Red Tape Hinders Help for Katrina VictimsSep 5, 2005 — From all corners of this country, hundreds of would-be rescuers are wending their way to the beleaguered Gulf Coast in buses, vans and trailers. But government red tape has hampered many who ache to help Katrina's victims.
Louisiana's Jefferson Parish is desperate for relief, but parish President Aaron Broussard says officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned back three trailer trucks of water, ordered the Coast Guard not to provide emergency d... (more)
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Hurricane Center Director Tells Paper He Briefed Brown and Chertoff on Danger of Severe FloodingDr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told the Times-Picayune Sunday afternoon that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff in advance of Hurricane Katrina slamming Louisiana and Mississippi--and were advised of the storm’s potential deadly effects.
"Mayfield ... (more)
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New World Orleans: Microcosm for the "New America"Steve Watson | September 5 2005
Imagine an America where everyone is displaced. It's survival of the fittest as all law and order has broken down. Martial law has been declared with 24 hr curfews, Posse Comitatus has been overturned and there are troops on the streets shooting anyone who disobeys their orders. Thousands and thousands of people are starving but the authorities will not allow aid in any significant amounts. Large crowds are quelled with the use of sonic lasers, whil... (more) 
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UN Kosovo police arrested for sex traffickingThree UN police officers and four foreigners have been arrested for involvement in human trafficking in the UN administered province of Kosovo.
UN police (CIVPOL) together with the local Kosovo Police Service (KPS) on Wednesday arrested an international policeman suspected of human trafficking, the UN said in a statement. Two other local police officers were also arrested on human-trafficking charges on Sunday in northern Kosovo.
In the interest of the ongoing inves... (more)
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Kazaa hit by file-sharing rulingAn Australian court has ruled that the popular file-swapping program Kazaa urged its users to breach copyright.
The Federal Court ordered Kazaa's owners, Sharman Networks, to modify the software to prevent further piracy.
The ruling comes after months of legal wrangling between Sharman Networks, and a group of record labels.
The case is the latest courtroom battle between peer-to-peer networks and copyright holders, such as record labels and music stu... (more)
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Germany has overtaken America to become the world's biggest single exporterBarely noticed, Germany has overtaken America to become the world's biggest single exporter, shipping the hardware that powers the rising economies of Asia and eastern Europe. Its trade surplus is now greater than that of China, Japan and India combined, reaching a staggering 16.8 billion euros in June alone. The profits made by German companies are running at over 33 per cent of national income, the highest in 40 years.
Eyeing a bargain, the world's canniest are already piling in... (more)
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Beating of a Russian Lawmaker Puts Spotlight on Police Brutality: Opposition says the nation has returned to a police state under Putin, a former KGB officer.Ivan Musatov wouldn't have gotten involved normally. In this violent city, it wasn't that unusual to see two men beating up another young man on a sidewalk. It was the way they were doing it. Photographing it with a cellphone. First one would knock the youth's slumping head with a fist under his chin, then the other would snap a picture.
Musatov, a deputy in the Russian parliament, didn't need to be in the middle of someone else's trouble. But when they started dragging the weaken... (more)
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Bush's Staged New Orleans Photo OpsWhite House officials do not deny that they craft elaborate events to showcase Bush, but they maintain that these events are designed to accurately dramatize his policies and to convey qualities about him that are real. [Washington Post]
Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection... (more)
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NO2ID: Charles Clarke, ‘ID cards are about controlling society’The Home Secretary has admitted that the purpose of ID cards scheme is to control society.
In comments made to the Eastern Daily Press [1] this weekend, the Home Secretary claimed that we already live in 'Big Brother society' and that it is his job to control it, branding civil liberties concerns "ridiculous" and independent costings of the scheme “absurd”. This, despite the fact that the Home Office response to the LSE report has be shown to contain fabricated figures... (more)
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Oil, credit card companies cash in on gas pricesAt the Phillips 66 station at 1807 Lincoln Way East in South Bend, regular was selling for $3.19 per gallon Thursday morning, the same price most area gas stations were asking.
Sherry Lovitt of Mishawaka clutched $15 in one hand and pumped gas into her 1999 Kia Sephia with the other.
"I'm putting in what I can. I'm not sure it will fill it up."
It didn't come close. Lovitt blinked and the gauge cruised over $15.
"I'm not going as many p... (more)
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La. Official: Feds 'Murdered' Flood VictimsFederal bureaucrats who were slow to respond to the flood disaster in New Orleans "murdered" thousands of the city's residents who were left stranded for days without help, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard charged Sunday.
"It's not just [Hurricane] Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here," an emotional Broussard told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand... (more)
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AP Warned of New Orleans DisasterJust last year the Associated Press predicted all of the failures that have became part of the Katrina tragedy - but the story was about another hurricane, Hurricane Ivan.
When Ivan aimed its fury at the Big Easy, the AP detailed what could happen if the hurricane slammed into New Orleans.
In the case of Ivan, serious problems were caused by a lack of planning for a cataclysmic storm, yet with Katrina on the horizon, the lessons of Ivan were all but forgotten.
... (more)
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Friends claim Khan's statement was fakedFive young men sit in their cars on Maud Avenue in the early evening sunshine. Opposite, in Cross Flats park, another group of teenagers kicks a ball around a purpose-built football pitch designed to keep the young people of the deprived Leeds suburb of Beeston off the streets.
Their personal memories of Mohammad Sidique Khan, brought up like them in a rundown, redbrick terrace perched on a hill overlooking the affluent city centre, were stronger than ever yesterday.
... (more)
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Axis of evil country, Iran, offers helpIran said on Sunday that it was ready to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the United States through the Red Crescent.
"We are ready to help through the Red Crescent whenever we receive an official request (from the United States)," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told reporters in Tehran.
Assefi said Iran deeply regretted the death of many Americans and the material damages inflicted on the residents as a result of the hurricane.
... (more)
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China says military powers are not directed at JapanThe swaggering economic and military giant that is China, celebrated the 60th anniversary of Japan's World War Two defeat this weekend, while denying that it had any expansionist military ambitions today.
Beijing's military is expanding at break-neck speed and official comments about China's neighbours are increasingly laced with xenophobic threats. But China's president Hu Jintao used the occasion to emphasise that China's economic and military power was not directed against its ... (more)
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Paypal freezes Something Awful's relief fundPAYPAL HAS frozen a relief effort set up by popular web site Something Awful.
This brilliant wheeze will delay payments to poor people from hurricane Katrina. The good folks at Something Awful, themselves victims of the hurricane, decided to put their mouths where the money is and set up an account to take donations for the Red Cross.
Something Awful has a history of helping out, and has raised tens of thousands of dollar... (more)
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Indonesia jet crashes on take-offAn Indonesian passenger jet has crashed after take-off from the Sumatran city of Medan, killing most of the 117 on board and about 30 more on the ground.
The Boeing 737-200, run by low-cost airline Mandala, crashed onto a busy road in the Padang Bulan residential area near the city's airport.
Fire engulfed the wreckage and local TV showed images of dozens of homes and cars destroyed by the impact.
Airline and rescue officials said that up to 16 of tho... (more)
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Nation fond of smoking has 2nd thoughtsYvo de Boer walked out of a discussion on protecting the environment and immediately reveled in polluting the one around him. He lighted a cigarette.
"This is a very civilized country," the Dutch official said, puffing away in the middle of a busy hallway at Argentina's main convention center. "You can still smoke here."
Yes, you can. You can smoke just about anywhere, from the pavilions of La Rural conference center to the back seats of taxis to the best tables at ... (more)
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Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee ProjectsFor years, Washington had been warned that doom lurked just beyond the levees. And for years, the White House and Congress had dickered over how much money to put into shoring up century-old dikes and carrying out newer flood control projects to protect the city of New Orleans.
As recently as three months ago, the alarms were sounding — and being brushed aside.
In late May, the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers formally notified Washington th... (more)
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