U.S. to Pay Uzbekistan $23M for Use of Military BaseThe United States said on Tuesday it would pay Uzbekistan nearly $23 million for use of an air base in the Central Asian country which is a hub for U.S. operations in Afghanistan but from which it is being evicted, although some members of the U.S. Congress protested the payment, Reuters reported.
Uzbekistan in July gave the United States 180 days to leave the Soviet-era Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, called K-2, following U.S. criticism of the Uzbek government’s violent suppress... (more)
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TOP COP: 'LET'S BE BOLD': Use Military As PoliceThe military could be hired by chief constables to work as temporary armed police, Britain's top policeman has suggested.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair called on officers to be "bold" and consider a range of radical changes to police pay and working practices.
Sir Ian's proposals on using soldiers as firearms officers are hugely controversial after the mistaken shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in July.
"Could we bring sta... (more)
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Google maps reveal Roman villaLatest technology proved an unexpected aid to unearthing the past when an Italian man decided to look at internet maps of his home.
Computer programmer Luca Mori found the remains of an ancient Roman villa when he browsed Google Earth maps showing satellite images of his local area.
His curiosity was sparked by unusual shading by his home in Sorbolo, Parma.
He contacted local archaeologists who investigated and confirmed it was once the location of a ... (more)
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Iraq official questions UK actionBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's national security adviser has raised sharp questions about the way British forces handled the rescue of two of its undercover troops in Basra earlier this week and voiced concern about the infiltration of security forces by insurgents.
In London, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari discussed the incident with British Defence Secretary John Reid. Al-Jaafari said he did not know details of what happened but an inquiry was under way.
R... (more)
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Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by AmericansHUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last... (more)
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City tries to use eminent domain to knock down tavern for Catholic school's athletic fields Can Jersey City use its power of eminent domain to force a property owner to sell to a private, Catholic high school?
The question has become more heated since the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial June decision reaffirming the government's power to take property as long as the owner is compensated.
In the case of Cheng "Terry" Tan and the Golden Cicada, Jersey City must prove that the taking of the property provides for a greater public good, according to Stuart ... (more)
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High-Tech Systems Feed Change in Parking MetersTime is running out on traditional parking meters lining curbs around Southern California. And many motorists couldn't be happier.
Those pesky coin-gobblers that have tormented motorists since the first one popped up on an Oklahoma street 70 years ago are getting a makeover.
Soon, drivers with no change in their pocket may be able to pay to park by credit or ATM card. Those whose meter is about to expire may be able to get a text message on their cellphone warning t... (more)
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FEMA Sends Trucks Full Of Ice For Katrina Victims To MaineThe trucks started arriving this weekend, and they're expected to keep coming through Sunday.
City officials say they have no idea why the trucks are here, only that the city has been asked to help out with traffic problems. But the truck drivers NEWSCENTER spoke to said they went all the way down to the gulf coast with the ice -- stayed for a few days -- and then were told by FEMA they needed to drive to Maine to store it.
The truck drivers, who are from all over t... (more)
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House Approves 'Anti-Hate' Bill: Freedom Of Speech Now In Jeopardy In a surprising move, the House of Representatives on September 14, 2005 approved "The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005," HR2662, as an amendment to the Children'S Safety Act, HR3132. It was approved 223-199.
The Senate is expected to also approve a similar amendment within a month.
This federal legislation, orchestrated by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith will lead to creation of a vast anti-hate bureaucracy in America, similar t... (more)
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British Special Forces Caught Carrying Out Staged Terror In Iraq?: Media Blackout Shadows Why Black Op Soldiers Were ArrestedPaul Joseph Watson | September 20 2005
In another example of how the Iraqi quagmire is deliberately designed to degenerate into a chaotic abyss, British SAS were caught attempting to stage a terror attack and the media have dutifully shut up about the real questions surrounding the incident.
What is admitted is that two British soldiers in Arab garb and head dress drove a car towards a group of Iraq police and beg... (more)
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American Life Under a National ID Card“If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear from these surveillance policies in the Patriot Act.” There it was - the one line that is continually uttered by those who are determined to turn America into the society of Big Brother. It’s the one line that will instantly bring out my own urge to kill anyone who has said it. My patience has run paper thin for such short-sighted, quivering, knee-jerk reactionaries who are willing to sacrifice our precious libertie... (more)
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Banker Gets ID Chip Implant: VeriChip ‘chips’ an investment bank CEO who wants authorities to have access to his living will in an emergencyTo help publicize a company that makes microchips that can be implanted in humans for identification purposes, a prominent San Francisco banker got “chipped” Monday so that his living will is just a scan away if he ever becomes seriously ill.
Before some 40 investors and entrepreneurs in San Francisco, John Merriman, chairman and CEO of investment firm Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., was injected with a rice-sized radio frequency identification (RFID) tag in his upper arm.... (more)
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Baker-Carter commission recommends national voter ID cardA voting reform commission which has already taken heat for playing host to sham voting rights groups run by members of the Bush-Cheney campaign has now recommended the institution of a national voter ID card.
The full recommendations of the commission, led by erstwhile Secretary of State James Baker III and former President Jimmy Carter, can be found here.
Among other major recommendations, the commission calls for voter verifiable paper trails for electronic v... (more)
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Book of Secret Files Reveals KGB Plans to Release Radioactive Material in Tokyo BayThe Soviet security service, the KGB, considered releasing radioactive material in Tokyo Bay in the late 1960s, which it hoped would be blamed on U.S. submarines and thereby damage Japanese-U.S. relations, according to The Mitrokhin Archive II, published by former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin.
“The Mitrokhin Archive II” reveals several sabotage plans by KGB officers to sour relations between Tokyo and Washington, Japan Today wrote in a review on Tuesday. The book als... (more)
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China 'acts on forced abortions'Several Chinese health workers have reportedly been arrested or sacked over claims that they forced people to have abortions or sterilisations.
China's state-owned media said the abuses had come to light in Linyi city in the eastern province of Shandong.
US magazine Time said last week that some 7,000 people had been sterilised against their will in Shandong.
Human rights groups often accuse China of forcing sterilisations and abortions - a charge Bei... (more)
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R.I.P. Posse ComitatusIt was Representative Ron Paul of Texas who read into the Congressional Record on June 25, 1997—well before the malfeasance of George Bush, the Constitution-bashing Patriot Act, and the reckless so-called war on terror—the following: “In a police state the police are national, powerful, authoritarian. Inevitably, national governments yield to the temptation to use the military to do the heavy lifting…. [O]nce the military is used, however minor initially, the march towar... (more)
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Police forcibly break up Cindy Sheehan rallyThe New York City Police Department forcibly broke up this afternoon's rally for Cindy Sheehan, moving in as Cindy was speaking at about 3 p.m. in Union Square. The rally had been underway for about an hour, and was about to conclude as Cindy spoke following several other speakers, including a few who are traveling with her on her caravan.
As Cindy was speaking, a large platoon of police massed behind from the interior of the park, then formed a circle behind her, the speakers' ar... (more)
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Bush 41: I Still Like ClintonThirty-six hours after ex-president Bill Clinton bashed and trashed his son on everything from his handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis to the Iraq war, former president George H.W. Bush says he still likes Clinton.
Appearing during commercial breaks on ABC's "Monday Night Football," the president's father was asked how he and Clinton managed to get along.
"I like him," Bush 41 said, despite the verbal thrashing Clinton administered to his son on ABC's "This Wee... (more)
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Government ministers 'knew of shoot-to-kill policy three years ago'Tony Blair and David Blunkett were told of a secret shift to a "shoot-to-kill" policy for suspected suicide bombers three years ago, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens said yesterday.
The tactic has come under fierce criticism after a Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot dead by police marksmen who were hunting the men behind the failed London bombings of 21 July.
Anger that Parliament was not told about the policy was fuell... (more)
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Westpac to look at fingerprint devicesBANK customers could soon be using special fingerprint devices to access their internet accounts in a bid to combat fraud.
The Westpac bank says it is considering a trial of the technology within the next 18 months to two years, with customers being issued "biometric" devices for their fingerprints to allow them to gain access to their accounts.
"We are only at the very early stages of having a look at that technology," Westpac head of media David Lording said.
... (more)
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