Watercooler Stories

Web site warns Arab nations and Japan

BAGHDAD, July 20 (UPI) -- A Web site linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is warning Pakistan, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, all Gulf states, Malaysia and Indonesia not to send troops to Iraq.

The message specifically threatened Japan, but included all Arab and Islamic companies.

CNN reported Tuesday two Islamic militant Web sites posted the waning that said it was from the Unification and Jihad's military wing, the Khaled ibn Waleed Brigade.

However, the source of the message has not been confirmed.

"We in the Unification and Jihad warn Arab and Muslim governments from sending troops to Iraq and supporting the American forces and its allies," said the message, saying they will hit with an iron hand all those who support the Americans, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, and his group.

"Do like what the Philippines did," the message said, referring to the Filipino troop withdrawal after a Filipino was kidnapped.

"And for Arab and Muslim forces, we advise you not to obey if you are forced to be sent to Iraq and if you don't, then, the laden cars will be waiting for you and we will not stop," the message said.

The United States is now offering a $25 million reward for the capture or death of al-Zarqawi.

Ford: healthcare fee may drive us offshore

SEATTLE, July 20 (UPI) -- A top officer at the Ford Motor Co. says if U.S. healthcare costs keep rising, Detroit automakers may have to move overseas to remain competitive.

Allan Gilmour, Ford's vice chairman, said his company spent $3.2 billion on health care last year for its 560,000 employees, retirees and their dependents, the Detroit News reported Tuesday.

The costs added $1,000 to the price of every Ford car and truck built in the United States -- up from $700 three years ago, Gilmour said.

"Our foreign competitors don't share these problems," Gilmour told the National Governors Association meeting in Seattle. "These health care challenges have created a competitive gap that, if unchecked, will drive investment decisions away from the United States."

Gilmour said carmakers and other manufacturers increasingly are looking overseas to take advantage of lower wages and cheaper benefits, raising fears that U.S. auto jobs and the healthcare costs associated with them could be outsourced.

U.S. health care expenditures have grown 7 percent annually for five years -- more than double the inflation rate -- to $1.67 trillion in 2003.

Internet to become radically faster

EVANSTON, Ill., July 20 (UPI) -- An Illinois expert on the Internet predicts that within two years or so, the Internet will be radically more powerful than it is today.

Joe Mambretti, who has run Northwestern University's International Center for Advanced Internet Research since its 1998 founding, says data transmission speeds will be thousands of times quicker than the fastest speeds available today, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

Known as the third generation of the Internet, it will offer users instant access to virtually all digital and analog videos ever made and hundreds of thousands of channels to listen to or watch.

This next phase of the Internet also will let users design and create a virtual space with surround-screen and surround-sound known as an "immersive world." Inside that world, users will be able to take virtual trips across space and time, consult their physican or plays games.

Such changes are possible within two years or so, Mambretti said, because of the spread of high-capacity fiberoptics to homes and businesses, and away from copper-based networks that now carry most Internet traffic.

Report: U.S. protestants on the decline

CHICAGO, July 20 (UPI) -- For the first time in 200 years, Protestantism may no longer represent a majority of the U.S. population, a new survey indicates.

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found burgeoning secularization, immigration and the growth of other religions may soon wrest from Protestants their hold on the majority of the population.

Researchers concluded that the proportion of the country's population that is Protestant will probably fall below 50 percent within one year, if it hasn't done so already.

The decline in the Protestant population appears to have begun in 1993, when 63 percent of Americans identified as such. By 2002 that figure had declined to 52 percent, while those who said they had no religion increased from 9 percent to 14 percent during the same period.

The proportion of people who identify as Catholics has remained steady, at about 25 percent.

"Many scholars have noted that the numbers of people who say they have 'no religion' is increasing, but they haven't noted what faith group these people have been leaving. It is clear that many of these people are former Protestants," said Tom W. Smith, director of NORC's General Social Survey.