RUSSIAN prosecutors investigating the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy, want to travel to London to question a billionaire Russian exile and a Chechen associate.
The move is likely to further strain relations between Russia and Britain, which have been undermined by allegations that the FSB, the former KGB, might be involved in the killing. Russian authorities are also suspected of disrupting the BBC Russian service’s coverage of the murder.
An imprisoned Russian dissident has given The Sunday Telegraph revealing testimony in which he names a serving state security colonel as a key figure in the poisoning of the former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Mikhail Trepashkin, a lawyer being held in a penal camp in the Urals, gave his information via an intermediary after the Kremlin refused to let him be questioned by Scotland Yard detectives who have travelled to Moscow. In testimony that he fears could put his own life at risk... (more)
The Metropolitan Police unlawfully tapped the phone of one of their own senior officers, it was reported today.
The force listened to calls made by Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, legal adviser to the National Black Police Association (NBPA) and one of Britain's most senior ethnic minority police officers.
The interception has been ruled unlawful by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the BBC reported.
I'm sick and tired of this patriotic, nationalistic and fascist crap. I stood through a memorial service today for a young Marine that was killed in Iraq back in April. During this memorial a number of people spoke about the guy and about his sacrifice for the country. How do you justify 'sacrificing' your life for a war which is not only illegal, but is being prosecuted to the extent where the only thing keeping us there is one man's power, ... (more)
"What good fortune for those in power that people do not think" - Adolf Hitler, as quoted by Joachim Fest.
Is it still possible in today's Germany to escape the realization that without the mistreatment of children, without a form of child-rearing based on violence to inculcate blind obedience, there would not have been a Hitler and his followers? And thus not millions of murdered victims either? Probably every thinking person in the post-war period has wondered at some time ... (more)
A veteran Los Angeles Police Department officer was arrested this morning for assaulting a handcuffed 16-year-old in a police holding room Tuesday.
Chief William J. Bratton said he decided to arrest Sean Joseph Meade, 41, after viewing a videotape from inside the station that captured part of the assault. Bratton said the attack was without any physical provocation.
"The video in essence depicts what the preliminary investigation and I believe to have been an assa... (more)
A 23-year-old woman ticketed by police after a friend was talking on a cell phone outside her home following a barbecue has landed in jail for violating the city's noise ordinance.
Judge Norene Redmond of 38th District Court last month sentenced Carmen Granata to 30 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to the violation. A petition signed by neighbors complained that the home was the site of frequent parties.
Granata was ticketed after her friend was talking on her ... (more)
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Santa may reward the nice, but, Thursday, one of his elves was punishing the naughty. The elf happened to be an Orange County sheriff's deputy and he gave a little extra sting to some speeding tickets.
Richard Lockman stands 5-foot-6. He's dressed in green and red. He's wearing tights. And he even has pointy shoes. But he's no ordinary elf.
"I'm Santa's helper today, helping to save lives so we can help these people enjoy their Christmas, so t... (more)
BELLMEAD- A four-year-old hugged his teachers aide and was put into in-school suspension, according to the father. But La Vega school administrators have a different story.
Damarcus Blackwell's four-year-old son was lining-up to get on the bus after school last month, when he was accused of rubbing his face in the chest of a female employee.
The prinicipal of La Vega Primary School sent a letter to the Blackwells that said the pre-kindergartener demonstrated "ina... (more)
One of the last acts of Congress was to send President Bush a bill that establishes a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to preserve Japanese POW internment camps in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Is this really in the name of historical interest or does it dovetail with programs on the books to intern hundreds of thousands of dissidents in a time of crisis?
Today, the Center for American Progress hosted a panel titled "Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense." CAP Senior Fellow Jonathan Moreno, Ph.D. gave a run down on his book and fellow panelist Jennifer Bard, a law professor at Texas Tech University, gave a legal analysis of advances in neuroscience research as applied to real life situations.
As has been illustrated all too frequently in the past, they don't tell immigration ministers anything - and, if what he had to say this week at the official unveiling of Heathrow's biometric trial is anything to go by, current incumbent Liam Byrne is no exception. Quoted here in the Telegraph, Byrne observes that he does not see the Heathrow system as being a "stand-alone scheme", and that the Government wanted to see it used as part of efforts to control immigration a... (more)
Washington, D.C. - An invasive and unprecedented data-mining system is set to be deployed on U.S. travelers Monday, despite substantial questions about Americans' privacy. In comments sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the agency to delay the program's rollout until it makes more details available to the public and addresses critical privacy and due process concerns.
The Automated Targeting System (ATS) will crea... (more)
The US Government signalled some willingness this week to address concerns over citizens' privacy, but also launched a scheme which will analyse secret airline passenger risk profiles and keep them for 40 years. The US Government released guidelines which it says will protect the privacy of US citizens in an era of increasing data collection and information sharing by and between Government bodies.
Congress had previously mandated greater information sharin... (more)
After almost two years of negotiations, the Senate passed a bill last night sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., that would create a new federal agency to combat bioterrorism.
The bill to establish the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has been a priority of Burr's since his first day in the Senate. After the vote last night, Burr said he was "excited" that the bill had finally passed.
GamePolitics has the somewhat unbelievable news that German Minister of the Interior Gunther Beckstein is seeking jail time for violent game developers, publishers, and players. MSNBC has further coverage of the issue, which has pro gamers in Germany quite worried. From the article:
On November 14, 2006 militias and death squads dressed as police commandos kidnapped up to 150 staff and visitors in broad daylight raid – one of daily raids throughout Iraq – on the Higher Education Ministry annexe in central Baghdad. Although some hostages have been released, the fate of others is unknown. It is alleged that large number of the hostages have been tortured and others were murdered. The totality of the raids, kidnapping, torture, ongoing civilian massacres and mur... (more)
In its tireless efforts to molest passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is photographing them at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Naked.
The TSA is about the baddest, bawdiest bureaucracy ever to curse a country, but geez, even they must have needed help on this one. I figure they went to Larry Flynt at Hustler Magazine for advice. Only a pornographer of his unsavory talents could hav... (more)
The hearings for Robert Gates were about as weird as it gets.
Gates wasn’t asked one tough question the whole time. It was all a meaningless formality. Besides, Gates had all the qualifications the Senate was looking for. In other words, he wasn’t Rumsfeld and that’s all that mattered.
For Gates, it was more like Coronation Day than a serious inquiry into past indiscretions. Did anyone care about his involvement in Iran-Contra and his propensity to... (more)
Some of Britain's best-known high street brands are selling "cheap chic" clothes at the expense of workers in Bangladesh who are paid 5p an hour despite pledges to protect basic labour rights, an investigation by War on Want will reveal today.
Employees in Bangladesh are forced to work excessive hours, refused access to trade unions and face abuse and sacking if they protest, says the report, Fashion Victims, based on interviews with 60 garment workers ... (more)
George W. Bush, who proudly claimed the mantle of “war president,” was keenly rebuked in the recent mid-term election. The event was notable, but it merely continued the surreal politics of premeditated war—a politics that has dominated the last six bizarre, hideous years of our nation’s history.
Two elements of the repudiation seem unreal, indeed. Not the fact of it, but the amazing length of its gestation period—those six years—and how tepi... (more)
Thousands of students across Durham Region face suspension if they don't get their immunization records updated.
The Durham Region Health Department has sent out final notices to 5,907 elementary students and 8,621 secondary school students and their parents.
Starting January 16, 2007, elementary students who don't have incomplete immunization records will be suspended from school until the information is recieved by the Health Department.
Senior gynecologists at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva published an article in a medical journal detailing studies on dozens of women, although according to anonymous complaints, the experiments were not carried out in the manner described. This is the third time in the past two years that Beilinson's Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) department has published false information about its research.
The article was published in an English-language journal that came out in honor o... (more)
CCTV cameras should be used to tackle anti-social behaviour, not pick on those trying their best to recycle in the borough of Broxbourne, a councillor said this week. Cllr Mark Mills-Bishop (Con, Goffs Oak) told the Mercury that he disapproved of the Big Brother tactics used by Broxbourne Council at recycling centres.
Well-meaning residents who have left goods beside over-flowing recycling banks at the centre in Hammondstreet Road, Cheshunt, have been fined. ... (more)
Allegations of FBI foreknowledge In the course of the trial it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad A. Salem. Salem claims to have i... (more)
