was very painful. Very painful. Very painful," Kathy Hilton tells the magazine. "But it taught me that I really can't trust everybody." The sex tape surfaced in 2003 just before the start of Paris' reality series. She has said she was embarrassed and humiliated that the tape ever became public.

White house rejects call for Iraq timetable.

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 01:49 PM) LA is 2 hours behind Chicago. NY is one hour ahead of Chicago, so 3 hours ahead of LA. Thank you! (I send my thanks from the future, where it is 3:50pm)

I wish I understood time zones.

And now she's converting to scientology...

Have you tried using the Firefox version of Outlook? My lab partner has some success in not havign spam in hers. Thunderbird I think it's called.

The phone rings in the middle of the night, My father yells "What you gonna do with your life?" Oh,daddy,dear, You know you're still number one, But girls, They wanna have fu-un, Oh,girls,just wanna have That's all they really want..... Some fun.... When the working day is done, Oh,girls, They wanna have fu-un, Oh,girls, Just wanna have fun....

turkey sandwich, grapes, and some triscuits (also, this is the lunch I eat every single day). Triscuits = my delicious downfall

Linky I'm amazed that this guy has written all those letters of condolance to the families. That's incredible. US lawmaker of 'freedom fries' fame turns against Iraq war Sun Jun 12, 5:31 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - A prominent lawmaker who prompted cafeterias in the US Congress to change the name of their french fries to "freedom fries" in anger over France's opposition to the Iraq war, has now turned against the conflict and wants a firm schedule on the withdrawal of US troops. Representative Walter Jones (news, bio, voting record), a North Carolina Republican, has written more than 1,300 letters of condolence to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and will introduce legislation this week calling for a firm timetable on the withdrawal of US troops, ABC's "This Week" said Sunday. "This is what I believe is the right thing to do for our military first; and secondly, I think we are doing everything we can do in Iraq to give them an opportunity to have a democracy, to defend themselves," Jones told ABC. President George W. Bush's administration has refused to set a timetable on withdrawing its forces from the war-torn country. Asked about his change of heart on the war, Jones said he had attended two years ago the funeral of soldier, a married father of three, who was killed in Iraq. "That really has been on my mind and my heart ever since." He added: "When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed -- it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded -- and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there." "And my heart aches, quite frankly," Jones told ABC. In March 2003, just before the US-led invasion in Iraq, Representative Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the committee on House Administration, ordered that the term "french fries" be removed from all restaurant menus in the three House office buildings and replaced with freedom fries. Jones joined Ney in taking the action, issuing a joint statement saying: "This action today is a small, but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France."

Link More Than a Million in U.S. Live With HIV By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 34 minutes ago ATLANTA - For the first time since the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, more than a million Americans are believed to be living with the virus that causes AIDS, the government said Monday. The latest estimate is both good and bad news — reflecting the success of drugs that keep more people alive and the failure of the government to "break the back" of the AIDS epidemic by its stated goal of 2005. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that between 1,039,000 and 1,185,000 people in the United States were living with HIV in December 2003. The previous estimate from 2002 showed that between 850,000 and 950,000 people had the AIDS virus. The jump reflects the role of medicines that have allowed people infected with the virus to live longer, said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. "While treatment advances have been an obvious godsend to those living with the disease, it presents new challenges for prevention," Valdiserri said. The challenges include overcoming a failure by the government to meet its 2005 goal of cutting in half the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections that have occurred every year since the 1990s. Then, Dr. Robert Janssen of the CDC pledged the government campaign would "break the back" of the epidemic. CDC officials previously have said the country's HIV infection rate has been "relatively stable" and without change. As the National HIV Prevention Conference was set to begin this week, Valdiserri said no new infection data will be available until next year. However, recent outbreaks of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in major cities around the country offer a hint that new infections may be as high as 60,000 cases a year, rather than the government estimate of 40,000, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an Emory University professor of medicine. "The U.S. has had a clear failure in HIV prevention — I think the increase in prevalence is a reflection of that, of the poor job we do in HIV prevention," del Rio said. He added that the higher number is not as surprising as why the country has not been able to curb new infections. He said the CDC hasn't been given adequate resources to tackle HIV prevention and that experts have focused too much on whether it's better to promote abstinence or condom use to stop the spread of the virus. "We're debating too much what to do and are not doing enough," he said. At the same time, reaching the 1 million mark is "a sign of both victory and failure," said Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People Living With AIDS. "Part of the reason the number is so big is we're not dying as before," he said. "But the other problem is we have not made a significant dent in new infections." Estimating the number of Americans with HIV has always been a difficult task for health officials, but this year's figures are believed to be the most accurate ever thanks to wider case reporting. In the 1990s, the CDC and other agencies generally agreed that between 600,000 and 900,000 people had the virus, according to the University of California-San Francisco's Center for HIV Information. Previous estimates — as high as 1.5 million people — from the 1980s were later determined to be too high. For example, the CDC estimated in 1986 that between 1 million and 1.5 million people had HIV. In 1987, that was revised to 945,000 to 1.4 million and was refined in 1990 to 800,000 to 1.2 million. The CDC's latest estimates indicate blacks account for 47 percent of HIV cases; gay and bisexual men make up 45 percent of those living with the virus that causes AIDS, the health agency believes. In 2003, the rates of AIDS cases were 58 per 100,000 in the black population, 10 per 100,000 Hispanics, 6 per 100,000 whites, 8 per 100,000 American Indian/Alaska native population, and 4 per 100,000 Asian/Pacific Islanders. The CDC also warned those demographics may soon change because heterosexual blacks, women and others infected after having high-risk sex (such as with someone with HIV, an injection-drug user or a man who has sex with other men) now account for a larger proportion of those living with HIV than those who are living with full-blown AIDS. ___ On the Net: CDC: http://www.cdc.gov University of California-San Francisco Center for HIV Information: http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu

Looks like Beyonce needs to find new back-up singers. Destiny's Child Announces Split to MTV 1 hour, 29 minutes ago NEW YORK - Staying together was not part of Destiny's Child's destiny — the multiplatinum group is splitting up. In a statement released to MTV News, the trio of Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams announced plans to disband after their world tour ends in the fall. "We have been working together as Destiny's Child since we were 9, and touring together since we were 14. After a lot of discussion and some deep soul-searching, we realized that our current tour has given us the opportunity to leave Destiny's Child on a high note, united in our friendship and filled with an overwhelming gratitude for our music, our fans, and each other," the statement said. The group was unavailable for comment Monday, but a representative said another statement would be released later in the day. The breakup of the girl group, which first debuted as a teenage R&B foursome in 1997, isn't much of a shocker. Many critics didn't expect the group to exist at all after the multiplatinum solo debut of Beyonce in 2003. Her album, "Dangerously In Love," won five Grammys and solidified her as a one-name superstar apart from the group. And the title of Destiny's Child's latest album — "Destiny Fulfilled" — appeared to signal the end was near. In an interview with The Associated Press in November, the women were noncommittal when asked about their future. "I think as far as Destiny's Child, our main focus is for us to maintain our friendship. And if in three years, five years, 10 years, whenever we decide we wanna do another Destiny's Child record, then we will do it," Beyonce said. "But I think our main goal was to do this next record, and I think we just wanna eventually have kids that play together." Beyonce and Rowland have been members of the group since it was formed in their hometown of Houston. They scored instant success with their debut, thanks to the hit "No No No (Part I)." Back then, the founding members also included LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson. But after the release of their second album, 1999's "The Writing's On The Wall," Luckett and Roberson were booted from the group. (The duo later sued the group and Beyonce's manager-father, Matthew Knowles, and reached a settlement.) Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin replaced Roberson and Luckett the same year, but Franklin was later dropped, making the group a trio. Among the group's biggest hits have been "Bootylicious," "Survivor" and "Independent Women (Part I)." All of their albums have sold at least 1 million copies; their latest has sold more than 2 million. Besides Beyonce, Rowland and Williams have released solo albums — with less fanfare. Despite the impending breakup, the women pledged to remain close friends. "After all these wonderful years working together, we realized that now is the time to pursue our personal goals and solo efforts in earnest," the statement said. "No matter what happens, we will always love each other as friends and sisters and will always support each other as artists. We want to thank all of our fans for their incredible love and support and hope to see you all again as we continue fulfilling our destinies."