News Report July 5, 2006

Warnings on WMD 'Fabricator' Were Ignored, Ex-CIA Aide Says In late January 2003, as Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors. He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare.Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph. A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: "We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."The sentence took Drumheller completely by surprise."We thought we had taken care of the problem," said the man who was the CIA's European operations chief before retiring last year, "but I turn on the television and there it was, again."

Federal contracts up 86% under Bush; Halliburton rises 600% A new report claims that a "shadow government" of federal contractors has exploded in size over the last five years.The document, compiled at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and distributed to RAW STORY, indicates that procurement spending increased by over $175 billion between 2000 and 2005, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending. 500 reports, audits and investigations by government and independent bodies, including the Government Accountability Office and the Defense Contract Audit Agency, were used to compile the data. That spending increase -- an astonishing 86 percent -- puts total US federal procurement at $377.5 billion annually.‘Barbaric’ It’s the only word that adequately describes the tragic fate of two missing U.S. soldiers. I grieve deeply for them and their families. It horrifies me to imagine their last hours as I read this report.

CEOs earn 262 times pay of average worker Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in the 40 years for which there is data, a nonprofit think-tank said on Wednesday. In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The typical worker's compensation averaged just under $42,000 for the year, while the average CEO brought home almost $11 million, EPI said. In recent years, compensation has been a hot issue with shareholders who have been bombarded with news stories about chief executives who are given multimillion dollar bonus and pay packages even if shares have declined.

Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year's highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns. In all three cases, Hastert and Reps. Ken Calvert and Gary Miller say that they were securing funds their home districts wanted badly, and that in no way did the earmarks have any impact on the land values of their investments. But for watchdog groups, the cases have opened a fresh avenue for investigation and a new wrinkle in the ongoing controversy over earmarks -- home-district projects funded through narrowly written legislative language.

Jobs hard to find for Iraq vets Army Spc. Sameer Bartlett of College Park knew there would be not much demand in the job market for an artillery ammunition team chief.So he switched his specialty to human resources before he came home from a year in Iraq.Sameer Bartlett, who just finished a four-year stint in the Army, talks with Jeff Cornwell and Gerald Chambers, both recruiters with Yancey Brothers, during the RecruitMilitary job fair at the Georgia International Convention Center on Tuesday. But since his release from four years of active duty on May 28, Bartlett, 23, has found that even with a new job skill, life after Army can be frustrating for younger veterans. In fact, young veterans suffer nearly double the unemployment of nonveterans their age."I've been flooding the market with applications and résumés, but every job I go for, they want someone with a bachelor's degree or a master's degree or more experience than I have," Bartlett said Tuesday.

'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says shows that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees." This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government." It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."

Shining a ray of light on Thailand’s sex trade My ongoing investigation of the slave trade - 27 million people around the globe are trapped in forced labor at this moment - took me to Southeast Asia this past week. Prior to the trip, I had poured over a considerable amount of research about the trafficking of women and children for the sex trade in the region. Reading about the practice is disturbing enough; seeing it first hand proved to be overwhelming.In Cambodia and Thailand I visited several projects that care for individuals lucky enough to escape - or be rescued - from the bars and brothels that exploit them. I cannot get out of my head the sight of the 50 girls between the ages of 7 and 12 who found safe haven in one rescue center in Cambodia. To think that grown men used these innocent, slight girls for their sexual pleasures numbs the mind. Thanks to the efforts of faith-based activists, these girls are now in a safe environment where they can imagine a better life.

Helping 'witches' who live in exile More than 1,000 women live in exile among six camps in this impoverished region. Isolating widows or older women as witches is a deep-rooted custom in this part of the world. Indeed, accusations of witchcraft may be seen as a way to keep women subservient in African society. But various organizations are trying to help. Some are using education to fight superstitions, while others are offering loans to these women to help them develop skills and earn income.Empowering young women by giving them a voice and positions of authority can help, says Allison Berg, who spotlighted the problem in her award-winning 2005 documentary "Witches in Exile" ( www.witchesinexile.com).

Illegal Hiring Is Rarely Penalized The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.Between 1999 and 2003, work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently was merged into the Homeland Security Department. The number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003, and fines collected declined from $3.6 million to $212,000, according to federal statistics.In 1999, the United States initiated fines against 417 companies. In 2004, it issued fine notices to three.The government's steady retreat from workplace enforcement in the 20 years since it became illegal to hire undocumented workers is the result of fierce political pressure from business lobbies, immigrant rights groups and members of Congress, according to law enforcement veterans. Punishing employers also was de-emphasized as the government recognized that it lacks the tools to do the job well, and as the Department of Homeland Security shifted resources to combat terrorism.

Darfur Receives Little Help With Their Struggles It's been called an African solution to an African problem in Darfur. A job that would normally fall to the United Nations has, until now, been left to a small African Union force that's outnumbered and outgunned. They're still expected to restore security, but during a "confidence building" patrol led by A.U. Capt. Kora Faye and his men, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan learns that this is not happening. "We are being attacked in the camp by Arab militias and government soldiers," one man tells Faye. "We do not feel safe here."

Dubai Company Still Controlling 22 American Ports It's been more than three months since Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its port operations at 22 U.S. ports. But as of today, all 22 of these terminal facilities remained under the control of Dubai Ports and the government of Dubai. You thought we weren't watching, didn't you?Flag-Burning Amendment One Vote From Passage The U.S. Senate is one vote away from passing a constitutional amendment that would criminalize desecration of the U.S. flag. If successful, it will mark the first time in 214 years that the Bill of Rights has been restricted by a constitutional amendment, and will place the United States among a select group of nations that have banned flag desecration, including Cuba, China, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Report called for by Congress says humans mostly responsible for global warming With the governors of each province meeting these strict objectives, Iraq's ambition is to have full control of the country by the end of 2008. In practice this will mean a significant foreign troop reduction. We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year's end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.The eventual removal of coalition troops from Iraqi streets will help the Iraqis, who now see foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators they were meant to be. It will remove psychological barriers and the reason that many Iraqis joined the so-called resistance in the first place. The removal of troops will also allow the Iraqi government to engage with some of our neighbors that have to date been at the very least sympathetic to the resistance because of what they call the "coalition occupation." If the sectarian issue continues to cause conflict with Iraq's neighbors, this matter needs to be addressed urgently and openly -- not in the guise of aversion to the presence of foreign troops.

Irani Women Protest in Shadow of Nuclear Face-off A violent crackdown on female demonstrators in Tehran on Monday received little attention in the U.S. media. Women's rights experts living abroad say their work in Iran is complicated and muffled by U.S.-Iran nuclear tensions.

Lack of opposition doesn’t stop candidates from raking in big money Mike at Okiedoke reports on the some of the best-financed campaigns in Oklahoma with campaigns who don’t even have an opponent.

Fox News Analyst: Administration Hid Evidence of WMD To Protect China, Russia and France Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) are hyping a document that describes degraded, pre-1991 munitions that were already acknowledged by the White House’s Iraq Survey Group and dismissed.The Defense Department has already knocked the story down. But on Fox this is big news, proving that Saddam Hussein had WMD, just as the administration claimed. The question is, if this information is so significant, why would the administration keep it under wraps? Alan Colmes asked Fox News Military Analyst Thomas McInerery that question last night. McInerery explained that the administration was complicit in a multinational cover-up intended to protect Russia, China and France.

Poll: Overwhelming Support for Publicly Financed Elections A new national poll finds overwhelming support (74%) for public financing of elections, the result no doubt of soaring campaign costs, lobbyist scandals and the desire for fairer, cleaner elections. The result is bipartisan with eighty percent of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 65% of Republicans support this reform.

Britain to renew nuclear missiles after Brown pledges his support Gordon Brown has given his strong support to plans for renewing Britain's Trident independent nuclear weapons system, dealing a hefty blow to the campaign to halt the project. The Chancellor threw his weight behind Tony Blair's plans to replace the submarine-based system when it is decommissioned in 2024. Replacement, opponents claim, could cost £25bn. Mr Brown will authorise the spending of £1bn a year between now and then.Mr Brown used his Mansion House speech to the City last night to announce his personal commitment to keeping an independent deterrent. "In an insecure world we must and will always have the strength to take all necessary long-term decisions for stability and security," he said.

Women leaders insist on action to protect mothers, children Women leaders, including Jordan's Queen Rania and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, pledged on Sunday to mobilize for their sisters and children across the world. "We are no longer supplicants, hoping for a moment of the world's attention," Albright told the inaugural session of a three-day conference to stem maternal and child mortality and bolster education for girls. "We are here to serve notice that women and children have been dying needlessly for too long, that every life matters, and that a global network is coming together determined to defend children and save women's lives." The conference aims to launch a "Global Women's Action Network for Children."

Combating Global Warming with Community If rising sea levels, melting glaciers and intensifying tropical storms have you shouting at all those in power who are still ignoring global warming, take heart. “The reason Europeans use half as much energy as we do is not because they have better technology,” says Bill McKibben, renowned environmentalist and author. “It’s because they have better communities.” Join host Jerry Kay, as Mckibben makes the connection between global warming and hyperindividualism, and hear what John Bailey of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance thinks local communities can do to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

There's method in the missile madness North Korea's preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States, despite warnings from the US, South Korea and Japan, is part of a propaganda offensive to regain international attention and increase its bargaining leverage to wrest concessions from Washington and Seoul. The brinkmanship could backfire, though, with Pyongyang becoming a victim of its own game. North Korea appears to be in the final stages of preparations for the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, although Pyongyang could still stop short of an actual launch. Media leaks of increasingly detailed intelligence information and warnings by senior US, South Korean and Japanese government officials since mid-June have indicated far greater concern than previous false warnings of missile and nuclear test preparations.

Safavian Found Guilty in Abramoff Lobbying Case A federal jury finds a former Bush administration official guilty of lying and obstruction. David Safavian was the chief of staff at the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate. He's the first person to stand trial in connection with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

EPA and Pesticide Industry Pressuring Scientists to Allow Continued Use of Toxic Pesticides Government scientists are blowing the whistle on the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to allow the continued use of 20 highly controversial organophosphate pesticides without conducting adequate safety testing. You can help by sending a letter to the EPA.

Coulter guilty of “textbook plagiarism” in her new book Godless, according to John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system.

U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.

U.S. General in Iraq Outlines Troop Cuts The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say. According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon this week by the commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current level of 14 by December 2007.Under the plan, the first reductions would involve two combat brigades that would rotate out of Iraq in September without being replaced. Military officials do not typically characterize reductions by total troop numbers, but rather by brigades. Combat brigades, which generally have about 3,500 troops, do not make up the bulk of the 127,000-member American force in Iraq, and other kinds of units would not be pulled out as quickly.

N. Korea's test threat launches uproar North Korea may have achieved what it was planning all along when it poised its long-range Taepodong II missile for launch: an uproar in the United States and Japan over the possibility of a test flight into the northern Pacific beyond Japan. The strategy, in the view of analysts here, was to gain the attention needed to try to draw the United States into negotiations on the North's terms - and also deepen the rift between the United States and South Korea, which is intent on pursuing reconciliation with the North.

Keith Slams O'Reilly Haha

US wants telecom surveillance lawsuits in DC court The U.S. Justice Department wants to consolidate at least two dozen lawsuits against the government and Verizon Communications Inc. that involve the National Security Agency's alleged access to telephone customer records.

Karzai Urges New Approach to War on Terror Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community to reassess its approach to the war on terror Thursday, saying the deaths of hundreds of Afghans in fighting with U.S.-led forces was "not acceptable."A clearly frustrated Karzai said the approach being taken by coalition forces to hunt down militants does not focus on the roots of terrorism itself."I strongly believe ... that we must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation," Karzai said during a press conference.

Hamas performs about-turn on Israeli state Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a document that recognise Israel's right to exist and a negotiated two-state solution, according to Palestinian leaders.In a bitter struggle for power, Hamas is bowing to an ultimatum from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to endorse the document drawn up by Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails, or face a national referendum on the issue that could see the Islamist group stripped of power if it loses.

The Way Out of Iraq: A Road Map With the governors of each province meeting these strict objectives, Iraq's ambition is to have full control of the country by the end of 2008. In practice this will mean a significant foreign troop reduction. We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year's end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.The eventual removal of coalition troops from Iraqi streets will help the Iraqis, who now see foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators they were meant to be. It will remove psychological barriers and the reason that many Iraqis joined the so-called resistance in the first place. The removal of troops will also allow the Iraqi government to engage with some of our neighbors that have to date been at the very least sympathetic to the resistance because of what they call the "coalition occupation." If the sectarian issue continues to cause conflict with Iraq's neighbors, this matter needs to be addressed urgently and openly -- not in the guise of aversion to the presence of foreign troops.

U.N-Backed Court Documents Darfur Deaths The U.N.-backed court probing war crimes in Darfur has documented thousands of civilian deaths, hundreds of alleged rapes and a "significant number" of massacres that killed hundreds of people at once, the top prosecutor said Wednesday. Many witnesses and victims have reported that three ethnic groups in particular _ the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa _ had been singled out for attack in Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a report to the Security Council.

Cafferty File The Incompetent President.

Hating America When we dare to voice criticism of this administration, we are told we "hate America". To acknowledge America’s foreign policy as being partly to blame for granting power to Saddam Hussein and the Taliban because they opposed other countries deemed enemies at the time is to hate America. When my teenage son wrecks the car, I don’t stop loving him. If my mom were to blow her pension and give it all to the Home Shopping Channel and 700 Club, I don’t stop loving her. I don’t stop loving my country. I don’t walk off and leave my country in her hour of need. Those we allowed to lead us into an unnecessary, pre-emptive war have wrecked the car, even if a few among them tried to grab the wheel. They have left American workers on the rooftops, without pensions, without health care, while we are occupying someone else’s country. They have broken the bank. We are borrowed to the hilt as a nation. How many billions for this foolish war? That would have been enough to get a good start on rebuilding the American rail system and urban transportation, rebuilding Louisiana and Mississippi, and providing access to health care for all Americans. They have abused our soldiers, our less fortunate citizens, our environment and our good name and respect in the rest of the world.

Abbas demands end to rocket attacks, Israel steps up threats Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday demanded that militants immediately halt rocket attacks, as Israel threatened to wage a tougher response to an upsurge in cross-border violence. An statement from his office announced that Abbas "calls on all armed groups to cease firing rockets immediately and to fully respect the truce," agreed by the main militant groups early last year. "Any faction that does not respect the truce will bear the entire responsibility for the destruction and casualties that will result from an Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip," it added.

House Republican says America would be speaking Japanese or German if Murtha was congressman during WWII Rep. Gohmert: Let me close by saying some have not had nice things to say about our colleague Mr. Murtha, and others wanting to pull out of Iraq quickly. I understand the faithful visitation that he does routinely. So i say thank god for his big heart. I say thank god for his compassion. Thank god for his visits to the wounded. Thank god for his ministering to grieving families. But thank god he was not here and prevailed after the bloodbaths at Normandy and in the Pacific or we would be here speaking Japanese or German. Thank you.

UPDATE w/ VIDEO: My Speech on the Paris Hilton Tax Cut ... This tax is the Paris Hilton tax. That's right once this is passed Paris Hilton will be able to jet set around the world buying herself more bling and more little dogs to carry around in her purse and probably never work a day in her life. But while we are helping Paris with her problems, I think we need to think about the poorest among us, those people working two, three minimum wage jobs every single day simply to try to keep themselves alive and that we have turned our backs on now for over a decade.

You Don't Want to Miss This And we the people have now spoken, Pack up your belongings, Sail across the ocean, And face all that you have created, In the name of god’s love, A thin shield for your hatred, You can never repair, All the damage you’ve done, But we’ll rebuild even stronger.

Climate Change Evaporates from G8 Agenda At the last G8 summit, political leaders vowed to "act with resolve and urgency" on climate change. A year on, global warming has been sidelined by concerns on how the world can satisfy its growing appetite for energy. While analysts were not entirely convinced by Prime Minister Tony Blair's bid to highlight climate change -- a fashionable issue in Britain -- during his G8 presidency, they believe Russia has all but dropped the issue. "I don't think this year there's going to be any particular emphasis on climate, I would be very positively surprised if there were," said Benito Mueller, Senior Research Fellow at Britain's Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Thank you for inviting me to Las Vegas -- now let's end the war in Iraq Speaking with you at YearlyKos was exhilarating because it reminded me of what democracy is all about -- and what America can be all about once more, if we keep fighting for what we believe. After joining you in Las Vegas, I'm more confident than ever that we can take back Congress this November -- but it's going to take all of us pulling together online, and reaching into our offline communities, to get it done.

Former detainee paints harrowing portrait of life at Guantánamo Bay Dostum held the three for nearly a month, along with thirty or forty other survivors. "We had no food [or] water for about two weeks," Ahmed says. "No bath, no shave. We had body lice." Ahmed recalls "bleeding everywhere" from scratching.Things improved slightly when the men were transferred to an American airbase in Kandahar. It was there that Ahmed claims he first suffered abuse at the hands of the American and British militaries."I was on my knees," Ahmed recalls somberly, drifting, "and they were interrogating me at the same time... I think it was a nine millimeter in his hand. And he put it to the temple of my head, and he told me if I moved, they would shoot me." A US soldier was holding the gun, he says, and an MI-5 officer was present. Nobody, he claims, moved to intervene.The presence of a gun at an interrogation, Ahmed says, was not unique. "There were other guns, machine guns, always," he explains.

Gore on Countdown Well, they're in the-the people who still say that global warming isn't real are actually in the same boat with the flat earth society. They get together and party on Saturday nights with the folks that believe the moon landing was in a movie lot in Arizona.

New US church leader says homosexuality no sin Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual."I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.

Climate experts: Gore's movie gets the science right The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy. The former vice president's movie -- replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets -- mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press.

Polls, Pundits and Pols Democrats are in shambles, they report, as they fear that proposals for setting a timetable for withdrawal put forward by Sen. John Kerry and Rep. John Murtha will prove disastrous for the party in the November elections, due to the alleged unpopularity of this stance. This conclusion, however, flies in the face of surveys by all major polling firms, as E&P has chronicled over the past two years. It's one thing when polls are dismissed, ignored or twisted by political or media spinmeisters. But when journalists in their news stories do it, it is downright misleading. They produced a front-pager on the Republicans' unexpected confidence on this issue, and declared: "Some polls show a majority of Americans continue to think that entering Iraq was a mistake, and pollsters say independent voters are particularly open to the idea of setting some sort of timetable for withdrawal, the very policy Democrats have embraced and Republicans are now fighting." The fact is, not "some" polls, but virtually every major poll shows that American have long declared that going to war against Iraq was a mistake. And far more than "independent voters" are drawn to withdrawal. Every major poll reveals that a majority of Americans advocate withdrawals from Iraq, with large numbers wanting this to be quite speedy, and most wanting a full pullout in a year or so (Kerry's idea) or by the end of next year. This is hardly a "some" position.

Japan PM announces Iraq troop withdrawal Japan has decided to withdraw its troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced on Tuesday, ending the Japanese military's riskiest and most ambitious overseas mission since World War Two.Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his forces would take over security from July in the southern province of Muthanna, where the British oversee a multinational contingent that includes Japanese troops.

Wall Street Journal opinion editor says gay marriage could lead to marrying snakes This is a footnote to our gay marriage discussion: A woman in India last week married a snake. I would like to ask the proponents of gay marriage--which violates, after all, traditions going back through all of human history--to now absolutely, positively guarantee that the next movement is not going to be allowing people to marry their pet horse, dog or cat. And you know What? Given the "anything goes" culture we live in, I don't think they can deliver that guarantee.

Bodies of Missing Soldiers Recovered The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi defense ministry official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." The U.S. military said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said U.S. forces - part of a search involving some 8,000 American and Iraqi troops - found the bodies late Monday near Youssifiyah, where they disappeared Friday. The bodies were recovered early Tuesday.Caldwell said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point," and that the bodies would be taken back to the United States for DNA tests to confirm the identities.

Why Wang Wenyi was shouting Ethan Gutmann author of ‘Losing the New China’ interviewed the two witnesses (photo: Peter/Wenyi/Annie) who have exposed the Sujiatun Death Camp where Falun Gong practitioners’ organs are harvested for profit and their bodies cremated to hide all evidence. Ethan recounts the story behind the story. First let’s take a look at Media Channel dissector Danny Schechter’s comments on this situation and Wenyi Wang’s appeal.

Were African-American soldiers targeted in a vote-challenge campaign? As a general rule, I've not closely followed discussions of what parties tried to challenge ballots and the various other shenenigans that may have occured during the 2000 and 2004 elections. But this one caught my eye and is very disturbing. If the story bears out, is it possible that the absentee votes of thousands of African American soldiers were challenged and thrown out in the last national election?

The long reach of North Korea's missiles North Korea may be a poor country, but it has some of the most developed missile systems in the world. Not even years of near-economic collapse, famine and hunger have hampered the country's missile-development programs, which are meant both as a preemptive defense - to scare off potential attackers - and for export.

A Negotiated Solution to the Iranian Nuclear Crisis is Within Reach The urgency of halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and moving toward their elimination, could hardly be greater. Failure to do so is almost certain to lead to grim consequences, even the end of biology's only experiment with higher intelligence. As threatening as the crisis is, the means exist to defuse it. A near-meltdown seems to be imminent over Iran and its nuclear programmes. Before 1979, when the Shah was in power, Washington strongly supported these programmes. Today the standard claim is that Iran has no need for nuclear power, and therefore must be pursuing a secret weapons programme. "For a major oil producer such as Iran, nuclear energy is a wasteful use of resources," Henry Kissinger wrote in the Washington Post last year.

The Economist Behind the Curtain The recent failure in the Senate to repeal the estate tax stands as a rare victory for sane fiscal policy. The NYT editorialized about the event under the heading "What Passes for Good News." In fact, the Senate vote came alarming close to ending a tax on inheritances of the richest half-a-percent of households, with a majority of Senators (57-but they needed 60 for a repeal) supporting a measure which would have cost the treasury $800 billion over 10 years at a time of ballooning budget deficits and war. Of course, the politics of the repeal were the focus of most analyses-would the White House be adhered to or get rebuffed on an issue dear to them-but the economics of the tax cut are deeply revealing of the fundamental flaw of economic policy today. And that flaw is this: we have, over the past three decades, shifted from we're-in-this-together (WITT) economics to you're-on-your-own (YOYO) economics.

House Democrats urge haste on health care reauthorization With work days dwindling on the legislative calendar of the current 109th Congress, Democrats in the House of Representatives urged Republican-chaired committees to act on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act amendments, House Bill 5312 in the House. ''Any further delay would undoubtedly set back the delivery of adequate health services to our country's first Americans,'' contends a letter initiated by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., signed by 22 lawmakers and sent to the chairmen of the three House committees of jurisdiction over the bill: Resources, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce.'

Japan welcomes narrow vote against whaling ban Japan was jubilant yesterday after the International Whaling Commission voted to oppose the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, a move that conservationists fear could lead to the resumption of large-scale hunting and bring whale populations to the brink of extinction.Though Japan and other pro-whaling countries fell well short of the 75% of votes they needed to overturn the IWC moratorium, a foreign ministry spokesman in Tokyo hailed the passage of a resolution critical of the ban as "a significant step forward".

Arab states urged to stop discriminating against women Human rights groups on Saturday called on Arab governments to lift their restrictions on a UN convention on outlawing discrimination against women Human rights groups on Saturday called on Arab governments to lift their restrictions on a UN convention on outlawing discrimination against women. Around 200 delegates, mostly women, from 13 Arab states and Turkey, gathered in Rabat for a conference on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted a resolution calling on Arab states to adopt the law in full. They criticized the practice of adopting the convention "with reserves that go against the principle of equality and non-discrimination against women." The signatories complained that the Arab world had the worst record for "maintaining discrimination and the most glaring violations of women's human rights."

Jordan: Rise in Arrests Restricting Free Speech The government of Jordan must not roll back on its commitment to fully respect freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Rather than implement the reforms it promised, the government of Prime Minister Ma’ruf al-Bakhit is giving the intelligence agencies, the police and prosecutors free rein to clamp down on legitimate speech.

Why Santa Cruz CA is Moving to a Moratorium on Genetically Engineered Crops The primary recommendation to the Board was that we establish a "precautionary moratorium" on growing GE crops in Santa Cruz County until certain common-sense measures are put into place to safeguard public and environmental health.

Supreme Court splits over protecting wetlands The federal government does not have the power to reach far upstream to protect every ditch and wetland in a watershed. In a ruling restricting federal authority to protect the environment, the US Supreme Court on Monday said the reach of federal regulators under the Clean Water Act is limited. But the high court's nine justices were unable to reach majority agreement about how and where to draw those limits.

Somali Islamists impose Sharia on former warlord stronghold Somalia's dominant Islamist militia on June 19 imposed Sharia law in the former warlord stronghold of Jowhar, making good on their vows to bring Islamic theocracy to the shattered Horn of Africa nation.

Iraq attacks kill 43 A series of bombs killed at least 43 people in and near Baghdad on Saturday, police said, in one of the bloodiest days in Iraq since a U.S. military air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 10 days ago. The violence, a day after a suicide bomber killed 10 people in a Baghdad Shi'ite mosque, came despite a security crackdown in the Iraqi capital and followed a vow by al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq to avenge the death of his predecessor on June 7. The attacks, which included at least four Baghdad car bombs, posed a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is under pressure to ease a violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis and complicated plans for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

Colombia: Rosy picture belies stark problems When President Bush meets today with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, he will be tempted just to pat Uribe on the back. Like many U.S. officials, who heap praise upon Uribe while ignoring reality in Colombia, Bush will probably turn a blind eye to serious problems affecting not only human rights and the rule of law in that country, but also U.S. interests in fighting drugs and terror.

Snow Declares Resurgence of Taliban ‘Predictable,’ Bush Previously Said It Was ‘No Longer…In Existence’ This afternoon on CNN Late Edition, White House Press Secretary repeatedly claimed that the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan was entirely predictable. The resurgence of the Taliban was not predicted by this administration. It is a consequence of shifting resources to Iraq before the mission in Afghanistan was completed.WWJD? It’s a sad state of affairs when proponents of the war are so offended by opponents of the war that the resort to death threats — even against a 15-year-old girl. Whether you agree with her or not, is it really worthy of death?

Iraq: US may be asked to leave The level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation. "The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence." Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted. And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

Boxer: Soldier's 'family was not told the truth' U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer released documents today that appear to show that the Army completed its investigation in September 2005 into the deaths two years ago of two California National Guard soldiers in Iraq, but waited nearly nine months to inform the family of its conclusion that the two Americans had been killed by Iraqi forces during a joint patrol. "The family was not told the truth," Boxer, D-Calif., told reporters during a conference call. "It's troubling that the Pentagon would withhold this information from the family. It's troubling that Specialist McCaffrey told his family that he had been attacked twice before by Iraqi soldiers. It's troubling that it took the involvement of a Senate office to get the autopsy and a written report about his death."

Nuclear Arms in the Hands of Any Pose A Global Threat Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemns North Korea for threatening to test a new missile that could theoretically deliver a nuclear weapon to the Western Aleutians, the Pentagon is poised to develop its own new generation of nuclear-capable long-range delivery systems. And while President Bush declares a nuclear-armed Iran would pose "a grave threat to the security of the world," the United States is modernizing every weapon type in its vast nuclear arsenal, as Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories pursue America's own arms race.

New Study: Global Warming, Not ‘Natural Cycles,’ Played Major Role in 2005 Hurricane Season The 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season was the most active in recorded history, and caused an unprecedented level of damage. Now, in the second major global warming study released today, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has found: Global warming accounted for around half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, while natural cycles were only a minor factor. … The study contradicts recent claims that natural cycles are responsible for the upturn in Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995. It also adds support to the premise that hurricane seasons will become more active as global temperatures rise.

Iraq Withdrawal Debated by Senate Divisions among Democrats take center stage as the Senate debates two Iraq amendments to the defense bill. One, from Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), calls for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by a certain date. A competing amendment, also from the Democrats, is an open-ended call for the withdrawal of troops. Republicans stand largely united against the amendments.

Zimbabwe: Govt Backtracks On White Farmers' Payouts The top U.S. diplomat for Africa called Wednesday on the leaders of the Islamic militia that now controls Somalia's capital to turn over three men accused of being al-Qaeda terrorists.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told journalists the three al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia "are of the highest, highest priority in term of capturing."

If minimum wage is raised, who benefits? Keisha Walker, for one, is happy that Congress is at least debating whether to raise the minimum wage. For her, boosting it to $7.25 would mean earning an extra $1 an hour - enough to pay for eight months of groceries or perhaps a few nights out. An office assistant for a low-income apartment complex in Atlanta, earning $6.25 an hour, Ms. Walker is one of 139,000 Georgians who would benefit directly from a minimum-wage hike. A technical school dropout and mom in her late 20s, she scratches together a living, relying on her fiancé to pay major bills. "They need to raise it if only to help people pay for [rising] rent," she says, returning by bus from taking her two sons and a nephew to football practice. "It's getting so you can't survive in this country."

A Covenant for a New America Throughout the Bible, God shows a special concern for those in poverty and acts in history to lift them up. As Christians who claim to be the people of God, we are called to share that concern.Our times call for a new moral and political will that merges personal and social responsibility, a commitment to reverse family breakdown, and a more honest assessment of both the individual decisions and social systems that trap people in poverty. Low-income families are too often stuck between liberal and conservative arguments, while neither political party has made the needs of poor families a top priority. Our country needs a new grand alliance between liberals and conservatives that makes overcoming poverty a nonpartisan agenda and a bipartisan cause.

Abramoff Associate Found Guilty As part of the wider Jack Abramoff lobbying probe, former chief procurement officer David Safavian was found guilty of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of lying or concealing information from investigators.

World scientists unite to attack creationism The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused". The national science academies of 67 countries warned parents and teachers to ensure that they did not undermine the teaching of evolution or allow children to be taught that the world was created in six days.Some schools in the US hold that evolution is merely a theory while the Bible represents the literal truth. There have also been fears that these views are creeping into British schools.

Whaling Industry Belongs in the Past The International Whaling Commission meeting in St. Kitts threw up some strange diplomatic alliances — bitterly dividing countries that would be united on almost any other international issue. On Sunday Japan and its supporters pushed through, by 33 votes to 32, a symbolic resolution calling for a resumption of commercial whaling after a 20-year moratorium. They vowed yesterday to push on to win the 75 per cent majority that would be needed actually to end the moratorium.

US Gun Lobby Slams UN Meeting on Illegal Arms Trade A UN conference on curbing illegal global trade in small arms came under fire from US gun owners who fear losing their weapons, UN organizers said.The two-week conference, which kicks off here next Monday, is meant to review a program agreed by UN member states five years ago to stem the illegal global trade in small arms, which kill an estimated 1,000 people a day.However, members of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the lobby of US gun owners, view the drive as a threat to what they call their constitutional right to bear arms and a first step toward a global treaty to ban gun ownership by civilians.

Monitoring human rights? Get a satellite Satellites can monitor volcanoes, map deforestation, and help sell real estate. But can they document human-rights violations? Yes, activists say. Already, high-altitude images of Zimbabwe's destruction of a settlement has increased pressure on the government to curb its abuses. Now, human-rights groups are focusing on Darfur, Chad, and Burma. In eastern Burma, for example, the government is accused of aggressively attacking an ethnic minority. Burma "is a black hole," says Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma. "Media and aid agencies can go into Darfur in Sudan, but they can't get into eastern Burma; it's totally off limits."

Women at Center of Consumer Eco-Push Women buy most home products and predominate as activists in schools and churches. That makes them central to a new consumer-style push for eco-friendly products and policies.

PanAfrica: Sub-Saharan Lifespan Down By Five Years Life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa has fallen by an average of almost five years since the early 1990s, a World Bank report on disease and mortality in the region has found.The report, launched at the Cape Town Book Fair on Sunday, said one in six African children died before reaching their fifth birthday from both preventable and treatable diseases.World Bank representative Eduard Bos said at the launch that the report also reflected the "ravages of the appalling epidemic of HIV and AIDS", which accounted for 20,4% of all deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fight for a Free Press The National Entertainment Chart demonstrates, again, how enormous the media conglomerates are and how much of our core media are under their control. Although concentration has not increased especially over the past few years, the damage has been done. Democracy is premised on a free press, and freedom of the press is premised on the absence of public or private gatekeepers with monopolistic power. It is why the Supreme Court ruled in 1945 that antitrust was probably more appropriate in the realm of media than in any other area. Looking at this chart, we can see that A.J. Liebling's adage that "freedom of the press is limited to those who own one" is frightfully accurate, with all that it says about the state of our core freedoms and our democracy. The Supreme Court was sixty-one years ahead of its time.

Got Organic? Demand Lifts Vermont Dairies For the first time in decades, dairy farmer Dexter Randall could pay all his bills on time.Wooed by signing bonuses and the prospect of doubling his earnings, the burly 60-year-old switched to organic milk over the past year. He says it is the only way to save his farm and his family's future -- all of it invested in 460 acres in the shadow of Jay Peak mountain. ``With conventional milk, there was no light at the end of the tunnel," Randall said. ``Now, I have true hope."Across the country, an increasing number of farmers are abandoning conventional ways for organic dairy farming: They keep their cows free of antibiotics and hormones, and they let them graze on pure pastures day after day, instead of locked up in a barn.

Researchers Work on Alternative Jet Fuel The spike in oil prices has prompted plenty of drivers to consider biodiesel-powered or hybrid cars for their daily commute, but what about that gas guzzler we use to fly across country? Government and corporate researchers are looking into ways to power commercial jet engines with alternative fuels, although many caution that widespread use could be years or even decades away. Scientists face a myriad obstacles, including the difficulty of producing, transporting and using massive amounts of these fuels under harsh conditions such as extreme cold. And for now at least, experts say many alternative jet fuels are more expensive than traditional ones. "It's just so much easier to develop a fuel for automobile applications than for airplane applications," said Billy Glover, director of environmental performance for Boeing Co.

How Corrupt is the United Nations? "How corrupt is the United Nations?" is the title of Claudia Rosett's new book (coming out soon) and below is one interesting comment. Unfortunately Claudia fails to mention the new genocide in Communist China. The FalunGong cannot wait ten more years before the UN sends the envoy to investigate the China laogai--the organ-harvesting death camps deserve immediate attention as the CCP is killing them like flies. For the latest reports on this topic look here.

Leaked US memo paints grim picture of life in Iraq In a leaked memo from the US embassy in Baghdad, sent to the US State Department earlier this month, embassy employees present a much different assessment than the one put forward by the Bush administration in the past two weeks.The memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post and reported on Sunday, "painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."

Sixteen States Sue U.S. EPA Over Mercury Cap-and Trade Rule Sixteen states filed a new lawsuit today in federal court challenging the final rules published June 9, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which establish a cap-and-trade system for regulating harmful mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. The EPA announced on May 31 that it would move forward with its cap-and-trade program for mercury emissions despite petitions from the states and environmental groups that outlined how the program will delay emissions reduction for many years, perpetuate hot spots of local mercury deposition and pose a serious threat to the health of children. Scientists estimate up to 600,000 children may be born annually in the United States with neurological problems leading to poor school performance because of mercury exposure while in the womb.

Study: More Latinos Get Elected to Office Latinos have increased their presence at all levels of government over the last decade, with more than two of every five serving in Texas, a Hispanic political group reported.At the start of this year, 5,132 Hispanics were in elected office around the country - a 37 percent increase from 1996, when 3,743 Latinos held elected posts.

Hamas blasts Abbas over two-state solution Hamas has blasted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for suggesting that the Islamic militant group may accept a two-state solution and recognize Israel. A Hamas statement faxed to United Press International's Beirut office Thursday said Abbas' declaration "only reflects his views, not those of Hamas, which is perfectly capable of expressing its stance and does not need a spokesman." Abbas said Wednesday on the sidelines of the conference of Nobel Prize winners in Jordan that Hamas, which leads the Palestinian government, might announce its acceptance of a two-state solution in the coming days. Hamas strongly criticized Abbas for meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during their participation in the conference, in Petra, south Jordan, as guests of honor. "We had expected, in the light of Zionist massacres ordered by Olmert against the Palestinians and in view of the U.S.-Zionist siege imposed on our people, that the president of the Palestinian Authority refrains from meeting this terrorist (Olmert) until the killings stop and the siege on the Palestinian people and its government is lifted," the statement said.

Al-Qaeda Plotted To Crash Planes In Britain - Report The terror network al-Qaeda was planning to hijack aircraft and crash planes into London's Heathrow airport and a high-rise office building in 2003 and 2004, according to media reports in London Thursday. Citing a security report by the US Department of Homeland Security, British media said that landmarks in London were among a number of targets around the world being considered by terrorist operatives. In one plot, the terrorists were allegedly planning to use cameras and their flash attachments to conceal bombs and stun guns as part of an "ingenious" plot.

Arctic Vault to Protect World Seed Collection Work begins on Monday on a vault in the frozen earth of an Arctic mountain, off northern Norway, that will safeguard a vast collection of the world’s seeds. The vault will eventually hold 3m seed samples from every known variety of food crop, ranging from common staples such as wheat and potatoes to exotic specimens whose existence is endangered in the wild.The collection will provide a seed collection of last resort – should a disaster such as an asteroid strike or extreme climate change result in mass crop extinctions, humans will be able to resurrect a species. It will focus initially on food crops, but not to the exclusion of other seeds.

Best Week Ever The Daily Show is the best. I hope Jon Stewart gets his show on a high profile network so more people can see the hypocrisy of this administratio

Gitmo Suicides Covered by Jon Stewart.

Senate defeats Democrats' minimum wage increase The U.S. Senate on Wednesday defeated a proposal pushed by Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage in increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by January 1, 2009.Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, unsuccessfully tried to attach the proposal raising the wage for the first time since 1997 to a defense authorization bill that is expected to be passed by the Senate soon.

15,000 march in Taipei to protest organ harvesting in Communist China Tens of thousands of Taiwanese Falun Gong members marched through Taipei on Sunday to protest China's harvesting of organs from Falun Gong members in labour camps, and to call on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to quit the party. Waving yellow Falun Gong flags and beating drums, Falun Gong members marched through Taipei's main streets, shouting, 'Stop persecuting Falun Gong,' 'Heaven destroy communist China,' and 'Down with the wicked Chinese Communist Party.' A moving truck showed a scene of Chinese doctors harvesting organs, with several doctors standing around a patient tied to an operation table, scalpel in hand. Behind the truck, a column of Falun Gong members - in handcuffs, shackles and dark prison clothes - walked silently led by a rope by a whip-cracking prison warden.

Conversation Deputy Secretary Zoellick Resigns Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who resigned from his post at the State Department Monday to work for Goldman Sachs, recounts his peacekeeping efforts in Darfur and experiences in other international arenas.

Stress Disorder Seen Soaring Among Returning Troops The Department of Veterans Affairs is on a pace to see nearly 20,000 new cases of post-combat stress this year among service members who've served in Iraq or Afghanistan, more than six times the number of cases that officials had expected. The latest report on patient visits to VA medical facilities shows that nearly 5,000 service members were initially diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder during the first three months of this year, on top of nearly 5,000 new diagnoses that the VA had reported for the last three months of 2005. The VA had predicted that it would see 2,900 new cases in fiscal 2006, which runs from Oct. 1, 2005, to Sept. 30, 2006. The VA declined to comment Monday.

Now it's your turn to draw attention to the abuse of science On issues from air quality to global warming, the Bush administration has interfered with the findings of government scientists. To help dramatize this crucial issue, UCS is sponsoring Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest. Amateurs and professionals are both invited to participate and will be awarded prizes in separate categories. Send in your cartoon today!

Glenn Greenwald on Al Franken Glenn joined Al to talk about his new book, "How Would a Patriot Act?" Audio.

Ethical shopping: why it's not easy With organic foods available in every supermarket and the words local, seasonal and farmers' market tripping off our tongues so easily, is Reality Bites necessary? Surely we all know the deal by now. Apparently not. Research by the Countryside Agency reveals that although 45 per cent of consumers are positive about ethical and environmental products, only five per cent proactively purchase them. "Reality Bites isn't about judging people who are active as 'the best' and labelling the rest failures," says Lingayah. "Our interest is to understand what drives behaviour and to remove obstacles where possible."

Iran: Police Assault Women’s Rights Demonstrators Iran must investigate the police beating of hundreds of women’s rights activists during a peaceful demonstration in Tehran on Monday, Human Rights Watch said today. The organization called on the government to release those detained after the police attack on protestors. Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that police and intelligence agents lined Haft Tir Square in downtown Tehran hours before the start of the planned demonstration on June 12. As the demonstrators assembled, the security forces immediately started to beat them with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked the demonstrators with color spray, and took scores into custody.

Whitman Tries to Tack GOP Back to Center Christine Todd Whitman is on a coast-to-coast mission to reclaim the Republican Party for moderates. The former New Jersey governor's political action committee plans to back "fiscally conservative, socially inclusive" Republicans.

World CO2 emissions to rise 75 pct by 2030 -EIA Global emissions of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide will rise 75 percent from 2003 to 2030, with much of the growth coming from coal burning in developing countries, the U.S. government forecast Tuesday. Developing countries are growing more quickly than industrialized economies, whose growth 'tends to be in less energy-intensive sectors,' the report said. While the United States is the world's leading emitter of CO2, its emissions growth rate will soon be surpassed by China and India. Global emissions of CO2 will hit 43.7 billion tonnes in 2030, up from 25 billion tonnes in 2003, the Energy Information Administration said in its annual forecast. By 2025 global CO2 emissions could hit 40.05 billion tonnes annually, up 0.03 percent from the forecast issued last year, said the EIA, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy. Last year's report did not look as far ahead as 2030. Most scientists believe a build-up in greenhouse gases, such as CO2, is raising average temperatures around the world. Catastrophic changes have been predicted, such as heatwaves, stronger storms and melting icecaps that could raise sea levels by almost three feet by 2100.

Kurdistan: Birth of a Nation? Violence and suffering disfigure Iraq on a daily basis. But not everywhere is blighted. The Kurdish region is largely peaceful, and cities are beginning to thrive. So after decades of bloodshed, could its people's goal of self-determination finally be realised? Patrick Cockburn reports on an unexpected consequence of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Money-tracking leak angers Cheney US Vice-President Dick Cheney has condemned as "offensive" US media disclosures of a secret programme that probes global financial transactions. The government has covertly tracked thousands of international money transactions for nearly five years as part of its so-called war on terror.

If Congress Deserves a Raise, Why Don't Workers? Following Congress’s eighth pay raise since 1997 and the defeat today of minimum-wage legislation in the Senate, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization and co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize, urged the U.S. House of Representatives to raise the federal minimum wage. Since Congress last raised the minimum wage in 1997, its real value has eroded more than 20 percent. AFSC is also calling on House members to reject an estate tax “compromise” expected to be brought to the House floor on Thursday. The legislation, introduced by House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA), would exempt estates worth as much as $5 million - $10 million for couples - from taxation indefinitely. Joyce Miller, AFSC assistant general secretary for justice and human rights, said: “After years of favoring the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers, Congress can show it cares about ordinary people by voting to raise the minimum wage and reject a ‘compromise’ that would starve social programs of needed money by gutting the estate tax.”

Whistleblower says Bush officials traded Abramoff favors In an interview with CBS News Wednesday evening, Wayne Smith, a Sioux tribal member whose grandfather was an Indian chief and previously led oversight of Indian gaming for the Bush Adminstration, said he was unprepared for the "raw political opportunism" that he witnessed as a member of the Administration."I had lobbyists flat out tell me that it was 'our time to make some money in Indian gaming -- the Indian arena -- we worked hard to get this president elected and we expected to be rewarded for it' -- to make a killing inside the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs]," Smith says in the interview.

Important Vote on the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization Hijacked The nation's most successful civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), which has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress for over 40 years and has been reauthorized four times by both Democratic and Republican presidents, was derailed today in the House. A small group of House Republicans, including Lynn Westmoreland, R.Ga., hijacked an important vote to renew key protections in a law

Republican Congress members claim that evidence of Saddam's WMD have been identified Latest Update: Pentagon official further confirms munitions can "not be fired as designed." (Full report here.) Earlier update: Pentagon says Iraq's 'WMDS' are too old to use (Full AFP story here). Earlier update: Santorum was informed live on Fox News that a Defense Department official disavowed his conclusions.

Muslims and the West: Antipathy and mistrust Westerners and Muslims around the world have radically different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant, and lacking respect for women, according to a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations. In what the Pew Global Attitudes Project called one of the survey's most striking findings, majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, and Turkey - Muslims countries with fairly strong ties to the United States - said, for example, that they did not believe that Arabs carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Offshore Drilling Bill Advances in House Legislation that would end a quarter-century ban on drilling in most of the Outer Continental Shelf advanced in the House on Wednesday. The measure would allow oil and gas development in restricted offshore waters unless a state prohibited it. The House Resources Committee approved the legislation in 29-9 vote, and its sponsors say it has a good chance of being approved by the full House. But the bill's prospects in the Senate are poor as Florida's two senators -- as well as others from coastal states -- have threatened to filibuster any legislation that would end the drilling moratorium in most coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico. Waters within 50 miles of shore would still be protected by the House bill. But oil and gas drilling would be allowed in areas beyond that unless a state's legislature and governor act to preserve the ban.

Stephen Hawking Warns About Global Warming Stephen Hawking expressed concern about global warming Wednesday even as he charmed and provoked a group of Chinese students. Before an audience of 500 at a seminar in Beijing, the celebrity cosmologist said, "I like Chinese culture, Chinese food and above all Chinese women. They are beautiful." The audience of mostly university students and professors and a smattering of journalists laughed and applauded. Asked about the environment, Hawking, who suffers from a degenerative disease, uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer, said he was "very worried about global warming." He said he was afraid that Earth "might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid."

Wall Street Journal Falsely Claims Ethanol is Responsible for High Gasoline Prices Is clean-burning, domestically-produced ethanol the reason that gas prices are topping $3 per gallon? That’s what Big Oil and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) are saying. From Monday’s WSJ. Actually, ethanol is reducing the price of gasoline.

At Least 25 People Found Executed in Mosul At least 25 people have been executed gangland-style in Iraq's third-largest city this week, with residents gunned down in ones and twos and bodies found scattered throughout Mosul.Elsewhere, five U.S. troops were killed in operations south and west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Thursday, and police stormed a farm and freed 17 victims of a factory kidnapping.Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has a mixed Kurdish and Sunni Arab population and a tradition of bad blood. The Kurds, who are largely Sunni Muslim but not Arab, have formed a prosperous autonomous region nearby after decades of oppression and mass killings under the Sunni Arab minority that ran Iraq until Saddam Hussein was ousted three years ago.

Secret Government or A Free Press? France, Germany and courts in Japan could teach America a thing or two about one essential aspect of democracy: Their governments are more willing to make sure that journalists have the means to act as watchdogs on the people in power. Several European nations guarantee that reporters cannot be forced to expose sources to whom they've guaranteed confidentiality. Just last week, Tokyo's high court upheld a Japanese reporter's refusal to reveal the sources of a 1997 news story about a U.S. health food company. This is just common sense. Those in power keep secrets? sometimes to protect their power, sometimes for financial or political gain, and sometimes for more legitimate reasons, such as national security. The nation's Founders knew this. They created a free press in large part as a check on that sort of power. Reporters and commentators would serve as watchdogs. But that history lesson seems lost on the current administration. In the past two years, federal prosecutors have tried repeatedly to turn those watchdogs into lapdogs, who instead of exposing wrongdoing turn in the people who give them information.

Former Homeland chief Ridge says terror war will last decades Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said the war on terror is likely to last for generations, much like the Cold war."For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday during a panel discussion in Pittsburgh that marked the opening of a new RAND Corp. office in the city."I don't know if anyone in the 1950s thought the Cold War would last close to half a century, but it did," Ridge said. "The challenge is global and it may take a generation or two or more to reduce."Ridge was in his second term as Pennsylvania's governor when he was picked by President Bush to be the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Brazil Creates Three New Protected Areas in Amazon Rainforest Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decreed three new protected areas in the Amazon basin Wednesday, placing 1.84 million hectares (4.55 million acres) of rainforest off-limits for development. Silva signed decrees creating the 880,000 hectare (2.2 million acre) Campos Amazonicos National Park and two extractive reserves at a ceremony in Brasilia, the environment ministry said in a statement. Extractive reserves are areas where local communities can exploit the rainforest in a sustainable manner, harvesting its fruits, nuts and rubber without logging. The national park straddles Amazonas and Rondonia states. The Rio Unini and Arapixi reserves are both in Amazonas. Since taking office in 2002 Silva has created 57 protected areas in the Amazon preserving some 19.3 million hectares (47.6 million acres) of rainforest, the environment ministry said

Coulter Derides Call For New Iraq Strategy, Endorses Lieberman Approach Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter appeared on Fox News this afternoon to discuss the war in Iraq. Coulter derided the lawmakers who have called for a redeployment strategy from Iraq, questioning whether “FDR [had] to deal with this during World War II.” She argued that the only type of politician she “admires” is someone like Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) because he “does want to defend America and fight the war on terrorism.” Lieberman has argued “our troops must stay” in Iraq. Watch it.

ACLU and NYCLU Join V-Day Festival for Evening of Performance About Women in Prison The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today joined V-Day in hosting Any One of Us: Words from Prison, an evening of performance telling the stories of incarcerated women and the role of violence in their lives. "In New York State the Rockefeller Drug Laws subject thousands of women every year to the violence of the prison system - simply because they've committed low-level drug offenses," said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. "Words from Prison will bring forth the voices of the women who are suffering under this ongoing travesty of justice." The event is part of the ongoing festival Until the Violence Stops: NYC, presented by V-Day, the global movement founded by playwright Eve Ensler, which aims to raise funds and awareness to combat violence against women and girls.

Oil Rigs and Fish Farms = An Unappetizing Idea Known as “Rigs to Reef,” this section would allow energy companies to avoid paying the costs of removing their rigs if the Secretary of Interior allows the rigs to be abandoned or transferred. But consumers don’t want to eat fish that was raised in fish farms on former oil and gas rigs. Waste and chemicals from fish farms harm surrounding habitats, poison ocean wildlife and threaten public health. To top it off, recent reports have highlighted a connection between oil and gas rigs and elevated mercury levels in the local environment and wild-caught fish. Moreover, Hurricanes Rita and Katrina destroyed 100 oil platforms last year. Weather experts are already predicting another active hurricane season, but Congress apparently isn’t listening. If these offshore fish farms are destroyed, the farmed fish escape and mix with wild fish populations. This spreads disease and disrupts the marine ecosystem.

US makes missile defense system operational Amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, the United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Washington Times report that the Pentagon has activated the system, which has been in the developmental stage for years."It's good to be ready," the official said.

The impact of recent salary increases by the Mugabe regime At the end of April, the Mugabe regime announced pay increases for teachers, the army and the police. According to The Herald (the state-controlled daily newspaper), the lowest-paid soldier will now earn a monthly salary of $27.2 million - R800 or USD 130 - (previously Z$10 million), and a teacher will earn a minimum of Z$33 million per month - R970 or USD157. Bear in mind, too, that Zimbabwe’s poverty datum line (PDL) currently stands at Z$35 million, so that lowest-paid soldier is actually earning less than this basic minimum.It is sobering to look at just how far that money goes, in a country where inflation for April is 1042.9%, the highest in the world.

Roll call: Marriage amendment cloture vote Roll call vote on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to the Consideration of S. J. Res. 1, a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. A vote of "yea" is a vote to bring the proposed ban to a vote. A vote of "nay" effectively shelved the amendment.A 3/5 majority would be required to bring the amendment to a vote. With just a 49-vote plurality, the cloture motion failed.

Guatemala Pressed to Investigate Surge in Killings A U.S delegation is traveling to Guatemala this summer to raise awareness of the murders of 2,000 women since 2001. Rights advocates draw parallels to the widespread killings of women in Juarez, Mexico.

In new book, Coulter 'cribs' stem cell list from right-to-life group In an attempt to counter a New York Times article, conservative pundit Ann Coulter appears to have inserted a list that was originally compiled by an anti-abortion group almost word-for-word into her new book, RAW STORY has found.The seventh chapter of Godless: The Church of Liberalism is devoted to "the left's war on science," which - according to Coulter - includes lying about "the science that is working" so as "to elevate the science that has produced nothing.""In the August 24, 2004, New York Times, science writer Gina Kolata claimed that no one had succeeded in using adult stem cells 'to treat diseases,'" writes Coulter.To prove the Times science writer wrong, Coulter then provides a "short list" of sixteen "successful treatments achieved by adult stem cell research."But fifteen of Coulter's examples (listed at the end of this story) are nearly identical to items in a longer list of seventeen compiled by the Illinois Right To Life website, that has been available since at least September of 2003.

Taylor Trial: U.K. Removes a Key Obstacle The British government’s decision today to offer detention facilities for Charles Taylor if he is convicted removes the main obstacle to relocating the former Liberian president’s trial to The Hague, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 29, Taylor was surrendered to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has indicted him on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country’s 11-year civil war. The U.N.-backed war crimes court immediately requested the relocation of Taylor’s trial to The Hague, citing concerns about stability in West Africa if the trial is held at the court’s headquarters in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

Call for action! Urge Bush to keep his promises! Call and urge the President of the United States and Members of Congress to lead a global health workforce initiative in AIDS ravaged countries. The shortage of health care workers and weak health systems in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa is a major barrier to access to AIDS treatment. Even with increased foreign aide reaching these areas, if systemic problems of the health care system are not dealt with the small strides we have made in health care access to AIDS patients will be rendered unsustainable. While the needs of individual countries must be determined locally, experts estimate that sub-Saharan Africa needs at least 1 million new health workers to meet essential health needs.

US bucks pledge, continues to pursue new landmines Ten years after US President Bill Clinton declared the country would "aggressively pursue an international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines," the US has moved no closer to eliminating the weapons, and is in fact developing new types of mines.

Laura Ingraham Falsely Reports that Amnesty International Posts World Cup News on Their Website Tragic news hit the airwaves yesterday morning as two soldiers fighting in Iraq, Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Thomas L. Tucker, 25, were found dead, tortured and killed by insurgents. Their families and friends are in our thoughts and prayers. But what better place is there to spin the tragedy of their deaths into an attack on a human rights organization than on the O'Reilly Factor? Bill's guest Laura Ingraham condemned the group Amnesty International for not reporting the deaths of the two soldiers. She claimed that the site was posting World Cup news instead and condemned Amnesty International for ignoring the deaths of the soldiers and continuously posting stories about abused enemy combatants and detainees.

US charges three soldiers with death of detainees in Iraq Three members of the 101st Airborne Division are charged in connection with deaths of three detainees in Iraq, U.S. military says, CNN has just reported.Reuters wire: "It said the soldiers faced charges including "murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and obstructing justice." It was not clear whether all three faced the murder charge."Three members of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division have been charged in connection with the deaths of three male detainees," the U.S. military said in a statement.

Ahmadinejad 'has 70% approval rating' The popularity of Iran's controversial leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is surging almost a year after he unexpectedly won closely contested presidential elections, Iranian officials and western diplomats said on Tuesday.Attributing his success to his populist style and fortnightly meet-the-people tours of the country, the sources said, as matters stand, Mr Ahmadinejad was the clear favourite to win a second term in 2009. The perception that the president was standing up to the US over the nuclear issue was also boosting his standing.

O’Reilly’s solution: Run the place like Saddam Now to me, they’re not fighting it hard enough. See, if I’m president, I got probably another 50-60 thousand with orders to shoot on sight anybody violating curfews. Shoot them on sight. That’s me… President O’Reilly… Curfew in Ramadi, seven o’clock at night. You’re on the street? You’re dead. I shoot you right between the eyes. Ok? That’s how I run that country. Just like Saddam ran it. Saddam didn’t have explosions - he didn’t have bombers. Did he? because if you got out of line, you’re dead. Now… is that the kind of country I want to have for Iraq? No… But you have to have that for a few months to stabilize the situation so the Iraqi government can get organized, can get security in place and can get the structure going.

AP: Police Got Phone Data From Brokers Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press.The law enforcement agencies include offices in the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department - including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service - and municipal police departments in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services.

Burundi: Former Child Soldiers Languish in Custody The Burundian government is detaining rather than rehabilitating former child soldiers associated with the rebel National Liberation Forces, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

Right Wing Urges Bush to Pardon Scooter Libby Since it was announced that Karl Rove escaped indictment, right-wing commentators have aggressively advocated a presidential pardon for Scooter Libby.

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review.

Snow: There Is Too Much Focus on Kidnapped U.S. Soldiers On Friday, two U.S. troops were kidnapped at a checkpoint in Iraq. They remain missing. This morning on Fox News Sunday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow criticized the press for spending too much time covering their plight.

Kyrgyzstan: Do Not Return Refugees to Uzbekistan The government of Kyrgyzstan must not return four Uzbek refugees to Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today. With their Kyrgyz judicial appeals now exhausted, the fate of the four men, who have been in Kyrgyz custody since June 2005, is in the hands of the Kyrgyz government. These men have struggled for a year to avoid being sent back home to face brutal repression. Now the Kyrgyz government must do the right thing and refuse to send them back to Uzbekistan. “These men have struggled for a year to avoid being sent back home to face brutal repression,” said Holly Cartner, Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia director. “Now the Kyrgyz government must do the right thing and refuse to send them back to Uzbekistan.”

Nestle to Buy Jenny Craig for $600 Million In a move that recognizes the modern world's twin obsessions — indulgence and guilt — chocolate maker Nestle said Monday it would purchase weight loss product maker Jenny Craig Inc. for $600 million.The acquisition follows Nestle S.A.'s purchase for around $670 million last month of Uncle Tobys, an Australian maker of nutritional cereals and snacks, and is part of the company's "continuing commitment to nutrition, health and wellness," the Swiss company said in a statement.While best known for its namesake chocolates, Nestle is the world's largest food and drinks company, making baby formulas, nutrition foods such as PowerBar, drinks to aid weight loss and the Lean Cuisine line. The company's purchase of Jenny Craig follows the lead of consumer products company Unilever, which bought both Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Slim Fast in 2000.

Not Just a Number From Peace Takes Courage

Chad Accuses Sudan of Cross-Border Attacks Chad on Tuesday accused Sudan of cross-border attacks and urged the Security Council to meet over its neighbor's alleged "aggression and destabilization."The attacks constitute "irrefutable proof" of Sudan's efforts to threaten Chad "and even the subregion," Chad's U.N. Ambassador Mahamat Ali Adoum said in a letter to the council president.The Chadian government has repeatedly brought the issue of Sudan's destabilization to the African Union and the international community but hasn't received "the appropriate response," Adoum said.

Senate Rejects Troop Pullout Two competing amendments -- one that set a deadline for a pullout and the other that stopped short of establishing a timetable -- are voted down.

Conservation will trump access at the national parks Not many times over the past five years have environmentalists applauded President Bush. But this week they're cheering new administration policies for national parks - which reflect the priorities of the Clinton administration. The National Park Service is returning to its original 1916 mandate "to protect and preserve unimpaired the resources and values of the national park system." This means clean air, wilderness protection, unspoiled vistas, and wildlife conservation.

Filmmaker Puts Movie in Hands of Soldiers A buzz-generating documentary opening today in the Bay Area presents a new way to approach the national conversation about the Iraq war, a debate that often gets derailed over whether the real story is being told there. The filmmaker's solution: Give video cameras to the soldiers on the ground and let them roll tape for a year, nearly uncensored. The result is "The War Tapes," a 94-minute film culled from 1,100 hours of footage, which is revolutionary on several levels. Not only is the film created in the same raw, user-generated manner that is powering the explosion of blogs and video-sharing sites on the Internet, it is bypassing the traditional media gatekeepers who some soldiers -- and, for different reasons, anti-war activists -- think are not telling the war's true stories.

A Great Woman has Died-Evy Dubrow (ILGWU) Evelyn "Evy" Dubrow, 95, an indefatigable lobbyist for garment workers for almost 50 years and the only person on Capitol Hill allowed to share the congressional doorkeepers' chairs outside the House chambers, died June 20 of a heart attack at George Washington University Hospital.

Analysis President Bush Defends Policies Amid growing criticism from several countries over the treatment of prisoners of war, President Bush, following a one-day U.S.-EU summit in Vienna, said he hoped "to end Guantanamo." European policy experts discuss the reasons behind the lagging U.S. popularity in Europe.

Flood toll hits 198 as rescue efforts continue in Indonesia The death toll after floods and landslides in Indonesia's South Sulawesi hit 198 on Thursday as workers trawled through mud and scoured nearby islands for more bodies and survivors. Most deaths occurred on Tuesday across five districts in the province, but search and rescue operations have been recovering bodies since then and struggling to reach some of the most isolated affected areas.

Official: Kidnapped soldier was beheaded At least one and possibly both of the soldiers who were mutilated and killed in Iraq last weekend was beheaded, a U.S. military official said Wednesday.The description by the official, who was in Washington, confirmed fears that were raised by other U.S. and Iraqi officials who have said the mens' bodies showed sign of brutal treatment.The official requested anonymity because the final report on the bodies' conditions has not been formally released.

Veteran Critic of White House Turns on 'Gullible' Press Pack For almost five decades, White House reporter Helen Thomas has been covering America's leaders with a healthy dose of scepticism and an endless string of pointed questions. Along the way she has ruffled presidential feathers and, since becoming a columnist in 2003, she has made clear her views on some of those incumbents - including George W Bush who she has described as the "worst president in all of American history".

Al-Qaeda Leader Calls for Afghan Rebellion Al-Qaeda's second-in-command urged Afghans in a new videotaped message to rise up against U.S troops stationed in their country, a day after American officials warned that clashes with Taliban forces in remote border areas could get worse.U.S. military officials said Thursday morning that four soldiers were killed and a fifth was injured Wednesday in clashes with insurgents in the northeastern part of the country, a region near the border with Pakistan where attacks against foreign troops and Afghan security forces have been on the rise.

East Timor president threatens to resign Xanana Gusmao says he will step down if country's prime minister refused to take responsibility for violent crisis.

Almost one in three people affected by gun crime A survey of people in six countries around the world released today reveals that on average, 30 percent of those surveyed have been the victim of gun crime or knows someone who has been in the last five years. The proportion rises to more than half in Brazil, Guatemala and South Africa. Surveys in Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, South Africa, Britain and India found that, across the globe, many people are living in daily fear of armed violence.

Pakistani TV Station Says Journalist Held Authorities have held a Pakistani TV reporter for three months without charge for filming at an air base once used by the U.S.-led coalition in southern Sindh province, his employer said Wednesday. Mukesh Rupeta, who has been missing since March 6, ``is being interrogated'' by authorities after using a video camera at Jacobabad air base, according to Geo TV, an independent channel. The broadcaster said it had made ``repeated inquiries'' about Rupeta, and authorities have not launched an investigation or charged him.

Slave trader's descendant begs forgiveness in Africa Sir John Hawkins was a buccaneering Elizabethan seaman and adventurer, who helped his cousin Sir Francis Drake beat the Spanish Armada. And he was also one of the pioneers of the slave trade, becoming the first person to buy slaves in west Africa and sell them to Spanish landowners in the Caribbean. Now his descendent, Andrew Hawkins, a youth worker from Cornwall, has delivered an extraordinary personal but public apology for his ancestors' involvement in the trade, kneeling in chains in front of 25,000 Africans in a stadium in Banjul, the capital of the Gambia.Mr Hawkins's apology took place during a trip this month to west Africa organised by the Lifeline Expedition, a charity project aimed at achieving reconciliation over the slave trade.Mr Hawkins, 37, from Liskeard, said yesterday: "I apologised on behalf of my family. I apologised for the adults and children taken. I recognise that it's a small, simple act to say sorry - but it was a handful of people who started the slave trade and the ripples of their actions caused evil throughout the continent of Africa.

Iran rejects US 'pressure' on nuclear issue The US is determined to topple Iran's Islamic government whether or not the crisis over the country's nuclear activities is resolved, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said today.

Abbas-Olmert hold 'symbolic' talks Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held informal talks in Jordan on Thursday, the first such top-level encounter in a year, and pledged to meet again in a bid to revive the moribund peace process. Olmert pledged that he would "put everything on the line" for peace and said that there would be more meetings with Abbas after the symbolic encounter over breakfast hosted by Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Killing scares media away from Waziristan Journalist Hayatullah Khan took a photo of something Pakistan's government said was never there. Within days he disappeared without a trace, dragged off by masked men. Last week, six months after his abduction, his body was found dumped in North Waziristan, handcuffed and shot in the back. The tragic news has startled the nation, sparking protests, and Wednesday the government ordered a judicial probe into his death. It also sent a chilling message about the risks of reporting the conflict in Waziristan, one of the premier fronts in the war on terror.

Jordan urges Nobel laureates to help create Palestinian state Jordan's king urged Nobel laureates on Wednesday to help set up a Palestinian state and cure the world of conflict, ahead of a landmark meeting between Palestinian and Israeli leaders. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis "will only come with a peacefully negotiated final settlement based on international law," King Abdullah II told Nobel prize-winners and celebrities at the World Heritage site of Petra. Speaking against the backdrop of south Jordan's rose-red mountains, Abdullah pleaded for "two states - a sovereign Palestinian [state] alongside a secure Israel."

Jamaica: Political will needed to end violence against women and girls In a new report published today, Amnesty International urges the Jamaican authorities to prioritize the implementation of a 15-point Action Plan developed by women's organizations across the country to fight discrimination and sexual violence against women and adolescent girls. The Action Plan includes recommendations such as the development of a public education programme aimed at preventing rape and sexual crimes, the introduction of a national campaign against discrimination and sexual violence and the establishment of a series of shelters to provide support and refuge for victims of sexual violence. "Only decisive action will put an end to discrimination and sexual violence against women in Jamaica. Most of the recommendations of the Action Plan do not require extensive investment, only determination and political will,” said Kerrie Howard, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Americas Programme.

PanAfrica: Wen Rolls Out 'Win-Win' Strategy in Africa Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has embarked on an eight-day, seven-country Africa tour. His trip comes less than two months after President Hu Jintao visited three African countries and five months before a high-level China-Africa cooperation forum, to be held in China.

Many troops agree with John Murtha Myers said he backs Murtha, an opinion echoed by a number of other troops and their families. Several share his frustration with the conflict. “I’m not sure we’re doing a whole lot of good,” Myers, 46, said of the U.S. presence in Iraq. “Everybody thinks we are. We’re trying to, but we’re not going to change what they want to do, and if they don’t want to change, they’re not gonna.” Said Sgt. 1st Class George Wozniak, 36, of Murtha: “He’s definitely for a strong military and he definitely supports the troops.”

Test Tube Meat Nears Dinner Table What if the next burger you ate was created in a warm, nutrient-enriched soup swirling within a bioreactor?Edible, lab-grown ground chuck that smells and tastes just like the real thing might take a place next to Quorn at supermarkets in just a few years, thanks to some determined meat researchers. Scientists routinely grow small quantities of muscle cells in petri dishes for experiments, but now for the first time a concentrated effort is under way to mass-produce meat in this manner. Henk Haagsman, a professor of meat sciences at Utrecht University, and his Dutch colleagues are working on growing artificial pork meat out of pig stem cells. They hope to grow a form of minced meat suitable for burgers, sausages and pizza toppings within the next few years.

As Rather Departs, Collateral Damage at CBS So Dan Rather, the colorful and urgent reporter who anchored the CBS Evening News longer than anyone else, leaves not with a scoop, but a whisper.In September 2004, Rather presented a story on 60 Minutes Wednesday that promised to make a splash. He suggested the network had obtained documentary proof President Bush received preferential treatment during his stint in the National Guard.But the documents that Rather relied on -- and later defended on the CBS Evening News -- could not be authenticated.

Southern San Andreas fault waiting to explode: report The southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles, which has been still for more than two centuries, is under immense stress and could produce a massive earthquake at any moment, a scientist said on Wednesday. Yuri Fialko, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, said that given average annual movement rates in other areas of the fault, there could be enough pent-up energy in the southern end to trigger a cataclysmic jolt of up to 10 meters (32 ft). "The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle," he wrote in the science journal Nature. A sudden lateral movement of 7 to 10 meters would be among the largest ever recorded.

Minimum Wage Bill Fails in Senate In a 52-46 vote, the Senate rejected a Democrat-proposed bill to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over two years, marking the ninth time since 1997 that legislation to raise the limit has been defeated.

Bush Visits Hungary to Commemorate 1956 Uprising President Bush is marking the 50th anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising against Soviet rule with a visit to the former Soviet satellite. At left, Bush and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany meet in Budapest.

Indonesia: Military Business Threatens Human Rights The Indonesian government’s plans to reform military-owned businesses do not sufficiently address the human rights problems fueled by the current system, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The Indonesian military’s independent financing undermines civilian control, contributing to abuses of power by the armed forces and impeding reform.

Military to Charge 8 With Murder of Iraqi Military prosecutors are planning to announce today that seven marines and a Navy corpsman are being charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April, a senior Defense Department official in Washington said. The men have been confined since May, when a preliminary inquiry concluded that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal investigation. The men, who belong to the Third Battalion of the Fifth Marine Regiment, have been held in Camp Pendleton in California.

Caring for human rights: Challenges and opportunities for nurses and midwives Nurses and midwives share with other health professions a commitment to the well being of patients and to a professional practice based on codes of ethics. However, they increasingly face impediments and challenges to fulfilling this role. These challenges range from those in daily practice where the increasing complexity of health care raises significant ethical issues through to nursing in areas of natural disaster and poverty and in regions of conflict and tension, where there are persistent risks of nursing staff and their patients being victimized – as a result of their witnessing abuses or treating individuals regarded by the authorities as opponents or subversives, or being regarded as subversive themselves. They can suffer harm as a result of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time". Nurses also risk being pressured to collaborate or collude in abuses occurring in their presence or with their knowledge. This paper reviews some of the risks of human rights violations faced by nurses and midwives or seen by them during their work.

U.S. denies sending troops to Bolivia President Evo Morales drew a sharp denial from the U.S. Embassy when he claimed in a speech that the United States is sending soldiers disguised as students and tourists to Bolivia. The accusation, which the U.S. Embassy dismissed as unfounded Wednesday, comes as Morales faces attacks by political opponents for his cozy relationship with President Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, including accepting aid from that country's military.

India: Don’t Torture Sikh Activist Extradited by U.S. The Indian government must ensure that its security officials do not torture or mistreat Sikh separatist Kulvir Singh Barapind, who was extradited to India from the United States on June 17, Human Rights Watch said today. The Indian security forces have a long history of mistreating Sikh activists in custody.

Syria: Dismissal of state employees for expressing opinions violates international human rights Seventeen state employees working in various Syrian government ministries have been dismissed without explanation but apparently on account of their links to a petition, the Beirut-Damascus Declaration. The 17 individuals had signed the Declaration of 12 May, which calls for the normalisation of relations between Syria and Lebanon, and also a subsequent statement calling for the release of 10 signatories of the Declaration who were arrested in mid-May.1 The dismissal of the 17 individuals was ordered by Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-'Otri on 14 June. According to the Syrian Labour Law, state employees can be dismissed without reason but may appeal the decision before the Constitutional Court. Amnesty International considers the dismissals to violate Syria's international human rights law obligations, in particular articles 19 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and, regarding the workplace, the Discrimination Convention of the International Labour Organisation.

Judge Seeks More Evidence in Padilla Case A federal judge ordered prosecutors to turn over more evidence to back up allegations that Jose Padilla and two co-defendants conspired to kill, injure or kidnap people overseas as part of a global Islamic terrorist network.U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said Tuesday she agreed with claims made by defense attorneys that the indictment against Padilla and the others is "very light on facts" that would link the defendants to specific acts of terrorism or victims.

At least 150 people killed in land clashes in Ethiopia At least 150 people have been killed in southern Ethiopia in more than a week of clashes between rival clans over land ownership following a jurisdictional re-alignment, officials said on Monday. Aid officials in the region said that the fighting erupted late last month between the Guji and Borena tribesmen in a region between Yabello and Finchewa, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa. The conflict was sparked after the jurisdictional re-alignment saw land formerly belonging to Borenas awarded to Gujis, who claimed ownership of the newly-acquired land, they said.

Lawyer for Saddam killed One of Saddam Hussein’s main lawyers was shot to death Wednesday after he was abducted from his Baghdad home by men wearing police uniforms, the third killing of a member of the former leader’s defense team since the trial started some eight months ago. North of Baghdad, gunmen seized about 85 workers as they left an industrial plant, police and a witness said.

North Korea offers to halt missile launch In a new bout of brinkmanship with Washington, North Korea has suggested it would halt its apparent plans to test-fire a long-range missile if the US agreed to direct talks with the reclusive Communist regime.

Somalia: Senior U.S. Official Calls on Islamic Militia to Turn Over al-Qaeda Suspects The top U.S. diplomat for Africa called Wednesday on the leaders of the Islamic militia that now controls Somalia's capital to turn over three men accused of being al-Qaeda terrorists. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told journalists the three al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia "are of the highest, highest priority in term of capturing."

Thirteen Iraqis Killed in Alleged US Fire on Poultry Farm Thirteen Iraqis working in poultry farms in a village near the restive city of Baquba were killed during overnight US raids in the area, Iraqi police and a rights organisation said Tuesday. The US military also said it was pressing ahead with murder charges against three of its soldiers for killing three Iraqi detainees, while Japan for its part ordered its 600 troops to leave Iraq.