Gunmen seize 100 at Iraq ministry Gunmen in military-style uniforms have kidnapped more than 100 men from a research institute belonging to Iraq's higher education ministry.
A ministry spokeswoman said the gunmen arrived in new pick-up vehicles and stormed the ministry's Research Directorate in central Baghdad.
They ordered women into one room and seized the men, including employees, guards and visitors to the building.
Academics and researchers have been f... (more)
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Danish journalists on trial for publishing leaked intelligence reports on IraqCOPENHAGEN, Denmark: The editor in chief and two reporters at one of Denmark's largest newspapers went on trial Monday for publishing classified intelligence reports about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons program.
A former intelligence officer has previously been sentenced to prison for leaking the documents in the case, which is viewed in Denmark as a landmark test of media freedom.
Niels Lunde, the Berlingske Tidende newspaper's top editor, and repor... (more)
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DU behind the surge in Cancer rates in Iraq(Photo courtesy: Paul Kitagaki Jr.)- Six-year-old Fatma Rakwan was diagnosed with leukemia
In 1991, Washington and its Persian Gulf War allies used armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium -- the first time such weapons had been used in military conflicts -- as the Iraqis retreated from Kuwait.
Up till now, the battlefield remains a radioactive toxic wasteland -- and depleted uranium munitions remain a mystery despite many studies and ... (more)
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Outrage at London sting by US spies Undercover American agents are staging secret 'sting' operations in Britain against criminal and terrorist suspects they want to extradite to the US.
In a recent operation, agents from America's Department of Homeland Security set up a suspect by posing as dealers wanting to illegally sell night-vision goggles for export to Iran.
The spies arranged a series of clandestine meetings in London hotels, which they secretly filmed as evidence. It ... (more)
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In One Word: Massacre "Thank God for the American elections," our ministers and generals sighed with relief.
They were not rejoicing at the kick that the American people delivered to George W. Bush's ass this week. They love Bush, after all.
But more important than the humbling of Bush is the fact that the news from America pushed aside the terrible reports from Beit Hanoun. Instead of making the headlines, they were relegated to the bottom of the page.
The first revolutio... (more)
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I remained silent"Withdrawing" implies, in whatever vague and euphemistic sense, an end, or at least, a waning of hostilities. But yesterday I woke to discover that the Israeli army has perpetrated a massacre on a scale unseen in Gaza for a long time: 18 dead, including children, women, and the countless faceless others.
All members of the same family. Brushed aside as unfortunate mistakes, with a generous dollop of regret, from an otherwise morally superior, well-intentioned army.
... (more)
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Ministers 'exploit terror fears' Tony Blair's anti-terror policy is being "submerged" by party political interests, a report says.
The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust said ministers could be accused of "exploiting the politics of fear".
And by trying to win "the white working class vote" they risked alienating Muslims who could help defeat terror.
The Home Office, which makes "no apology" for bringing in tough laws, is preparing fresh anti-terror measures to be... (more) 
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Israel Detonated a Radioactive Bunker Buster Bomb in LebanonThe special report was triggered by the radioactivity measurements reported on a crater probably created by an Israeli Bunker Buster bomb in the village of Khiam, in southern Lebanon. The measurements were carried out by two Lebanese professors of physics - Mohammad Ali Kubaissi and Ibrahim Rachidi. The data - 700 nanosieverts per hour – showed remarkably higher radiocativity then the average in the area (Beirut = 35 nSv/hr ). Successivamente, on September 17th, Ali Kubaissi took British r... (more)
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The Republicans Took a Dive The whole thing could have been a Frank Capra movie. An evil cabal seizes control of the Republic through means so ruthless and clever that they remind many of the Nazis' rise to total power in 1930s Germany. They invade countries on false pretenses as a cowering opposition party supports the wars before it opposes them Clause by clause, the Constiution is shredded by Newspeak laws like the "Patriot Act" and the "Military... (more)
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Democrats Can Be Neocons, Too The great hope among Americans opposed to the war in Iraq is that the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress will now bring the troops home. But anyone paying attention realizes that the Democratic leadership, however much it's recently rejected, and even ridiculed, the Bush mantra "stay the course," is as committed as its Republican rivals to somehow "winning" in Iraq. So the best hope is that the Congress will now conduct tough investigations into what the... (more)
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Are Democrats Turning a Blind Eye to Civil Liberty? Unless November’s new blood improves the Democratic Party’s civil liberties pedigree, the Democrats will have failed even before they are sworn in next January.
In its disregard for truth, public opinion, the separation of powers, the Geneva Conventions, the US Constitution and statutory law, the Bush administration has been more of a regime than an administration. The Bush/Cheney executive branch has operated independently of all the constraints ... (more)
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MNSBC online poll: 87 percent say 'plenty to justify' Bush impeachmentAn MSNBC online poll shows that the overwhelming majority of its participating voters believe President Bush should be impeached.
The poll asked the question, "Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?" Four choices were presented:
"Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial."
"No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing ap... (more)
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How Israel put Gaza civilians in firing lineIsraeli military commanders drastically reduced the 'safety' margins that separate artillery targets from the built-up civilian areas of Gaza earlier this year, despite being warned that the new policy risked increasing Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries, The Observer can reveal.
The warning, delivered in Israel's high court by six human rights groups, came after the Israeli Defence Force reduced the so-called 'safety range' in Gaza from a 300-metre separation from built-up ... (more)
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Lockerbie trial was a CIA fix, US intelligence insider claimsTHE CIA manipulated the Lock erbie trial and lied about the strength of the prosecution case to get a result that was politically convenient for America, according to a former US State Department lawyer.
Michael Scharf, who was the counsel to the US counter-terrorism bureau when the two Libyans were indicted for the bombing, described the case as “so full of holes it was like Swiss cheese” and said it should never have gone to trial.
He claimed the CIA a... (more)
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MI6 link to Lockerbie briefingsIT'S a long way from Rothesay Academy to the art deco HQ of MI6 on the banks of the Thames at Vauxhall Cross. But Andrew Fulton did it. In fact, this gentlemanly, erudite son of a Scottish reverend rose so rapidly through the ranks of the Secret Intelligence Service that he became the sixth most powerful spy in the United Kingdom.
Today, Fulton faces losing his job as co-ordinator of Glasgow University's Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit following investigations into his MI6 career. R... (more)
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Bush Proud That Elections Weren't Canceled "In Time Of War"I believe it’s important that Americans appreciate the democratic process, but this seems to have “soft bigotry of low expectations” written all over it. From yesterday’s presidential radio address:
One freedom that defines our way of life is the freedom to choose our leaders at the ballot box. We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of A ... (more)
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Man to complain after police arrest him for telling off teenA COUNCILLOR who told off a teenager for swearing has issued a formal complaint against the police force that arrested him and held him for five hours on suspicion of assault.
Brian Hudson, 65, waited months before hearing last week that the case against him was being discontinued because of a lack of evidence.
Hudson, of Keighley Town Council, blamed West Yorkshire Police officers for "picking on easy targets" rather than taking on thugs.
He challeng... (more)
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CNN editors pull Palestinian quotes, replace with US CNN editors replaced all Palestinian quotations with quotes from the US and Israel in its story 'U.S. vetoes U.N. condemnation of Israel's Gaza strikes'. The new, more prominent article begins with the exact same wording as the original, but all Palestinian remarks are gone.
The two versions have identical first and second paragraphs:
-- --------
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Saturday that would have co... (more)
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Where ID Cards And National Identity Registers Can Lead UsToday, the day after Guy Fawkes Night here in Britain, where we as a nation celebrate the failed destruction of Britain's parliament. In the same building that Guido Fawkes tried to destroy, the Prime Minister Tony Blair goes on the offensive in supporting the ID card scheme, the mass DNA and Identity registers of every person here in the UK.
He claims it is an issue of "modernity" rather than civil liberties but unfortunately we do have one or two stark lessons in history that te... (more)
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Comrades who killed football star Tillman were visually impaired, says latest report When Pat Tillman, an American football hero, joined up in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, the Pentagon rushed to praise him. "It is a proud and patriotic thing you are doing," said the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld. In investigating his "friendly-fire" death in 2004, however, America's brass has been fumbling and evasive.
At last, however, the veil that has shrouded what is surely the most iconic of all the losses taken by the American military si... (more)
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Saddam on death row Saddam Hussein's death sentence last weekend is widely assumed to have been timed for maximum benefit to the Republicans in the US mid-term elections. That ploy having failed, however, the timing of the former dictator's execution might appear to be a matter of Iraqi politics.
The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, suggested in a BBC interview last week that Saddam could be hanged before the end of the year, ignoring any appeal process. But the decision o... (more)
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Some sick babies must be allowed to die, says Church· Bishop admits right to life for newborns is not absolute
· Nuffield inquiry to publish guidelines on premature births
Church of England leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. The move is expected to spark massive controversy.
The church leaders' call for some children to be allowed to die - overriding the presumption that life sh... (more)
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Will You Let Them Scan Your Child?Hundreds of schools across the U.S. are now using fingerprint scanners to identify children. It's a fast-growing trend that promises increased efficiency. But not all parents are enthusiastic.
Sandlapper Elementary in Columbia, South Carolina is all about hi-tech. From smart board and lessons to learn nursery rhymes, to security cameras and finger scanners.
Sandlapper students start their day with a fingerprint scan to pay for breakfast. They use it to check out lib... (more)
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