philadelphia (reuters) – the father of nick berg, the american beheaded in iraq, directly blamed president bush and defense secretary donald rumsfeld on thursday for his son’s death.

“”my son died for the sins of george bush and donald rumsfeld. this administration did this,”” berg said.

mexico air force video creates ufo stir

mexico city (reuters) – the mexican air force has released footage of what a ufo expert said were 11 invisible unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane.

journalist jaime maussan told a news conference on tuesday the objects were real and seemed “”intelligent”” after they at one point changed direction and surrounded the plane chasing them.

“”they were invisible to the eye but they were there, there is no doubt about it. they had mass, they had energy and they were moving about,”” he said, after showing a 15-minute video he said the defense ministry gave him permission to publicize.

the ministry confirmed to reuters it had provided the video, filmed by the air force on march 5 over the eastern coastal state of campeche.

“”we are not alone! this is so weird,”” one of the pilots can be heard yelling, after the plane’s crew switched on an infrared camera to track the objects, first picked up by radar.

the film, recorded by a plane looking for drugs trafficking near the gulf of mexico, shows 11 objects as blobs of light that hover in formation or dart about, sometimes disappearing into cloud.

mexico’s most popular nightly news broadcast showed the video on monday night.

interviewed by mausson on another section of the video, the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane.

“”there was a moment when … the screens showed they were behind us, to the left and in front of us. it was at that point that i felt a bit tense,”” said maj. magdaleno castanon.

this is censorship at it’s most partisan and most disturbing:

los angeles (reuters) – a major television chain, the sinclair broadcast group, will bar its abc-affiliated stations from airing a planned “”nightline”” tribute to fallen u.s. troops in iraq.

abc news plans to devote friday’s entire “”nightline”” segment to the tribute, with anchor ted koppel reading aloud the names of hundreds of fallen american servicemen and women as their photographs are shown.

the network’s intentions drew a denunciation from sinclair, a baltimore-based owner of 62 television stations in 39 markets reaching roughly 24 percent of u.s. television households.

sinclair said the “”nightline”” segment “”appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the administrations efforts in iraq.””

in a statement posted on its web site, the broadcast group accused koppel and his show of seeking to “”highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in iraq.””

an abc news spokeswoman said sinclair’s decision to preempt friday’s “”nightline”” on its stations would remove the program in at least seven markets — st. louis, missouri; columbus, ohio; charleston, west virginia; pensacola, florida; springfield, massachusetts and asheville and winston-salem, north carolina.

sticking to its plans, abc news issued its own statement defending the planned broadcast as “”an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country.””

in an interview with internet media report poynteronline, koppel himself rejected the notion that he was out to make a political point.

“”just look at these people. look at their names. and look at their ages. consider what they’ve done for you. honor them,”” koppel said. “”i truly believe that people will take away from this program the reflection of what they bring to it.””

sinclair’s boycott drew a sharp rebuke from u.s. rep. maurice hinchey, a new york democrat and leading congressional critic of newly relaxed media ownership regulations adopted last year by the federal communications commission.

“”the decision by sinclair … to keep this program off its stations is being made by a corporation with a political agenda without regard to the wants or needs of its viewers,”” hinchey said. “”this move may be providing a chilling look into the future if we allow media ownership to be consolidated into fewer and fewer hands.””

the washington-based think tank the center for american progress cited campaign contribution reports showing sinclair executives have donated more than $130,000 to president bush and his political allies since 2000.

washington (reuters) – a non-human molecule found in red meat and milk makes its way into the human system when eaten — and seems to build up especially in tumors, u.s. researchers reported on monday.
the compound, called sialic acid, is found on the surfaces of animal cells but is not found in people, and may be one reason why animal-to-human organ and tissue transplants do not work well. animals have a version called neu5gc, while humans carry neu5ac.
but researchers at the university of california san diego found it does show up in the human body, and showed it can be absorbed from eating red meat and milk. they also showed that the body produces an immune response against the molecule. dr. ajit varki and colleagues, reporting in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences (news – web sites), say it is too soon to make any recommendations based on their findings.
“”of course, there are already existing recommendations that people should not consume too much food containing saturated fats, such as dairy products and red meats,”” varki said in a statement. “”the highest amount (of neu5gc) was found in lamb, pork, and beef (so-called ‘red meat’),”” the researchers wrote. levels were very low or undetectable in poultry and fish, vegetables and hen’s eggs.
varki, who is not a vegetarian, noted that many studies have linked a diet rich in meat and milk with cancer, heart disease and other diseases.

autoimmune disease
“”the small amounts of neu5gc in normal tissues also raise the possibility that anti-neu5gc antibodies are involved in autoimmunity,”” the researchers said.
autoimmune disease occur when the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue and include type-1 or juvenile diabetes and some types of arthritis. “”in this regard, it is interesting that vegetarian diet has been suggested to improve rheumatoid arthritis,”” they wrote.
but much research has focused on the fat content of animal fat or byproducts of cooking meat as the cause of disease. varki’s collaborator dr. elaine muchmore developed an antibody — an immune system targeting protein — that would hook onto neu5gc. the team found neu5gc in human tumor samples and to a much lower degree in healthy tissue. more tests showed that most people had made their own antibodies that recognized neu5gc, and thus could potentially initiate an inflammatory immune response. varki and two colleagues drank neu5gc purified from pork sources, and the molecule showed up in their urine, blood, hair and saliva.

washington (reuters) – fed up with being in iraq and demoralized by their role as peacekeepers in a risky place, a group of u.s. soldiers aired their plight on u.s. television on wednesday and said they had lost faith in the army.
told several times they would be going home only to have their hopes dashed this week, a small group of soldiers from the 3rd infantry division in iraq, spoke of poor morale and disillusionment with defense secretary donald rumsfeld.
“”if donald rumsfeld were here, i’d ask him for his resignation,”” one disgruntled soldier told abc’s “”good morning america”” show.
asked by a reporter what his message would be for rumsfeld, another said: “”i would ask him why we are still here. i don’t have any clue as to why we are still in iraq.””

about 146,000 u.s. troops are serving amid mounting security threats in postwar iraq. the u.s. death toll of 147 combat deaths has now equaled the number killed in the 1991 gulf war sgt. filipe vega, said they had expected to return home soon after the fall of baghdad on april 9.
“”we were told the fastest way back home is through baghdad and that’s what we did. now we are still here,”” he complained.

the 3rd infantry division was the first u.s. unit to enter baghdad after driving through southern iraq from kuwait.
sgt. terry gilmore described a phone call with his wife, stacey, when he told her he would not be coming home soon.
“”when i told her she started crying and i almost started crying. i just felt like my heart was broken. i could not figure out … how they could keep us here after they told us we were coming home.””