Iraqi witness tells court of beating by paratroopersAn Iraqi taxi driver was beaten unconscious by a group of British soldiers using rifle butts and fists, a court was told yesterday.
Athar Finjan Saddam was felled next to his Toyota pick-up truck on the afternoon of 11 May 2003, in the village of al-Ferkah, near al-U'Zayra in southern Iraq.
The court was told he was attacked alongside his friend Nadhem Abdullah, 18, who was sitting in the truck's passenger seat. Mr Abdullah died in the early hours of the next mornin... (more)
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Iran Accuses US of Being Behind Iraq Bomb AttacksIran’s top military commander accused the United States and Israel of planning the non-stop bomb attacks that killed thousands of civilians in Iraq.
Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a gathering of senior officials, that the U.S. needs those attacks to justify the continuation of its military presence in Iraq.
“The Americans blame weak and feeble groups in Iraq f... (more)
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The Man Beneath The Hood Speaks Out: “They tortured me, they humiliated me"09/14/05 "ICH" -- -- “They tortured me, they humiliated me, they have destroyed me inside. I want that what has happened to me never happens again, that everyone knows what those months in Abu Ghraib were like. This is my new life: to denounce that which is happening in the Iraqi prisons, to defend the rights of those who are inside of them”. Former prisoner number 151716 of the prison of shame speaks. The man who has been recognised in one of the photo-symbols of the violence of Abu... (more)
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FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandalsThe Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.
Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.
Louisiana governor Katherine Blan... (more)
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Concerned citizen Harris offers county camera adviceConcerned citizen Bobby Harris disputed the efficacy of a proposed camera system at each of the county's compactor stations during last week's Bandera County Commissioners' Court. Harris said that a single camera would not be sufficient in securing a station from loss or theft.
During a special meeting on Aug 8, Precinct 2 Commissioner Ronnie Basinger prompted the need for a surveillance system, due to a six-month loss in revenue at the Lakehills dump station. He estimated that a ... (more)
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U.S. Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against IranUNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 -- With an hour-long slide show that blends satellite imagery with disquieting assumptions about Iran's nuclear energy program, Bush administration officials have been trying to convince allies that Tehran is on a fast track toward nuclear weapons.
The PowerPoint briefing, titled "A History of Concealment and Deception," has been presented to diplomats from more than a dozen countries. Several diplomats said the presentation, intended to win allies for inc... (more)
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Bush Seeks Russian Help to Ensure Iran Gets No Nuclear WeaponsU.S. President George W. Bush said that he would try to rally China and Russia this week behind possible UN action to ensure Iran does not get nuclear weapons, the AFP news agency reports.
“Iran with a nuclear weapon will be incredibly destabilizing. And therefore, we must work together to prevent them from having the wherewithal to develop a nuclear weapon,” he said at the White House after meeting Iraq’s president.
Bush stopped short of saying th... (more)
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U.S. May Start Pulling Out of Afghanistan Next SpringKABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 13 - Senior Pentagon and military officials are discussing a proposal to cut American troop levels in Afghanistan next spring, perhaps by as much as 20 percent, the largest withdrawal since the Taliban were ousted in late 2001.
The troops would be replaced by NATO soldiers, who now oversee security and reconstruction missions in northern and western Afghanistan and are to take over an American command in the south next spring. American troops have been ta... (more)
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Al-Qaeda threat appears authentic, says GovtAn al-Qaeda threat singling out Melbourne for a terrorist attack, the first time an Australian city has been targeted, appeared to be authentic, the Federal Government said yesterday.
Terrorism experts said the latest warning should be taken very seriously, while the Victorian Government advised people not to panic.
The threat, made on the anniversary of the 2001 bombings in the United States, came in a video aired on the American ABC network which says it obtained ... (more)
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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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