Companies managing the Sinai conduit that transports Egyptian natural gas to Israel have hired several Beduin tribes to protect the pipeline. Lines have been sabotaged three times in July, five times since January. North Sinai Governor Abdel Wahab Mabrouk told  the Egyptian daily newspaper, al-Ahram that the Egyptian Natural Gas Company  contacted tribes through whose traditional…

Convicted sexual predator Kevin Halfmann, who is scheduled to remain incarcerated at least through 2030, says his constitutional rights have been violated since Illinois state prison officials won’t permit him to study the Satanic Bible. Halfmann’s arguments were not well-received Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Wilkerson, according to Jesse Bogan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. “He hobbled…

New York City’s off-beat tabloid the Village Voice is running a series of what it considers to be the top 25 people behind the decline of the late L. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology. “On Friday,” writes Voice staffer Tony Orega, “we started a countdown that will give credit — or blame — to the people who have contributed…

“Discerning future trends can be difficult if not risky,” writes Thom Rainer in the summer 2011 edition of Facts & Trends magazine. “If we miss a trend, we risk missing opportunities because we had our resources directed elsewhere.” “I am thus careful when I do trend projections,”  he writes. “I am especially careful when I am…

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