Google restores Scientology links: Remember the flap several weeks back about Scientology’s manipulation of its web page content to place its own pages higher than those of detractors in search engines? The enduser response, including mine, was to “bomb” Google with links to xenu.net, a major site critical of Scientology, to get it ranked higher when searching on that term. Well, as of Tuesday, Google removed links to xenu.net from its index. Kuro5hin and others speculated the self-censorship might have been a response to the “googlebombing”, but ZDnet reports that Scientology’s lawyers directly intervened with Google to remove xenu.net from its listings, threatening Google with action under the DMCA for xenu.net’s alleged “copyright infringement”. It does appear that it has been the resultant public outcry that has gotten Google to reverse that decision.I just did the search; the critical site is back in at fourth place again. Care to try to get it higher? Here again is another link to this site critical of Scientology.

Taliban bargaining on 18 US soldiers: According to this Pakistani news source, written with stilted English, the Taliban took 18 American soldiers prisoner during Operation Anaconda. They want to trade them for the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Does the notion of safe passage for the hostage-bearing Taliban and al Qaeda forces explain why Anaconda didn’t kill as many foes as it was billed to do? Reader comments on this news item are largely of the incredulous variety…

Four Pakistanis Missing After INS Wrongly Let Them Enter U.S.:

‘Federal officials are on the lookout for four Pakistani nationals who are in the United States illegally after leaving a freighter that had been docked in Virginia sometime last weekend.

Immigration and Naturalization Service district directors and border patrol chiefs from across the country met on a “crisis management” conference call Thursday afternoon in which it was reportedly revealed that one of the four missing Pakistanis showed up on a “lookout list.” Since then, however, checks run on the Pakistanis suggest that they are on no such lists.’ Fox News

although I’m not sure how much it is to be trusted, given that it is from WorldNetDaily: Suicide-bomber unit shown off in Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood movement has presented eight of its suicide-bombers-in-training to hundreds of demonstrators at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, according to the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal, which is owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

The story reports that Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Egypt, presented the eight as members of the new “Martyrdom Organization” on Monday. The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, translated the article into English.

According to the paper, the group of “young people” has been secretly training for some time, preparing for the “struggle against Israel.”

Taunted by new U.N. classmates, Switzerland already wants to go home SatireWire After all, says the Washington Post (on a more serious note), Switzerland sent some people home too.

Under the influence: “Drug companies spend billions, showering gifts on doctors, to persuade them to prescribe new medicines. Critics say it’s bad for patients’ wallets – and maybe their bodies.” More on something on which I’ve vituperated before. When your MD offers you the latest-and-greatest instead of the tried-and-true, ask why it’s better. Philadelphia Inquirer