BA to review uniform policy after outcry at ban on cross British Airways paved the way last night for a climbdown over its refusal to allow a Christian worker to wear a cross over her uniform.
The airline bowed to the threat of a boycott by consumers and condemnation from politicians and churchmen by announcing a review of its uniform policy.
The move came hours after Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, threatening to withdraw the Church of England's £10.25 million... (more)
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PC who was picking up takeaway in his police car escapes speeding fineA traffic policeman, caught speeding as he went to collect a Chinese takeaway while on duty, has been controversially cleared of breaking the law.
PC Stephen Akrill was snapped by a roadside camera doing 48 mph in a 40 mph zone, seconds before picking up the meal he had ordered so he could celebrate his 41st birthday with colleagues back at base.
But a District Judge accepted his explanation he had broken the limit in the line of duty as he headed off to an accident... (more)
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Troopers squawk over ticket reward: Pressure on staties to snub warnings, go for cashState police brass are pressuring troopers to dole out speeding tickets instead of warnings in a cash-grabbing mandate cops say is the closest the department has ever come to setting quotas.
The pilot program, designed to monitor troopers’ daily activities, lays out a new system that rewards troopers if they give out a ticket as opposed to a verbal or written warning.
Under the program, troopers get no extra pay but are credited with 1.5 hours on their da... (more)
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16,000 Single Mothers Serving in IraqWhen they called her name, she could not move. Sgt. Leana Nishimura intended to walk up proudly, shake the dignitaries' hands and accept their honors for her service in Iraq - a special coin, a lapel pin, a glass-encased U.S. flag.
But her son clung to her leg. He cried and held tight, she recalled. And so Nishimura stayed where she was, and the ceremony last summer went on without her. T.J. was 9, her oldest child, and although eight months had passed since she had returned f... (more)
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Smart homes a reality in S Korea More than 100 homes offering smart technology have just been built in South Korea and another 30,000 are planned.
Mi Yung Kim and her 10-month-old son Jae Won recently moved into their new smart flat. From the outside, their building looks like just another apartment block, but these new homes in Seoul were built with technology in mind.
The control panel on the wall maps out the apartment so Mi Yung can choose which devices to control.
The air quali... (more)
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Selling slavery as freedom: Tolls could cut congestion, test showsFor about eight months, drivers in 275 Seattle-area households agreed to pay for something the rest of us get for free: The right to drive on the region's freeways and streets.
They were guinea pigs in a pioneering study that explored how motorists' behavior might change if they had to pay tolls — not just on a few bridges or highways, but on almost every road with a yellow center line.
Researchers established virtual tolls ranging from a nickel to 50 cents a ... (more)
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MasterCard: Black Friday not even close to busiest shopping dayConsumer purchases in the post Thanksgiving weekend made up nearly 10 percent of all holiday sales in 2005, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers
This year, the National Retail Federation is projecting 137 million shoppers will shop during the four-day holiday weekend.
Roughly half of those 137 million shoppers are expected to be in stores today.
But Black Friday wasn’t even ranked one of the five busiest holiday shopping da... (more)
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Australian company AWB 'knew Iraq war plans a year before'A year before the invasion of Iraq, Australia's then ambassador to the UN, John Dauth, told AWB's former chairman and WA farmer Trevor Flugge that the Howard Government would join military action by the US to overthrow Saddam Hussein, new AWB documents reveal.
Details of the conversation contradict statements by Prime Minister John Howard that Australia had not agreed to join the war in Iraq before the UN debate in late 2002 and early 2003.
The conversation between ... (more)
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AWB briefing 'a crackpot conspiracy'SUGGESTIONS the Federal Government told wheat exporter AWB of plans to invade Iraq a year before the military action were crackpot conspiracy theories, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said.
The Cole commission, which is investigating $290 million in kickbacks paid by AWB to the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has released documents revealing that an Australian diplomat told a former AWB chairman of the invasion plans in 2002, more than a year before it took p... (more)
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Owning the Torture SocietyNEW YORK--The military tribunal lasted a week. At the end the 17 defendants were permitted to make a closing statement. Alexei Shestov, 41 years of age, stood up and admitted being a terrorist and traitor. "In that struggle," he confessed, "I employed every loathsome, every filthy and every destructive method." Coercive interrogation techniques--what effete and weak-stomached liberals would call torture--loosened the terrorist's tongue. "For five weeks I denied everything," he said, "for five we... (more)
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'State secrets privilege' blocks fired translator from suing FBISibel Edmonds, who formed the 100-plus member National Security whistle-blowers Coalition in 2002, began working as a linguist for the FBI the week after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Several months into her contract, she discovered "shoddy" translations relevant to 9/11 created by translators who had "failed the proficiency exams," she says.
A report by the Justice Department's inspector general subsequently confirmed that at least one translator had failed... (more)
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Suspect Nation
Since Tony Blair's New Labour government came to power in 1997, the UK civil liberties landscape has changed dramatically. ASBOs were introduced by Section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and first used in 1999. The right to remain silent is no longer universal. Our right t... (more)
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Iraq Mission Accomplished: They're Not Fighting Us Anymore, They're Fighting Each Other Death tolls in Iraq are hitting all time highs and the worst cases of sectarian violence of the entire war are rampant throughout the country. Amid the chaos, the government has declared that everything is going well enough in Iraq for forces to be withdrawn. This statement is accurate, the strategy has always been one of dissolution and destabilization. We are not "cutting and running" because the mission has been accomplished.
The AP i... (more)
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Private Spies Stalk The Internet An organization of highly trained, committed and ruthless individuals with links to global intelligence agencies are using the Internet to try to foment terrorism in order to advance their unified political agenda. No it's not Al-Qaeda, it's Vigil, the elite private spies who are stalking the web and telling the government about any e-speech they deem suspicious.
The Scotsman reports,
The organisation is not the US Cen... (more)
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Police Agree to Protester Reforms The D.C. police department agreed yesterday to pay $685,000 and take steps to protect protesters from police abuse and ensure their rights to settle a lawsuit over the treatment of demonstrators at President Bush's inauguration in 2001.
The lawsuit uncovered evidence that the department had suspended rules limiting the use of force during the protests, had pressed undercover officers to infiltrate protest groups and had sought to provoke protesters and un... (more) "The lawsuit uncovered evidence that the department had suspended rules limiting the use of force during the protests, had pressed undercover officers to infiltrate protest groups and had sought to provoke protesters and uninvolved bystanders by attacking them with batons and pepper spray." |
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Big Brother is watching you! SMOKERS stubbing out cigarettes in the street have been chased by environmental wardens armed with cameras in a city centre litter crackdown.
A council team has been scouring the Old Town this week trying to catch litter louts in the act, a drive which has raised more than a few eyebrows.
One girl was stopped and quizzed after discarding the end of her sandwich, while another untidy citizen was reprimanded during his music class after being... (more)
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Russian spy: Putin responsible for my death A former KGB spy, in a statement read after his death, accused President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his killing and said the Russian leader will face "a howl of protest from around the world."
"You may succeed in silencing me, but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics claim," Alexander Litvinenko said in a statement released Friday.
"You may succeed in silencing... (more)
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Poisoned Litvinenko Blames Kremlin in Last Interview Before Death — PaperIn his last interview the poisoned former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko said that the hit on him had been ordered from the Kremlin, The Times daily reported on Friday.
“I want to survive, just to show them,” Alexander Litvinenko said in an exclusive interview given just hours before he died.
The former Russian security officer suggested that he knew he may not win his struggle against the lethal chemicals destroying his ... (more)
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Radioactive Poison Killed Ex-SpyLONDON, Nov. 24 -- Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned by a radioactive substance, traces of which were found in his urine, at his home and at a London restaurant and hotel he visited the day he became ill, according to the British health department. It called the case "unprecedented" in Britain.
Authorities closed the restaurant and sealed off part of the hotel Friday as part of an emergency effort to trace the substance, polonium 210, and ensure that it ... (more)
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I'm being set up, says ex-KGB man A former KGB bodyguard linked to Alexander Litvinenko yesterday admitted that he had taken tea with the Russian defector on the day he fell ill but vigorously denied any role in the apparent assassination attempt.
Breaking his silence in an interview with The Daily Telegraph last night, Andrei Lugovoi claimed he was the victim of a plot by unknown people to frame him.
"I have the feeling that someone is trying to set me up as the fall guy," he said in his Moscow off... (more)
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