LAPD investigating alleged beating of homeless woman by officers - Los Angeles Times

LAPD investigating alleged beating of homeless woman by officers - Los Angeles Times

LAPD investigating alleged beating of homeless woman by officers
By Tami Abdollah, Times Staff Writer
2:02 PM PDT, June 6, 2007

Los Angeles police said today that they were investigating allegations that four officers beat and pepper-sprayed a downtown homeless woman before tying her arms and legs after she resisted their attempts to subdue her.

Faith Hernandez, 34, who was wanted on a felony narcotics warrant, was approached by several officers about 1 p.m. Sunday because she was in an "illegal" cardboard structure near Gladys Avenue and 6th Street, said Capt. Andrew Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Station.

"One of our officers approached her, told her she was being detained for that investigation, and she immediately took off running," Smith said. "She punched one bicycle officer in the head as he was trying to detain her, and then she kicked several officers. She also spit on several officers, and she attempted to stab the officers that were trying to detain her, with an ink pen."

The officers responded by hitting her on the legs with a small police baton, kicking her once and using pepper spray, Smith said. Four officers — three men and a woman — were involved, he said.

Hernandez, who was charged Tuesday with assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon, remains in custody on $75,000 bail. Her only injury was a half-inch cut to her forehead, Smith said.

None of the officers was seriously injured in the incident and all are back at work, he said.

Pete White, co-director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a watchdog group that monitors the LAPD, said witnesses described the woman as being mentally disabled and weighing 90 to 100 pounds. He said the officers startled her by yelling "Hey," and then used excessive force when she started running.

White said several bystanders in nearby Gladys Park witnessed the incident, which lasted about eight minutes. He said they protested by sitting in the street and called his office to complain.

O.C. Hasson, 60, who lives on 6th Street, said that from his bathroom window he saw the woman running away.

"They threw her down, she tried to get back up, and they threw her back down. And when she tried to get back up again ... they started hitting her," Hasson said. "They allowed her to get up after that, and let her go almost across the street, as if they knew she couldn't get away. And then one of the officers took his foot and tripped her on the ground, and they dragged her a little bit, and they were still beating her."

Hasson said he had seen police harass downtown homeless people in recent months, but nothing like this.

"It's the worst thing that I've experienced," he said, "the worst thing I've ever seen."

tami.abdollah@latimes.com

ABC News: British Police: Full Moon Rising Means Trouble's On The Way

ABC News: British Police: Full Moon Rising Means Trouble's On The Way

Extra British Police During Full Moons
British Coastal Resort Adds Extra Police During Full Moons, Officials Say
The Associated Press

LONDON

A British resort town is deploying extra police during full moons, convinced of a link between the lunar cycle and violence. The vibrant seaside city of Brighton on England's southern coast is adopting the new approach after reviewing crime statistics for the past year, Sussex police said Tuesday.

"Research carried out by us has shown a correlation between violent incidents and full moons," the force said in a statement. "More officers will be out on the city's streets during full moons over the summer months."

Police inspector Andy Parr conducted an analysis of crime statistics that suggested more violent incidents happen during full moons.

In a paper published earlier this year, Michal Zimecki of the Polish Academy of Sciences claimed to have identified a link between lunar cycles and criminality.

Zimecki wrote in "The Lunar Cycle: Effects On Human And Animal Behavior And Physiology," that a full moon can affect behavior and health, often triggering an escalation in crime and hospital admissions.

His study reflected an age-old belief that the moon has links to an individual's mental state. In the 17th century, Britain's chief justice, Sir William Hale, claimed a link between the lunar cycle and dementia.

However, research for a 1998 article for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, found "no significant relationship" between the moon and human behavior.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

The Blotter ABCNews - Document: Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban

The Blotter- Document: Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban -ABCNews.com

Document: Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban

June 06, 2007 6:00 PM

Brian Ross and Christopher Isham Report:

Document_iran_c_mn NATO officials say they have caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces, in what the officials say is a dramatic escalation of Iran's proxy war against the United States and Great Britain.

"It is inconceivable that it is anyone other than the Iranian government that's doing it," said former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stopped short earlier this week of blaming Iran, saying the U.S. did not have evidence "of the involvement of the Iranian government in support of the Taliban."

But an analysis by a senior coalition official, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, concludes there is clear evidence of Iran's involvement.

"This is part of a considered policy," says the analysis, "rather than the result of low-level corruption and weapons smuggling."

Iran and the Taliban had been fierce enemies when the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, and their apparent collaboration came as a surprise to some in the intelligence community.

"I think their goal is to make it very clear that Iran has the capability to make life worse for the United States on a variety of fronts," said Seth Jones of the Rand Institute, "even if they have to do some business with a group that has historically been their enemy."

The coalition analysis says munitions recovered in two Iranian convoys, on April 11 and May 3, had "clear indications that they originated in Iran. Some were identical to Iranian supplied goods previously discovered in Iraq."

The April convoy was tracked from Iran into Helmand province and led a fierce firefight that destroyed one vehicle, according to the official analysis. A second vehicle was reportedly found to contain small arms ammunition, mortar rounds and more than 650 pounds of C4 demolition charges.

A second convoy of two vehicles was spotted on May 3 and led to the capture of five occupants and the seizure of RPG-7mm rockets and more than 1,000 pounds of C4, the analysis says.

Also among the munitions are components for the lethal EFPs, or explosive formed projectiles, the roadside bombs that U.S. officials say Iran has provided to Iraqi insurgents with deadly results.

"These clearly have the hallmarks of the Iranian Revolution Guards' Quds force," said Jones.

The coalition diplomatic message says the demolition charges "contained the same fake U.S. markings found on explosives recovered from insurgents operating in the Baghdad area."

"We believe these intercepted munitions are part of a much bigger flow of support from Iran to the Taliban," the message says.

The Taliban receives larger supplies of weapons through profits from opium dealing, officials say, but the Iranian presence could be significant.

"It means the insurgency in Afghanistan is likely to be prolonged," said Jones. "It would be a much more potent force."

Pakistan Arrests 300 Workers From Opposition - New York Times

Pakistan Arrests 300 Workers From Opposition - New York Times

June 7, 2007
Pakistan Arrests 300 Workers From Opposition
By CARLOTTA GALL

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 6 — The police have arrested more than 300 political party workers over the past few days in a crackdown before a protest planned this week against new government curbs on the news media, a government official acknowledged Wednesday.

Opposition parties have said hundreds of their workers have been rounded up in house raids in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province.

The home secretary of Punjab, Khusro Fazal Khan, told the independent channel GEO Television that the police had arrested 312 local political leaders and workers throughout the province.

Opposition legislators protested the arrests at the opening of a new session of the national Parliament, which had been on a three-week recess, but they were refused time by the speaker. Journalists covering Parliament staged a rowdy protest in the press gallery on Wednesday evening, interrupting the debate on the floor.

The president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, signed a decree on Monday giving a government regulating agency stronger powers over the news media and the ability to rewrite regulations without recourse to Parliament.

The decree added to the pressure on the three main private television channels, which have been told to stop live coverage and live political talk shows. Their transmissions were blocked for several days across much of the country.

Journalists and editors said the government was cracking down to prevent critical coverage of General Musharraf’s suspension of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and of the violence in Karachi related to his ouster. Forty-eight people were killed there on May 12 as police officers and rangers stood by.

Opposition parties allege that much of the shooting was conducted by the Muttahida Quami Movement, a partner in the governing coalition, and television images backed up their claims. Thousands flocked to rallies on Saturday in the north of Punjab to greet the chief justice.

“There was a crackdown in the whole of Punjab,” said Pervez Ashraf, a member of Parliament for the People’s Party of Pakistan, the main opposition group, in discussing the detentions. “They entered houses by breaking doors, and hundreds of people were arrested.”

Another legislator, Liaqat Baloch, from the alliance of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, said, “Our people have been arrested in 36 districts of Punjab.”

Mr. Fazal Khan, the home secretary, said those seized were detained under a new measure, in force since Friday, that bans gatherings of more than five people. He said the government had to act after journalists had protested Monday and burned copies of the presidential decree.

“The government cannot sit idle after burning of the copies of the reference and other official documents, and holding rallies and public meetings by the opposition parties,” he told the television station.

Officials said some 200 people were held on Monday and Tuesday, with another 150 detained overnight and early Wednesday. Most of the arrests were made in the provincial capital, Lahore, and in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan, Agence France-Presse reported.

The police have also registered cases against 200 journalists, including seven prominent correspondents and editors, accusing them of interfering with the government and occupying the prime minister’s secretariat.

The deputy editor of Daily Ausaf, Chaudhry R. Shamsi, one of the seven journalists named in the case, said he was more concerned about the death threats that individual journalists were receiving than the suspension of commercial television stations.

“We want security for journalists, and we want life insurance,” he said.

The minister of state for information and broadcasting, Tariq Azeem Khan, said most of the amendments introduced in the media decree were cosmetic.

The two main additions were intended to give the media-regulating agency “more teeth” to carry out its rules, he said. “There is no drastic effort to gag the press; otherwise we would not issue 45 licenses” to media companies, he said. Three more were about to be approved, he added.

The three commercial television stations were back on the air on Wednesday after several days of disruption, apparently after the owners held talks with the government.

Hamid Mir, an announcer at GEO Television, said that it would prove to be only a temporary reprieve and that he expected more disruptions. He said he was sending his family abroad on Thursday because of threats and because his children were being followed to school.

“They just want control,” Kashif Abbasi, anchor of a popular daily talk show on ARY Television, said of the government. “You cannot talk against the army, the judiciary, and we are told, ‘Be polite about the president,’ ” he said. “If you take out the judiciary, then this is the whole crisis,” he said.

He said he expected the pressure to continue until presidential elections, which are due by Oct. 15. “That’s the big task ahead,” Mr. Abbasi said.

Turkish officials say troops enter Iraq - USATODAY.com

Turkish officials say troops enter Iraq - USATODAY.com

Turkish officials say troops enter Iraq
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Hundreds of Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq on Wednesday pursuing Kurdish guerrillas who stage attacks on Turkey from hideouts there, Turkish security officials and an Iraqi Kurd official said.

The reports came amid worries Turkey might launch an offensive against the rebel bases, touching off a conflict with U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds in one of Iraq's most stable regions. The U.S. is urging its NATO ally not to strike, and Turkey's foreign minister denied any incursion occurred.

An American intelligence official in Washington, who agreed to discuss the tense situation along the frontier only if not quoted by name, said the reports of a border crossing should be treated with skepticism.

The official said some Turkish officials might be feeling pressure to show increasingly angry Turks that the government is responding to a recent escalation of attacks by PKK rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's heavily Kurdish southeast. On Monday, for instance, Kurdish rebels assaulted a Turkish outpost and killed seven soldiers.

Three Turkish security officials said troops crossed the border Wednesday. But they described the operation as just a "hot pursuit" raid that was limited in scope, and one said the soldiers left Iraqi territory by the end of the day.

The officials, all based in southeastern Turkey, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

Turkish authorities rarely acknowledge such military operations against the PKK, but the army has conducted brief raids across the border in the past.

Despite the dispute over whether an incursion happened, the reports were likely to heighten anxieties over whether Turkey is planning a large-scale invasion. The last such operation was in 1997 and involved 50,000 soldiers.

Turkish leaders have said they are considering an offensive, and have sent more troops and equipment to the frontier. But they hope the U.S. and Iraqi Kurds will stage their own crackdown on the separatists, who raid southeast Turkey after resting, training and resupplying in Iraq.

Washington lists the PKK as a terror group, but most U.S. troops in Iraq are busy dealing with violence elsewhere and most of the 16,500 U.S. soldiers in the north are engaged in training Iraqi forces.

The Iraqi Kurd administration, meanwhile, has testy relations with Turkey, which has accused it of backing the PKK movement.

One Turkish security official said 600 commandos entered Iraq before dawn after Kurdish rebels shot at Turkish patrols near the Turkish border town of Cukurca. The commandos returned to Turkey later in the day, the official said.

Two other officials said troops went less than two miles into a remote, mountainous area in Iraq.

An Iraqi Kurd security official in the Shanzinan area said 150 Turkish soldiers occupied a mountain about a half mile inside Iraq for an hour and then left. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 200 other Turks staged a similar cross-border operation around the same time in the nearby Sirzeri area.

It was not immediately clear whether the Kurdish official referred to the same raid cited by the three Turkish officials.

Turkey's private NTV television quoted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as saying the reports of a cross-border operation were false.

"There is no such thing, no entry to another country. If such a thing happens, then we would announce it," Gul said. "We are in a war with terror. We will do whatever is necessary to fight terrorism."

Several officials at the Pentagon said they had seen nothing to confirm a border crossing by Turkish troops. But one said small numbers of Turkish soldiers occasionally conduct counterinsurgency operations inside Iraq. The officials insisted on speaking anonymously.

The White House also said there had been "no new activity" in northern Iraq. But Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, repeated that Washington remains "concerned about the PKK and the use of Iraq as a safe haven."

Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven in Rostock, Germany, Katherine Shrader and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Yahya Barzanji in Dahuk, Iraq, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-06-06-turkey-iraq_N.htm

Rights Groups Call for End to Secret Detentions - New York Times

Rights Groups Call for End to Secret Detentions - New York Times

June 7, 2007
Rights Groups Call for End to Secret Detentions
By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, June 6 — Six human rights groups on Wednesday released a list of 39 people they believe have been secretly imprisoned by the United States and whose whereabouts are unknown, calling on the Bush administration to abandon such detentions.

The list, compiled from news media reports, interviews and government documents, includes terrorism suspects and those thought to have ties to militant groups. In some suspects’ cases, officials acknowledge that they were at one time in United States custody. In others, the rights groups say, there is other evidence, sometimes sketchy, that they had at least once been in American hands.

The list includes, for instance, Hassan Ghul, a Pakistani who is accused of being a member of Al Qaeda and whose capture in northern Iraq in January 2004 was announced by President Bush. At the other extreme, two unnamed Somali nationals are on the list because they were overheard in 2005 by another prisoner who was later released, Marwan Jabour, in the cell next to his at a secret American detention center, possibly in Afghanistan.

Meg Satterthwaite, of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University, one of the six groups, said the recent American practice mimiced “disappearances” of political opponents under Latin American dictators. “Enforced disappearances are illegal, regardless of who carries them out,” she said.

The other groups that compiled the list were Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and two British groups, Reprieve and Cageprisoners. Three of the groups are suing under the Freedom of Information Act to learn what became of the prisoners.

The Bush administration has defended secretly detaining some suspects as a necessity of the fight against terrorism because officials do not want to tip off terrorist groups that their operatives are in custody. They say the comparison with past Latin American regimes is unfair, because those seized by the Americans are not killed and their whereabouts will eventually be revealed.

A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, would not comment on the names on the list. But he said “there is no shortage of myth about what the C.I.A. has done to fight terror.”

“The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law,” he said, adding that the agency’s actions “have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives.”

In a reminder that the handling of captured terrorism suspects remains a pressing issue, Pentagon officials said Wednesday that a courier linking terrorist cells in the Horn of Africa and Al Qaeda officials in Pakistan was captured recently in East Africa and transported this week to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the detainee, Abdullahi Sudi Arale, was suspected of providing terrorist cells in East Africa with explosives and weapons. He traveled from Pakistan to Somalia in September 2006 and held a leadership role in the Islamic Courts Council, which held power in part of Somalia until earlier this year, according to a Pentagon statement.

“We believe him to be an extremely dangerous member of the Al Qaeda network,” Mr. Whitman said. But he said Mr. Arale, whose age and nationality were not released, would not be part of the “high value” group in the Guantánamo prisoner population of about 385.

Even before the secret detentions were officially confirmed, the practice drew widespread objections, including from within the Bush administration. William H. Taft IV, legal adviser at the State Department from 2001 to 2005, opposed it while in office and on Wednesday said he had not changed his view.

“I believe the United States should always account for people in its custody,” said Mr. Taft, who had not reviewed the human rights groups’ report. “When our own people are missing, we want to be able to insist on an accounting from their captors,” Mr. Taft said. He added that keeping prisoners secret could tempt their jailers to abuse them and to cover up their deaths in custody.

In September, President Bush for the first time officially acknowledged the C.I.A.’s secret overseas detentions, saying that the 14 prisoners then in the agency’s hands had been moved to Guantánamo. A 15th so-called high-level prisoner, an Iraqi Kurd named Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, alleged to be a top aide to Osama bin Laden, was moved to Guantánamo in April after being held secretly by the C.I.A. for several months.

Mohammad Khan, 31, a Pakistani banker who was held in secret in Pakistan and questioned by Americans for 56 days in 2003, described the experience in an interview from Karachi on Wednesday. Mr. Khan’s brother, Majid Khan, who was arrested along with him but held in secret C.I.A. custody for the next three years, is among the high-level prisoners at Guantánamo. He is accused of plotting to blow up gas stations in the United States and planning other terrorist acts, charges his brother said he denies.

After their imprisonment, “Our family members had no idea where we were,” Mr. Khan said. He said his brother was questioned by Americans for up to eight hours while confined to a small chair and eventually signed false confessions.

Later, Mr. Khan said, he and other family members, including some who live in the Baltimore area, believed for a time that Majid Khan was dead and learned of his whereabouts only from President Bush’s September speech.

“How can there be any justification for this?” Mr. Khan said. “You can’t kidnap people and hold them somewhere in the world and torture them.”

Thom Shanker contributed reporting.

Conflicting reports on Turkish incursion into northern Iraq - On Deadline - USATODAY.com

Conflicting reports on Turkish incursion into northern Iraq - On Deadline - USATODAY.com

Conflicting reports on Turkish incursion into northern Iraq

The Associated Press reports that "several thousand" Turkish troops entered northern Iraq today in pursuit of Kurdish guerillas.

But Reuters, another news agency, reports that a Turkish military official says he "cannot confirm this report." The news agency also quotes a White House spokesman who says they have detected "no new activity" in that part of Iraq.

Update at 12:34 p.m. ET: Fox News Channel says the Turkish and U.S. governments are disputing press reports of a ground invasion.

"National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, traveling with President Bush in Rostock, Germany, said the Turkish government reported to the NSC that the press reports are incorrect," Fox reports. "Johndroe said U.S. officials in the region have also made their own assessment and concur that no incursion has taken place."

Update at 12:38 p.m. ET: Col. Hussein Rashid, a senior official with the Iraqi border guards, tells the Associated Press that the invasion reports are inaccurate.

"Not even a single Turkish soldier has entered Iraqi territory," he said by telephone from his post near the border with Turkey, although he pointed out that Turkish troops have been operating very close to the border as part of a recent buildup.

"I have made contacts with many border posts and none report any incident," he tells the wire service.

Update at 1:58 p.m. ET: AP has added more details to its story, which now reports: One official said the troops went less than two miles inside Iraq and were still there in late afternoon. "It is a hot pursuit, not an incursion," one official said.
Posted by Mike Carney at 12:30 PM/ET, June 06, 2007 in Iraq, Mideast, World | Permalink

Bombs Hit Shiites in Baghdad; Turkish Threats Grow Acute - New York Times

Bombs Hit Shiites in Baghdad; Turkish Threats Grow Acute - New York Times

June 7, 2007
Bombs Hit Shiites in Baghdad; Turkish Threats Grow Acute
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and KHALID W. HASSAN

BAGHDAD, June 6 — A pair of car bombs struck one of the most heavily protected Shiite areas on Wednesday, the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 25, the Iraqi police said.

Thirty-four bodies were also found strewn about the capital, the latest evidence of a rising toll of sectarian killings more than three months after the beginning of the increase in American troops.

At least 167 bodies have been found in Baghdad in the first six days of June, according to an official at the Interior Ministry. The numbers remain below the average seen before the rise in American forces but are much higher than the levels recorded in March and April.

As the rising body count stoked new concerns about how well the troop expansion will tamp down execution-style killings, Iraqi and American officials got a jolt late in the day when reports emerged suggesting that Turkish forces had begun a long-threatened incursion into northern Iraq to hunt Kurdish guerrillas who stage attacks inside Turkey.

The reports, attributed to Turkish military officials, said thousands of soldiers crossed the border in pursuit of members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K.

American and Turkish officials quickly denied the reports. Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, also said in a telephone interview that while a large force of Turkish troops remained massed on the border, none had crossed into Iraq.

“There hasn’t been any Turkish military incursion or operation inside Iraqi territory,” Mr. Zebari said Wednesday evening.

Despite the official denials, two news agencies citing sources within the Turkish military continued to report that a limited cross-border attack had taken place.

The Turkish authorities have threatened to send troops over the border to hunt down P.K.K. rebels, who favor an independent Kurdistan. The State Department classifies the party as a “foreign terrorist organization” and says its attacks in Turkey killed more than 500 people last year. As many as 3,500 Kurdish rebels are believed to live in remote mountainous areas of northern Iraq.

Mr. Zebari said that there had been some reports of 15,000 to 20,000 Turkish troops stationed on the border recently, but that he did not know the precise number.

Four more Americans have been killed, the military reported. One soldier was killed Tuesday by enemy gunfire in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad. Another was killed Wednesday in Diyala by an explosion. A third was killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday near Baiji, north of Baghdad. And one soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday.

The spokesman for the American military command in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, suggested that it would be unwise to expect that there would not be ups and downs in the Baghdad security situation as the troop increase took hold.

“It’s uneven, and it will periodically spike up, like we saw with violence in May,” General Bergner said. He added that progress “will not be like flipping a light switch — it will be gradual, it will be nuanced, it will be subtle.”

He said the last of five additional brigades for the troop increase would begin operating in “the next couple of weeks.” He added that the new forces could take up to two months “to fully establish themselves” with Iraqi forces and civilians where they operate.

The insurgents who struck Wednesday in Kadhimiya detonated one bomb near a jail for women and another near a bus terminal at Zahra Square, the police said. Early reports put the death toll at seven, but an Interior Ministry official said three people were killed. A statement by the American military said that no civilians were killed and that only four were injured.

The area, not far from the Imam Kadhum Shrine, is dominated by Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen and Shiite soldiers, and the attack appeared to be the latest strike by Sunni insurgents.

More violence struck in Diyala Province, where at least 12 people were killed Wednesday, and 18 more wounded, according to the police.

Four civilians were killed and four wounded by gunmen in one attack in Baquba, the provincial capital. Another attack in Baquba killed four and wounded eight. Gunmen killed two civilians and wounded three in Muqdadiya. Militants also killed two people and wounded four in Balad Ruz, a Diyala police official said. And in Khalis, militants used a fake checkpoint to abduct 10 people.

A statement issued by the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, asserted that it had reached a cease-fire with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia after skirmishes between the groups last week in the Amariya district of western Baghdad.

The statement said the groups had agreed to referee disagreements. Military officials have said Sunni groups who object to Al Qaeda’s tactics have cooperated with American forces in Amariya to drive out Qaeda fighters.

An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shiite cleric, was gunned down Tuesday near Najaf. Three gunmen assassinated the aide, Sheik Rahim al-Haznawi, Mr. Sistani’s representative in Mishkab, near Najaf, according to the Iraqi police.

An improvised bomb killed one policeman and wounded three others in Kirkuk, the police there said.

A director general of the Ministry of Immigration and Refugees was abducted in Baghdad near the Shiite enclave of Sadr City by kidnappers in four vehicles.

Insurgents attacking an American patrol detonated a bomb in western Baghdad, near a children’s hospital, wounding four civilians, an Interior Ministry official said. Another bomb, in the Mansour district, killed one civilian and wounded eight.

Ahmad Fadam contributed reporting from Baghdad, Yerevan Adham from the Kurdish area and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Najaf, Kirkuk and Diyala.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India school 'rejects' HIV pupils

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India school 'rejects' HIV pupils

India school 'rejects' HIV pupils
John Mary
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state

Five HIV-positive children in the southern Indian state of Kerala who were turned away from their school last year have failed to get readmission.

The school said it feared a backlash from parents of fellow students at the start of the new Indian academic year.

The children, in the 5-11 age group, are now confined to a privately-run orphanage where they will receive special coaching from teachers.

Their plight began in December 2006 when their HIV status was made public.

Protracted war

"Many parents came to us threatening to pull out their wards if the HIV-positive children were readmitted," an unnamed teacher at the Christian-affiliated Mar Dionysius Lower Primary School in the town of Kottayam was quoted as saying.

"We are helpless."

We cannot let this happen lest it should set wrong precedents
Kerala Education Minister MA Baby

The local media revealed the identity of the five children - one boy and four girls aged between five and 11 - after covering news of their predicament in December.

Ever since, a protracted war has been waged between the school authorities and the state government on the question of whether or not the children should be allowed to attend regular classes.

The state government is now trying to convince school authorities to allow the children back into the classroom.

State Education Minister MA Baby and opposition leader Oommen Chandy both intervened on behalf of the children, but to no avail.

Eventually the school authorities let the children be taught privately and then sit the annual exams.

The Asha Kiran orphanage authorities helped ensure that they passed the exams, hoping that the school would "see reason" in the new academic year and re-admit them to higher classes.

'Wrong signals'

"I will call a meeting of all concerned next week," said Mr Baby.

"There's no change in the government position that the children should continue to receive instruction, along with their classmates, in the same school.

"We cannot let this happen lest it should set wrong precedents and send out wrong signals."

This is not the first time that children with HIV have been denied entry to schools in Kerala.

Two such children, Benson and Bensy, staged a high-profile protest before the state secretariat in 2002 to get admission in a school.

They were eventually allowed to go back to their schools.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6727465.stm

Published: 2007/06/06 16:54:10 GMT

© BBC MMVII

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Mid-East marks start of 1967 War

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Mid-East marks start of 1967 War

Mid-East marks start of 1967 War
Israeli and Palestinian peace activists have been holding protests to mark 40 years since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Protests were taking place in the West Bank and Tel Aviv, but Israeli police prevented a Palestinian conference on the anniversary in Jerusalem.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said creating a Palestinian state would wipe out the memory of the Arab defeat.

The Six-Day War changed the map of the Middle East, establishing Israel as the region's dominant military force.

Air strikes

Before the war, the 19-year-old Jewish state had been awash with fear, as Arab armies massed on its borders.

UN peacekeepers had been expelled from the Sinai, and Egypt had closed the Red Sea to Israeli shipping.

In an extraordinary showdown on the eve of war, Israeli generals swore and shouted at the prime minister that Israel had to strike first to be sure of victory.

The conflict began with air strikes that destroyed much of Egypt's air power on the ground.

By the end of the fighting, Israel had defeated the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

It captured territory three times the size of the country as it was on 4 June.

The Golan Heights and Palestinian territory in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem remain under its control to this day.

Conference banned

The Israeli government marked the anniversary with Jerusalem Day celebrations last month, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.

The memory of [defeat] we hope will be erased by ending the occupation... and by establishing our independent state
Mahmoud Abbas

Israel has arranged no other official ceremonies for the anniversary and BBC correspondents in Jerusalem say there is a reflective mood and no fanfare.

Several hundred Palestinian activists held a rally in Ramallah in the West Bank, while more protesters marched to the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus - a key local symbol of the Israeli occupation.

In Hebron, about 250 activists of the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, marched while shouting: "End, end the occupation!"

But Israel banned a Palestinian conference due to be held in East Jerusalem.

Police deployed around the hotel hosting the conference, entitled "Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state, how to transform slogans into reality", notifying the organisers of the ban.

More events will be held throughout the week, culminating in anti-occupation protests around the world on Saturday.

In an address to mark the anniversary, Mr Abbas remembered the "massive defeat" for the Arabs.

But he also said: "Despite all the difficulties our revolt was equal to this defeat, the memory of which we hope will be erased by ending the occupation of Arab and Palestinian territory and by establishing our independent state."

However, he also warned that recent infighting among Palestinians had left them "on the verge of a civil war".

In Egypt there are no official events to mark the anniversary or the sacrifice of those who died - just the occasional newspaper article recalling what happened.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6721401.stm

Published: 2007/06/05 13:50:32 GMT

© BBC MMVII

BBC NEWS | Africa | 'Al-Qaeda' arrest in East Africa

BBC NEWS | Africa | 'Al-Qaeda' arrest in East Africa

'Al-Qaeda' arrest in East Africa
A suspected al-Qaeda member has been detained in the Horn of Africa and transferred to the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said.

In a statement, it described the man, Abdullahi Sudi Arale, as "an extremely dangerous terror suspect", with links to Islamic forces in Somalia.

It said he was a courier between al-Qaeda in East Africa and Pakistan, smuggling arms to African extremists.

He is the 385th suspect to be held at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said.

"The capture of Abdullahi Sudi Arale exemplifies the genuine threat that the United States and other countries face throughout the world from dangerous extremists," a Pentagon statement read.

The statement went on to allege that he was a leading member of the Union of Islamic Courts.

'Human rights abuses'

The US has launched several strikes on alleged militants in Somalia this year.

The US accuses the Union of Islamic Courts of harbouring al-Qaeda operatives, with some suspected of involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Ethiopian forces backed by the US, supported Somalia's transitional government in ousting the Union of Islamic Courts from the capital, Mogadishu, earlier this year.

The campaign group, Human Rights Watch, says dozens of individuals who fled the fighting in Somalia have been arbitrarily arrested and denied access to lawyers.

It has accused the US, Kenya, Ethiopia and the transitional Somali government of co-operating in a secret detention programme.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6729015.stm

Published: 2007/06/07 00:07:07 GMT

© BBC MMVII

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Costa Rica forges new China ties

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Costa Rica forges new China ties

Costa Rica forges new China ties
Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias has announced that his country has broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan after 60 years and formed relations with China.

Mr Arias said Costa Rica needed to develop closer ties with China in order to attract foreign investment.

Taiwan and China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, and both still compete for diplomatic recognition.

The switch leaves Taiwan with just 24 allies, compared to China's 170.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province which it has vowed to retake. It refuses to have diplomatic ties with nations that recognise Taiwan.

Following suit

At a news conference, the Costa Rican president thanked Taiwan for its "solidarity and co-operation" but said he had taken the decision "thinking of all the Costa Ricans".

"We are looking to strengthen the commercial ties and attract investment. China is the most successful emerging economy in the world," he said.

Analysts say Taiwan is fearful that Costa Rica's shift in allegiance to Beijing could prompt other Latin American nations such as Nicaragua and Panama to follow.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6729035.stm

Published: 2007/06/07 00:51:31 GMT

BBC NEWS | UK | Saudi prince 'received arms cash'

BBC NEWS | UK | Saudi prince 'received arms cash'

audi prince 'received arms cash'
Arms deals with the Saudis have been worth billions to the UK
BBC investigation
A Saudi prince received secret payments from the UK's biggest arms dealer, a BBC investigation has revealed.

BAE Systems made regular payments of hundreds of millions of pounds to Prince Bandar bin Sultan for more than a decade.

The payments were made with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Defence.

Prince Bandar would not comment and BAE systems said they acted lawfully at all times. The MoD said information about the Al Yamamah deal was confidential.

The Prince served for 20 years as Saudi ambassador to the US.

Warplane deal

Up to £120m a year was sent by BAE from the UK into two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington for more than a decade.

There wasn't a distinction between the accounts of the embassy or official government accounts
David Caruso
American bank investigator

The BBC's Panorama programme has established that these accounts were actually a conduit to Prince Bandar, the architect of the 1980s Al Yamamah deal to sell warplanes to Saudi.

The purpose of one of the accounts was to pay the expenses of the Prince's private Airbus.

David Caruso, an investigator who worked for the American bank where the accounts were held, said Prince Bandar had been taking money for his own personal use out of accounts that seemed to belong to his government.

He said: "There wasn't a distinction between the accounts of the embassy, or official government accounts as we would call them, and the accounts of the royal family."

Mr Caruso said he understood this had been going on for "years and years".

"Hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars were involved," he added.

Investigation stopped

According to Panorama's sources, the payments were written into the arms deal contract in secret annexes, described as "support services".

They were authorised on a quarterly basis by the MoD.

The payments were discovered during a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation.

The SFO inquiry into the Al Yamamah deal was stopped in December 2006.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the time it had been dropped because of national security concerns.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/6728773.stm

Published: 2007/06/06 22:47:47 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Complicit, Cowardly Corporate Media Hides Bilderberg

Barely a passing mention of meeting of 200 global powerbrokers in U.S. press
prisonplanet

Number of mainstream U.S. news outlets that reported on Paris Hilton over the past week: 10,000+

Number of mainstream U.S. news outlets that reported on a meeting of nearly 200 of the world's most powerful people this past weekend; Less than a handful.

The Bilderberg Group meeting, an annual conference at which the consensus for future global policy is provably manifested, again passed by with barely a mention on behalf of America's corporate media.

The Dallas Morning News carried a single article about Texas Governor Perry's visit, a story that was subsequently picked up in brief blurbs by a couple of local Texas TV news affiliates and a few bylines on page 30 of a couple of papers in the lone star state.

Apart from that, save a mention in an online Village Voice blog - nothing, absolutely nothing about a confab of the most powerful and influential people on the planet. In comparison, G8 is a mere talking shop and yet it is lavished with attention while Bilderberg is hidden in the shadows.

Nothing in the New York Times and nothing in the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, both of which were represented at the meeting. Nothing in Le Figaro of France or the Financial Times of London, who also were both represented by chief editors.

Media moguls who attend Bilderberg, such as Washington Post CEO and Chairman Donald E. Graham, swear an oath of secrecy and fulfil a promise each year to omit any coverage of Bilderberg from their news outlets.

Is it really any wonder that the traditional media model is dying and that more and more enlightened people in their droves are turning to alternative news sources in search of the truth?

Even the Turkish media, hardly reputed as a bastion of free speech, put the U.S. press to shame with a deluge of newspaper and TV coverage of Bilderberg and the protest that accompanied it in Istanbul.

Bilderberg routinely claims that it is simply a private meeting and that no policy is set within the confines of the ring of armed security the group erects around its hotel of choice. Yet courageous researchers like Jim Tucker and Daniel Estulin have demonstrated year upon year that what is discussed at Bilderberg quickly becomes policy if not in the near-term then years down the line.

The BBC uncovered documents form a former Bilderberg member dating back to the early 50's betraying the fact that the European Union and the single Euro currency were both brainchild's of the Bilderberg Group.

At the 2005 Bilderberg meeting in Munich Germany, leaked talking points obtained from the speeches given at the conference indicated that Bilderberg expected oil prices to surge over the next 12 months, which is exactly what happened.

Bilderberg has a proven history of acting in a kingmaker capacity. Both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair attended before becoming President and Prime Minister and it was also reported that Bilderberg selected John Edwards as Kerry's running mate in 2004. Hillary Clinton was rumored to have attended last year's conference in Ottawa.

Bilderberg is not about signing treaties, trade deals or agreeing to topple certain foreign heads of state - it's about creating a consensus for its members to adhere by, and the way in which topics are presented by speakers makes it obvious what the agenda will be.

This veneer of distinction provides Bilderberg with the justification to claim they don't set any concrete policy, but only the most deluded and naive observer could dismiss the notion that hundreds of the most influential people in the world getting together and talking doesn't have some play in what we later see unfold as policy.

Bilderberg members expressed their alarm at the speed of which the rush to invade Iraq was being pushed by the American elite in 2002, and so they resolved to recommend any military action be delayed until 2003 , which is exactly what happened.

This year, speakers expressed their "concern" about Iran's nuclear proliferation - which in Bilderbergese is a rubber stamp for war. Though the language is couched in the lexicon of international relations, make no bones about it, the orders are transmitted and followed.

Bilderberg is the closest thing you will ever get to the secret world government and no amount of sneering, whitewash or smear on behalf of the corporate media - many of which are represented at the conferences, diminishes that fact.

3rd Debate Rigged but Ron Paul Still Wins

Texas Congressman put in shadows while establishment shills lavished with time and attention, yet Paul still wins post-debate polls

prisonplanet

Viewers of last night's Republican presidential debate again came away with the distinct impression that the corporate media, in this case CNN, had again deliberately limited Ron Paul's speaking time while affording lavish attention to establishment candidates like Giuliani and McCain.

We invited members of our Prison Planet.tv forum to comment live on the debate as it unfolded and the consensus was that the Texas Congressman was deliberately sidelined;

"This is awful! Rudy, Romney and McCain are getting most of the time. Over half of the time so far has easily gone to them. I am going to need to go back and time this thing. I'm sure that there will be complaints if this continues."

"Once again Ron Paul has been cheated."

"The 'mainstream' candidates are getting most of the airtime. It feels like a setup."
"Every aspect of that debate was outrageous! They ended with some demagogue rhetoric from McCain and went straight back to him! And now Giuliani! Why do people buy their lies!"

A You Tube blogger held similar sentiments, pointing out that host Wolf Blitzer failed to even give Ron Paul an opportunity to answer a question about health care, when he was the only doctor on the stage. In addition, candidates like Giuliani and McCain had already spoken on two separate occasions before the Texas Congressman had even spoken once.

In another example of censorship , CNN asked people to comment on the debate at their website, but when the comments that came in were overwhelmingly pro-Ron Paul, CNN simply removed them and replaced them with comments about Sunday night's democratic debate.

Despite all these attempts to once again sideline Ron Paul and derail the momentum of his campaign, the "champion of the Constitution" is still leading all the post-debate polls.

The CNN poll shows Ron Paul leading in every positive category, save "snappiest dresser", which hardly matters. CNN's establishment hacks don't even mention Ron Paul, but the popular vote shows him leading the way.

Vote.com shows Ron Paul trouncing his nearest contenders, leading the way with a mammoth 78% of the vote at time of press.

Once again, the best efforts of the corporate media to pretend that Ron Paul and the building momentum of his campaign does not exist, along with their attempts to downplay and censor the impact the Texas Congressman is having, are inconsequential as the tide of the Ron Paul Revolution comes crashing ashore and the message of liberty continues to resonate with Americans nationwide.

Council bans boy, 6, from flying Jolly Roger at pirate party - because it is 'unneighbourly'

uk daily mail
As his sixth birthday approached, Morgan Smith's parents thought hoisting the Jolly Roger would be the perfect way to make the pirate-mad youngster's day.

The flag was duly run up the pole in the back garden, leaving Morgan looking forward to a party on Saturday with lots of friends wearing eyepatches and wielding toy cutlasses.

But little did the family know that out on the treacherous high seas of bureaucracy, trouble was heading their way.

Council officials branded the skull and crossbones flag "unneighbourly" and banned Morgan's parents Richard and Sharon from flying it.

The couple must apply for planning permission at a cost of £75, and then an assessment of the 5ft by 4ft flag's "impact" on the surrounding area of Stone, Staffordshire, will be undertaken.

The intervention has sunk the plans for a pirate-themed party.

Morgan's 40-year-old father, an engineer at Bentley Motors, said: "It's not as though I'm building a huge extension which will blight the neighbourhood. It's a child's pirate flag.

"Morgan is really upset because I'd told him we could have a pirate party for his birthday with him and his friends all coming dressed as pirates.

"The skull and crossbones was to be the centrepiece. We'll wait to see if the Jolly Roger is approved and if so we'll hold the party at a later date."

For years, the patriotic family have flown a Union Jack or a St George's flag on the 18ft-high flagstaff at their detached home without a problem, but a neighbour complained to the council about the Jolly Roger.

Mr Smith said: "When the lady from the council came to see me she said that it was no problem flying any of the other flags, it was the Jolly Roger that was of concern.

"She said that we would have to take it down. I've put in a planning application but I shouldn't have to go to all this trouble."

Mrs Smith, 43, said: "It strikes me as very petty. Who would complain about it? Obviously someone with too much time on their hands."

Councillor Richard Stevens said the council had objected to the flag because "it was unneighbourly and could open the doors for all kinds of flags".

A Stafford Borough Council spokesman said: "A planning application has been made for a Jolly Roger flag to be flown at a property in Stone.

"The application is currently under review and will include planning officers looking at the impact the flag has on the area, with the decision expected by the end of this month.

"Legislation requires planning approval before it can be flown from the flagpole."

The Jolly Roger dates back to the 1700s when pirates would fly it to make their victims surrender readily.

Internet Doomsday Creeps Closer

Big government pushes for total taxation and restriction on the last great outpost of free speech

infowars.com

Recent proposals in the U.S. Congress are taking a huge swipe at freedom in America once again by aiming to impose multiple different forms of crippling taxation and restriction on users of the internet.

State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other Internet-service connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail, reports CNet.

Several bills were introduced last week that could see all manner of new forms of internet taxation become a reality before the end of the year.

Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, introduced a bill (PDF link) for mandatory sales tax collection for Internet purchases, meaning that if you buy items through online sites like eBay or Amazon.com, you might have to start paying additional sales taxes on your purchases.

The Libertarian party has warned that the bill represents more big government intervention and that while Enzi insists the bill "would not increase taxes," the Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act would open the door for states to charge sales tax on Internet sales. In contrast to his statement, the C-Net article states that Enzi warned that other taxes may zoom upward if his "mandatory sales tax collection" bill isn't passed.

In a second and separate proposal during a House of Representatives hearing last week, politicians weighed whether to let a temporary ban on internet access taxes lapse when it expires on November 1.

Such a move would leave open the possibility that simply using the internet would require a tax to be paid which critics suggest could sound a death knell for broadband, DSL and "always on" high speed internet.

Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia compared the move to taxing people for simply entering shopping malls or libraries. With the U.S. economy already under considerable strain, taking a huge swipe at e-commerce, one of its cornerstones, seems like the worst possible thing Congress could do.

Furthermore, allowing taxation on internet access represents a slippery slope towards opening up the possibilities of taxing all kinds of internet based services.

"They might say, 'We have no interest in having taxes on e-mail,' but if we allow the prohibition on Internet taxes to expire, then you open the door on cities and towns and states to tax e-mail or other aspects of Internet access," said Sen. John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican.

An email tax would certainly suit both the government and internet providers who would likely get a cut. Last year it was revealed that AOL is planning to charge mass-emailers a fee to avoid the ISP's spam filters and guarantee that their marketing emails arrive straight in AOL subscribers' inboxes. Yahoo! is also endorsing the scheme.

Under such a system email considered "uncertified" would risk running through AOL and Yahoo!'s discrimination process. And as this potential profit center for the two net giants takes off, there's no incentive for either company to deliver the "free email" - and every incentive for them to get the world conditioned to paying for guaranteed delivery.

A United Nations agency also proposed in 1999 the idea of a 1-cent-per-100-message tax, indicating that the idea has been floating around for almost a decade.

In recent months, a chorus of propaganda intended to demonize the Internet and further lead it down a path of strict control has spewed forth from numerous establishment organs:

* Time magazine reported last month that researchers funded by the federal government want to shut down the internet and start over, citing the fact that at the moment there are loopholes in the system whereby users cannot be tracked and traced all the time.
The projects echo moves we have previously reported on to clamp down on internet neutrality and even to designate a new form of the internet known as Internet 2.

* In a display of bi-partisanship, there have recently been calls for all out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans alike.

* Republican Senator John McCain recently tabled a proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. It is well known that McCain has a distaste for his blogosphere critics, causing a definite conflict of interest where any proposal to restrict blogs on his part is concerned.

*
During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News last November, George Bush senior slammed Internet bloggers for creating an "adversarial and ugly climate."

*
The White House's own recently de-classified strategy for "winning the war on terror" targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to "diminish" their influence.

*
The Pentagon recently announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and propagandize for the war on terror.

*
In a speech last October, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a "terror training camp," through which "disaffected people living in the United States" are developing "radical ideologies and potentially violent skills." His solution is "intelligence fusion centers," staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will go into operation next year.

*
The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance.

*
A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web - and their argument is supported by the U.S. government.

*
A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.

*
The European Union, led by former Stalinist and potential future British Prime Minister John Reid, has also vowed to shut down "terrorists" who use the Internet to spread propaganda.

*
The EU data retention bill, passed last year after much controversy and with implementation tabled for late 2007, obliges telephone operators and internet service providers to store information on who called who and who emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the US, can access EU citizens' data on phone calls, sms', emails and instant messaging services.

*
The EU also recently proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a license.

* The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine. "At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites."

The development of a new form of internet with new regulations is also designed to create an online caste system whereby the old internet hubs would be allowed to break down and die, forcing people to use the new taxable, censored and regulated world wide web.

Make no mistake, the internet, one of the greatest outposts of free speech ever created is under constant attack by powerful people who cannot operate within a society where information flows freely and unhindered. Both American and European moves mimic stories we hear every week out of State Controlled Communist China, where the internet is strictly regulated and virtually exists as its own entity away from the rest of the web.

The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate their populations under a surveillance panopticon prison.

Federal Reserve faces growing pressure to raise rates.

bloomberg/chinapost
In the options market where the savviest investors take apart conventional wisdom, the Federal Reserve is facing growing pressure to consider raising interest rates as soon as December.

Options on Federal Fund futures at the Chicago Board of Trade indicate a 41 percent chance the central bank will lift its target rate for overnight loans between banks to 5.5 percent from the current 5.25 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A month ago, they showed no expectations for an increase.

While the economy expanded at the slowest pace in more than four years in the first quarter, inflation remains at the top of the Fed's comfort zone, business activity has rebounded, the jobless rate is near the lowest in six years and stock indexes are setting record highs. Just three months ago, options traders speculated the weakest housing market in 16 years would force the central bank to cut interest rates to 4.5 percent by January.

"The economy is in better shape than people give it credit for," said Jamie Jackson, who oversees government debt trading at RiverSource Investments in Minneapolis, which manages US$100 billion of bonds. "People exaggerated the pass-through effects of the housing weakness. If the Fed were to do something by year-end it would be a tightening."

The chance of at least one cut in the overnight lending rate between banks has fallen to 29 percent from 83 percent since the start of May, options prices show.

Federal Reserve policy makers "have started to tell us in pretty consistent language they're not satisfied at being at the upper band" of their inflation target, said Stan Jonas, who trades interest-rate options in New York at Axiom Management Partners LLC. "One-third of the people think the next move is going to be a tightening."

Options more accurately reflect changes in monetary policy than futures contracts, the most widely used barometer, because they include the widest array of wagers, according studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in 2005 and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 2006.

The Cleveland Fed paper has influenced the study of monetary policy expectations and follows a "perfectly sound procedure," said James Hamilton, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego.

The CBOT first listed the options in 2003 and began offering contracts in July that allow bets on the Fed's target rate. The so-called binary options pay US$1,000 if an investor bets correctly on the Fed's interest-rate decision at regularly scheduled meetings. Investors get nothing if they bet wrong.

Treasury yields climbed last week to the highest since August. The yield on the benchmark Treasury note due in May 2017 rose 9 basis points, or 0.09 percentage point, to 4.95 percent. Its price fell about 23/32, or US$7.19 per US$1,000 bond, to 96.15.

Treasuries returned 1.1 percent so far this year, compared with a 1.5 percent loss last year, according to indexes compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co.

Personal spending on items excluding food and energy, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, rose 2 percent in April, at the top of the central bank's preferred 1 percent to 2 percent range. It had been above 2 percent the previous 12 months.

Central bankers reiterated their forecast for faster growth and said "downside risks" to the economy have "diminished slightly," according to minutes of the May 9 Federal Open Market Committee meeting released last week.

"Economic growth will pick up as we move through the year," Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner said at a June 1 conference in Athens. "The risks to the inflation outlook are primarily to the upside."

Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS AG, among the biggest bond bulls this year, have yet to change their forecasts for the Fed after predicting a housing-led recession would result in at least three rate cuts this year. Merrill and Goldman are based in New York and UBS is in Zurich.

New home sales rose 16 percent in April to an annualized rate of 981,000, according a Commerce Department report released May 24. Analysts attributed the increase to developers reducing prices of unsold houses. The average selling price dropped 10 percent, the report said.

Gains in stocks that pushed the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a record 1535.56 on May 30 discouraged the Fed from cutting rates, said David Rosenberg, chief economist for Merrill in New York. Rosenberg predicted at the beginning of January that rates would fall to 4.25 percent this year. He declined to specify when the Fed will cut rates in an interview May 30.

Foreign Relations Experts Urge U.S. To Beef Up Numbers Of Its Available Diplomats

the day
Washington — The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have overstretched the U.S. Foreign Service, damaging its morale and threatening its performance around the world, charged a coalition of advocates for diplomats Tuesday.

The Foreign Affairs Council, a group of 11 nonprofit organizations, said in a report that the State Department needs to hire 1,100 foreign service officers simply to restore the capabilities it had when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took her post at the beginning of 2005.

“The Foreign Service is at the front end of a personnel crisis, and if something isn't done ... we're going to have a very, very serious situation a year or so from now,” Thomas Boyatt, a retired U.S. ambassador and the council's president, said at a news conference.

The council said Rice has required diplomats to carry out a more aggressive mission of “transformational diplomacy” to prod other countries to adhere to democratic principles. But at the same time, they have had to cope with wartime strains, inadequate language and skills training and more overtime work.

In addition, about 750 have been required to take one-year stints in sometimes dangerous postings where they are not allowed to bring their families.

Over the past two years, the Bush administration failed to anticipate the need for foreign service personnel, including in Baghdad, where about 200 Foreign Service Officers work in a 1,000-person embassy, the largest in the world, the council said.

At the same time, Congress has rejected the administration's requests for additional personnel in the past two budgets.

About 200 Foreign Service jobs abroad are unfilled, and about 900 other training slots needed to give diplomats language and other job skills are unavailable. About 9,000 diplomats and others work for the Foreign Service.

Officials of the advocacy group said that the recent shift of diplomats from Europe to the Middle East and elsewhere has left embassy staffs in Europe sometimes unable to get their work done on time.

Despite the morale problems, however, statistics do not indicate that Foreign Service Officers are quitting their jobs at higher rates, Boyatt said.

In the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War, Congress cut the staffing and budget of the Foreign Service by about one-third. In President Bush's first term, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, alarmed by short staffing of the organization, added about 1,000 officers. But now those have been “vacuumed up” in Iraq, Afghanistan and other new danger spots, Boyatt said.

Protesters clash with police at G8 summit

Europe News
Heiligendamm, Germany - Up to 10,000 anti- globalization protesters blocked roads Wednesday and gathered at a fence around the Heiligendamm venue for the G8 summit in Germany.

Police used tear-gas and water-jets from special anti-riot trucks to drive part of the crowd back from the welded-mesh, steel fence erected at a radius of 2 kilometres from the summit hotel.

The demonstrators ignored a legal ban on close-up protests, although it was confirmed at midday by German constitutional court judges in the southern city of Karlsruhe.

Police said water cannon parked at the perimeter fence were used after stones were thrown at police from a crowd of about 800 near the main access gate. Another group of 300 approached a second of two gates.

Police used water jets and tear gas to clear thousands of protesters off Highway 105 which runs past Heiligendamm at a distance of about 6 kilometres.

The protesters also sat down on a coastal lane leading into Heiligendamm from the east and an antique steam railway on the coastline from the west, forcing organizers to transport reporters to the venue on Germany Navy boats.

Another sit-down protest halted traffic on the autobahn near Rostock Airport, where the non-German delegations were landing Wednesday to travel to Heiligendamm by road.

Exultant demonstrators voiced surprise that the police had not stopped them. Organizers said they had 10,000 protesters on the move in the countryside near Heiligendamm to disrupt the summit.

'We just walked over the fields where the water-cannon couldn't follow us,' said a spokeswoman for the protest group Block G8, which regards the summit as illegitimate.

A police spokesman denied the special summit police force, which had met frequently beforehand with protest organizers, had been surprised by the invasion. Police said about 8,000 protesters were in the fields and woods.

An adequate number of officers was at the scene to protect the fence from being breached, the spokesman said. The summit police force, drawn from several German states, numbers 16,000.

Police helicopters flew in reinforcements and evacuated an unspecified number of injured officers.

The demonstrators had swarmed out of their tent villages near the exclusive Baltic beach resort and marched through fields and woods to bypass police road-blocks several hours before the summit was to begin.

The protesters, hailing from several European nations, were mainly in their 20s, many wearing colourful casual dress or humourous costumes, but a few wearing the hoods and the black clothes that mark out militants.

Two Spanish students aged 20 and 21 were meanwhile sent to jail at a summary trial for their part in an anti-G8 riot four days earlier in the port city of Rostock.

The younger man was given nine months for throwing stones at police and the elder ten months because one of the stones actually hit an officer. Defence lawyers said they would appeal against the convictions.

The previous day, the first rioter to be convicted, a 31-year-old, received 10 months on similar charges.

An estimated 2,000 black-clad protesters fought with riot police Saturday.

Bush says Russia won't attack Europe

ap
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany — President Bush on Wednesday discounted Vladimir Putin's threat to retarget missiles on Europe, saying "Russia's not going to attack Europe."

Bush, in an interview with The Associated Press and other reporters, said no U.S. military response was required after Putin warned that Russia would take steps in response to a U.S. missile shield that would be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"Russia is not an enemy," Bush said, seeking not to inflame a heated exchange of rhetoric between Washington and Moscow. "There needs to be no military response because we're not at war with Russia. ... Russia is not a threat. Nor is the missile defense we're proposing a threat to Russia."

Bush spoke before heading off to lunch with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is hosting the annual meeting of the world's seven richest industrial democracies and Russia. Merkel has made global warming the centerpiece of her G-8 leadership and is pushing for specific targets for reducing carbon emissions.

The meeting is being held under tight security on the Baltic Sea coast in northern Germany. Police used water cannons to scatter an estimated 10,000 demonstrators who swarmed a seven-mile fence that encircles the site. At one section, hundreds of protesters chanted "Peace" and "Free G-8! Free G-8!"

Bush, who met with reporters for nearly an hour in a sun-drenched garden, also discussed Iran, the suffering in Darfur, global warming and this week's sentencing of a former White House aide.

The president said he would like to see other countries follow the United States in taking steps against the government of Sudan to stop the misery in Darfur.

"I'm frustrated because there are still people suffering and the U.N. process is moving at a snail's pace," Bush said.

Bush announced tighter U.S. sanctions on Sudan last week. He also is seeking a U.N. resolution to apply new international sanctions against the Sudanese government.

On climate change, Bush said he would not give ground on global warming proposals that would require mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, he backed his own idea for the United States and other nations that spew the most greenhouse gases to meet and — by the end of next year — set a long-term strategy for reducing emissions.

Merkel has proposed a "two-degree" target, under which global temperatures would be allowed to increase no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, (2 degrees Celsius) before being brought back down. Practically, experts have said that means a global reduction in emissions of 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Merkel supports a global carbon-trading market as one tool.

But Bush wants to bring India, China and other fast-growing countries to the negotiation table. He envisions that each country will set their own goals, and decide whether they should be binding. The president said his plan addresses "life after" 2012, the expiration date for the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States has not endorsed.

Merkel put a good face on her talk with Bush about issues such as combatting poverty in Africa. But their debate on global warming seems unlikely to produce the kind of hard targets she and others have advocated. "We started here on a very good footing," she said.

While global warming topped Bush's talks with Merkel, and hers with other leaders before the evening's official opening of the summit, the president's plan to deploy an anti-missile radar system in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland is likely to be a key topic in Bush's meeting Thursday with Putin.

Asked if he anticipated a tense encounter, Bush replied "Could be. I don't think so ... I'll work to see that it's not a tense meeting."

Putin has accused the U.S. of starting a new arms race and said if the U.S. pressed ahead with its plan, Russia would revert to targeting its missiles on Europe as it did during the Cold War. China joined Russia in saying the missile defense plan could touch off a new escalation in nuclear weapons.

The move to put the missile defense shield in former Warsaw Pact nations — purportedly as a defense against a future missile launch from Iran — clearly fanned Putin's anger.

Bush cited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration that it was "too late" to stop Iran's nuclear program as justification for the U.S. missile defense system. "Therefore, let's build a missile defense system," Bush said, adding that it was time to return to the U.N. Security Council to tighten pressure on Iran to give up its suspected weapons program.

Bush also has angered Putin in the past by criticizing Russia's spotty progress on democratic reform and human rights — a theme Bush expressed in a speech just one day ago. Bush said that despite all the problems, the United States has a friendship with Russia. He suggested Putin's recent rhetoric could be calculated mostly for internal political consumption in Russia.

"There will be disagreements," said Bush, who has invited Putin to meet him in July in Kennebunkport, Maine, the home of his father, former President George H.W. Bush. "That's the way life works."

On an issue back in Washington, Bush refused to say whether he might pardon I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former White House aide, who was sentenced Tuesday to 21/2 years in prison. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying and obstructing in a CIA leak investigation.

"Yesterday was a very sad day for Scooter and his family," Bush said.

Claims tying shots to autism go to court - Kids & Parenting - MSNBC.com

Claims tying shots to autism go to court - Kids & Parenting - MSNBC.com

Claims tying shots to autism go to court
Scientists dispute claims that mercury in shots led to kids’ condition
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:59 p.m. ET June 4, 2007

WASHINGTON - Science has spoken when it comes to the theory that some childhood vaccines can cause autism. They don’t, the Institute of Medicine concluded three years ago.

Soon, it will be the court’s turn to speak.

More than 4,800 claims have been filed against the federal government during the past six years alleging that a child contracted autism as a result of a vaccine. The first test case from among those claims will be the subject of a hearing that was to begin next Monday in a little-known “People’s Court” — the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A special master appointed by the court will hear the case.

For the parents filing a claim, there is the potential for vindication, and for financial redress.

The test case addresses the theory that the cause of autism is the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in combination with other vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal. That preservative, which contains a form of mercury, is no longer in routine childhood vaccines. However, it is used in influenza vaccines.

One of the parents who has filed a claim against the federal government and has great interest in the case is Scott Bono of Durham, N.C. His son, Jackson, 18, has autism. While acknowledging the findings of the IOM’s study, Bono believes those findings were preordained by the federal government.

“The charge before the IOM committee was: ‘You’re not going to find anything wrong here,”’ Bono said.

He said that parents of children with autism have been marginalized, but they see specific outcomes in their children that are consistent with exposure to mercury. And those outcomes did not present themselves until after they received their vaccinations. In short, the children tell the story better than the numbers, he said.

“It’s a thrill in the sense that, for the first time, the stories of these children are going to be heard in court,” Bono said.

No correlations found
In July 1999, the U.S. government asked vaccine manufacturers to eliminate or reduce, as expeditiously as possible, the mercury content of their vaccines to avoid any possibility of infants who receive vaccines being exposed to more mercury than is recommended by federal guidelines.

Dr. Paul Offit, who developed a vaccine for the rotovirus, is chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He said epidemiological studies pick up minute, almost invisible differences in the populations that have received a vaccine versus those that have not.

For example, a swine flu vaccine in the 1970s caused the sometimes paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome in 1 out of 100,000 cases, he said.

But no such correlations have been found for autism, which affects about 1 out of 150 children, he said.

“It should be easily picked up,” he said. “It hasn’t been and the reason it hasn’t been is because vaccines do not cause autism.”

Offit said mercury is part of the natural environment. There’s no escaping it and, in fact, children will get more mercury from breast milk than they get from a vaccine. Yet, he’s frustrated when he hears lawmakers speak of having zero tolerance for mercury.

“On this planet you can’t have zero tolerance for mercury,” he said. “You would have to move to another planet.”

Working too closely?
Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction. Those affected often have trouble communicating, and they exhibit unusual or severely limited activities and interests. Meanwhile, classic symptoms of mercury poisoning include anxiety, fatigue and abnormal irritation, as well as cognitive and motor dysfunction.

The report from the Institute of Medicine pointed to five large studies, here and abroad, that tracked thousands of children since 2001 and found no association between autism and vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal.

Members of the National Autism Association see drug manufacturers and the federal government as working too closely together to the point that the federal government is working to protect the industry from liability. The association says its mission is to raise awareness of environmental toxins as causing neurological damage that often results in an autism or related diagnosis.

Bono, a member of the association, said he doesn’t believe his son was intentionally poisoned.

“I just want someone to step up and say, ‘You’re right, this did happen,”’ he said.

During the hearing, lawyers for the parents were expected to present their expert testimony during the first week. Then lawyers representing the federal government were expected to present their case. The hearing was to be open to the public.

Officials planned to post transcripts on the court’s Web site about 24 hours after each day’s proceedings.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19036669/
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Is Ritalin a divorce drug for children?

Xinhuanet
A Canadian researcher on Monday called for an investigation into why children from broken marriages are twice as likely to be prescribed attention-deficit drugs as children whose parents remain together.

University pf Alberta professor Lisa Strohschein reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal more than 6 percent of 633 children from divorced families were prescribed Ritalin, compared with 3.3 percent of children whose parents stayed together.

"It shows clearly that divorce is a risk factor for kids to be prescribed Ritalin," Strohschein said.

The study of more than 4,700 children started in 1994, while all the families were intact, Strohschein said. They followed the children's progress to see what happened to their families and to see what drugs were prescribed.

Other studies have shown that children of single parents are more likely to get prescribed drugs such as Ritalin. But is the problem caused by being born to a never-married mother, or some other factor?

Ritalin, known generically as methylphenidate, is a psychostimulant drug most commonly prescribed for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.

There is a big debate in much of the developed world over whether it may be over-prescribed — given to children who do not really need it. In March, a University of California, Berkeley study found that the use of drugs to treat ADHD has more than tripled worldwide since 1993.

Strohschein said it is possible that some mental health problems pre-date the divorce, so "it is possible that these kids had these problems before, but are only being identified afterward."