Halliburton Hearing Unearths New AbuseEvery morning 120 trucks line up at the Kuwait-Iraq border to deliver gasoline from Kuwaiti refineries. The drivers, mostly poor South Asian men from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, must cross at dawn because if they wait too long, the managers from Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Texas-based Halliburton, who operate the border post during the day, will subject them to rigorous checks that effectively shut down the deliveries.
"The only way we can cross the border i... (more)
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THE BESLAN SIEGE: Aching to KnowA year later, witnesses ask whether Russian forces are partly to blame for the bloody outcome of a hostage crisis. The town wants full disclosure.
The bodies of Beslan's children lay in freshly dug graves when the most troubling questions of the deadly hostage-taking at Middle School No. 1 started to emerge.
On the roof of a five-story apartment building across from the school where 318 hostages died and about 700 others were wounded in September, residents found th... (more)
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Hawks and doves descend on Bush ranchThe police tape fluttering gently marks the front line. On one side sits a rag-tag collection of tents, home-made placards calling for the troops to come home and a long line of white crosses representing the soldiers killed in Iraq.
On the other side of the small country lane there is a smart collection of garden-style awnings filled with fold-out canvas chairs, lined with glossy placards proclaiming "Bush Country", "IM4W" and "Support Our Troops".
A sign on the h... (more)
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Tube shooting leaks to be investigatedAN INQUIRY has been launched into the leaking of sensitive information on the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes following police pressure on those heading the investigation.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission, (IPCC) has appointed Bill Taylor, formerly Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, to investigate how the watchdog's preliminary papers found their way into the media.
Sensitive details about the case were leaked to ITV on 16 Au... (more)
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Bush popularity at all-time low, poll findsPresident Bush's popularity has sunk to the lowest levels of his presidency, the Gallup poll organization said Friday.
In poll results released Friday afternoon, the president's approval rating was 40%, the lowest in his presidency by 4 points.
The poll of 1,007 adults was conducted Monday through Thursday, a period overlapping the president's series of speeches defending his Iraq war policies.
Those surveyed in the poll included 29% Republicans and 3... (more)
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Schwarzenegger's Initiatives Lag as Approval Falls to New LowCalifornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval rating fell to a new low, and most voters don't support his initiatives to redraw political lines and give him more power over the budget, a poll found.
Sixty percent of Californians likely to vote say a special election on the Republican governor's proposals shouldn't have been called, according to a poll released today by the Public Policy Institute of California. The election is set for Nov. 8. Half of likely voters say they ... (more)
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Critics raise alarm over 'exclusive' new terror laws A cross-party coalition today warned the government that its forthcoming anti-terrorism legislation risks criminalising or excluding people who have already condemned terrorist attacks.
A joint statement, arguing for a "broad consensus" and the involvement of all communities in the fight against terrorism, attracted over 30 signatories. These included the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone; the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten; religious groups, trade unions, com... (more)
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UN official challenges terror expulsionsA senior UN representative on Wednesday threatened to cite the British government for violation of human rights over its planned deportations of alleged terrorist sympathizers.
Manfred Novak, the UN human rights commission's special investigator on torture, said he is seeking permission through the UK Foreign Office to visit Britain to discuss the issue with Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Novak said that the government's intention t... (more)
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Australian counter-terrorism summit to discuss police-state measuresAs it did after the September 11 and Bali terrorist atrocities in 2001 and 2002, the Australian government has seized upon the July 7 bombings in London to bring forward a new wave of measures that will overturn centuries-old civil liberties.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister John Howard announced that, together with the premiers of the states and territories—all from the Labor Party—he will convene a “special meeting of the Council of Australian Governments to ... (more)
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Ayatollah attacks 'police state' BritainBritain is a police state where living conditions are worse than "the jungle", a senior Iranian cleric said yesterday.
Delivering the political sermon during Friday prayers at Teheran University, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati issued a tirade against Britain.
"Day by day, corruption, tyranny, felony, insecurity and different dangers are attacking human society," he said. "Just look at the fight against terrorism in Britain.
"All gatherings are under the micro... (more)
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Men released after terror arrestsThree men arrested by police in Newport under the Terrorism Act have been released without charge.
The men, from Newport, were arrested under anti-terrorism powers on Chepstow Road in the city on Thursday afternoon and held overnight.
Gwent Police said on Friday that after extensive inquiries, it was established that no offences had been committed.
Security has been heightened in Newport ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers there nex... (more)
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'Eyes in the sky' for homeland securityBlimps, they’re the next big thing in homeland security.
You’re laughing.
That’s okay, a lot of people do, says George Spyrou, president of Airship Management Services, whose blimps are leased to the likes of Fuji Film and have been used as air surveillance and security platforms by the New York Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service and the Athens police during last year’s summer Olympic Games.
Although blimps have proven ... (more)
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California shelves RFID banCalifornia legislators have shelved a closely watched bill that would temporarily ban driver's licenses and other state documents that incorporate wireless identification technology.
The Identity Information Protection Act of 2005, or SB 628, is designed to address concerns that new high-tech IDs could facilitate the broad monitoring of citizens. Members of the state's influential high-tech industry have lobbied against the bill, arguing that they're developing privacy and securit... (more)
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MOBILE CCTV CAMERAS TO HELP TACKLE STREET CRIMEUNDERCOVER mobile CCTV cameras look set to come to the streets of Barrow to help tackle neighbourhood nuisances.
More security cameras are in the pipeline to cover trouble hot-spots and stamp out community problems.
A CCTV system already operates in Barrow town centre and mobile devices provide surveillance in other areas.
Council chiefs report the existing system has deterred anti-social behaviour.
But they say a more flexible system i... (more)
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PAT BUCHANAN'S MAG CLAIMS CHENEY PREPARING TACTICAL NUKE STRIKE ON IRAN Now, here's an interesting little tid-bit, considering the source: Pat Buchanan's magazine, American Conservative, has published a report saying that Dick Cheney has had the Pentagon prepare a contingency plan for an immediate air strike on Iran, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, in the event of "another 9/11."
The report, in Buchanan's mag's "Deep Background" column, claims: "In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration w... (more)
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Taiwan A 'Sovereign Nation': RumsfeldU.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called Taiwan a "sovereign nation" Tuesday and added that it was Taiwan's choice whether or not to buy a $15 billion weaponry package on offer from the Bush administration.
Rumsfeld added that whatever Taipei decided it would not alter the U.S. legal obligations to assist Taiwan in the event of an attack by mainland China. Rumsfeld also commented that he did not think that the maritime components of the current joint "Peaceful Mission-2005... (more)
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New Study Finds Babies Cry in the Womb – "Even the Bottom Lip Quivers"A new study has revealed that unborn babies cry within the womb. Ultrasound videos taken of infants within the womb revealed 28-week-old babies crying in response to a noise stimulus.
Scientists played a 90-decibel noise to the unborn child, roughly the equivalent of a tummy rumbling, and recorded the effect the noise had via ultrasound. “It was strikingly like an infant crying,” said New Zealand pediatrician Ed Mitchell, who contributed to the US study, according to N... (more)
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NSF Preps New, Improved InternetThe National Science Foundation is backing a major initiative that could lead to a completely new internet architecture, with built-in security measures and support for ubiquitous sensors and wireless communications devices, among other things.
The Global Environment for Networking Investigations, or GENI, will include a research grant program to fund new architectures and an experimental facility, which has not yet been planned in detail.
The little-noticed initia... (more)
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Gov.'s Trip to State Fair Gets a Muted ResponseWith giddy fans and autograph hounds careening toward him, Arnold Schwarzenegger's surprise visit to the State Fair during the 2003 recall campaign was so unrestrained he appeared to have upended California politics.
Those were the early days of politician Schwarzenegger. He traveled back to the State Fair on Friday as a governor with a record and questions about his fundraising, a power blackout in Los Angeles and months of sliding poll numbers.
"It seems like eve... (more)
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Russia to use Israel's methods to fight against terrorismRussia can launch preemptive strikes on terrorist bases in any part of the world
What steps should be taken to quickly unite the nation against the escalation of international terrorism? First of all, society should strengthen its resolve, wipe off the tears and make a sound assessment of the situation the way the Americans did following the September 11th attacks.
No steps of the government will be effective without massive public support. The enemy should be made ... (more)
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British Family threatening legal action because their son's body was returned minus a kidney.In a tale that sounds like a lurid tabloid headline, the British family of Christopher Rochester, killed in an accidental fall from an apartment balcony in Rhodes last year, is threatening legal action against Greece because their son's body was returned minus a kidney.
The Chester-Le-Street Advertiser, the newspaper in Rochester's home town in England, reports that Rochester was in Rhodes with his brother Keith, a disc jockey at the popular resort town of Faliraki. He was working... (more)
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Where is Peace?War is promoted. Anti-war responds.
-Anti-war protests. War counters.
-Somewhere in the middle is the truth.
-Peace.
-Freedom to make a choice.
Sgt. Kevin Benderman sits in confinement at Ft. Lewis, Washington. His crime? Making a choice. He chose Peace.
It’s not about one side winning and the other side losing. Not to Sgt. Benderman. It’s about having knowledge. We all have the right to know the truth about our options, and t... (more)
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