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Renewed Global Promise to Build 'A World Fit for Children' WASHINGTON - While delegates to the Bali climate conference tried to hammer out an agreement to preserve the planet for future generations, in New York delegates to a UN General Assembly Special Session wrestled with another pressing problem: how to meet the promise of "A World Fit for Children"... Read more |
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Congress, Bush in Clash Over CIA Interrogation Tapes WASHINGTON - Congress and President George W. Bush were headed for confrontation Saturday as US lawmakers accused the Justice Department of blocking their probe into whether the CIA tried to cover up torture by destroying interrogation tapes. Lawmakers from both parties expressed outrage after Bush... Read more |
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House Judiciary Trio Calls for Impeach Cheney Hearings Three senior members of the House Judiciary Committee have called for the immediate opening of impeachment hearings for Vice President Richard Cheney. Democrats Robert Wexler of Florida, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin on Friday distributed a statement, " A Case for... Read more |
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India: Prime Destination for Unethical Clinical Trials BANGALORE - Lack of regulation, accountability, low costs of operation and wide availability of target participants are reasons why multinational drug companies, researchers and institutions are increasingly basing their clinical trials in India.An estimated 40 percent of all clinical trials now... Read more |
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Activists: Burma Deaths Higher Than UN Estimate CANBERRA - The death toll from a democracy crackdown ordered by Myanmar's ruling junta was much greater than U.N. estimates and scores of people were still missing, activists just back from the reclusive country said on Friday. A delegation of Buddhist witnesses who entered Myanmar posing as... Read more |
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UN Rights Envoy Suspects CIA of Guantanamo Torture GENEVA - A United Nations investigator said on Thursday he strongly suspected the CIA of using torture on terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, suggesting many were not being prosecuted to keep the abuse from emerging at trial. On a visit to the U.S. detention centre in Cuba last week, Martin... Read more |
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Under Siege, Unions Seek Int'l Support WASHINGTON - In the face of globalisation, the U.S. labour movement is striving to reinvent -- and reinvigorate -- itself by establishing closer ties with the world's network of international unions. The AFL-CIO, the U.S.'s largest federation of unions, embraced a new level of internationalism this... Read more |
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Biofuels Scarce on Bali Menu NUSA DUA, Bali, Indonesia - Green groups hoping that the social and environmental cost of biofuels would get an airing at the United Nations climate change conference here are a disappointed lot. The Dec. 3-14 conference has given only marginal attention to biofuels during the formal sessions --... Read more |
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Acidic Seas May Kill 98% of World's Reefs by 2050 The majority of the world's coral reefs are in danger of being killed off by rising levels of greenhouse gases, scientists warned yesterday. Researchers from Britain, the US and Australia, working with teams from the UN and the World Bank, voiced their concerns after a study revealed 98% of the... Read more |
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US Loses Status as Top World Bank Donor to Britain BERLIN - The United States lost its status as the largest donor to the World Bank, the lender said on Friday, as Britain pledged more in the latest funding round which secured a record amount for around 80 poor countries. Losing its position as the top donor could weaken Washington's influence over... Read more |
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Young Activists Furious With Clinton, Dodd Many youth activists are furious with the campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) for suggesting that college students who did not grow up in Iowa should not caucus there in January - and they are delivering that message both publicly and privately. "It's... Read more |
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Defiant FCC Chief Refuses To Delay Vote WASHINGTON -- Facing growing criticism of his agenda and tactics, a defiant Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, refused senators' requests Thursday to delay a vote next week on his plan to loosen restrictions on owning a newspaper and broadcast station in the same... Read more |
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Demolition of Public Housing Starts NEW ORLEANS - In normal times, redevelopment of public housing to make way for mixed-income neighborhoods might have gone largely unopposed. But passions are high in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, where residents are desperate for cheap housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development... Read more |
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Canada Police Urged to Curb Taser Use OTTAWA - Canada's national police force should limit their use of Taser stun guns to cases in which a suspect poses a major threat, a Canadian watchdog said Wednesday in the wake of three recent deaths of people who had been shocked by the hand-held weapon. The report by the Commission for... Read more |
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Bottled Water Boycotts: Back-to-the-Tap Movement Gains Momentum From San Francisco to New York to Paris, city governments, high-class restaurants, schools, and religious groups are ditching bottled water in favor of what comes out of the faucet. With people no longer content to pay 1,000 times as much for bottled water, a product no better than water from the... Read more |
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VA Must Act to Curb Combat-Vet Suicides, Panel Hears WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to do more to find and treat returning soldiers who're at risk of killing themselves if the country is going to avert a rash of veterans' suicides, lawmakers and witnesses told a congressional hearing Wednesday. In an often-combative hearing of... Read more |
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Vote Unlikely To Deter Blackwater; Opposition Gets Organized Strictly speaking, a vote removing five members of the Potrero planning group for their support of a Blackwater Worldwide training camp means little. Blackwater officials say they are undeterred by election results announced yesterday morning and still plan to seek county approval for their project... Read more |
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White House Pressured EPA on Toxin Reporting, Audit Says WASHINGTON - The White House pressured the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken requirements that companies annually disclose the release of toxic chemicals, congressional auditors say. The changes mean that industry will have to file 22,000 fewer reports each year, reducing an important... Read more |
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Al Gore Lambasts US Climate Obstructions Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, launched a very public attack on Washington today blaming American officials for the failure of this week's United Nations climate change conference. The United States refused to sign up to emissions targets as the Bali conference on global warming limped to... Read more |
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Lawsuits Allege Milk Wasn't Organic SEATTLE - Some of the nation's largest retailers and grocery chains sold milk labeled "organic" that was not truly organic, recently filed lawsuits allege. The federal complaints focus on the sale of milk from Boulder, Colo.-based Aurora Organic Dairy, which recently agreed to change its practices... Read more |
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Democrats Blaming Each Other For Failures When Democrats took control of Congress in January, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) pledged to jointly push an ambitious agenda to counter 12 years of Republican control. Now, as Congress struggles to adjourn for Christmas, relations between... Read more |
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Judge Says California Can Regulate Greenhouse Gases From Cars The decision is a setback for automakers, which argued that only the federal government could set standards that would affect fuel economy. The state now needs an EPA waiver to proceed. Read more |
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Palestinian Civilians 'Hostage' to Worsening Conflict: Red Cross GENEVA - Palestinians have become a "hostage to the conflict" between militants and the Israeli armed forces and are bearing the brunt of the hostilities, the international Red Cross warned on Thursday. "The Palestinian people are paying an exceedingly high price for the continuing hostilities... Read more |
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Ominous Arctic Melt Worries Experts An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years. Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion... Read more |
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World Off Track On Goal of School For All Children DAKAR - Close to one billion people will never receive a formal education because governments around the world are not living up to pledges to provide free primary schooling for all by 2015, aid groups said on Wednesday. At a meeting in Senegal's capital Dakar in 2000, governments from 164... Read more |
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Indigenous Peoples Shut Out of Climate Talks, Plans UNITED NATIONS - Global initiatives to reduce carbon emissions are bound to fail if the interests of indigenous communities are not taken into account, leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples are warning. "The success of efforts to lower carbon emissions from deforestation hinges... Read more |
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Wary of Protests, Exxon Plans Natural Gas Terminal in the Atlantic Exxon Mobil said Tuesday that it would like to build a $1 billion floating terminal for liquefied natural gas about 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey, a move meant to deflect safety and environmental concerns about proximity to populated areas. The company plans to anchor a boatlike structure in... Read more |
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Clergy Joins "Tapegate" Battle NEW YORK - A coalition of more than 130 religious organisations has joined a growing chorus calling for appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations regarding the Central Intelligence Agency's destruction of videotapes and its use of "harsh" interrogation techniques. In a letter to... Read more |
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US Secret Court Rejects Call to Release Wiretap Documents WASHINGTON - The top secret US court overseeing electronic surveillance programs rejected Tuesday a petition to release documents on the legal status of the government's "war-on-terror" wiretap operations. In only the third time the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has publicly... Read more |
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New Jersey To Become First State in 30 Years To Repeal Death Penalty Opponents of the death penalty in the United States were celebrating a crucial vote in New Jersey yesterday that clears the way for it to become the first state in four decades formally to repeal capital punishment - a reform that could help turn the tide of public opinion across the country. The... Read more |
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Code Pink To Take Aim at Democrats in 2008 Leaders of the antiwar group Code Pink, frustrated by the ineffectiveness of Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, yesterday said they are mobilizing a campaign for regime change within the party in the 2008 elections. The mostly female group - famous for disrupting congressional hearings and its... Read more |
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Clinton Accuses Obama of Being Too Far Left Using a curious tactic in a Democratic primary season dominated by liberals, Hillary Rodham Clinton Tuesday accused Barack Obama of being too far left to be elected president -- citing a decade-old questionnaire indicating Obama once opposed the death penalty and backed socialized medicine. The... Read more |
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Democrats Accuse White House of Cooking Climate-Change Testimony WASHINGTON - The White House censored climate scientists and edited their testimony on global warming before Congress, Democrats charged Monday after a 16-month investigation into allegations of political interference with scientific inquiries. The Bush administration was "particularly active in... Read more |
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Iraq Rejects Permanent US Bases: Adviser BAGHDAD - Iraq will never allow the United States to have permanent military bases on its soil, the government's national security adviser said. "We need the United States in our war against terrorism, we need them to guard our border sometimes, we need them for economic support and we need them... Read more |
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French Activist Bove To Go On Anti-GMO Hunger Strike TOULOUSE - French radical farmer Jose Bove, who became a worldwide celebrity for his fight against junk food, said on Monday he would go on a hunger strike to win a one-year ban on genetically modified (GMO) crops. Speaking at the Millau Court of Justice in southern France, where his four-month... Read more |
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Howard Zinn's 'History' Comes to TV Documentary Miniseries to feature Damon, Vedder Read more |
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Big Oil Lets Sun Set on Renewables Shell has quietly shed most of its solar power, while BP is buying into dirty tar sands Read more |
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White House Fought NIE Over an Old Charge WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (IPS) - The reported White House resistance to the National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran had abandoned a nuclear weapons programme in 2003 was an effort to save a political tactic the George W. Bush administration had been using since early 2004, despite the... Read more |
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Disputed in Iraq, Blackwater Now Splits California Town POTRERO, Calif. - The scandal in Iraq involving Blackwater, the private security firm, is a world away from this tiny town near the Mexican border. But five members of the community's planning group are expected to lose their posts on Tuesday for approving a Blackwater training camp on an old... Read more |
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Justices Restore Judges' Control Over Sentencing WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday restored federal judges to their traditional central role in criminal sentencing. In two decisions, the court said federal district judges had broad discretion to impose what they think are reasonable sentences, even if federal guidelines call for different... Read more |
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Criticism of The FCC's Chairman Is Widely Aired 'Lone operator' is said to keep plans from colleagues and manage the agency ineffectively. Read more |
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Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident. Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in... Read more |
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CIA Photos 'Show UK Guantanamo Detainee Was Tortured' Lawyers for a British resident who the US government refuses to release from Guantanamo Bay have identified the existence of photographs taken by CIA agents that they say show their client suffered horrific injuries under torture. The photographic evidence will be vital to clear Binyam Mohammed, 27... Read more |
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No Deal in Sight at Bali PENANG, Malaysia - As a major United Nations 'framework convention' on climate change (UNFCCC) crossed into its second half on Monday, the official view is one of optimism that progress has been made in laying the ''building blocks'' for a future agreement. But others say the discussions are... Read more |
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US Is No Haven, Canadian Judge Finds Late last month, a federal judge in Canada ruled that the United States had violated international conventions on torture and the rights of refugees. The decision has caused quite a stir in Canada. The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, said it was "outrageous, and has the whiff of Canadian... Read more |
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Anti-Immigrant Surge Tramples Int'l Norms SEATTLE, Washington - Fifty years ago in the southern United States, a system called "Jim Crow" denied African-Americans their civil rights. Now, some immigrant advocates are using the term "Juan Crow" for nativist ideologies that deny human rights to undocumented immigrants, most of whom are from... Read more |
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For Some, Childhood Is Rubbish GUATEMALA CITY - "When I thought of my future, I saw my whole life picking through this rubbish dump," says 20-year-old Julia Castillo. "I never thought I'd get away." Like thousands of other children, Julia grew up picking garbage for sale on the rubbish dump in Guatemala City. In 2005 the dump,... Read more |
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BP Set To Commit 'The Biggest Environmental Crime in History' BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are part of the "... Read more |
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US Balks at Bali Carbon Targets The UN climate talks seeking a new pact on global warming hit a potential problem today when the US said it was unwilling to approve a draft agreement setting firm targets for cuts to carbon pollution. The US said a proposal for developed nations to reduce emissions by 25-40% by 2020, which is... Read more |
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Reverend Billy Preaches The Gospel of The Church of Stop-Shopping The holiday shopping frenzy is upon us, but before you race to the mall to claim your new PlayStation 3, iPod or giant flat-panel TV, you might want to heed the words of the Rev. Billy, a.k.a. performance artist Bill Talen. Talen, 47, a longtime Bay Area actor and playwright who moved to New York... Read more |
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NGO Coalition Slams U.S. Record at Home NEW YORK - A coalition of more than 200 not-for-profit human rights and social justice organisations charge that the George W. Bush administration is contributing to racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. -- and attempting to cover up its violations in a report to the United... Read more |
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Women of Code Pink Push For Change The Austin chapter of the women's anti-war group uses creative demonstrations to voice opposition to the war. Read more |
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'Climate Change' or 'Global Warming'? WASHINGTON -- As Congress considers legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and slow global warming, delegates from around the world are in Bali, Indonesia, attending a United Nations conference on climate change. They're all choosing their words very carefully. The phrases "climate change"... Read more |
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Lawyers Charge the CIA Tortured Their Client in Secret Prisons WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for a terrorism suspect from suburban Baltimore who's imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba claim they have evidence that their client "was subjected to a program of state-sanctioned torture" while he was in CIA custody. The lawyers for Majid Khan are asking a... Read more |
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Vote Snub Fails to Silence Chavez VENEZUELA'S leader Hugo Chavez usually thrives on political tussles but rarely has the socialist president looked as chastened as he did after a stinging defeat in a referendum last week. Not that the verbose admirer of Simon Bolivar was caught tongue-tied by the rebuke. After voters rejected his... Read more |
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Harvard Alumni Fault Campus Apathy Where have all the protesters gone? A group of 1967 Harvard alumni lamented for the days of antiwar marches on Harvard Yard this week in an e-mailed petition to Drew Faust, university president. The 13 alumni, led by a Belgium-based businessman, Gilbert Doctorow, asked Faust to create a task force... Read more |
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Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002; In Meetings, Spy Panels' Chiefs Did Not Protest, Officials Say In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was... Read more |
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World Climate Change Protests Kick Off LONDON - Skiers, fire-eaters and an ice sculptor joined in worldwide demonstrations Saturday to draw attention to climate change and push their governments to take stronger action to fight global warming. From costume parades in Manila to a cyclist's protest in London, marches were held in more... Read more |
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U.N. Report Finds 31 Killed in Myanmar Crackdown UNITED NATIONS - At least 31 people were killed in Myanmar during the military government's crackdown on protests this fall, and arrests of and nighttime raids on suspected demonstrators are continuing, a United Nations human rights expert who visited the country last month said on Friday. In a... Read more |
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Efforts to Harvest Ocean's Energy Open New Debate Front NEWPORT, Ore. - Chris Martinson and his fellow fishermen catch crab and shrimp in the same big swell that one day could generate an important part of the Northwest's energy supply. Wave farms, harvested with high-tech buoys that are being tested here on the Oregon coast, would strain clean,... Read more |
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Clash with Congress Brews after CIA's Tape Destruction WASHINGTON - The White House faced another clash with Congress Saturday after furious Democratic lawmakers demanded a probe into the CIA's destruction of tapes showing harsh interrogations of captured Al-Qaeda operatives. The Central Intelligence Agency's admission that it destroyed tapes of at... Read more |
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Anger as Library Makes Exhibition of Bush NEW YORK - A series of six black and white prints on display in an unassuming corner of the New York public library have sparked controversy on the airwaves and blogosphere quite out of keeping with the dark, marble-lined corridor in which they are hung. The prints show the mugshots, in the style... Read more |
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Pentagon Plans Unchanged by Iran Report: General WASHINGTON - A U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 has had no effect on Pentagon planning, a senior U.S. military officer said on Friday. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Sattler, director for strategic plans and policy on the U.S. military's Joint Staff,... Read more |
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France Suspends Commercial GMO Seed Use, Studies Safety PARIS - France formally suspended on Thursday the commercial use of genetically modified (GMO) seeds in the country until early February and ordered a biotech safety study. The future of GMOs has long been the subject of heated debate in France -- Europe's top grain producer -- and the country's... Read more |
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Israel Considering Strike on Iran Despite US Intelligence Report Senior Israeli officials warned today they were still considering the option of a military strike against Iran, despite a fresh US intelligence report that concluded Tehran was no longer developing nuclear weapons. Although Israel argues that it wants to see strong diplomatic pressure put on Iran,... Read more |
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Bush Loses Ground With Military Families WASHINGTON - Families with ties to the military, long a reliable source of support for wartime presidents, disapprove of President Bush and his handling of the war in Iraq, with a majority concluding the invasion was not worth it, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found. The views of the... Read more |
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Gore Calls For Early Climate Pact OSLO - Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore urged governments on Friday to advance by two years a new treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions instead of waiting until the Kyoto pact expires in 2012. Government ministers are meeting at a U.N. conference in Bali, Indonesia, to try to launch talks on a... Read more |
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World Social Forum and World Economic Forum - A Bridge Too Far? 'Corporate actors have a moral responsibility, in our view, to conduct their business in such a way as to really minimixe environmental damage, especially in view of climate change' Read more |
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Cut GhGs or Face Extreme Events - Scientists NUSA DUA, Bali - Scientists attending a major United Nations conference on climate change on this Indonesian resort island warn that unless greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions are contained extreme geo-climatic events are only expectable. Some 200 climatologists and scientific experts gathered for the... Read more |
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HRW Report: US Care for HIV Detainees Falls Short NEW YORK - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to provide adequate care to immigrant detainees with HIV, putting their health and lives at risk, Human Rights Watch charged on Friday. In a 71-page report, whose findings were challenged by Homeland Security, the rights group said the... Read more |
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American Teen Pregnancies Rise For The First Time In 15 Years The Bush administration came under attack yesterday for diverting funds from sex education to abstinence programmes after the first rise in American teenage pregnancy rates in nearly 15 years. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed the rate of births to teenagers... Read more |
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CIA Destroyed Video of 'Waterboarding' Al-Qaida Detainees The CIA destroyed video evidence of the coercive interrogation of al-Qaida operatives held under its secret rendition programme in order to shield agents from prosecution, it was revealed yesterday. The decision to destroy two videotapes documenting the use of waterboarding against Abu Zubaydah and... Read more |
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Group Assails Giuliani Comments on AIDS as 'Hypocrisy' On World AIDS Day last weekend, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani vowed that if he were elected president he would "continue America's life-saving role as a leader in the global fight against HIV/AIDS until the day humanity can declare victory against this deadly disease." But in his... Read more |
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Film Attacking Greed Has Its Premiere on Billionaire's Doorstep There was no red carpet for the premiere of The War on Greed , starring Henry Kravis and His Many Homes; and the ultra-rich residents in attendance at the screening on Manhattan's exclusive Upper East Side may not have been an entirely willing audience. But if the star of your film is unwilling to... Read more |
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CIA Destroyed Videotapes of Al-Qaeda Interrogation WASHINGTON - The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former... Read more |
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Food Prices Climbing, With No End in Sight WASHINGTON - Globalisation, climate change, and the mass production of biofuels are pushing up food prices worldwide, which could jeopardise the livelihoods of the world's poorest, according to a report released Tuesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). "Food prices have... Read more |
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Legal Action by Inmates Could Close Guantanamo More than 300 terror suspects still held at Guantanamo Bay began a legal battle yesterday to have their cases heard before a civilian court, in a test case that could bring about the closure of the infamous detention camp. Lawyers and human rights groups argue that if US judges rule in favour of... Read more |
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Poor Countries Must Also Curtail Carbon Emissions NEW YORK - Rising carbon emissions from developing countries would threaten the world with severe climate change within a single generation, even if rich countries were to stop their own greenhouse gas emissions tomorrow, according to new study by an independent think tank. The study's findings... Read more |
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Environmentalists Worry Border Fence-Building Will Threaten Arizona River, Wildlife PALOMINAS, Ariz. - Before sealing off the border became the priority it is today, a visitor would have gotten a different picture of this area where the last free-flowing river in the Southwest trickles between tree-lined banks. The San Pedro River still moves lazily northward below a canopy of... Read more |
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More Than Half of Amazon Will Be Lost by 2030, Report Warns Climate change could speed up the large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest and bring the "point of no return" much closer than previously thought, conservationists warned today. Almost 60% of the region's forests could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030, as a result of climate change... Read more |
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Congress to Clash With Bush Over 'Torture' Technique Congress is set to clash with George Bush on the contentious practice of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques as it prepares legislation on intelligence funding. Senate and House officials have included the ban on waterboarding - condemned by human rights groups as a form of... Read more |
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Poison From Depleted Uranium Munitions Site Lingers New study shows people who lived near or worked at former munitions factory in Colonie have depleted uranium in their bodies Read more |
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Facebook Backs Down After Members Revolt Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, issued a public apology to the social networking site's users yesterday and promised that they could switch off a controversial advertising feature that tracked their movements on the internet. The Beacon feature launched last month automatically shared... Read more |
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Two-Thirds of Israelis Oppose Attack on Iran: Poll JERUSALEM - Two-thirds of Israelis oppose their country launching on its own a military attack against nuclear installations in arch-foe Iran, said a poll published on Thursday. When asked "should Israel alone attack the Iranian nuclear installations," 67.2 percent said no, while 20.9 percent said... Read more |
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For Iraqi Refugees A Haven Becomes a Dilemma BEIRUT, Lebanon - When the Lebanese police caught him in a routine sweep earlier this year, Jaffar Sadiq al-Lami, an illegal Iraqi immigrant, figured he would spend a month or two in jail and be released with a warning, like the previous two times he had been arrested. But Mr. Lami, 50, found... Read more |
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Guantanamo Detainees' Case Heard by Supreme Court WASHINGTON - A lawyer for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay underwent a barrage of questions today from Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia, with the attorney portraying the case as a fundamental test of the U.S. system of justice. The court plunged into the controversy over the... Read more |
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Evidence Of Innocence Rejected at Guantanamo Just months after U.S. Army troops whisked a German man from Pakistan to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002, his American captors concluded that he was not a terrorist. "USA considers Murat Kurnaz's innocence to be proven," a German intelligence officer wrote that year in a memo... Read more |
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US Intelligence Review Directly Contradicts Bush's Line On Iran WASHINGTON - Despite the White House spin that the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) supports its policy of increasing pressure on Iran, the estimate not only directly contradicts the George W. Bush administration's line on Iranian intentions regarding nuclear weapons, but points to a link... Read more |
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Peace Group Barred From Florida Schools TAMPA, Florida - Public school districts in two Florida counties are refusing to allow members of a peace organization to counter the presence of military recruiters by talking with high school students about options other than joining the service, according to a spokesperson for the group. "They (... Read more |
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Washington in the Crosshairs at Bali Climate Conference BANGKOK - The U.S. government of President George W. Bush is heading for a rough ride during a major international conference about the planet's future that began this week on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. The most visible pressure is expected to come from environmental groups assembled at... Read more |
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Israel Says Army Ready for Gaza Invasion JERUSALEM - Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action, the military chief said Wednesday, shortly after two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in the coastal area. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi... Read more |
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Leahy Plans Contempt Vote WASHINGTON -- Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., scheduled a committee vote for Thursday to consider whether four White House officials, including Karl Rove, are in contempt for disobeying Senate subpoenas. The move comes after the officials failed to respond to Leahy's demand last week that they... Read more |
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Pakistan Deports CODEPINK Human Rights Activists Pakistani authorities yesterday ordered the deportation of the leader of the feminist U.S. antiwar group Code Pink, who was in Lahore to join protests against the emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf, according to a spokeswoman for the group. Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the... Read more |
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2 US human Rights Activists Arrested in Pakistan LAHORE, Pakistan -- Two U.S. human rights activists who had sought the release of a prominent Pakistani lawyer detained under the country's state of emergency were arrested Tuesday, officials and a witness said. Police traveling in two cars picked up Medea Benjamin and Tighe Barry near the Holiday... Read more |
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FCC Chairman Target of House Panel's Investigation Chairman Kevin J. Martin is accused of 'possible abuse of power.' A hearing is set for Wednesday. Read more |
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Climate Cause Fires Up Ice Cream Guru Ben and Jerry's likes to portray itself as an ethical brand. One of the company's recent initiatives has been to sponsor a Climate Change College - a project which is sending six young European environmentalists to study and explore the high Arctic. While they're there, working alongside the... Read more |
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'Talking Dirty' on Sanitation Can Save Lives BEPPU, Japan - Although 2.6 billion people in the world -- two-thirds of whom are in southern or eastern Asia -- are living without access to basic sanitation, the issue has been a poor cousin to water supply in terms of visibility and financing. However, efforts are now on to reverse this neglect... Read more |
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Peace Now: Israel Defense Force Carried Out Only 3% of Settlement Demolition Orders The Israel Defense Forces Civil Administration carried out only three percent of its own demolition orders for illegal construction in West Bank settlements over the past ten years, according to a Peace Now report published Tuesday. According to the report, from 1997-2007 the Civil Administration... Read more |
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American College of Physicians Endorse Single-Payer The Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians - the nation's second-largest physician group - endorsed a single-payer health-care system yesterday. But the organization stopped short of saying that a single-payer system like Medicare, in which the government would get and pay most bills, is... Read more |
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FDA Science Dearth Puts Public Health at Risk Lives are at risk because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is woefully behind in the latest scientific advances and is under funded, a panel of advisers to the agency said at a public meeting on Monday. Inadequate staffing, poor retention, out-of-date technology and a lack of resources mar the... Read more |