The court case of a man accused of planning to attack multiple targets in the U.S. and Britain, despite the evidence to indict him amounting to no more than scribbles in a notebook, has again made world news headlines on the eve of the mid-term elections and on the very day Prime Minister Tony Blair went on the offensive over ID cards in a news briefing.
TOKYO - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch said on Monday he had no regrets about supporting the US-led invasion of Iraq and argued that the US death toll in the conflict was "minute" from a historical perspective.
The conservative News Corp chief spoke on the eve of US elections where President George W Bush's Republican Party was expected to lose seats in part due to a backlash over the war.
"The death toll, certainly of Americans there, by the terms of any previous war a... (more)
Thousands of Pinellas high school students say their teachers don't inspire them, care about them or seem to be having much fun.
Nearly 30 percent say bullying is a problem at their school. Only 27 percent say students respect each other. More than 80 percent say getting good grades is important to them, but only 68 percent say they give it their all.
Their statements - gleaned from a recent survey of 22,610 high school students - are roughly in line with those of t... (more)
SENIOR doctors are urging health professionals to consider permitting the euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies.
The proposal, by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology, follows the increase in the number of such children surviving because of medical advances.
The college is arguing for "active euthanasia" to be considered for the overall good of parents, sparing them the emotional burden and financial hardship of bringing up the sickest babies... (more)
And shoot me for saying this, but it won't be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they'll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.
For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We've found... (more)
In the early hours of voting on the mid-term elections, the GOP is already trying to spin exit polls in order to lessen suspicions surrounding expected attempts at vote fraud that will emerge later today.
The official GOP website carries a red banner headline in capital letters warning of the misleading nature of exit polls and the claim that, "Election Experts Believe Ex... (more)
Republicans are so afraid to run on their merits that they continue to resort to dirty tricks.
Listen to this robocall (.WAV) being sent to Virginia voters:
Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested. A recording of his voicemail can be found online at: www.webbforsenate.com/media/phone_message.wav
s Early, Court Won’t Finish Writing Decision Until Thursday Yesterday, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal announced that Saddam Hussein had been found guilty and would be sentenced to death. But it didn’t release the official verdict. NBC News has the story:
The full verdict, a document of several hundred pages, explaining how and why today’s judgment was reached was
Filling the tank of his Honda Accord, Daniel Carmolinga eyed the blinking numbers on the gasoline pump with a mixture of relief and suspicion — relief that the total was significantly lower than it would have been a few months ago, but suspicion that Tuesday's election might have something to do with it.
"It seems that always right before election time, prices go down. It may not be a coincidence," Carmolinga said on a recent Friday as he paid $2.47... (more)
In the weeks leading up to the November election, rumors of an "October Surprise" surfaced just as predictably as the arrival of negative political ads. Would the White House announce that Osama bin Laden had been captured or killed? Would a "terrorist threat" (real or trumped up) spook the nation into voting Republican? Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former US Senator Gary Hart and retired USAF war strategist Col. Sam Gardiner all warned of an imminent US attack on Iran. Hart, a former presidential cand... (more)
Now the Republicans are actually using Democrat Scott Kleeb's voice and calling people several times an hour in order to harass them, and tick them off against Kleeb. This has been happening across the country simultaneously. It's been happening in states where the Republican party hired a specific company that makes these kind of calls. This is a coordinated nationwide effort by the Republican party to suppress voting through fraud.
Somewhat ironically, I have received a deluge of emails since last night from Democrats complaining about the flood of last-minute phone calls Republicans are making to voters in an effort drive down the Democratic vote tomorrow.
The e-mailers are upset about “robocalls”—pre-recorded, automated phone calls containing anti-Democratic political messages. The calls initially sound like they’re coming from the Democratic candidates since they ... (more)
Three regions have taken the first step to hosting the country's first pay-as-you-drive road pricing scheme. Norfolk, the East Midlands and part of the Thames Valley, including Reading, will share £7.5 million with six urban areas already picked as candidates for its contentious plans to charge drivers for when and where they drive.
Their selection comes as the Government prepares to unveil the blueprint for Britain's transport infrastructure, drawn up ... (more)
No one will be permitted to board an aircraft or a marine vessel leaving or bound for the United States until cleared by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), under proposed regulations.
Under current regs, the US requires airlines to transmit their manifests no later than fifteen minutes after a plane is in the air, wheels up. This, according to DHS, allows known terrorists to board, then hijack or blo... (more)
If some last-minute polling trends showing a powerful Republican comeback carry through the Nov. 7 elections, the end of America as we have known it for more than two centuries will be at hand.
In a political version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the country might look the same – people driving their SUVs to the mall or eating at fast-food restaurants – but it will have internally changed. Election 2006 will have been the ratification of George W. Bu... (more)
Young drivers should be subject to a night-time curfew to reduce the risk of accidents, a safety group has said.
Every hour someone in their teens or early twenties is killed while travelling in a car, says Brake. A survey to coincide with Road Safety Week said a third of young drivers have been in a car while the driver was racing a friend.
Half of them break the speed limit by at least 10 mph and one in five drive while drunk, the survey s... (more)
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, continues to believe that weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq at the start of the Iraq War. In this clip from CNN Late Edition, Hoekstra points to documents revealed in the New York Times as showing that Saddam was much closer to having a nuclear bomb than many people thought.
The host of the program, Wolf Blitzer, interrupts Hoekstra and indicates that Hoekstra is basing his disingenuous claim... (more)
The show trial of Saddam Hussein was drawn out until two days before the midterm US elections. The death sentence imposed on the former Iraqi president may help the deluded band of Bush supporters find victory in the defeat that Bush has met in Iraq and motivate them to support the beleaguered Republicans on November 7.
But Saddam's sentence will do nothing for reconciliation and peace among Iraq's Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites. In Iraq the sentence is seen ... (more)
Making short-term predictions about the US dollar is notoriously difficult. So why do we say the dollar may fall after Tuesday's mid-term elections in the United States? Once we know what the future composition of Congress will be, the markets can shift focus from the excitement of the moment to what may lie ahead.
We believe we have just seen the beginning of a more pronounced slowdown that will likely push us into recession. The reason we are more negative than many economists i... (more)
CHARLEVOIX - Flo Peterson was proud of the Coast Guard's role as guardians of the Great Lakes.
But her pride has changed to disgust since the Coast Guard shared its intent to establish live fire training zones on the Great Lakes.
“I think this is the most ludicrous thing imagined,” said Peterson, of Charlevoix. “... Water is the most precious commodity. It's more important than oil.”
Close to 100 environmentalists, boaters, cit... (more)
MEXICO CITY - Broken glass and debris will be cleaned up, but three low-level bombs Monday may have done their greatest damage in adding to fears that Mexico is hurtling toward instability.
The early morning explosions destroyed a bank branch lobby and blew out windows and doors at the nation's Federal Electoral Tribunal and a major political party's headquarters auditorium.
Five leftist guerrilla groups from the southern state of Oaxaca claimed responsibility for t... (more)
