California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed a lawsuit to force top makers of potato chips and french fries to warn consumers about a potential cancer-causing chemical found in french friesIn a complaint filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lockyer sought an injunction to stop restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp. and Wendy's International Inc. from selling french fries without some form of warning.
Also named were producers of potato chips and other packaged potato products like PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co., makers of Pringles chips.
The suit asks manufacturers of these products to identify the dangers of high levels ... (more)
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Chertoff Delayed Federal Response, Memo ShowsWASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.
Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agenc... (more)
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The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisonersA Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.
Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "tradit... (more)
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Texas Police Will Take Blood By Force in Suspected DUI CasesAfter completing a training course, Dalworthington Gardens police officers have been certified to draw blood from any motorist whom they suspect of driving under the influence of alcohol. The small North Texas city joins three counties -- Montague, Archer and Clay -- which have recently adopted similar policies.
These jurisdictions are seeking to make drunk driving convictions less vulnerable to court challenge as mounting evidence shows breathalyzer machines can be inaccurate. Un... (more)
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F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said: Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark"WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - American aviation officials were warned as early as 1998 that Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark," according to previously secret portions of a report prepared last year by the Sept. 11 commission. The officials also realized months before the Sept. 11 attacks that two of the three airports used in the hijackings had suffered repeated security lapses.
Federal Aviation Administration officials were also warned in ... (more)
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18 Detainees Force-Fed at Guantanamo: More than a quarter of the 502 'enemy combatants' at the prison have joined in a hunger strike over alleged maltreatmentWASHINGTON — A hunger strike at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has grown to 128 prisoners who are demanding that they be immediately released or granted access to a legal process to defend themselves against blanket allegations that they are terrorists.
The strike, begun more than five weeks ago, has forced military authorities to hospitalize 18 of the prisoners and to take extraordinary measures to force-feed them.
Some detainees have vowed to ... (more)
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FEMA Requested Only 455 Buses To Rescue 20,000... Then Canceled Order And Took Until Sat. After Storm To Send Enough Buses...As the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down yesterday, government documents surfaced showing that vital resources, such as buses and environmental health specialists, weren't deployed to the Gulf region for several days, even after federal officials seized control of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
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In addition, FEMA's official requests, known as tasking assignments and used by the agency to demand help from other government agencies, show t... (more)
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Bill aims to clear snow, ice off autos: Imposes a fine of up to $500 or a jail term of up to six months for failing to scrape their vehicle cleanPaula Waugh was shopping two days after a winter storm when a chunk of ice flew off the top of a tractor-trailer, bounced off the hood of her Chevy Blazer, and smashed into her windshield. The next thing she remembers is being stopped on the road, her face covered in blood.
''When I saw that ice coming off, I just figured it would hit the pavement," she said. ''You don't think about it coming through the windshield or hitting you."
Waugh said yesterday she still suf... (more)
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Shoppers are being overcharged £100m a year as a result of inflated interest rates on retail store cardsThe Competition Commission said there was evidence that the store card market was uncompetitive, with interest rates far higher than they should be.
The watchdog said it wanted warnings on card statements to inform consumers of interest rates and late payment fees.
There are about 14 million store card accounts in the UK.
Competitive pressures
Following an investigation, the Competition Commission said it had provisionally concluded tha... (more)
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Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home, Rescue Personal BelongingsSep. 14, 2005 - Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings -- even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.
On Sept. 2 -- five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast -- Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee... (more)
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Officers Won't Face Charges For Brutally Murdering Innocent Bystander Victoria SnelgroveOfficers won't face charges in Snelgrove death
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | September 13, 2005
None of the Boston police officers involved in the fatal shooting last fall of 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove will face criminal charges, prosecutors announced yesterday.
While he described their actions as careless and negligent, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said the officers who fired pepper pellets into crowds celebrating the Red Sox's ... (more)
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As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'New Orleans -- A long caravan of white vans led by an Army humvee rolled Monday through New Orleans' Bywater district, a poor, mostly black neighborhood, northeast of the French Quarter.
Recovery team members wearing white protective suits and black boots stopped at houses with spray painted markings on the doors designating there were dead bodies inside.
Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photog... (more)
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UK Filmmaker James Miller, Shot Dead by Israeli army, Wins 3 Posthumous EmmiesTwo years after James Miller was shot dead by a soldier from the Israeli Defence Force while making a documentary on the region, his film has been honoured with three Emmy awards.
Death in Gaza looks at the lives of three children at the Rafah refugee camp caught up in the cycle of violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters, and documents the killing of the 34-year-old British documentary maker.
On Sunday night in Los Angeles his family accepted awar... (more)
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VeriChip, IBM Demonstrate RFID Implant TechSeptember 12, 2005 - Implantable radio frequency identification-based technology from Delray Beach, Calif.-based VeriChip Corp. will be demonstrated in the IBM Solutions Experience Lab in Austin, Texas. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM conducts about 260 tours a year in its research laboratory.
The tours are available for businesses and government agencies wanting to see demonstrations of functional, integrated hardware and software solutions for specific markets. VeriChip's technology will... (more)
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The Brave New World of NeuromarketingPasadena, Calif. — It was at an oceanside picnic a few years ago that Steve Quartz got a germ of an idea that has guided much of his research since.
As their kids played, he and an acquaintance who works in marketing fell into a long conversation about unlocking the unconscious mind. The big frustration in advertising, the executive complained, is that while involuntary forces largely drive consumer behaviour, marketers lack the tools to probe shoppers' psyches.
... (more)
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Petrol panic begins to spread as oil prices riseEMERGENCY powers to reserve fuel for essential users will be reviewed by ministers and oil companies today amid panic buying at petrol stations across the country.
Dozens of filling stations ran dry yesterday after bogus reports of weekend panic proved self-fulfilling when motorists rushed to join queues at the pumps. Hundreds more forecourts are expected to run out of fuel by lunchtime today despite concerted efforts by oil companies to calm the situation by denying that there wa... (more)
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Leading Chinese Dissident Warns: China Planning Nuclear WarOne of China’s most famous democracy advocates says that America has not paid enough attention to the threat of nuclear war with China. Wei Jingsheng, who spent 18 years in confinement in China, spoke at a forum on Chinese leader Hu Jintao at the National Press Club, sketching a disturbing picture of a powerful nation on the march to war.
The forum consisted of China expert panelists giving their various perspectives on the underlying meaning behind the visit of Chinese lead... (more)
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New London homeowners slapped with eviction notices: Despite Connecticut governor's moratorium on eminent domain, city pushes vacate orderWASHINGTON – Despite Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell's suggested moratorium on eminent domain cases in the state, pending the consideration of new legislation restriction property seizures by local governments, the city of New London has issued eviction notices to homeowners who lost their case before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Kelo v. the City of New London ruling.
"They have sent us eviction letters and have given us 90 days to vacate," homeowner Michael Cristofa... (more)
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'UK Backs CIA for Tours of Torture'The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is claimed to be abducting terror suspects and flying them to prisons around the world where it is alleged that they have been tortured and that the UK is also claimed to provide logistic support.
A news article published in British newspaper The Guardian reads that Martin s, a special rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, has launched an inquiry regarding the issue. The aircraft used in these covert operations land at B... (more)
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Businesses will have graded access to ID databaseThe Home Office said yesterday that businesses and public sector agency access to the national identity card database will be allowed on a graded basis, according to need. The idea is that so-called trivial checks on people's biometrics should not be allowed to overload the system.
According to The FT, Katherine Courtney, the ID card programme director at the Home Office, said that the government wanted to build safeguards into the scheme to avoid "people attempting frivolously to... (more)
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RFID, presence and privacyWhere should location tracking start and stop?
By Joanie Wexler, Network World
I shuddered not once, but twice during a recent local newscast that demonstrated how a mere fingerprint scan will soon replace an ATM or credit card swipe for the purchase of goods and services.
The first shiver was for the ease with which I'll soon be blowing wads of cash with literally the touch of a finger. The second, with a big nod to Tom Cruise's retinas in the 2002 f... (more)
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Anti-Putin Rally Dispersed in South RussiaHuman rights activists staged a protest rally in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, a Russian internal republic bordering on the restive province of Chechnya.
The protesters lashed out at the Kremlin for its move to scrap the direct election of governors in legislation that was adopted a year ago.
The rally was dispersed by a group of six or seven men in civilian clothes, a Gazeta.Ru correspondent reported from the scene.
The men wrestled bann... (more)
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Vitamin C jab could combat cancerHigh doses of vitamin C injected into the bloodstream may be effective at combating cancer, new research suggests.
Scientists found that vitamin C in the form of ascorbate killed cancer cells in the laboratory.
But the effective dose was so high it could only be delivered to patients by infusion into the bloodstream.
The findings appear to contradict earlier studies showing no cancer benefit from vitamin C.
However the researchers poin... (more)
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'Hundreds' kept on terror watchHundreds of people are being kept under surveillance as part of the battle against terrorism, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told MPs.
Questioned by the cross-party home affairs committee, Mr Clarke also revealed he had approved using a control order against a UK citizen.
But he has lifted orders - which can include house arrest or other restrictions - on nine other suspects.
Control orders are now being used against only three suspects.
... (more)
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George Galloway MP: Elements Within Government Using Terror Provocation TacticsSteve Watson & Alex Jones / Prisonplanet | September 13 2005
On Friday 9th September Alex Jones was joined on air by member of Parliament and prominent antiwar activist George Galloway for a riveting one on one interview.
Mr Galloway discussed the rising tide of anti-Iraq war protest, the snarling Neo-Cons' plan for world war and the possibility of staged government terror attacks to justify the invasion of more countries.
The Emerging Controlled Poli... (more)
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