Investigation into allegations that a secret church directive, issued by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI, is being used to silence the victims of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. Colm O'Gorman, who was raped as a 14-year-old boy by his local pa... (more)
LONDON – The British Broadcasting Corporation has been struggling for several years against criticisms and claims of biased reporting concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and distorted coverage of the global fight against terror.
Following a diplomatic incident with Israel, the BBC appointed an editor known for his objective reporting, however, the true stance of the corporation’s editors remained the same.
If you've ever bought items that you really didn't need, or bought huge quantities of items based on large discounts or other factors, some may brand you a "shopaholic." Now, some psychiatrists are pushing to label excessive shopping a mental imbalance that needs to be treated with prescription drugs.
There may be more than 10 million people in the United States psychologists classify as "shopaholics," according to a study published this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry... (more)
A ``Beijing-friendly palace coup’’ may happen in North Korea to drive out the North’s ``dear leader’’ Kim Jong-il, a U.S. weekly magazine reported in its latest issue.
Chinese officials used to ``scoff’’ at the idea of effecting Chinese-style regime change in the Stalinist state, but an ``unprecedented debate’’ has taken place over Beijing’s North Korea policies, Newsweek said in its Oct. 30 issue.
New Yorkers, get a clue. Hillary Clinton wants you over a barrel and a none too polite insertion. According to the predictably neocon Democrat friendly New York Times, Clinton “mixed presidential-like gravitas and standard talking points in the second and final debate of her re-election race … assertively challenging policy on ... (more)
Once again, demonstrating there is essentially no difference between Democrats and Republicans, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has told CBS’s 60 Minutes that the war criminal cabal deserves to escape justice. “Wouldn’t they just love it if we came in and our record as Democrats coming forth after 12 years is to talk about George Bush and Dick Cheney? This election is about them. This is a referendum on them. Making them lame ducks is good enough for me.”
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Fox News inadvertently revealed another reason why it loves to terrorize Americans with fears of foreign terrorists. It not only helps keep George Bush and his party in power, i... (more)
The government is is funding the roll out of fingerprint security at the doors of pubs and clubs in major English cities.
Funding is being offered to councils that want to have their pubs keep a regional black list of known trouble makers. The fingerprint network installed in February by South Somerset District Council in Yeovil drinking holesy is being used as the show case.
"The Home Office have looked at our system and are looking at trials in other t... (more)
THE GERMAN government has hit upon a wizard wheeze to milk the internet to pay for its "dull but precise" state-run television broadcasts.
According to Reuters, all 16 German states have voted in a new law that will require Internet users to pay a licence fee of €5.52(£3.70) a month for each computer and mobile phone that can connect to the internet.
At a meeting in the aptly named Bad Pyrmont, ministers decided that if you can see a television or radio p... (more)
In a "mea culpa" appended to the end of his column on Sunday, the ombudsman for the New York Times now says that the paper was wrong to report on the Bush Administration's "once-secret banking-data surveillance program."
In July, Byron Calame, a former deputy managing editor for the Wall Street Journal, defended the newspaper's June 23 article which revealed that "weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records... (more)
You need to know if your husband has been cheating on you. Or you have to prove to police that when you sold those shares it wasn’t with insider knowledge. Until now, sorting the truth from deception has relied on subjective hunches about individuals’ honesty, or else the discredited measurements of old-fashioned polygraph machines. But what if there were a sleek scientific tool that could peer into the human brain and prove objectively when a person was lying?
Britain is becoming fearful of its young people with most adults too scared to intervene if they see misbehaviour in the street, a report says.
It claims there is a growing "paedophobia" among adults and confusion as to who is to blame for the problems of wayward youth.
The Institute of Public Policy Research, the think tank which carried out the research, found that only 34 per cent of adults would be willing to intervene if they saw a group of 14-year-... (more)
That is the question for the Ecuadorian people, as paradigm for Mexican, South and Central Americans and Americans themselves, as Ecuadorians face a runoff election between the populist Chavez-leaning Rafael Correa and Alvaro Noboa, conservative banking and banana magnate.
The trouble that the magnetic economist and obscure university professor Rafeal Carrrea is already facing is an unexpected weak showing in the first round of voting for president on Sunday, Oct. 13, as reported ... (more)
The OPEC in its extraordinary meeting in Qatar yesterday agreed to a production cut of 1.2 million barrels a day, to stem a three-month slide in prices.
Currently, crude is trading at USD 59.00 per barrel, up 50 cents in after hours access trading on the Nymex.
Vietnam is controlling the use of the internet by encouraging providers and users to spy on each other and turn informant if they suspect politically 'subversive' activity, according to a report today by Amnesty International.
The communist regime has harassed, detained and imprisoned its citizens for expressing peaceful political views online, leading to widespread self-censorship among the Vietnamese. Owners of the country's hugely popular internet cafes have been described by t... (more)
Three people have died in the past week after receiving flu vaccines, it was revealed Sunday.
The Health Ministry has instructed health facilities to immediately stop providing the vaccinations.
Army Radio reported that the victims were insured by the Kupat Holim Leumi health maintenance organization, and all three were vaccinated last week at the same branch in Kiryat Gat. The injections were all performed from the same vaccine pool.
AMERICAN officials held secret talks with leaders of the Iraqi insurgency last week after admitting that their two-month clampdown on violence in Baghdad had failed.
Few details of the discussions in the Jordanian capital Amman have emerged but an Iraqi source close to the negotiations said the participants had met for at least two days.
They included members of the Islamic Army in Iraq, one of the main Sunni militias behind the insurgency, and American ... (more)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior State Department diplomat apologized Sunday for having told the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera on Saturday that there is a strong possibility history will show the United States displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in its handling of the Iraq war.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," Alberto Fernandez said... (more)
Nearly half of all victims of racially motivated murders in the last decade have been white, according to official figures released by the Home Office.
The data, released under Freedom of Information legislation, shows that between 1995 and 2004 there have been 58 murders where the police consider a racial element played a key part. Out of these, 24 have been where the murder victim was white.
The disclosure will add to the intense debate over multiculturalism in Br... (more)
They met on the House floor. He was a 16-year-old political junkie, dressed in the drab navy blazer and gray slacks of a congressional page, rushing phone messages to the members he served. Rep. Mark Foley was tanned and charismatic, a successful politician in his mid-40s willing to joke with him between votes.
They talked perhaps a dozen times. Then at his page graduation ceremony that June, in 2002, he was excited when Foley appeared, uninvited, and dictated his personal e-mail ... (more)
Sexless relationships becoming more common among young people Sexless relationships are becoming increasingly prominent among young couples, with 28 percent of men in their 30s having sex less than once a month, a lifestyle survey has found.
The Internet-based survey, conducted by medical-based advertising agency Dentsu, Sudler & Hennessey Inc., found that many respondents claimed stress from work, and a lack of fulfillment in their daily lives led to their sexlessness. The poll a... (more)
Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
In a notice dated Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissio... (more)
The Washington Post's story today -- "Bush Signs Terrorism Measure" -- looks like just another routine report on the approval of a piece of legislation, accompanied by the usual "he said/ she said" quotes. A typical reader might shrug at this point and shift to the sports section to read the latest autopsy on the Redskins.
How will we know when a dictatorship has arrived? Not from reading the Washington Post. The Post’s story today -- “Bush Signs Terrorism M... (more)
On October 17, George W. Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This new law gives Bush power similar to that of Stalin or Hitler, and grants agencies within the executive branch powers similar to those of the KGB or Gestapo.
Bush justifies this act by claiming he needs it to fight the “war on terror,” but a number of critics, including former counterterrorism officials, have said the administration has greatly exaggerated the threat and used illogi... (more)
Pat Tillman (left) and his brother Kevin stand in front of a Chinook helicopter in Saudi Arabia before their tour of duty as Army Rangers in Iraq in 2003.
Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.
