Iraq police find 36 dumped bodiesThe bodies of 36 men have been found dumped in a shallow river near the Iraqi town of Kut, police say.
The men - aged between 25 and 35 - were found at Areda, some 50km (31 miles) west of Kut, a spokesman told the BBC.
They were partially clothed, had been handcuffed and all had been shot in the head in an execution style.
Violence has increased in Iraq amid growing uncertainty over the future of a new constitution. Talks on a new charter are to conti... (more)
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Thai PM uses buzzer on reportersThai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has long complained of press criticism. But he sought to turn the tables on Thursday with a new tactic - sounding a buzzer every time reporters ask questions he deems "not constructive."
To the surprise of journalists and colleagues alike, Thaksin raised a buzzer - which displayed an X sign - from behind the podium to indicate his disapproval of some questions asked at the first in a new series of weekly news conferences.
The b... (more)
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Honolulu Mayor Holds Pep Rally for Passage of Record Tax IncreaseHonolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann hosted a rather unusual bill signing yesterday for Bill 40 -- the bill that raises the General Excise Taxes on Oahu by 12.5 percent.
In the center of city hall, surrounded by supporters, including Council Members Nestor Garcia, Gary Okino and Todd Apo; Democrat state lawmakers, U.S. Sen. Inouye’s chief of staff, and construction union workers who held signs saying "rail now," Hannemann held sort of a pep rally for the record tax increase. The on... (more)
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Venezuela: revolutionaries and a country on the edgeVenezuela is living in the shadow of the other 11 September. In 1972, on a day synonymous with death, Salvador Allende - the democratically elected left-wing President of Chile - was bombed and blasted from power. The CIA and the US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had decided the "irresponsibility" of the Chilean people at the ballot box needed to be "rectified" - so they installed a fascist general, Augusto Pinochet. He "disappeared" at least 3,000 people and tortured 27,000 more as he clu... (more)
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Footage of Tube shooting has gaps, says IPCCPOLICE watchdogs investigating the death of Jean Charles de Menezes believe that they have all the relevant closed-circuit television film relating to his shooting but admit that there are gaps.
According to Brazilian officials, who were briefed yesterday by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, some of the cameras at Stockwell Underground station may not have been working.
Manoel Gomes Pereira, a senior Brazilian Foreign Ministry official, said the IPCC had... (more)
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VR Goggles Heal Scars of WarAll I can see in every direction is black smoke, with intermittent darts of flame. And all I hear is gunfire, mortar rounds and the rumbling engine of the fortified tank I'm driving to Falluja.
I'm inside a virtual-reality simulation of a war zone in Iraq. High-resolution goggles cover my eyes and headphones cover my ears.
Seated next to me, tapping out commands on a controller, is Dr. Albert "Skip" Rizzo, a cognitive psychologist and virtual therapy developer with ... (more)
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Kids a danger to national security?Did you hear last week that babies have been prevented from boarding planes because they had similar names to people on no-fly lists? Recently, my girlfriend's 8-year-old granddaughter Lauryn flew out to visit from North Carolina and was given extra scrutiny, including being wanded. It got me thinking. Maybe airline security is onto something.
Perhaps, borrowing the president's argument, North Carolina's airport security is fighting Lauryn there so we don't have to fight her over ... (more)
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Police Officers From Five States Sue Taser International for Serious Injuries Suffered During Stun Gun Training ClassesWhile the Canadian Police Research Institute has now stated that Tasers and other “conducted energy devices” are acceptable because the advantages they provide outweigh the risks they pose.
In reaching this conclusion in its report to Canadian police chiefs, the Institute was apparently not overly troubled by the enormous number of deaths that have occurred in cases where a Taser has been used. The specific finding by the Coroner of Cook County, Illinois, that a Taser ... (more)
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Proposed San Francisco Gun Ban a Bad IdeaBanning the lawful possession of anything has never stopped people from getting it, and it should be a no-brainer in the City of San Francisco, where citizens are well-educated and intelligent, that the proposed ban on the sale or manufacture of firearms and possession of handguns will not prevent criminals from arming themselves.
The idea is evidently so bad that at least one of the original sponsors of the measure, City Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, has withdrawn her name from... (more)
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Lockyer Moves Controversial Painting from Public ExhibitA painting that criticizes the policies of the Bush administration has been removed from a public exhibit and moved to Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office.
The painting was part of an exhibit by law professionals on display in the cafeteria of the state Department of Justice. It shows a red-white-and-blue map of the U.S. in a toilet with the text "T'anks to Mr. Bush." The artist, Stephen Pearcy, explained it was his way of expressing how the country, with the passage of the Pat... (more)
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New Law slated to install Police State in CanadaConnie Fogal, Leader of CAP, says " 'NO' to an impending federal law to give police and national security agencies new powers to eavesdrop on cellphone calls and monitor the Internet activities of Canadians".
"This law is another destruction of Canadian freedom,"insists Fogal. "It moves Canada even further into the realm of a police state. This is an adjunct to our nefarious anti terrorism laws imposed on an uninformed citizenry by our Parliament and Senate. It is ano... (more)
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Bus bomber stopped for a Big Mac before killing startedSuicide bomber Hasib Hussain ate a last meal at McDonald's before blowing up the No. 30 bus on 7 July, killing 13 people.
Hussain also made a number of telephone calls, at least one of which was to one of his fellow bombers, before carrying out his attack on the bus which exploded in Tavistock Square in central London. There were reports last night he may also have spoken to the other two bombers.
The final minutes of the 18-year-old from Holbeck in Leeds are believ... (more)
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Europe aims lone rover for MarsEurope has fixed on a concept for its next mission to land on the Red Planet.
It aims to send a single robot rover to the Martian surface along with another, stationary, science package.
The European Space Agency (Esa) had also been considering a mission concept from the British team behind Beagle 2, but this is no longer on the table.
However, the Beagle team could yet see their science instruments, or ones derived from them, carried on the 580-milli... (more)
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Mobile CCTV cameras the new visible face of policingPolice are using some new toys in the 'hood - vans equipped with CCTV cameras.
The Bedfordshire force has two 'Big Brother' Neighbourhood Police Team Vehicles out and about in the county. One is covering Bedford and Kempston, while the other is on the beat in villages to the north and south of the towns, and further east in Biggleswade.
Based on Vauxhall Vivaro vans, they cost around £30,000 each and carry two CCTV cameras plus recording equipment.
... (more)
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Reinke wants security cameras on bridgesThe security cameras would be installed on both bridges leading to the island (Jolley Bridge and Goodland Bridge), Chief Reinke said. There would be a video camera that records traffic and a camera that records license plate numbers. Computer software with optical character recognition (OCR), comparable to what home computer-users use in their scanners, transcribes the license plate photo into data that can be checked against a database. If the check revealed a stolen car, a warrant for the regi... (more)
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British birdwatchers to warn of avian flu threatBirdwatchers will be enlisted to provide an early warning system amid increasing fears that avian flu will reach Britain, it emerged today.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is meeting the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology following the spread of bird flu from Asia to western Russia, a Defra spokesman said.
"We are meeting with the organisations to see how we can work more closely on surveillance and... (more)
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Space-ferry may be ready by 2010Russia, Europe, and Japan may jointly develop a crewed spacecraft called Kliper to ferry as many as six astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The spacecraft could launch as early as 2010 - just as NASA retires its space shuttles.
The three space agencies are in discussions to develop the craft, which is intended as a replacement for Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. Soyuz has been the workhorse of Russia's human spaceflight programme, but is based on 40-year-old technol... (more)
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Hackers Attack Via Chinese Web SitesWeb sites in China are being used heavily to target computer networks in the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies, successfully breaching hundreds of unclassified networks, according to several U.S. officials.
Classified systems have not been compromised, the officials added. But U.S. authorities remain concerned because, as one official said, even seemingly innocuous information, when pulled together from various sources, can yield useful intelligence to an adversary.
... (more)
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Wiretaps Unfold Italian Tycoons' Dirty LaundryThe 53-year-old mother of five offers words of comfort to the man on the other end of the line.
"Stay calm, stay calm," she says to him, over and over. "Re-l-a-x."
"Thanks, dear," he says at one point in the conversation.
The woman is the wife of the gray-haired governor of Italy's central bank, one of the most powerful financial positions in the country. The man is not the gray-haired governor.
But he does hold another powerful positio... (more)
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‘US combat troops returning from Iraq face major health peril’US combat troops traumatised by their experiences in Iraq may suffer long-term damage to their physical health, as well as known risks to their mental well-being, the British magazine New Scientist warns.
“Veterans will be paying the price of combat for decades to come,” it says in its next issue, out on Saturday.
Doctors are already familiar with the psychological impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the modern name for shell shock, a term c... (more)
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Nonprofits Cloak Donors to Governor SchwarzeneggerGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is benefiting from millions of dollars raised by a network of tax-exempt groups without revealing that the money comes from major corporations with business before his office.
The groups are run by Schwarzenegger's closest political allies, who also represent some of California's biggest interest groups. Unlike the governor's many campaign funds, the nonprofits are not required to disclose their contributors and can accept unlimited amounts.
... (more)
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Battle escalates over fliers' personal dataThe Homeland Security Department is making another push to get personal data on airline passengers in an effort to keep terrorists off flights.
The lobbying effort comes months after the House and Senate, concerned about invading privacy, gave preliminary approval to a measure that would ban the department from tapping into credit reports, court files, shopping histories and other personal information for one year.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wants ... (more)
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Homeless Woman Returns Purse With $800 Cash InsideA homeless woman living at a Salvation Army shelter in Tampa with her five children found and returned a purse containing $800 in cash and two paychecks, according to a report.
Canesha Blackman, 24, was on her way to the Polk County Government Center for a bus pass when she found the purse in the parking lot. But instead of keeping the cash, she turned the purse into a worker inside the building.
"People ask me, 'What were you thinking?'" Blackman said. "If it was m... (more)
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