INVASION OF GIANT RATS

HORRIFIED neighbours told yesterday how their homes are being invaded by giant rats - including a 30-INCH LONG monster that was shot dead.

The rodents, twice the size of common types, are plaguing an estate in Bradford, West Yorks, often appearing in kitchens and lounges.

It is feared some could be "super rats" from South America.

Pictured above is a monster 2½ft rat killed on the estate.

Rat in me kitchen ... mother Julie Briggs

But the shaken man who shot it in the head - 31-year-old Brandon Goddard - yesterday revealed FOUR others of the same size scuttled away to safety.

And he said: "They were more like Ratzillas than rats.

"I got out of there as fast as I could. Who knows how many there will be if they've been breeding?"

The shot rat, feared to be from a species native to South America, is TWICE as big as common British types and the largest seen here.

The residents of Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford, West Yorks, are used to seeing massive rodents that sometimes appear in their kitchens and lounges.

Even so, the new colony shocked them. Shown a picture of the dead creature, mum-of-five Rebecca Holmes, 38, gasped: "Oh my God! I've seen them as big as cats but never that big."

Shot rat ... Brandon

Brandon toted an air rifle as he went "ratting" with pals on the edge of the estate - which they had heard was rife with rodents.

The group heard "rustling and scrabbling" before the five huge rats shot out from behind a wall. Brandon, a manager at a cleaning firm, said: "The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away.

"I've seen thousands of rats during the course of my work and go shooting a couple of times a week. But I've never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking. Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there."

After taking the photo, the ratters dumped the shot rodent in undergrowth. It is thought it was eaten by a fox.

The estate has long had a monster rat problem. Rebecca told how her cat Marie cornered one in her lounge. But it stood and fought as it was just as big as the moggy.

A neighbour clobbered it with a baseball bat.

And he and Marie took five dead rats to the local council's offices, tipping them over a desk to demand action.

Rebecca said: "They came quickly, blocked holes and put down poison. But people still see them outside regularly."

Neighbour Julie Briggs, 28, told how she and partner Andrew Denton, 24, hear rats fighting and squealing in the walls of their rented semi, which stands opposite open countryside.

Mum-of-six Julie said: "I find droppings on the cooker when they get into the house. I've seen them in the lounge as we watch TV.

"At night you can hear them chasing each other in the loft. They sound like drag racing cars as they screech across the rafters."

Last night experts called the shot rat "extraordinary" and said the colony was worth investigating.

Laura Drake, of the Mammal Society, speculated it could be a coypu - a South American rodent often referred to as a "giant rat".

Coypus were thought to have been eradicated in Britain in a cull 20 years ago. But Laura said it was "not impossible" there had been survivors.

Yorkshire Rat Club president Colin Arundel said rodents, like humans, could simply be getting bigger as food becomes more and more available.

The RSPCA said: "The most likely answer is the shot rat was from a non-indigenous species that was in captivity and got out."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3102460/Invasion-of-the-giant-rats-in-Bradford.html#ixzz0x1e4byXR

SIX MEN ARRESTED IN LONDON DURING POPE'S VISIT

LONDON (Reuters) in black, Tetractys Merkaba in red.

News item provided by Reuters which is owned by Rothschild. Is this the classic Hegelian dialectic being played out?

- Anti-terrorism police -otherwise known as a government/banker/nwo hit squad with badges- on high alert during a visit by Pope Benedict to the British capital, arrested six men on Friday on suspicion of preparing an attack. Arrested for committing a 'pre-crime'. Arrested by the thought police for thinking about a crime. How very appropriate that this Orwellian activity is taking place in London!

Police -anti-terrorism police, actually, the employment of the word 'police' hoping to confuse the public into thinking that these two groups are the same. THEY ARE NOT, otherwise they would merely be 'the police'- moved quickly to make the pre-dawn arrests of five men who worked as street cleaners in the area in central London near parliament where the pontiff later spoke.

A sixth suspect was arrested about eight hours later but it was not clear if he worked for the same cleaning company contracted by the Westminster area of London. Important to note two things.

1. What is 'the Westminster area of London"? Is this a deliberately vague statement designed to deflect attention away from the fact that these people were more than likely contracted by the City of Westminster? In this so-called terrorist age, what checks and balances were employed by this council in their employment processes? Given that the Pope's London visit was only just announced, did these street sweepers gain employment after the announcement was made? If so, then, would the Council really hire anybody to be in a position to attack the pope? Or, were these so-called terrorist street sweepers contracted before the announcement in the hope that the Pope might visit London one day? If these street sweepers were hired before the announcement of the Pope's tour, this is a good indication that they were placed there by someone who did know, someone like a secret service organisation. Were these street sweepers set up like Bali, 9/11, 7/7 & the 1993 attack on the WTC car park?? We don't now yet, but, something seems to be rotten in the state of London. Events like this offer proof that there is a need for these anti-terrorist activities, and that the government may try to capitalise on the manufactured situation by taking away more public freedom via statutory legislation, which is actually an offer to contract with them, reducing your sovereignty in the process.

2. The City of Westminster, like all government structures are for-profit corporations. That is why they were following the profit driven path of using contracted labour, rather than providing gainful employment that would allow for their employees to live and participate in a community. The priority for this Council is profit, not the welfare of the people they are supposedly serving.

British broadcaster Sky cited unnamed sources as saying the six were Algerian -Sky offers no investigative journalism into this alleged incident whatsoever, but, are oh so quick to offer a culprit's nationality. Another example of a Rupert Murdoch owned company prioritising profit over truth? Remember, this is the company that took BBC off it's Chinese cable package to gain access to the Chinese market, that, for the last ten years, offered absolute lies and fabrications when talking about, both the participants in, as well as the importantly successful S11 protests against the World Economic Forum, and, who started the FOX News network in the United States that spins its political opinions as news. Were these 'unnamed sources' the real culprits? but police said they could not comment on the report and the Algerian embassy said it had not been notified of the arrests of any of its nationals.

Police, who searched eight homes and two businesses in London, reviewed security arrangements after the arrests but decided they remained "appropriate."

The BBC reported that the men had posed "a possible threat to the pope" but police refused to confirm or deny that. The Vatican said the trip would go ahead as planned and that the pope was calm.

Security is expected to be tight on Saturday when demonstrators protesting against the pope plan to march from Hyde Park to Downing Street, the prime minister's official London residence.

Pope Benedict is due to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg and acting opposition leader Harriet Harman, before attending a prayer vigil at the park.

POPE SPEAKS TO CIVIC LEADERS

The pope on Friday visited the parliament area, where he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and addressed British leaders.

Hundreds of protesters along the route called him the "anti-Christ" and shouted "shame" as they held up pictures of children who were sexually abused by priests in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

Similar protests were held at a Catholic university the pope visited on Friday morning.

The six unnamed men, aged between 26 and 50, were arrested on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," according to police statements.

The pope has been heavily protected during his four-day visit to Britain, traveling in a custom-built bulletproof car surrounded by security officials.

Benedict has not been the target of any serious attacks but his predecessor was almost killed in an assassination attempt in 1981 and was the subject of several other attacks.

When the pope travels outside the Vatican he is protected by the host country's police forces plus a small contingent of about a dozen Vatican security men.

In July 2005, four British Islamists killed 52 people and wounded hundreds by setting off suicide bombs on London's transport system.

An Islamist cell attempted a car bomb attack on Glasgow airport in June 2007, in which one of two would-be suicide bombers was killed. WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING? This is an attempt to link Islam in as the perpretrators of some type of thought crime that the police refused to confirm was an attack on the Pope in his bullet-proof car surrounded by security that could only be compromised by someone on the inside.

Then again, many of you think a bloke in a cave in a third-world country orchestrated the simultaneous hi-jacking of four airliners and using them to take down three buildings in New York, not to mention impact on the Government HQ of the country that spends the most money on its military, so many of you will willingly swallow this so-called attack on the Pope.

"We are totally confident in police and there are no plans to change the program," said Father Federico Lombardi. He said the pope was calm and looking forward to the rest of the visit.

The pope held talks at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 80 million Anglicans.

Williams and the pope, whose Churches split in 1534, both spoke of the importance of faith in society and agreed that Christianity should not be seen as a threat to freedom.

In a joint statement, they said they were committed to continued dialogue but acknowledged obstacles to unity "from within the Christian community," One of the biggest problems for Christianity is that Christians cannot agree on who exactly is a Christian, what Christianity is, and what actually constitutes the Christian bible. a reference to divisions over Anglican women priests and gay bishops.

Later, the pope told British leaders, including four former prime ministers, that religion had to be a "vital contributor" to national debate on a host of issues.

(Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina, Adrian Croft, Stefano Ambrogi and Bill Maclean; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

TEEN BANNED FROM US FOR LIFE OVER OBAMA EMAIL

Yahoo!7 September 14, 2010, 9:24 am
A British teenager has been banned from America for life for sending Barack Obama an abusive email.

Luke Angel was reprimanded by police on both sides of the Atlantic after firing off a drunken message to the White House calling the president a "pr**k".

The FBI intercepted the message and contacted police in the UK who went to see the 17-year-old at his home in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.

Luke, a student, is now on a list of people who are banned from visiting the US.

The teenager told the Bedfordshire On Sunday newspaper that he had sent the email after watching a TV programme about September 11.

When asked about the ban, Luke said he did not care.

"My parents aren't very happy about it," he said.

"The police who came round took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever."

Joanne Ferreira from the US Department of Homeland Security said there are about 60 reasons a person can be barred.

"We are prohibited from discussing specific cases," she said.

TAX INSPECTORS GET POLICE-LIKE POWERS TO TACKLE TAX EVADERS

Tax inspectors have been given police-like powers to access people’s bank statements, address books, payslips and even diaries, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor Published: 7:00AM BST 11 Sep 2010

The revenue has said it plans to recover the unpaid tax when they complete their self-assessment forms by January 2012 Photo: ALAMY
The inspectors can now turn up at people’s homes or businesses unannounced and examine their records if they believe not enough tax has been paid.
The news comes at the end of a week in which HM Revenue & Customs was accused of incompetence because of failings in the ‘pay-as-you-earn’ (PAYE) system. About 1.4 million people are now facing tax demands because of HMRC errors.

The scale of the new powers for tax inspectors, which were first introduced last year under the Finance Act 2008, have only become apparent after HMRC started to publish redacted versions of their training manuals on the internet.
Gary Ashford, head of tax risk, disputes and investigations at accountancy firm RSM Tenon, said that the powers under civil law made them inspectors more powerful than the police.
So far hundreds of people are thought to have been subject to the intrusive unannounced checks.
The powers are likely to be targeted at people who run businesses, but can also be targeted at anyone who works from home or has a portfolio of rental properties through buy-to-let mortgages.
Mr Ashford said: "It is not about avoidance or evasion, it is if a tax inspector wants to satisfy himself if someone is paying the right tax. It can be a business or individual – any taxpayer.
"These powers amount to the biggest change in between 30 and 40 years in the way that HMRC does its business. These significant changes have been introduced and the public doesn’t know about them."
HMRC has started to publish guidance on the powers on its website but has withheld information about people’s rights to challenge them.
Mr Ashford suggested that the full guidance should be published in order to maintain public confidence in the new powers.
The breadth of the powers in civil law also meant that greater checks and balances should be constructed to ensure that they are not abused, he said.
Last year a HMRC report said the tax gap – the amount of unpaid tax – was £40 billion. However unpaid tax clawed back by inspectors increased from £7.5 billion to £12 billion.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has pledged that the Coalition would crack down on tax evaders. He said last month: "Tax evasion is as bad as benefit fraud and both need to be combated."
A spokesman for HMRC said: “HMRC takes tax evasion very seriously. The vast majority of taxpayers play by the rules and they get understandably angry when they hear about the antics of the crooked minority who are determined to cheat.
"When we chase the cheats we act on behalf of that honest majority.”
She said that “greater safeguards” were in place to protect taxpayers. She said: “Unannounced visits, which are the exception, are only made where pre-arranging the visit would undermine the purpose of the inspection and are targeted at serious fraud.”

Internet campaign launched to move Tony Blair's book

It has already been panned by the critics and lampooned by his political opponents but now Tony Blair’s controversial autobiography has become the target of a mischievous internet campaign.

By Martin Evans Published: 8:00AM BST 04 Sep 2010

Fantasy and crime are among the chosen sections for the book

Hundreds of people have joined a group on the social networking site Facebook calling for his memoirs, entitled, A Journey, to be placed in the crime section of all bookstores.

The group urges shoppers to surreptitiously move all copies of the book, which was released on Wednesday, in protest at the former Prime Minister’s record on Iraq.

A number of bookstores have already reported finding Mr Blair’s book in “inappropriate sections” including fantasy and true crime.

The Facebook group called “Subversively move Tony Blair's memoirs to the crime section in book shops" claims it wants to “make bookshops think twice about where they categorise our generation’s greatest war criminal”.

Within hours of being launched dozens of users had logged onto the site with many posting photographs of the book on the wrong shelf.

Euan Booth, 24, a trainee nurse from Oxford, who helped set up the Facebook group, said he saw it as a good way of registering non-violent protest against the former Prime Minister.

He said: “I'm not an activist, just a voter who is still furious that he is able to lie to the British people, day after day, but this time earn money from it.

“This is a peaceful and mischievous way of making your point if you feel the same way. It’s a non-violent display of anger using the materials given to me – his book and the crime section – they're both there, I just put them together.

"It was pretty funny seeing the book still in the same section this morning when I went back in to check."

Another user Laurie Schram posted a picture of several copies among the nappies in a supermarket, writing: "No crime section at Tesco’s so I’ve put them with the wet wipes ... got quite a kick out of this."

Another had put it in the Dark Fantasy section of their local bookstore.

A spokesman for book chain Waterstone’s said: "We have not had any reports of this. The book is selling fantastically well from the front of the store and is also in the autobiography and politics sections."

Mr Blair is expected to be greeted by a large number of protesters when he attends a book signing at the Piccadilly branch of Waterstone’s next week.

Customers wishing to get a signed copy of his memoirs will be subjected to tight security checks.

THE MAN WHO LIVES WITHOUT MONEY; Mark Boyle GAVE UP USING CASH OVER A YEAR AGO AND LOVES HIS NEW LIFESTYLE.

By Jessica Salter
Published: 12:54PM BST 18 Aug 2010
Mark Boyle, 31, gave up using money in November 2008. He lives in a caravan that he got from Freecycle (uk.freecycle.org), which is parked at an organic farm near Bristol, where Boyle volunteers three days a week. He grows his own food, has a wood-burning stove and produces electricity from a solar panel (it cost £360 before the experiment started). He has a mobile phone for incoming calls only and a solar-powered laptop. Boyle, who has been vegan for six years, set up the Freeconomy in 2007 (justfortheloveofit.org), an online network that encourages people to share skills or possessions and now has 17,000 members. The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living (Oneworld Publications, £10.99) is out now.
It all started in a pub. My friend and I were talking about all the problems in the world, such as sweatshops, environmental destruction, factory farms, animal testing, wars over resources. I realised they were all, in their own way, connected to money.
I decided to give up cash. I sold my houseboat in Bristol and gave up my job at an organic food company. I made a list of everything I bought and tried to figure out which I could get in another way. For toothpaste I use a mixture of cuttlefish bone and wild fennel seeds. Things like iPods you just have to knock off the list, but birds in the trees around my kitchen have become my new iPod.
Everything takes more time and effort in a moneyless world. Handwashing my clothes in a sink of cold water, using laundry liquid made by boiling up nuts on my rocket stove, can take two hours, instead of half an hour using a washing machine.
It was meant to be just for a year but I enjoy the lifestyle so much that I’m just going to keep living like this. I’ve never been happier or fitter.
I had a very normal childhood. I think at first my parents wondered what on earth I was doing. But now they totally support me and they say that they may even try it themselves.
Sometimes it is frustrating trying to socialise with no money. I grew up in Northern Ireland where it’s a show of manliness to buy your mates the first round. But I invite them back to my caravan instead to have homemade cider around the campfire.
I am single at the moment, but because of the book and my blog a few women seem interested in me. Just being a vegan cuts down the number of women I’m compatible with, never mind being moneyless. I’ll be lucky if there’s one woman in the whole country who wants to give up cash for life – and I might not even fancy her.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenerliving/7951968/The-man-who-lives-without-money.html