DALLAS -- The superintendent of a Texas Youth Commission facility was arrested Friday, the latest in a series of problems for a system that has been plagued by complaints involving physical and sexual abuse and cover-up schemes by administrators.
Jerome Parsee, 53, superintendent of the intake center in Marlin, was arrested for purportedly covering up sexual-assault accusations at the central Texas facility. He was charged with making a f... (more)
The presiding judge in the José Padilla case has held that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a speedy trial does not protect American citizens from being indefinitely incarcerated by the Pentagon.
Padilla had filed a motion to dismiss the case on the ground that the federal government had denied him his right to a speedy trial. Padilla has been in custody since May 2002 and his trial, which is scheduled to ... (more)
British government officials have backed the methods used by scientists who concluded that more than 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the invasion, the BBC reported yesterday.
The Government publicly rejected the findings, published in The Lancet in October. But the BBC said documents obtained under freedom of information legislation showed advisers concluded that the much-criticised study had used sound methods.
The study, conducted by researchers from Johns H... (more)
The war on Iraq was not carried out on the basis of mere strategic interests. No strategies or interests could explain the level of death and destruction that Iraq had undergone ever since the Gulf War in 1991. If one were to assume that the US led invasion in 2003 is a continuation of that war, then Iraq could be said to have suffered more horrors than any country had, including the countries that were involved the WWII.
We are talking about at least two and a half million Iraqi ... (more)
Later today, the Commons home affairs select committee will announce it is to conduct an inquiry into the growth of surveillance in Britain. It is tempting to say this is not before time, but it is probably too late if the aim is to have any influence over policy.
We are already a "surveillance society". We are, for the time being, fortunate that the full potential for its abuse is constrained by the pluralist democracy in which we live. However, we do not have to look back very ... (more)
The city council in Brooksville, Florida voted this week to advance a proposal granting city officials the authority to place liens and foreclose on the homes of motorists accused of failing to pay a single $5 parking ticket. Non-homeowners face having their vehicles seized if accused of not paying three parking offenses.
According to the proposed ordinance, a vehicle owner must pay a parking fine within 72 hours if a meter maid claims his automobile was improperly parked, incurri... (more)
BAGHDAD (IRIN) - Mohammed Hussein Shureida, 40, sets aside a huge portion of his monthly income to buy water from private tankers and protect his family from waterborne diseases that can result from drinking Iraq's tap water.
"I nearly lost my six-year old son last summer as he developed acute diarrhea from the bad water we were drinking," said Shureida, a taxi driver from the Baghdad slums of Sadr city. "Medicines were not easy to get, causing my son to suffer a lot until he rec... (more)
Oil producing countries in the Middle East and central Asia should adjust their economic policies to better suit a world in which oil prices will remain high, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday. In a report on the economic outlook for the Middle East and central Asia, the IMF said oil producers have saved two-thirds.
Call it deja vu, Lebanon style. “Iran kidnaps Marines at gunpoint,” declares the Belfast Telegraph, as if the Royal Marines captured on the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway were grabbed while on an afternoon stroll in Seaforth. Terri Judd, aboard HMS Cornwall in the Persian Gulf, tells us the marines were “overpowered and taken into Iranian national waters,” same a... (more)
Fifteen British soldiers currently undergoing interrogation after being seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq for entering Iranian waters are under serious threat of torture if the West's treatment of suspected foreign enemies is anything to go by. The Iranian foreign minister has said the issue is "being considered legally" and has suggested there may be charges. Sources close to the Iranian leadership have stated: “If it is ... (more)
Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray Monday supported Iran's decision to arrest 15 UK marines in the Persian Gulf last week.
"In international law the Iranian government were not out of order in detaining foreign military personnel in waters to which they have a legitimate claim," Murray said, who was also a previous head of Foreign Office's maritime section, carrying out negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of new homes unexpectedly dropped in February to the lowest level seen in nearly seven years, while inventories of unsold homes rose to a 16-year high, suggesting that the nation's housing market was softening heading into the vital spring buying season.
Sales of newly constructed single-family houses unexpectedly slowed again in February, falling 3.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 848,000, the lowest level since June 2000, the Commerce ... (more)
"The Queen" illustrates how the public is lulled to sleep with Mother Goose stories.
The drama rests entirely on Queen Elizabeth II's refusal to speak publicly after the death of Princess Diana in 1997; and how, under pressure from a grieving nation, she graciously rose to the occasion.
Nominated for "Best Picture," the movie doesn’t mention she had good reason to be reticent. Helen Mirren won for "Best Actress" but if Mohammed Fayed is right, Elizabeth II d... (more)
BRUSSELS—America should impose a $1-pergallon increase in the gasoline tax as penance for causing pollution, John Deutch, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, told the Trilateral Commission’s secret meeting here.
When the TC called on the United States to increase gas taxes by 10 cents at a meeting in Tokyo in 1991, The Washington Post, which is always represented at TC and Bilderberg meetings, called for such a... (more)
More than 40 major international banks and financial institutions have either cut off or cut back business with the Iranian government or private sector as a result of a quiet campaign launched by the Treasury and State departments last September, according to Treasury and State officials.
The financial squeeze has seriously crimped Tehran's ability to finance petroleum industry projects and to pay for imports. It has also limited Iran's use of the international financial system t... (more)
CHINA—On March 21, 2007, the State Council Executive Meeting passed in principle a draft of the "Human Organ Transplant Ordinance." The ordinance particularly specified a strict ban of taking organs from citizens under 18 years for transplant.
Experts outside of China speculate that the Chinese Communist Party had no choice but to respond to the organ harvesting crimes which have shocked the world in the lead up to the 2008 Beijin... (more)
Last week the House passed an emergency supplemental spending bill that was the worst of all worlds. The president’s request would have already set a spending record, but the Democratic leadership packed 21 billion additional dollars of mostly pork barrel spending in attempt to win Democrat votes. The total burden on the American taxpayer for this bill alone will be an astonishing 124 billion dollars. Democrats promised to oppose the wa... (more)
Caracas, March 26: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on nations around the world to help stop what he says is a planned US attack on Iran.
Chavez, speaking one day after the UN Security Council voted to tighten sanctions on Iran over Tehran`s refusal to curtail its nuclear programme, cited a Russian press report which purportedly details the time and place of an attack on Iran by the United States, which he has dubbed "The Empire."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defended the NYPD's surveillance of protesters in the weeks before the 2004 Republican National Convention during an interview Monday.
Reports say the NYPD sent detectives around the world to gather information on those planning to demonstrate during the convention. Kelly says the surveillance was legal and necessary to be sure the disruption seen in other cities didn't happen here.
In another example of how Big Brother is enveloping all aspects of British society, Sheffield Wednesday football club are to become the first team in the country to demand their season ticket holders show a photo ID every time they enter the stadium to watch a game.
Allied with a new smoking ban that is set to be enforced next season and a scheme that encourages fans to report suspicious behavior and hate speech via text message during games, the club announ... (more)
Using Your Driver's License to Pay for Gas With Pin Number? Just part of the new integrated National ID Card, complete with RFID, as technology continues to exp... (more)
Riot police wielding truncheons broke up an opposition rally in a central Russian city on Saturday, detaining dozens of activists and beating some of them, The Associated Press news agency reports.
The activists focused on local issues but also accused the Kremlin of stifling free speech, silencing dissent and depriving them of a free and fair political process ahead of December parliamentary elections and next year’s presidential vote.
