Fiji feels the heavy hand of a dictatorFIJIAN military dictator Frank Bainimarama yesterday suspended the country's top judicial figures as he stepped up a campaign of beatings and intimidation of opponents.
The defence forces leader and self-appointed president has presided over a wave of reported arrests of critics and pro-democracy supporters since he ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase in a bloodless coup on December 5.
The Australian's sources and local Fijian media outlets have reported almost da... (more)
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Mexico offers satnav to illegals crossing into the USWould-be illegal immigrants planning to cross the desert and enter the United States on foot are to be given hand-held satellite devices by the Mexican authorities to ensure they arrive safely.
Those who get lost or fall sick during the dangerous four-day crossing will be able to activate the device, to alert frontier police on both sides of the border.
The satellite tracking service will require would-be illegals to register their intentions b... (more)
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These sneakers will track your every moveA growing number of companies are developing Global Positioning System technology to track friends and family, using devices like watches and cellphones. But Miami entrepreneur Sayo Isaac Daniel says those systems are flawed.
You can forget to carry your phone, and you can forget to wear a watch, but you can't leave the house and forget to put on your shoes.
Daniel has developed shoes embedded with GPS technology that can locate the wearer anywhere in the world. His... (more)
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Bush Silences a Dangerous WitnessLike a blue-blood version of a Mob family with global reach, the Bushes have eliminated one more key witness to the important historical events that led the U.S. military into a bloody stalemate in Iraq and pushed the Middle East to the brink of calamity.
The hanging of Saddam Hussein was supposed to be – as the New York Times observed – the “triumphal bookend” to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. If all had gone as planned, Bush might h... (more)
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Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam HusseinThe old monster swung from the gallows this morning at 6 am Baghdad time. His Shiite executioners danced around his body.
Saddam Hussain was one of the 20th century's most notorious tyrants, though the death toll he racked up is probably exaggerated by his critics. The reality was bad enough.
The te... (more)
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Hang Times: A Whitewash of White House ComplicityPeople often write to Empire Burlesque in search of an answer to one of the great conundrums of these modern times, namely: "Why are the American people such suckers? How could they – or, to be more exact, how could a significant number of them – ever have fallen for the transparent bullshit of such third-rate goobers as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all the rest? How could the American people be so ignorant and misinformed about what goe... (more)
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A Lynching...It's official. Maliki and his people are psychopaths. This really is a new low. It's outrageous- an execution during Eid. Muslims all over the world (with the exception of Iran) are outraged. Eid is a time of peace, of putting aside quarrels and anger- at least for the duration of Eid.
This does not bode well for the coming year. No one imagined the madmen would actually do it during a religious holiday.... (more)
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CYA for the USA: The Coverup of Complicity ContinuesRush to Hang Hussein Was Questioned (New York Times)
This is a very curious story. Some of it is probably true, some of it is patently false – and all of it is a massive, panicky CYA job by American officials. However, through the heavy fog of this assemblage of spin, it seems fairly obvious ... (more)
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Hanging Saddam“There’s no way to describe the loss we’ve experienced with this war and occupation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of the Americans in their tanks, fear of the police patrols in the black bandanas, fear of the Iraqi soldiers wearing their black masks at the checkpoints.” --Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq The execution of Saddam Hussein is another grim ch... (more)
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Saddam Hussein’s execution: the US murders its creationWith the hanging of Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration, the mastermind of 9/11, has stayed true to criminal form, staging yet another offensive, grotesque and violent act of murder, “celebrating” it, propagandizing it, and demanding that the entire world join the George W. Bush lynch mob.
The week-long Saddam murder carnival is classic Bush administration, classic Karl Rove: find a relatively quiet moment (a holiday for most of the world), during which people are ... (more)
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Democrats Set To Renew Attack On Free SpeechA new piece of legislation set to be re-introduced in Congress by the Democrats under the guise of anti-bullying would reprimand schoolchildren for verbal criticism of their peers in any context, including sexual orientation, religion or simply expression of an opposing idea. The bill echoes federal hate crime legislation about to be debated as Congress enters its first session tomorrow.
The Antibullying Campaign Act of 2005 was rendered obsolete after... (more)
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An all-consuming 'war on terror'PHILADELPHIA -- The official mantra is that we fight in Iraq because it is the "central front in the War on Terror."
The exact opposite is the case. We are trapped in fighting an unwinnable - even nonsensical - "war on terror" because its invention was required in order to fight in Iraq. After years of slaughter in Iraq, the neoconservative fantasy of a series of cheap, fast, neo-imperial victories is dead. But the war on terror lives on, stronger than ever.
How ... (more)
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A Miracle In London Or a Lying Government? Do miracles really happen? Jesus turned water into wine, but do the spooks that staff the hierarchies of the British and American intelligence establishment possess the same divine powers? Or were they simply lying again when it was sternly reported that only a "miracle" would prevent London from being attacked by terrorists over the holiday period?
British Home Secretary John Reid, former hardcore Stalinist, member of the Scottish Communist Party and an ... (more)
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The Private Arm of the LawRALEIGH, N.C. -- Kevin Watt crouched down to search the rusted Cadillac he had stopped for cruising the parking lot of a Raleigh apartment complex with a broken light. He pulled out two open Bud Light cans, an empty Corona bottle, rolling papers, a knife, a hammer, a stereo speaker, and a car radio with wires sprouting out.
"Who's this belong to, man?" Watt asked the six young Latino men he had frisked and lined up behind the car. Five were too young to drink. None had a driver's ... (more)
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Accounts Vary Over Deadly U.S. Military Raid In BaghdadJanuary 1, 2007 -- There are conflicting accounts of a U.S. military operation today in Iraq.
The U.S. military says its troops killed six "terrorists" during a raid on a possible safe house in Baghdad for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, after first coming under heavy fire themselves.
The building belongs to a leading Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, who heads the National Dialogue Front. He called the raid a provocation.
In an interview with Reuters, al-Mut... (more)
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Illinois: Police Seize Car of Roadblock ProtesterElgin, Illinois police confiscated the car belonging to a sober man who protested on Thursday against officers for wasting his time at a holiday drunk driving roadblock. Innocent motorists on that day and throughout the weekend were pulled over and subjected to search and interrogations at the Pace bus station on Highland Avenue. Police issued expensive tickets to anyone whose papers were not in order.
One motorist became so angry at being detained because he chose not to wear a s... (more)
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Conveniently forgotten It was symbolic that 2006 ended with a colonial hanging - most of it shown on state television in occupied Iraq. It has been that sort of year in the Arab world. The trial was so blatantly rigged that even Human Rights Watch had to condemn it as a travesty. Judges were changed on Washington's orders, defence lawyers were killed and the whole procedure resembled a well orchestrated lynch mob. Where Nuremberg was a relatively dignified application of victor's justice, Saddam Hussein's trial was th... (more)
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Blundering Into Somalia Yet Again Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia under cover of the Christmas holiday was a blatant aggression that is likely to widen the arc of conflict across the dangerously turbulent Horn of Africa. It also marks the opening of a new front in Washington’s war against Islamic militants and reformers.
Claims by Ethiopia that Somalia, a nation without any real military forces, threatened its border were as fanciful as assertions by Washington and Addis Ababa that the so-called "transi... (more)
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Anti-War Protestors Arrested on Golden Gate BridgeSAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Ten anti-war protestors from the women’s peace group CodePink were arrested after a three-hour standoff with police on the Golden Gate Bridge. The group started a rally around noon, gathering on both sides of the bridge, but police stopped members from walking across the span because they lacked a permit.
According to Bridge District Spokeswoman Mary Currie, CodePink applied for the permit, but didn’t agree with the provision prohibiting them f... (more)
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Suffolk teenager's chip nightmareTEENAGER Jack Double will be starting the New Year £50 out of pocket and with a chip on his shoulder after being hit with a littering fine for throwing food to a seagull.
The gobsmacked youngster found himself slapped with the penalty by litter enforcement officers after he threw a bad-tasting chip to a bird in Ipswich's Chantry estate.
He said: “I'd got a bag of chips and bit in to one and it was really hard.
“... (more)
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Global super-union within a decade, says Amicus chiefAn international trade union, working in at least three countries, could be created within a decade, the leader of one of Britain’s biggest unions has predicted.
Amicus, which has 1.1 million members and is soon to merge with the T&G, has forged solidarity agreements with IG Metall in Germany and two American unions, the Machinists and the United Steel Workers. The T&G also has links with the SEIU, the US service industry union.
... (more)
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Teen settles with town over 'terroristic' rap lyricsPITTSBURGH (AP) — It's said the pen is mightier than the sword. And it can also hold its own pretty well against the law. A teenager who sued his school district after being expelled for writing violent rap songs has settled with two townships over the charges against him.
Fourteen-year-old Anthony Latour, who was taken out of his middle school in handcuffs, has reached a 60-thousand dollar settlement with the North Sewickley and Franklin townships. He had been charged with ... (more)
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Thai bombs expose dangerous new divide BANGKOK –Who is responsible for the coordinated bomb attacks that rocked Thailand's capital on New Year's Eve, resulting in at least three deaths, 38 injuries and sowing fear and chaos across the general population?
The unprecedented attacks on Bangkok represent a dangerous turn in the country's already tense political situation and provide powerful new justification for the military-led Council for National
Security (CNS) milit... (more)
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