All News Articles
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Chinese Leave Guantánamo for Albanian Limbo TIRANA, Albania - Ahktar Qassim Basit says he is not angry about the four years he spent as an American prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before his captors mumbled a brief apology and flew him to this drab Balkan capital to begin a new life as a refugee. It is this new life in Albania, Mr. Basit... Read more |
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Protesting for Peace With a Vivid Hue and Cry Code Pink's Tactics: Often Theatrical, Always Colorful Read more |
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Thousands of Demonstrators Protest Bush Visit to Rome ROME -- Thousands of demonstrators have come out in Rome to protest against globalization and U.S. President George Bush, who was winding up a European tour. The demonstrators filled Rome's streets as the President met with Pope Benedict at the Vatican. It was President Bush's first meeting with... Read more |
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European Agency Details Alleged Secret Prison Activity PARIS - The CIA held suspected Al Qaeda militants in secret prisons in Poland and Romania, enlisting top officials in those countries to create and conceal the facilities, a European intergovernmental agency alleged Friday. Current and former intelligence officials in Europe and the United States... Read more |
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Ruling Likely to Spur Convictions in Capital Cases A decision by the Supreme Court on Monday that made it easier for prosecutors to exclude people who express reservations about the death penalty from capital juries will make the panels whiter and more conviction-prone, experts in law and psychology said this week. The jurors who remain after... Read more |
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G8: Much Talk, Too Few Results HEILIGENDAMM - This year's summit of the G8 heads of government will likely be remembered as a "how not to" organise such an event, for the contrast between the expectations it raised and its negligible accomplishments, and for its enormous security costs. The three-day Group of Eight summit, held... Read more |
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USDA May Relax Standards for Organic Foods With the "USDA organic" seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its Wild Hop Lager "the perfect organic experience." "In today's world of artificial flavors, preservatives and factory farming, knowing what goes into what you eat and drink can just about drive you crazy," the Wild Hop... Read more |
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Bush Hires Lawyers to Fight Legal Battles with Congress WASHINGTON - President Bush is signing up legal help as he girds for battle with the Democratic-led Congress. Faced with a flurry of document requests and expanding congressional investigations, the White House announced Friday that Bush had hired nine lawyers, including five who'll fill new jobs... Read more |
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IRAQ: Blood, Sweat and Tears at New U.S. Embassy WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department is actively investigating allegations of forced labour and other abuses by the Kuwaiti contractor now rushing to complete the sprawling 592-million-dollar U.S. embassy project in Baghdad, numerous sources have revealed. Justice Department trial attorneys... Read more |
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Blackwater Sues Families of Slain Employees to Shut Them Up The following article is by Daniel J. Callahn and Marc P. Miles, the lawyers representing the families of four American contractors who worked for Blackwater and were killed in Fallujah. After Blackwater refused to share information about why they were killed, the families were told they would have... Read more |
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In a Corner of Old Sicily, a Battle To Keep Out Texas Oil Men Sicily's remote south-eastern corner, where small baroque towns nestle among sun-baked vineyards, hardly seems the place to find Texas oil men on the prowl, looking to strike it rich. But if early soundings by a US company, Panther Resources, pan out, the area could be sitting on natural gas... Read more |
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The 'Good Guys' Chastise the G8 'Villains' ROSTOCK, Germany - "You shouldn't have any doubts, the good guys are us," says Patrick, 20, dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and a sport jacket, with a flamboyant pink Mohawk haircut, as he reads a pamphlet on development aid for Africa. Patrick is participating at the "Alternative G8" summit, organised... Read more |
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Is US Eyeing UN as Dumping Ground for Iraq? UNITED NATIONS - Faced with an unwinnable five-year war in Iraq, the United States may be looking towards the United Nations to extricate it out of the growing military quagmire, according to diplomats and political analysts. "With the war turning out to be a huge political liability for the ruling... Read more |
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Chronically Leaky Pipeline Given The Greenlight - Again WASHINGTON, Jun 7 (IPS) - A controversial gas pipeline in the pristine heart of the Amazon forest that has ruptured six times since its inception received a clean bill of health this week from the main financial backer, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), drawing scepticism from indigenous... Read more |
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Democrats Face Off Over Emissions Bill California Lawmakers Lead Opposition to a Draft That Would Prevent States From Taking Tougher Action Than The Federal Government. Read more |
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British Contractor Paid Saudi, Reports Say LONDON, June 7 — A major British arms contractor paid more than $2 billion clandestinely into bank accounts in Washington controlled by Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia , two British news organizations reported Thursday. Prince Bandar denied accepting "improper secret commissions." The... Read more |
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Democrats May Subpoena N.S.A. Documents WASHINGTON — Senior House Democrats threatened Thursday to issue subpoenas to obtain secret legal opinions and other documents from the Justice Department related to the National Security Agency 's domestic wiretapping program. If the Democrats take that step, it would mark the most aggressive... Read more |
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UN Official Calls for No More G8 Summits UNITED NATIONS - A prominent United Nations representative this week joined ranks with thousands of activists gathered in Germany to protest the economic and political dominance enjoyed by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries. This year should be the "last" G8 Summit, said Jean Ziegler... Read more |
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CIA Ran Secret Prisons for Detainees in Europe, Says Inquiry The CIA operated secret prisons in Europe where terrorism suspects could be interrogated and were allegedly tortured, an official inquiry will conclude today. Despite denials by their governments, senior Polish and Romanian security officials have confirmed to the Council of Europe that their... Read more |
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Coke Faces New Charges in India, Including 'Greenwashing' LOS ANGELES - The Coca-Cola company has been charged with illegally seizing lands communally owned by small farmers and indiscriminately dumping sludge and other industrial hazardous waste onto the surrounding community. This comes as the multinational beverage giant announced a new effort Tuesday... Read more |
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Landmarks Threatened by Warming, Report Says NEW YORK -- On Herschel Island, Canada, melting permafrost threatens ancient Inuit sites and a historic whaling town. In Chinguetti, Mauritania, the desert encroaches on an ancient mosque. These harbingers of climate change are forces that are threatening humanity's cultural landmarks and... Read more |
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Bush's Lectures on Democracy Fall on Deaf Ears PRAGUE - GEORGE BUSH has sought to breathe new life into his campaign to spread democracy and end despotism across the world, declaring that "extremists, radicals, and tyrants" - not the US - were seeking to impose their values on other countries. In Tuesday's speech in Prague, the scene of 1989's... Read more |
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Bush Dashes Blair Hopes of Breakthrough on Climate Change Deal Tony Blair has prepared the ground for a tactical retreat over climate change after George Bush rejected demands by Britain and Germany for him to commit to a specific target for cutting global carbon emissions. At their last meeting before he stands down on 27 June, Mr Blair will meet the US... Read more |
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Cheney Blocked Official's Promotion WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over President Bush's eavesdropping program, a Senate committee learned Wednesday. In a written account, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said Cheney warned... Read more |
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Climate Changes Already Affecting the West, Experts Tell Senate WASHINGTON - With snowfall diminishing at "statistically significant" rates, spring runoff coming earlier and a dead zone the size of Rhode Island in the ocean off the Oregon coast, senators were told Wednesday that global climate change is already being felt in the West. Dam operators, water... Read more |
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G8: 'We Will Block You' - At Least to a Moderate Degree HWILIGENDAMM, Germany - It was billed as the day they would bring the eight most powerful nations to their knees by sitting in the road, but by 9am the idealists, anticapitalists and anarchists had already been forced to take a hike. James Foley, 22, a student from Glasgow, had risen at 7.15am at... Read more |
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Gay Rights Groups Decry Surgeon General Nominee LEXINGTON, Ky. - President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, Kentucky cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger, has come under fire from gay rights groups for voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and writing in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy. Also, Holsinger... Read more |
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US Accused Over '39 Ghost Detainees' Human rights groups have asked the US to reveal the whereabouts of 39 people who have allegedly been held in secret CIA-run prisons. A report compiled by six human rights groups listed the names of people who remain unaccounted for after having passed through US custody. The groups urged the US to... Read more |
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Could al Qaeda Attack Trigger War With Iran? WASHINGTON - Following revelations of a George W. Bush administration policy to hold Iran responsible for any al Qaeda attack on the U.S. that could be portrayed as planned on Iranian soil, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinksi warned last week that Washington might use such an incident as a pretext to bomb Iran. Read more |
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Bush Relaunches Campaign For Democracy But US Policy Provokes Backlash Across The World · President rebukes Putin for 'derailing' reform· Iraq war has undercut trust in western values Read more |
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UK and US Must Quit Iraq Quickly, Says Former Ambassador The British and American military presence in Iraq is worsening security across the region and should be withdrawn quickly, the UK's former ambassador to Washington warned yesterday. Sir Christopher Meyer acknowledged that leaving Iraq would be "painful", but said the mission was not worth the... Read more |
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Daryl Hannah Joins Amazon Protesters Taking On Oil Giant Daryl Hannah, the actress turned environmentalist, is adding her voice to a campaign demanding redress for the inhabitants of Ecuador's Amazon region, which has been blighted by 30 years of oil exploration by Texaco. The 46-year-old star of Splash and Kill Bill was hoping to meet Ecuador's... Read more |
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Bloodshed Is Spreading Across Afghanistan, Warn Aid Workers Bloodshed is spreading to previously stable provinces of Afghanistan, threatening aid efforts as humanitarian workers contend with growing numbers of attacks from insurgents and criminals. Aid workers involved in redevelopment are not only worried that the rising insecurity is jeopardizing projects... Read more |
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US Torpedoes Hopes For G8 Climate Deal The United States on Wednesday rejected a German bid for a binding pact on slashing greenhouse gas emissions at a summit of the world's richest nations. Dashing faint hopes for a decisive accord, the chairman of the White House-run US Council on Environmental Quality, Jim Connaughton, said all... Read more |
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A Top Clinton Aide Draws Criticism From Unions The presidents of two large labor unions have written to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain that Mark Penn, her pollster and chief strategist, is chief executive of a public relations firm that is helping a company fight a unionization drive. In the letter sent Friday, which a labor... Read more |
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Massacres and Paramilitary Land Seizures Behind the Biofuel Revolution Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy. Surging demand for "green" fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to... Read more |
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Guantánamo Trials in Chaos After Judge Throws Out Two Cases WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's plans to bring detainees at Guantánamo Bay to trial were thrown into chaos yesterday when military judges threw out all charges against a detainee held there since he was 15 and dismissed charges against another detainee who chauffeured Osama bin Laden. In... Read more |
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Facing G8 Summit Failure, Germany Braces Itself HEILIGENDAMM, Germany - Facing the probability that this year's G8 summit will be a failure -- mainly due to U.S. opposition to an international consensus on environmental, financial, and African cooperation issues -- the German government, host of the event, is scaling down the expectations that... Read more |
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Libby Gets 30 Months in Prison in C.I.A. Leak Case WASHINGTON - I. Lewis Libby Jr., once one of the most powerful men in government as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was sentenced today to two and a half years in prison for lying to a grand jury and F.B.I. agents who were investigating the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie... Read more |
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Experts Cast Doubt on Credibility of JFK Terror Plot An alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines at New York's JFK airport had little chance of success, according to safety experts, who have questioned whether the plot ever posed a real threat. US authorities said Saturday they had averted an attack that could have resulted in "unfathomable... Read more |
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European Voters Say No Thanks to US Missile Plan ZAJECOV, Czech Republic - The outcome of Saturday's referendum was never in doubt. Residents of this postcard village in the forested hills of central Bohemia voted 728-10 in favor of a resolution that directs the local municipal council to take all necessary steps to block the U.S. government from... Read more |
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Vet Vows to Continue Speaking Out KANSAS CITY, Missouri - A Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war said Sunday in Kansas City that the threat of an other-than-honorable discharge would not stop him from protesting against the war. Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh, who has already received an honorable discharge from active duty but remains... Read more |
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US Can Forget About Winning in Iraq: Top Retired General The man who commanded US-led coalition forces during the first year of the Iraq war says the United States can forget about winning the war. "I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will --... Read more |
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Melting Ice, Snow to Hit Livelihoods Worldwide: UN OSLO - Global warming that is melting ice and snow will affect hundreds of millions of people around the globe by disrupting rivers in Asia, thawing Arctic ice and raising ocean levels, a U.N. report said on Monday. Glaciers from the Himalayas to the Alps are in retreat, permafrost from Alaska to... Read more |
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US Military Pondered Love Not War The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say. Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath. The US defense department considered various non-... Read more |
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Sicko? The Truth About the US Healthcare System Cynthia Kline knew exactly what was happening to her when she suffered a heart attack at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She took the time to call an ambulance, popped some nitroglycerin tablets she had been prescribed in anticipation of just such an emergency, and waited for help to arrive... Read more |
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US Border Vigilantes Declare War on Themselves WASHINGTON - The Minutemen, the anti-immigrant vigilante force set up two years ago to patrol the US-Mexican border, is in danger of imploding in a row over finances. The group was formed in 2005 in response to concern over illegal immigration, mainly Hispanic. It has been accused of attracting... Read more |
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Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal BAGHDAD - Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city's neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal... Read more |
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Global Wildlife Trade Talks Focus on Species Survival, Human Livelihood Representatives from 171 nations, monitored by a small army of wildlife advocates, began debating dozens of sharply contested measures Sunday on how best to regulate the global trade in wildlife. "You are making policy for the biodiversity of the future," Gerda Verburg, chairwoman and Dutch... Read more |
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Gorbachev Criticizes US 'Empire' The former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, has blamed the US for the current state of relations between Russia and the West. In a BBC interview, Mr Gorbachev said that the Russians were ready to be constructive, but America was trying to squeeze them out of global diplomacy. He added that the... Read more |
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Global Warming 'Is Three Times Faster Than Worst Predictions' Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed.They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are... Read more |
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Thousand Hurt in Anti-G8 Protest, Police Arrest 128 People German police said on Sunday that 128 people were arrested after a demonstration by anti-G8 protesters in Rostock the previous day which left up to 1,000 people injured. The organizers of the protest in northern Germany, which came four days before the start of the G8 summit in nearby Heiligendamm... Read more |
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Greenland Ice Melt Speeds Up Warming: Trend is Confirmed via Satellite, Flyovers Read more |
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White House Revises Post-Disaster Protocol WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is writing a new plan to maintain governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic terrorist attack or overwhelming natural disaster, moving such doomsday planning for the first time from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to officials inside the White... Read more |
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Nuclear Watchdog's Attack Warning The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has given one of his sternest warnings against using military action to halt Iran's uranium enrichment program. Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, described those wanting to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities as "new crazies"... Read more |
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Bush Kills Off Hopes for G8 Climate Change Plan WASHINGTON - George Bush yesterday threw international efforts to control climate change into confusion with a proposal to create a "new global framework" to curb greenhouse gas emissions as an alternative to a planned UN process. The proposal came less than a week before a G8 summit in Germany and... Read more |
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Abortion: The Hysteria that Divides the US Anti-abortion campaigners in the US will tell you their crusade is about the sanctity of life. But really it is about upholding a singularly unhealthy tendency in American public life - the exploitation of a divisive social and ethical issue to further the ambitions of a single political party... Read more |
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Surge Dirge Bush administration appears to have given up hope of maintaining 'surge' strategy into next year. Read more |
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Toward a Green Economy Humanity is facing historic and truly unprecedented challenges from climate change and the rapid decline of ecosystems that sustain life. The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) found that 83 percent of the planet's natural systems are in serious decline or on the brink. Adding to this... Read more |
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Coffin Delays Clinton Fundraiser SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A protester using a flag-drapped coffin as a prop has put a local fundraising event for Sen. Hillary Clinton way behind schedule. More than 120 people have been kept at bay waiting to enter a $500 to $4,600-per person campaign fundraiser at the home of real estate developer... Read more |
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G8: Sailing Against Ecological Debt HELSINKI - As leaders of the world's eight richest countries prepare to meet in Germany's Baltic resort of Heiligendamm next week, a Fair Trade ship has left the shores of Finland and is on the high seas heading towards the summit venue. Estelle's crew of 17 activists say their central demand is... Read more |
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Despite Suspect Safety, Dietary Supplements Receive Little Oversight WASHINGTON - The $22 billion dietary supplement industry operates with minimal oversight from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, despite a history of suspect quality and safety - and independent lab tests that have found one in four products to be substandard. About one in four dietary... Read more |
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US Paid Nearly $31 Million in Condolence Payments to Iraqis, Afghanis WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense spent nearly $31 million in three years in condolence payments to civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it didn't track how it doled out the money, a Government Accountability Office report found. The report, released Thursday, is the most detailed public... Read more |
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Group Wants Sheehan's Land, But She's Not selling to Just Anyone FORT WORTH, Texas - Days after Cindy Sheehan announced she was stepping down as the face of the anti-war movement, a pro-troop (sic) organization said Friday that it plans to buy her 5-acre protest site in President Bush's adopted hometown. But Sheehan doesn't want to sell to just anyone. "It'll be... Read more |
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Minnesota Case Fits Pattern in U.S. Attorneys Flap A prosecutor apparently targeted for firing had supported Native American voters' rights. Read more |
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ACLU Sues San Jose Firm; CIA 'Rendition' Role Alleged SAN FRANCISCO - A San Jose subsidiary of Boeing Co. was accused in a lawsuit Wednesday of providing crucial technical support for CIA flights in which captives were taken to foreign countries and tortured. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit in federal court in San Francisco on behalf... Read more |
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World's Great Apes Face Disaster, Says Conservation Expert One of the world's most prominent conservation experts yesterday issued a rallying cry to save the great apes, man's closest biological cousins, which are under serious threat of extinction. Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya wildlife service and now chair of Wildlife Direct, said apes across... Read more |
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World's Great Apes Face Disaster, Says Conservation Expert One of the world's most prominent conservation experts yesterday issued a rallying cry to save the great apes, man's closest biological cousins, which are under serious threat of extinction. Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya wildlife service and now chair of Wildlife Direct, said apes across... Read more |
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On the Barricades: Trouble in a Hippie Paradise COPENHAGEN, Denmark - There is something new in the air over Christiania. Along with the wafts of cannabis smoke that linger over Europe's oldest hippie commune there now comes the stench of burnt tyres, charred rubbish and traces of tear gas. The cloying odour rises from blackened barricades at... Read more |
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Goldman Sachs Marches on with Bush's Candidate for World Bank "In Goldman Sachs we trust," was the title of one of the chapters of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash, his account of the crooked dealings that triggered the great stock market bust of the 1920s. President George Bush will not have had that unflattering chapter in the Wall Street bank's... Read more |
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Drugs Giant Faces Criminal Charges Over Clinical Trial LOS ANGELES - The US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been slapped with criminal charges in Nigeria over a notorious clinical trial it conducted on children during a meningitis epidemic a decade ago. Patients became unwitting guinea pigs for a new, untested antibiotic and many of them either died or... Read more |
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Climate Change: Overcoming the Ostrich Effect BROOKLIN, Canada - The vast majority of North Americans now declare that they want action on climate change. But whether people are truly willing to embrace "carbon-neutral" lifestyles -- including giving up their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles -- remains an open question, say experts... Read more |
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Bush Sees South Korea Model for Iraq WASHINGTON - President Bush envisions a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to the one in South Korea where American forces have helped keep an uneasy peace for more than 50 years, the White House said Wednesday. The comparison was offered as the Pentagon announced the completion of the... Read more |
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Religious Right Gets More Than Its 15 Minutes WASHINGTON - Conservative religious figures are mentioned in the major U.S. news media as many as 2.8 times as often as progressive religious figures, says a new study released Tuesday in Washington. The report, "Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media", analysed the... Read more |
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New Peace Index Ranks US Among Worst Nations WASHINGTON- The United States is among the least peaceful nations in the world, ranking 96th between Yemen and Iran, according to a new index released on Wednesday that evaluates 121 nations based on their peacefulness.According to the Global Peace Index, created by The Economist Intelligence Unit... Read more |
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Sudan: Activists Greet Bush's "Plan B" Sceptically WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the implementation of his long-awaited "Plan B" against Sudan here Tuesday, but activists said the new sanctions were unlikely to induce Khartoum to permit the long-delayed deployment of a joint African Union (AU)-U.N. force of 23,000 peacekeeping... Read more |
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Cindy Sheehan Quits The Anti-War Life Two years ago, the national media anointed Cindy Sheehan as one of the leaders of the anti-war movement when the longtime Vacaville resident planted a lawn chair down the road from President Bush's Texas vacation ranch and refused to leave until he explained what "noble cause" her soldier son, Army... Read more |
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Survey: US Alone Should Not Pick World Bank President NEW YORK - Whoever takes charge of the World Bank in July must be elected, not selected, say experts on global financing for development in a survey conducted by a U.S.-based independent think-tank."We are surprised at how strong and consistent the results are in support of reforms in the selection... Read more |
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Earth, Inc. Sliding Into Bankruptcy Build a shrimp farm in Thailand by cutting down mangrove forests and you will net about 8,000 dollars per hectare. Meanwhile, the destruction of the forest and pollution from the farm will result in a loss of ecosystems worth 35,000 dollars/ha per year. Many leading development institutions and... Read more |
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Lawyer: Cheney Visitor Logs Not Recorded A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states. The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney's lawyer says logs for Cheney's residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory... Read more |
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Democrats in Washington Want To Keep Impeachment Off The Table WASHINGTON - The push to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is gaining a hearing in some parts of the country, but not in Washington. More than 70 cities and 14 state Democratic parties have urged impeachment or investigations that could lead to impeachment. The most common... Read more |
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Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process WASHINGTON - Even as Congressional leaders draft legislation to reduce greenhouse gases linked to global warming, a powerful roster of Democrats and Republicans is pushing to subsidize coal as the king of alternative fuels. Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal... Read more |
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Plight of Workers in Palestinian Territories Has "Worsened Dramatically" GENEVA- Workers in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel have suffered another year of drastic decline in living standards and rising poverty, unemployment, social disintegration and political chaos, the ILO said in a new report. The proportion of households below the poverty line... Read more |
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Disarmament Latin America: Cluster Bomb-Free Region? LIMA - Peru's proposal to make Latin America the world's first cluster munitions-free region received broad support from the countries that took part in this week's intergovernmental conference on a future global treaty against the weapons in Lima, said local authorities.The Wednesday through... Read more |
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Militants Widen Reach as Terror Seeps Out of Iraq When Muhammad al-Darsi got out of prison in Libya last year after serving time for militant activities, he had one goal: killing Americans in Iraq . A recruiter he found on the Internet arranged to meet him on a bridge in Damascus, Syria. But when he got there, Mr. Darsi, 24, said the recruiter... Read more |
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National Women's Group Fights War With the Color Pink For most, the color pink may be associated with spring flowers or newborn baby girls. But for members of the women's peace organization Code Pink, the color pink stands as a symbol for ending the war in Iraq. "(We're) reclaiming pink as a powerful women's peace color," said Zanne Joi, a Code Pink... Read more |
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Plantation Workers Look for Justice in the North CHINANDEGA, Nicaragua - The people crammed into the stifling basketball gym. They filled the court, lined the walls and tumbled beyond the doors onto the sun-blistered streets. They had gathered to hear a promise of justice. Many had spent their lives toiling on banana plantations that U.S... Read more |
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GOP Rivals Embrace Unproven Iraq-9/11 Tie WASHINGTON - In defending the Iraq war, leading Republican presidential contenders are increasingly echoing words and phrases used by President Bush in the run-up to the war that reinforce the misleading impression that Iraq was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In the May 15 Republican... Read more |
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Battle for Biofuels Drives World Food Prices Higher America's thirst for environmentally friendly biofuels is driving up food prices around the world as farmers scramble to devote more land to corn. With the oil price back above $70 a barrel, biofuel looks increasingly attractive, and as more corn is grown to fill fuel tanks, the prices of other... Read more |
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Abortion Decision Could Pave Way for More Restrictions WASHINGTON - Every Supreme Court opinion has an afterlife, especially when it comes to abortion. A closely watched decision last month upholding a federal ban on so-called partial birth abortions is just starting to populate the legal landscape. It will take years for all the Gonzales v. Carhart... Read more |
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Lawsuit in Outsourced US War is Moved Out of Court WASHINGTON - After years of high-stakes legal wrangling, a lawsuit stemming from the gruesome deaths of four U.S. contractors in Iraq is moving behind closed doors in an action seen as an important precedent for the booming private security industry. The suit, for wrongful death and fraud, was... Read more |
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Arabs Make Plans for Nuclear Power VIENNA - As Iran races ahead with an illicit uranium enrichment effort, nearly a dozen other Middle East nations are moving forward on their own civilian nuclear programs. In the latest development, a team of eight U.N. experts on Friday ended a weeklong trip to Saudi Arabia to provide nuclear... Read more |
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US Show of Force in Gulf Alarming: Afghan Paper KABUL - A U.S. navy show of force on Iran's doorstep is "greatly alarming" for the region and the United States risked a bloody quagmire if it invaded Iran, a state-run Afghan newspaper said on Saturday. A large flotilla of U.S. ships entered the Gulf on Wednesday in a dramatic show of military... Read more |
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Intel Agencies Warned of Post-War Risks WASHINGTON - Two major studies prepared by the U.S. intelligence community and distributed to senior officials in every relevant agency two months before Washington's invasion of Iraq warned of many of the problems that have turned the U.S. occupation there into the worst foreign policy crisis... Read more |
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Greenpeace Posts Leaked US Objection to G8 Climate Statement Greenpeace on Saturday published a leaked document showing the United States has raised serious new objections to a proposed global warming declaration for next month's Group of Eight summit. In the document, US officials representing the administration of President George W. Bush reject the... Read more |
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Suit Sheds Light on Clintons' Ties to a Benefactor When former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton took a family vacation in January 2002 to Acapulco, Mexico, one of their longtime supporters, Vinod Gupta, provided his company's private jet to fly them there. The company, infoUSA, one of the nation's largest brokers of... Read more |
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Protesters Barred From Cheney's West Point Speech WHITE PLAINS - A federal appeals court on Friday denied an organization permission to stage an antiwar demonstration on Saturday on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Vice President Dick Cheney is to deliver the commencement address. The court said the mere... Read more |
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Richardson Rebukes Dems on Iraq and Immigration SEATTLE, Washington - Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said in Seattle on Thursday that fellow party leaders in Congress are wrong to abandon a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and wrong about an immigration bill that he said would split up families. It was the New Mexico... Read more |
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US Asked to Take Role on Climate BERLIN -- The leaders of the world's second- and third-largest economies, Japan and Germany, pressed the biggest -- the United States -- yesterday to agree to dramatic action in addressing climate change at a Group of 8 summit meeting next month. But Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a speech to the... Read more |
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House Votes to Lift Veil Over Lobbyists' Donations WASHINGTON, May 24 - The House voted Thursday to drag into public view the role that registered lobbyists play in soliciting and collecting contributions for political campaigns, exposing for the first time one of the most effective ways that influence-seekers ingratiate themselves with lawmakers... Read more |