World's `Worst' Visa System Scares Business Away From the U.S.For growing numbers of international business travelers, visa and customs regulations are making trips to the U.S. a thing of the past.
Companies say U.S. rules have become so onerous in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that it's often simpler to meet customers, business partners and employees elsewhere. Exxon Mobil Corp. has resorted to customer meetings in a London branch office; Ingersoll-Rand Co. says it took one of its Indian engineers three 18-hour trips to get his... (more)
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U.S. Wants Polar Bears Listed as ThreatenedThe Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world's most recognizable animals out of existence.
The administration's proposal -- which was described by an Interior Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity -- stems from the fact that rising temperatures in the Arctic are shrinking the sea ice that pol... (more)
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When I Woke Up!When I finally woke up I took a look around. I saw city halls, courthouses, houses of parliament, churches, schools, and universities by the hundreds and thousands. I saw systems - systems for managing the land, the air, and the water; systems for managing human behaviour; systems for managing religion; systems for managing learning; systems for managing food, shelter, clothing; systems for managing love and procreation: a vast complex of carefully engineered systems. I saw millions of people wo... (more)
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Pentagon restarting mass vaccinations despite health fearsWASHINGTON - En route home from the Persian Gulf on a military supply ship in 2003, merchant seaman James Francis and his mates got an ultimatum: Take anthrax and smallpox vaccinations or lose your jobs.
Francis' Seattle attorney, Russell Williams, described the shipboard scene the next day off the isle of Crete as: "Wham, bam. 'Get in line. Take your shots.'"
Within days of taking the two shots, Francis' feet began to tingle and burn. When he... (more)
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We'll all be cyborgs someday, scientist saysA scientist at the University of Reading is in the vanguard of futurists who look forward to the day when most humans are implanted with computer microchips -- and he's using himself as his own guinea pig.
In Casino Royale, the latest James Bond movie, Bond is implanted with a microchip that allows headquarters to track his whereabouts and monitor his vital signs.
If a British cybernetics expert is right, the day will come when most people are implanted with chips -... (more)
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Meat and milk from cloning are safe, labeling unnecessary, 2 FDA scientists sayA long-awaited study by federal scientists concludes that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is safe to eat and should be allowed to enter the food supply without any special labeling.
The finding is a strong signal that the Food and Drug Administration will endorse the use of cloning technology for cattle, goats and pigs when it publishes a key safety assessment intended to clear the way for formal approval of the products. That assessment is expected next week... (more)
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Private Highways: Road to Riches — or Ruin?As James Ridgeway and Daniel Schulman note in a Mother Jones investigation, in the rush to privatize the nation's aging roads and bridges there have been very few independent assessments of whether these projects are good for taxpayers — or just for the corporations and bankers who structure the deals. One of the few such efforts to have been examined from a variety of angles is the privatizat... (more)
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Courts Side With NSA On Wiretaps Defense lawyers who had hoped that the public disclosure a year ago of the National Security Agency's wiretapping program would yield information favorable to their clients are being rebuffed by the federal judiciary, which in a series of unusually consistent rulings has rejected efforts by terrorism suspects to access the records.
In at least 17 criminal cases, federal district judges nominated to the federal bench by presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. B... (more)
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£1,000 fine for failing to update identity cardsA draconian regime of fines, which would hit families at times of marriage and death, is being drawn up by ministers to enforce the Identity Card scheme.
Millions of people, from struggling students to newly-wed women and bereaved relatives, will face a system of penalties, netting more than £40 million for the Treasury. People would be fined up to £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative's ID card, while women who marry will have to pay at leas... (more)
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Free to choose?IN THE late 1990s a previously blameless American began collecting child pornography and propositioning children. On the day before he was due to be sentenced to prison for his crimes, he had his brain scanned. He had a tumour. When it had been removed, his paedophilic tendencies went away. When it started growing back, they returned. When the regrowth was removed, they vanished again. Who then was the child abuser?
His case dramatically illustrates the challenge that modern neuro... (more)
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Washington's Game in TurkmenistanDid Turkmenistan’s President, Saparmurat Niyazov, really die of cardiac arrest or is he just latest victim of Bush’s “regime change” epidemic?
That may sound paranoid, but it’s easy to be skeptical of an administration which openly promotes torture, “extraordinary rendition” and “targeted assassination” as sound foreign policy. These practices indicate that moral restraint is not high on the list of Bush priorities.
... (more)
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In Somalia, a reckless U.S. proxy warNAIROBI: Undeterred by the horrors and setbacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, the Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim world. With full U.S. backing and military training, at least 15,000 Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia in an illegal war of aggression against the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls almost the entire south of the country.
As with Iraq in 2003, the United States has cast this as a war to curtail terrorism, but its real goal ... (more)
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US soldier who disputed Iraq war legality released early from military prison[JURIST] Former US Army Sergeant Ricky Clousing [advocacy website; JURIST news archive], a paratrooper and interpreter who disputed the legality of the war in Iraq, was released Saturday from a military prison where he was serving a three-month sentence after pleading guilty [JURIST report] to going absent without leave for 14 months. Clousing was released 15 days early for... (more)
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U.S. Military graduates calls War in Iraq illegal and criminalAmerica stands shamed in the eyes of the world thanks to the Bush administration’s crime spree. And, as a partial result, the Democrats scored a resounding triumph in an election where only 40.4% of eligible Americans cast ballots. 40.4%! So much for urgency.
The Democrats, covering their aid-and-abetment in the American catastrophe called Iraq, chortled in their joy like latter-day “Jabberwocks“. Then promptly focused on the minimum wage and other measures to na... (more)
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Sgt. Ricky Clousing went AWOL over atrocitiesThe first day he was deployed in Iraq, in November 2004, Sgt. Ricky Clousing found himself standing guard at the rear of an Army convoy after it stopped on a Baghdad street. His job was to turn back any vehicles that approached. So when a car turned toward them from a side street, he raised his weapon in warning and the car began to turn around. Clousing could see the driver's eyes clearly—just a scared and unthreatening young man. Then, from somewhere in the convoy, Clousing heard a "pop,... (more)
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Iraq massacre: US Marines 'will point the finger of blame at senior officers' Lawyers for eight Marines charged with involvement in the massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha 13 months ago have warned that they will point the finger much further up the chain of command if it means preventing their clients from being scapegoated.
"We're going to drag every single, two-star and full-bird colonel and general into this thing," said Kevin McDermott, a California-based lawyer representing Captain Lucas McConnell, the commander of Kilo Company, w... (more)
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Jewish terrorist commits suicide in jailAsher Weisgan, the Jewish terrorist sentenced to four life terms plus an additional 12 years for murdering four Palestinian laborers, committed suicide in his prison cell on Friday afternoon.
During a routine check of the prison, Weisgan was found hanging in his cell.
After a medical team tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him, a Magen David Adom doctor pronounced him dead. A preliminary investigation revealed that Weisgan had not previously shown any signs of suic... (more) "A preliminary investigation revealed that Weisgan had not previously shown any signs of suicidal tendencies to his jailers." |
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Iran: What about Zionists' nukes?Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini says sanctions imposed by UN on Islamic Republic ‘cannot affect or limit Iran's peaceful nuclear activities but will discredit the decisions of the Security Council, whose power is deteriorating’; adds: Council doing nothing in response to Olmert's comments on Zionists' nuclear capabilities
Iran condemned the UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran's nuclear work on Saturday as an illegal measure outsid... (more)
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Former Bush Official: CIA Censored Op-Ed Because It Was Forced To 'Bow To The White House'Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed last week that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration’s refusal to engage Iran.
Leverett’s op-ed had been cleared by the CIA, where he had been... (more)
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NAIS: A new threat to rural and personal freedom?Initial plans for a national livestock identification program were unveiled in 20002 and almost immediately opposition to the program started to mount. In fact, some said the proposed ID program is a new threat to rural freedom.
The voices against instituting the USDA National Animal Identification System (NAIS) continue to grow louder as more elements of the plan are being put in place by USDA.
Opponents base their stand on a smorgasbord of issues ranging from the ... (more)
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Horrors that mirrored Saddam's worst excessesThe Serious Crimes Unit was regarded as one of the most corrupt elements of the British-mentored and trained constabulary in Iraq’s second city.
In Saddam Hussein’s time, local security forces dragged hundreds of people to the al-Jameat compound in the middle of the night. They were never heard of again. It became known as the “station of death”.
The two-storey building had been reopened by the British as a police station, part of the coaliti... (more)
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Mystery Surfaces Over Apartment of Kofi AnnanAs Secretary-General Annan prepares to leave his post at the United Nations, a mystery is surfacing surrounding his apartment on Roosevelt Island, subsidized by New York taxpayers, which is still in use by the family of his brother, Kobina Annan.
The apartment was where Mr. Annan and his wife lived before 1997, when he became secretary-general. The Roosevelt Island home is part of an estate of low-rent state-regulated housing. For years, the Annans saved considerable sums by occup... (more)
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No 10 'in panic' as Yard extends 'cash for honours' inquiryThe UK's elections watchdog is to decide whether Labour has broken the law over cash for honours, and will advise police on whether a case should go to court.
The Electoral Commission will play a crucial role in the Scotland Yard inquiry and advise if there is enough evidence to prosecute Labour. Any file would then be presented to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Amid panic in Downing Street, police are understood to have widened their inquiry and to be examining sev... (more)
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Jailed for murder, he tracked down real killer from behind prison bars# Cleared by new DNA evidence
# Awaiting release after 16 years A convicted murderer proved his innocence by investigating his own case from behind bars at a maximum-security prison and identifying the real killer. Roy Brown appeared before a judge last night to ask for a pardon after 16 years in jail for a crime he had proved conclusively that he did not commit.
Brown had always protested his innocence, denying that he ... (more)
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Fox: 'Threatening note from God' grounds plane at NY airportA "threatening note" attributed to "God" led to a U.S. Airways plane being grounded at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Christmas Eve.
U.S. Airways Express Flight 3068, which left Charleston, South Carolina en route to Portland, Maine earlier today, was diverted to the New York City area airport.
The man, "who appeared to be about 35 years old," the Associated Press reported on Monday, "gave the note to another passenger, Tammy Budek, who gave it to a flight at... (more)
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