All News Articles
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Migrating Birds' Habitat Threatened by Sea Wall Thousands of birds are being starved on their migratory routes between Australia and Siberia as a result of a huge land-reclamation project that has drained a valuable wetland habitat in South Korea. A 20-mile-long sea wall has stopped the ebb and flow of the tides that have made the Saemangeum... Read more |
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Why Fearless Leaders are Something to Dread LONDON - The painful unraveling over the last year of the public and private lives of one of the UK's most iconic businessmen, Lord Browne, is a sobering example of the pitfalls of the cult of leadership. Raising expectations far beyond the capacity of one human to fulfill them - neither BP's... Read more |
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Warming Triggers 'Alarming' Retreat of Himalayan Glaciers KAROLA PASS, Tibet - The glaciers of the Himalayas store more ice than anywhere on Earth except for the polar regions and Alaska, and the steady flow of water from their melting icepacks fills seven of the mightiest rivers of Asia. Now, due to global warming and related changes in the monsoons and... Read more |
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Blair Faces Questions Over Alleged US Plan to Attack al-Jazeera LONDON - The government is to be questioned in parliament next week over what discussions Tony Blair had with George Bush about plans to bomb the Arabic television satellite station al-Jazeera, at a particularly delicate time in the war in Iraq. Peter Kilfoyle, a former Labour defense minister, is... Read more |
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Moms Spend Their Weekend Protesting Iraq Occupation SAN FRANCISCO - Antiwar activists from around the country will celebrate Mothers Day by converging on Washington, DC, where they will demand Congress end the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Five days of activism, sponsored by the women-for-peace group CODEPINK and "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan's Gold Star... Read more |
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Thailand Turns Giant Pharma Killer BANGKOK - By standing up to pressure from big pharmaceutical companies over cheap anti-AIDS drugs, Thailand may have created an opening in global trade rules that will permit developing countries to more readily break patents in times of public health emergencies. The fact that the United States... Read more |
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Three US Newspapers Reverse 100-Year-Old Stand on Death Penalty WASHINGTON - Three established U.S. newspapers, two of them among the 10 largest in the country, in three different states have in the past weeks abandoned their century-old support of the death penalty and become passionate advocates of a ban on state-sponsored killing. The newspapers -- the... Read more |
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Neo-Cons Driving Iran Divestment Campaign WASHINGTON - Neo-conservative hawks who championed the invasion of Iraq are leading a new campaign to persuade state and local governments, as well as other institutional investors, to "divest" their holdings in foreign companies and U.S. overseas subsidiaries doing business in Iran. While... Read more |
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LEDs Emerge to Fight Fluorescents The light bulb, the symbol of bright ideas, doesn't look like such a great idea anymore, as lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad are talking about banning the century-old technology because of its contribution to global warming. But what comes next? Compact fluorescent bulbs are the only real... Read more |
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New Hampshire Prosecutor Calls Protesters a 'Threat to the Public' MANCHESTER, N.H. - Anti-war protesters, arrested for refusing to leave Sen. John H. Sununu's Manchester office, staged a "vainglorious event to gain publicity" and need to be held on some cash bail because the protest taxed police resources, causing a threat to the public, a police prosecutor said... Read more |
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Dissent in an Unlikely Place Bush speaks today at a Catholic college led by an ally, but views on the war dampen the welcome. Read more |
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Climate Change Could Lead to Global Conflict, Says Beckett LONDON - Climate change could spawn a new era of conflicts around the world over water and other scarce resources unless more is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, warned yesterday. She said climate-driven conflicts were already under way in Africa... Read more |
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Stifling Summers Forecast by NASA for US East Coast NEW YORK - Researchers at NASA have warned that unless growth in greenhouse gas emissions can be successfully curbed, large areas of the eastern United States, from Washington DC to Florida, can expect to suffer through catastrophically hotter summers within just a couple of generations. A study... Read more |
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Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. The... Read more |
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No Child Left Behind Scandal Widens A scathing report issued today documents "substantial financial ties" between key advisors of Reading First, a controversial federal reading grant program, and publishers who benefited from the program. The report, issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Health, Education,... Read more |
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US-Afghanistan: Deaths Mount with No End in Sight WASHINGTON - While attention among policy-makers in Washington remains focused on Iraq, the war in Afghanistan has become an ongoing struggle to keep the country from deteriorating into a failed state. Afghanistan remains one of the keystones in the United States' "war on terror". According to news... Read more |
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Michael Moore Faces US Treasury Probe LOS ANGELES - Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary "Sicko," The Associated Press has learned. The investigation provides another... Read more |
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Marine Tells Hearing of Iraqi Civilians Shot Trying to Surrender A Marine sergeant Wednesday admitted lying about the deaths of five Iraqi civilians who were killed while appearing to surrender during an alleged massacre by US troops two years ago. Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz -- testifying after being given immunity from prosecution -- said the five Iraqi men were... Read more |
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US Lawmaker Asks Bush to Arrest Anti-Castro Bomb Suspect WASHINGTON - A US lawmaker on Wednesday called on President George W. Bush to detain the Cuban anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles, after a US judge freed the alleged airplane bomber. "The world will conclude that this administration has a double standard when it comes to fighting terrorism... Read more |
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Environment: Momentum Grows to 'Ban the Bulb' WASHINGTON - On Feb. 20, Australia announced it would phase out the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2010, replacing them with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs that use one-fourth as much electricity. If the rest of the world joins Australia in this simple step to sharply cut carbon emissions, the worldwide drop in electricity use would permit the closing of more than 270 coal-fired (500 megawatt) power plants. For the United States, this bulb switch would facilitate shutting down 80 coal-fired plants. Read more |
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Dismay over Nuclear 'Solution' to Climate Problem UNITED NATIONS - The UN's experts on climate change are facing the wrath of many environmental groups this week for embracing the notion that additional use of nuclear power could be helpful in the fight against global warming. Last weekend, at the end of an international meeting held in Bangkok,... Read more |
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Global Public Favors Stronger United Nations UNITED NATIONS - According to the results of a groundbreaking 18-nation poll released Wednesday, people around the world favor dramatic steps to strengthen the United Nations, including giving it the power to have its own standing peacekeeping force, to regulate the international arms trade and to... Read more |
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US Air Strikes Kill 21 Civilians in Afghanistan At least 21 civilians, including six children, have been killed in US air strikes in Afghanistan, leading to angry protests among locals. The deaths brought the total of civilian deaths to almost 100 in the past two weeks and followed President Hamid Karzai's declaration that his people "can no... Read more |
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Retired US Army Colonel Speaks to Group; 'Hit the Streets' A U.S. Army veteran who resigned in protest of the Bush administration's policies told her story to an appreciative crowd of nearly 70 in Eureka's Waterfront Wharfinger Building Monday night. "It is important that we hit the streets," retired Col. Ann Wright urged the group. "There are a lot of... Read more |
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US Greenhouse Gas Emissions Up BONN, Germany - U.S. and Russian greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2005, more than canceling out a dip in the European Union's emissions despite growing calls to limit global warming, official data shows. Combined emissions by the United States, Russia and the EU, accounting for about half the world... Read more |
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White House Struggles To Fill Senior Posts The Bush administration is facing growing difficulties in filling a rising number of high-level vacancies following a recent spate of senior departures. In the last 10 days alone Mr Bush has lost four senior officials and more resignations are expected to follow. "I wouldn't describe this as... Read more |
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Global Rush To Energy Crops Threatens To Bring Food Shortages and Increase Poverty, Says UN · Winners and Losers In Huge Biofuel Industry· Oil Price Will Stabilize But Small Farmers at Risk Read more |
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Green Groups Dismayed As Flights Soar To Record High Aviation growth is soaring to an all-time high, raising the prospect of a huge increase in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. For the first time, more than 2.5 million commercial flights will be made around the world in a single month, with 2.51 million scheduled for May, says... Read more |
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Pelosi's Next Tactic: Fund The War in Iraq 2 Months at a Time New Strings Attached To Funding of The War Read more |
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Pentagon Moved to Fix Iraqi Media Before Invasion In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon planned to create a 'Rapid Reaction Media Team' (RRMT) designed to ensure control over major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi 'face' for its efforts, according to a 'White Paper' obtained by the independent National Security Archive... Read more |
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Deadly Dust: Study Suggests Cancer Risk from Depleted Uranium Depleted uranium, which is used in armor-piercing ammunition, causes widespread damage to DNA which could lead to lung cancer, according to a study of the metal's effects on human lung cells. The study adds to growing evidence that DU causes health problems on battlefields long after hostilities... Read more |
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US Hospitals Charge Uninsured More, Study Says U.S. hospitals are charging uninsured patients about two-and-a-half times more than those with health insurance, a mark-up that has been steadily rising despite pressure to level prices, a study released on Tuesday found.In 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, hospital patients... Read more |
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Protesters Favor Soft Hats, Tough Lyrics They operate with a sense of outrage, a commitment to nonviolence, a love of song, and an irreverent brand of humor. Meet the Raging Grannies, feisty women of a certain age who protest war, nuclear power, bio hazards, degradation of the environment, and a panoply of other causes. They protest with... Read more |
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France's Election: Another Political Thatcher Is Born PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy's triumph in the French presidential elections could open the way for deep political and social changes, not unlike those that began with the era of Margaret Thatcher in Britain in the 1980s. At the same time, Sarkozy's triumph, or rather, the defeat of the Left in the shape... Read more |
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Population Policy: NGOs Warn of World Bank "Fundamentalists" UNITED NATIONS - When the United States tried to water down a longstanding policy on reproductive health and family planning at the World Bank last month, there was a storm of protests from population experts and activist groups worldwide.The protests came from several non-governmental... Read more |
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Infant Mortality in Iraq Soars as Young Pay the Price for War WASHINGTON -Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa. A new report shows that in the years since 1990, Iraq has seen its... Read more |
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Unions Fire First Shots in Battle with France's Sarkozy PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday flew off for a three-day retreat in Malta to prepare for his French presidential takeover next week, while unions warned that any plans to force through sweeping reforms would face opposition. The rightwing former interior minister was handed a clear mandate for... Read more |
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New Fears Over Additives in Children's Food Food safety experts have advised parents to eliminate a series of additives from their children's diet while they await the publication of a new study that is understood to link these ingredients to behaviour problems in youngsters. The latest scientific research into the effect of food additives... Read more |
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World Bank Panel Finds Wolfowitz at Fault; Aide Resigns WASHINGTON - A committee of World Bank directors has formally notified Paul D. Wolfowitz that they found him to be guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion for Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, in 2005. The findings stepped up the pressure on Mr. Wolfowitz to resign... Read more |
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'The Other K Street' In the Concrete Canyon of the Business Lobby, a Pocket of Liberal Activists Settles In Read more |
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Palestinians 'Routinely Tortured' in Israeli Jails TEL AVIV - Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces are routinely tortured and ill-treated, according to a new report published by Israeli human rights groups yesterday. The ill-treatment, which includes beatings, sensory deprivation, back-bending, back-stretching and other forms of... Read more |
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Anti-Nuke Groups Gird for New Battle WASHINGTON - Thirty years ago, they stormed the New Hampshire coast, arriving by foot and by boat, to be met by state police, National Guard troops and a governor roaming the site in army fatigues. By the time they slapped the cuffs on Paul Gunter and more than 1,400 others known collectively as... Read more |
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US Expects Rise in Troop Casualties General says toll will grow as more forces deploy in security plan. Eight Americans die in three separate attacks. Read more |
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Whistle-Blower on Student Aid Is Vindicated WASHINGTON - When Jon Oberg, a Department of Education researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else. The department "does not... Read more |
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Congress Considers Broadening Justice Department Inquiry WASHINGTON - Congressional investigators are beginning to focus on accusations that a top civil rights official at the Justice Department illegally hired lawyers based on their political affiliations, especially for sensitive voting rights jobs. Two former department lawyers told McClatchy... Read more |
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China Orders Resettlement of Thousands of Tibetans ZENGSHOL, Tibet - In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated some 250,000 Tibetans - nearly one-tenth of the population - from scattered rural hamlets to new "socialist villages," ordering them to build new housing largely at... Read more |
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The Great Wall of Baghdad May Be Going Up, but There's Still Carnage on the Streets BAGHDAD -The first thing Said, a small contractor, did on visiting a military prison in west Baghdad was to pay a $2,000 bribe. The money went to an officer in return for a promise not to torture Said's brother and business partner, Ali. The main payment comes later. For Ali's release, Said will... Read more |
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City Wakes up to Economic Threat of Global Warming In 1798 Thomas Malthus forecast that a huge increase in population would outpace food production by the mid-19th century, leading to a catastrophic famine. He was wrong. Malthus could yet be proved right, though not in the way he envisaged. Today, scientists worry that global warming will lead to... Read more |
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With New Clout, Antiwar Groups Push Democrats WASHINGTON, May 4 - Every morning, representatives from a cluster of antiwar groups gather for a conference call with Democratic leadership staff members in the House and the Senate. Shortly after, in a cramped meeting room here, they convene for a call with organizers across the country. They hash... Read more |
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Republicans Defect to the Obama Camp WASHINGTON - DISILLUSIONED supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to Barack Obama, the Democratic senator for Illinois, as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation. Tom Bernstein went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball... Read more |
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Fight Against Poverty - a Marathon, Not a Sprint MONTEVIDEO - Combating poverty is more like a long distance race than a sprint, and in the past two years progress has been made that would have been unthinkable decades ago. But much remains to be done, say activists from all over the world who have gathered together in the Uruguayan capital. Some... Read more |
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American Dream Sours as Housing Market Collapses DENVER, Colo. - For Cathy Busby, May 1 marked a personal "Mayday!" as she was sucked into the housing crisis sweeping the United States. On Tuesday, she went into arrears on her mortgage after her monthly repayments soared by 40 per cent. The 47-year-old hospital administrator will lose the three-... Read more |
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Israel Accused of Prisoner Abuse Human rights groups in Israel have accused the security services of routinely mistreating Palestinian detainees. The two groups said detainees were held in appalling conditions, and were sometimes tortured. They said the maltreatment was intended to "break the spirit" of those who were being... Read more |
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LAPD Again Didn't Heed Protocols, Critics Say LOS ANGELES - As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa returned to Los Angeles on Friday in hopes of quelling anger over the LAPD's use of force at an immigration rally, he and other officials questioned why officers ignored rules established after a similar incident outside the 2000 Democratic National... Read more |
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Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person' VIENNA, Austria - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV.But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person-at least not yet. In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting... Read more |
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France Braces for Right-Left Presidential showdown France is collectively holding its breath, with just hours to go till the final decision in its most hard-fought presidential election in years. The two candidates -- right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal -- closed their campaigns Friday at midnight in accordance with election... Read more |
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Climate Report Ignored by Chinese Media China's media largely ignored a landmark report on global warming on Saturday as Beijing sweated through an unseasonal heatwave. The China Daily, an English-language newspaper aimed largely at foreigners, ran a front-page story on the report released in Bangkok outlining measures needed to avert... Read more |
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Iraq War Strain Leads Troops to Abuse civilians, Survey Shows One in 10 of the US soldiers in Iraq mistreats civilians or damages their property, according to a survey published by the Pentagon last night. The report said the mental health of soldiers and marines deteriorated significantly as a result of extended or multiple deployments. The study confirms... Read more |
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US System Trips up Women Seeking Presidency WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni recently suggested Ehud Olmert should step aside and let her be prime minister, nobody batted an eye over the fact she is a woman. Golda Meir laid that debate to rest in Israel nearly 40 years ago. Britain had Margaret Thatcher,... Read more |
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Iran: Sanctions Aggravate Rights Situation TEHRAN - As economic sanctions are applied to this country for its nuclear activities, hardliners in the government are getting strengthened and successfully demanding even harsher curbs on individual liberties. The sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council, at the behest of the... Read more |
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Climate Change: 'A Problem of Lifestyles' BANGKOK - An eleventh hour intervention by the Indian delegation at a major U.N. climate change conference here pushed to centre stage the need for a dramatic shift in lifestyles rather than dependence on green-friendly technology for solutions to global warming. The call by the Indians to include... Read more |
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NRA: Don't Ban Gun Sales to Suspected Terrorists WASHINGTON - The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms. Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or... Read more |
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Veto Threat for Federal Hate Crimes Protection for Gays Washington -- After the same-sex marriage fights that roiled the 2004 elections and knocked gay rights groups on their heels, advocates seemed poised with the Democratic seizure of Congress in November to enact federal civil rights laws they have sought for nearly two decades. But four hours before... Read more |
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Rove Prepped Justice Dept. Official for Testimony WASHINGTON - Top White House political aide Karl Rove helped prepare a high-ranking Justice Department official for testimony about the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys, congressional investigators have been told. William Moschella, associate deputy attorney general, told the... Read more |
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Charges of Dishonesty Fly at World Bank WASHINGTON - The controversy over allegations of misconduct by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is turning ever more sour, with Wolfowitz and former top managers, who together oversaw billons of dollars in loans to thousands of projects in developing nations, trading barbs and accusations of... Read more |
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Historian Howard Zinn Calls for Activism NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Howard Zinn may be a historian, but he lives in the present. As demonstrators for immigrant rights made their way around New Haven on May Day, Zinn assumed the stage at the Center Church on the New Haven Green, stressing the need for youth to engage in activism, to understand the... Read more |
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Chavez Threatens to Nationalize Banks CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday threatened to nationalize the country's banks and largest steel producer, accusing them of unscrupulous practices. "Private banks have to give priority to financing the industrial sectors of Venezuela at low cost," Chavez said. "If... Read more |
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Murder of Mexican Union Organizer Alarms Workers, Activists MONTERREY, Mexico - Santiago Cruz moved to this northern Mexico city to help organize Mexican farmworkers bound for the United States under a legal guest-worker program. His killers spared him no agony. They bound his hands and feet with strips of T-shirt, strangled him using a beach towel adorned... Read more |
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Crucial Climate Change Agreement Reached After Fierce Debate BEIJING - Climate change experts agreed Friday on measures the world can take to combat global warming, following intense debate and marathon talks at a crucial UN conference here, participants said. Scientists and other leading authorities from 120 nations finally achieved a consensus after an... Read more |
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Rights: US 'Moral Authority' Rests on Big Stick UNITED NATIONS - When the 192-member U.N. General Assembly meets in mid-May to elect 14 new members to the 47-nation Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC), the United States will be conspicuous by its absence and missing from the ballot. Justifying its decision, Washington says it will skip the... Read more |
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US Oil Company Accused of Dumping Waste in Amazon A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery for the local Achuar people and widespread lead and cadmium poisoning. A report issued by a coalition of protest groups... Read more |
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UK and US Must Admit Defeat and Leave Iraq, Says British General LONDON - A retired British army general says Iraq's insurgents are justified in opposing the occupation, arguing that the US and its allies should "admit defeat" and leave Iraq before more soldiers are killed.General Sir Michael Rose told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "It is the soldiers who have... Read more |
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Honeybee Die-Off Threatens Food Supply BELTSVILLE, Md. - Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet. Honeybees don't just make honey; they... Read more |
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2006 Missouri's Election Was ground Zero for GOP WASHINGTON - Accusations about voter fraud seemed to fly from every direction in Missouri before last fall's elections. State and national Republicans leaders fretted that dead people might vote or that some live people might vote more than once.The threat to the integrity of the election was seen... Read more |
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Death Penalty: Young US Lawyers Halting Executions BOSTON - Youthful idealism and perseverance are helping to win the day against the U.S. conservative establishment and its huge law enforcement resources in the life and death legal struggle to halt execution by lethal injection -- and with that the final end to the death penalty in the country."... Read more |
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Biodiversity: Farming Will Make or Break the Food Chain BROOKLIN, Canada - As the world population swells to nine billion by 2050, global biodiversity will be under extreme pressure unless new ways to grow food are developed, experts say. An additional one billion hectares of wild lands -- mainly forests and savanna -- will be converted to food... Read more |
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Holiday at the End of the Earth: Tourists Paying to See Global Warming in Action Bored with your usual holiday? Try watching bits of the world as they start to heat up! The effects of climate change are leading to a distinctive new form of 21st-century travel: global-warming tourism. A US tour company will be running a special trip this summer to view Warming Island, the... Read more |
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Boston Police Bracing for Biotech Protests BOSTON - When 20,000 delegates, including scores of dignitaries, descend on Boston for an international biotechnology conference starting Sunday, they will be met by dozens if not hundreds of protesters and by police bracing for what could be the biggest demonstrations in the city since the 2004... Read more |
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Afghans Say US Bombing Killed 42 Civilians KABUL, Afghanistan - Aerial bombing of a valley in western Afghanistan several days ago by the American military killed at least 42 civilians, including women and children, and wounded 50 more, an Afghan government investigation found Wednesday. A provincial council member who visited the site... Read more |
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Iraqi Blocs Opposed to Draft Oil Bill ERBIL, Iraq - Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials expressed deep reservations on Wednesday about the draft version of a national oil law and related legislation, misgivings that could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush. The draft law, which establishes... Read more |
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Around Globe, Walls Spring Up to Divide Neighbors TIJUANA, Mexico - What do Tijuana, Baghdad and Jerusalem have in common? They all have walls that divide neighbors, cause controversy and form part of an array of physical barriers around the world that dwarf the late, unlamented Iron Curtain. There are walls, fences, trenches and berms. Some are... Read more |
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Bush's Management Style Allows for Incompetence - But Not Massage WASHINGTON - Apparently, a penchant for massages is the one thing that President Bush cannot abide in an underling.Arranging a massive pay raise and promotion for a girlfriend? World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz "ought to stay," Bush said. "He ought to be given a fair hearing." Admittedly muffing... Read more |
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Karzai Says Afghans Lose Patience Over Killings KABUL - President Hamid Karzai warned on Wednesday that Afghan patience was wearing thin over the killing of civilians by Western forces hunting Taliban guerrillas, saying further deaths would lead to bad consequences. Around 50 civilians have been killed in raids by U.S.-led troops in the past... Read more |
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Scientists Protest New Reading of Endangered Species Act TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - More than three dozen scientists have signed a letter to protest a new Bush administration interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, saying it jeopardizes animals such as wolves and grizzly bears. The new reading of the law proposed by Interior Department Solicitor David... Read more |
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Chávez Takes Over Foreign-Controlled Oil Projects in Venezuela SAN FELIPE, Venezuela - President Hugo Chávez on Tuesday seized control of the last remaining oil projects in Venezuela controlled by large American and European energy companies. The move to take over the projects, announced in January, is the centerpiece of recent actions aimed at consolidating... Read more |
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War on Terrorism going Badly, US Admits THE US State Department yesterday urged that "non-military" strategies be used to fight terrorism as it admitted that more than 20,000 people died in terrorist attacks last year, up 40 per cent on 2005. The big rise in deaths, injuries and terrorist incidents was almost entirely due to... Read more |
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Nuclear Storm Gathers as Climate Change Experts Meet BANGKOK, Thailand - Few issues are as divisive as nuclear power, and the furore over its use threatens to resurface as leading scientists meet in Thailand to thrash out a plan to reduce the impact of climate change. Nuclear supporters hail it a "clean" energy that will help lessen the world's... Read more |
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Russia Suspects US Plans to Monopolize Fuel from Moon MOSCOW - Mankind's second race for the moon has taken on a distinctly Cold War feel, with the Russian space agency accusing its old rival NASA of rejecting a proposal for joint lunar exploration. The charge comes amid suspicion in Moscow that the US is seeking to deny Russia access to an isotope in... Read more |
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Administration Pulls Back on Surveillance Agreement WASHINGTON - Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January. Rather, they argued that the president had the... Read more |
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Tape 'Reveals Order' to Shoot Vietnam Protesters WASHINGTON - The command, as Alan Canfora heard it on a 37-year-old audio recording recently discovered in a government archive, appeared to leave no room for doubt. "Right here. Get set. Point. Fire." Then came 13 seconds of gunfire. When it ended, four students were dead and nine injured, and the... Read more |
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Price Tag for War in Iraq on Track to Top $500 Billion WASHINGTON - The bitter fight over the latest Iraq spending bill has all but obscured a sobering fact: The war will soon cost more than $500 billion.That's about ten times more than the Bush administration anticipated before the war started four years ago, and no one can predict how high the tab... Read more |
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Venezuela Pulling Out of IMF, World Bank CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions."We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to... Read more |
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Afghanistan: Coalition Killings Spark Furious Street Protests KABUL - Angry protests have erupted in two Afghan provinces against killings of civilians in military operations by coalition troops on Taliban targets.On Monday, thousands of furious people took to the streets to denounce a "cold blooded massacre" of dozens of civilians by coalition troops in... Read more |
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Ex-Soldier Recalls Horrors of Abu Ghraib SAN FRANCISCO - Saturday marked the third anniversary of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. On Apr. 28, 2004 CBS broadcast the first graphic photos of torture inside of the U.S.-run prison in Iraq on its 60 Minutes II programme."Americans did this to an Iraqi prisoner," news anchor Dan Rather said as a... Read more |
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Blair's Bloody Legacy: Iraq LONDON - On the 10th anniversary of Tony Blair's election as Prime Minister, an exclusive poll reveals 69 per cent of Britons believe that, when he leaves office, his enduring legacy will be the bloody conflict in IraqSeven out of 10 people believe that Iraq will prove to be Tony Blair's most... Read more |
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Security Cameras and HQ Squads: Wal-Mart's Union-Busting Tactics NEW YORK - The world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, today stands accused of routinely flouting its workers' human rights through a sophisticated strategy of harassing union organisers, discriminating against long-term staff and indoctrinating employees with misleading propaganda.In a forensic... Read more |
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Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster, a Study Finds Climate scientists may have significantly underestimated the power of global warming from human-generated heat-trapping gases to shrink the cap of sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean, according to a new study of polar trends. The study, published online today in Geophysical Research Letters,... Read more |
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Clamshell Alliance: 1,400 Arrested 30 Years Ago PORTSMOUTH, N. H. - Longtime residents of the Seacoast will likely remember the Clamshell Alliance, a group formed in 1976 that swelled in numbers in opposition to the construction of Seabrook Station nuclear power plant.Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the Clamshell Alliance demonstration at... Read more |
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Kent State Shooting Victim: Reopen Case COLUMBUS, Ohio - A man who was shot when National Guard troops opened fire on protesters at Kent State University wants the government to reopen the case, citing an audio recording that he says may reveal an order to fire.Alan Canfora, who was wounded in the right wrist during the 1970 anti-war... Read more |
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Gore Calls Canada Climate Plan a 'Fraud' TORONTO - Al Gore condemned Canada's new plan to reduce greenhouse gases, saying it was "a complete and total fraud" because it lacks specifics and gives industry a way to actually increase emissions.Under the initiative announced Thursday, Canada aims to reduce the current level of greenhouse gas... Read more |