Friday 31st August 2007: -

• Services mark Diana anniversary - The 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris is being marked with a memorial service in London and tributes across the UK. Princes William and Harry will lead readings for their mother at Guards' Chapel, near Buckingham Palace. Prince Charles and the Queen will be at the service, although Charles's second wife Camilla will not be attending.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

We won't let history be written by your killers Diana...

• CONFRONTING EMPIRE: The West Yorkshire Truth Campaign will be hosting a talk by former member of the US House of Representatives Cynthia McKinney on Sunday 9th September 2007.
  
  Cynthia will be giving a talk entitled 'Confronting Empire' - see confrontingtheempire.org.uk
  
  Venue:
  Lecture Theatre B
  James Graham Building
  Leeds Metropolitan University
  Headingly Campus
  Leeds LS6 3QS
  
  Time: 
  Doors 6.30pm
  Begins 7.00pm
  
  Admission:
  Free (£5.00 suggested donation)

Thursday 30th August 2007: -

• Student suspended for sketching a gun - Last week, a Chandler middle school student was suspend for sketching a gun during class -- something his parents say was harmless doodling. Now comes word that that an eighth-grader in Florence also has been suspended for sketching a gun during class. Stephanie Vardarkis tells the East Valley Tribune that her son, Joshua, had drawn the images on index cards, sort of like a cartoon that included a stick figure holding a gun.

• Some 9/11 groups want Giuliani silent at ceremony - Families of September 11 victims and emergency responders raised alarms on Wednesday that former New York mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani might politicize the sixth anniversary memorial of the attacks. Giuliani has attended all five previous September 11 commemorations but this is the Republican's first engagement as a presidential candidate seeking the White House. "Families and first responders are outraged and call for this speaking invitation to be rescinded and insist that politics be kept out of the 9/11 anniversary ceremony," said a statement by four September 11 groups. "Rudy Giuliani should attend in silence with other invited guests."

• EU referendum petition signed by 70,000 - More than 70,000 people have now signed the Telegraph petition calling for a referendum on the EU reform treaty, as cross-party support for a public vote continues to grow. As of midday 46,224 people had returned coupons calling for the Government to "let the people decide", with 24,329 more signing the online petition. The news came after it emerged that some Liberal Democrats could join the more than 120 Labour MPs planning to rebel against Gordon Brown in demanding a referendum.

• HCC Fluoride/Infant Formula Warning - The Policy and Strategy committee last night resolved to advise parents and caregivers of Lower Hutt of advice issued by the American Dental Association (ADA) with regards to fluoridated water. In a November 9th 2006 email alert sent to all of its members, the ADA noted that "Infants less than one year old may be getting more than the optimal amount of fluoride if their primary source of nutrition is powdered or liquid infant formula mixed with water containing fluoride." The ADA went on to advise: "If using a product that needs to be reconstituted, parents and caregivers should consider using water that has no or low levels of fluoride."

• Why talking to plants may not make you such a Charlie after all - WHEN Prince Charles suggested plants responded to his words of endearment, it was dismissed by many as eccentric nonsense. But now researchers in South Korea claim to have discovered evidence that the heir to the throne may have been right all along. The scientists said they had found "a set of sound-responsive genes in plants" in what other experts said would be an astonishing finding. Plants are known to respond to light, temperature, touch and vibration, and the South Korean team, led by Dr Mi-Jeong Jeong, decided to investigate whether they could also respond to sound in some way.

• Google Censors Another 9/11 Documentary: A spate of viewings prompts shut down of classic Alex Jones film - Google Video is once again censoring one of Alex Jones' documentary films after it received a huge jump in viewings last week and briefly entered the top ten on the back of heightened warnings of an impending terror attack. Viewing figures for the 2004 Feature film Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State suddenly sky rocketed to a total of 850,000 after we featured articles on Clergy Response Teams being trained by the federal government to "quell dissent" in the event of a declaration of martial law. The viewing jump also coincided with the History Channel's 9/11 hit piece and continued warnings of an upcoming terror attack on U.S. soil. As the film began to go viral it was suddenly disabled and at time of writing no longer plays at google video.

Tuesday 28th August 2007: -

• Russia suggests Berezovsky was behind journalist's killing - Russian prosecutors have announced a breakthrough in the hunt for the killers of Anna Politkovskaya, the crusading journalist and prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, who was murdered last year. Conveniently for the Kremlin, the finger of suspicion points directly at President Vladimir Putin's main enemy, the exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky. The announcement came three days before what would have been Politkovskaya's 49th birthday, and almost a year after she was shot dead in a hail of bullets in the lift of her Moscow apartment building early last October.

• UN reports record production of opium in Afghanistan - UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27: Opium production in Afghanistan has hit a record $3 billion this year, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal output, a United Nations report said on Monday. The production concentrated mainly in the strife-torn south of the country, where the Taliban, who once banned poppy cultivation, now profited from the drug trade, the report alleged. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showed that the area under opium cultivation rose to 193,000 hectares from 165,000 in 2006, while the harvest soared by more than a third to 8,200 tons from 6,100 tons.

• Asthma Rates High Among 9/11 Workers - A new survey of Sept. 11-related illnesses has found an alarming increase in asthma _ 12 times higher than normal _ among those who toiled on the toxic debris piles of ground zero. The study was released Monday by the New York City Department of Health, based on responses gathered by the World Trade Center Health Registry. The data show 3.6 percent of the 25,000 rescue and recovery workers in the registry reported developing asthma after working at the site _ more than 12 times the expected figure for adults over a similar time period.

Bank Holiday Monday 27th August 2007: -

• Market Crash Forecast Suggests New 9/11: Mystery trader bets on huge downturn that could only be preceded by catastrophe - A mystery trader risks losing around $1 billion dollars after placing 245,000 put options on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 index, leading many analysts to speculate that a stock market crash preceded by a new 9/11 style catastrophe could take place within the next month. The anonymous trader only stands to make money if the market crashes by a third to a half before September 21st, which is when the put options expire. A put option is a financial contract between two parties, the buyer and the writer (seller) of the option, in which the buyer stands to benefit only if the price of the asset falls.

• Alarm as police offenders keep jobs in force - More than 30 police officers serving in forces throughout Yorkshire were convicted of criminal offences last year, it has emerged. Revelations that so many law enforcers, most of whom are still in post, have turned law-breakers were dubbed "deeply worrying" by a road safety campaigner. The disclosures – made under the Freedom of Information Act – showed that of the four forces in Yorkshire, West Yorkshire had the highest number of serving officers convicted between January 2006 and April 2007. Fourteen of the convictions were for motoring offences. The force would not disclose what the other convictions were for, but last year an exclusive Yorkshire Post report prompted outrage when it was revealed 10 of its serving officers had been convicted of assault.

• Safety fears over new register of all children - Senior social workers have given warning of the dangers posed by a new government register that will store the details of every child in England from next year. They fear that the database, containing the address, medical and school details of all under-18s, could be used to harm the children whom it is intended to protect. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ACDS) has written to officials outlining its “significant” concerns about the new system, called ContactPoint, The Times has learnt. Confusion over who is responsible for vetting users and policing the system “may allow a situation where an abuser could be able to access ContactPoint for illegitimate purposes with limited fear of any repercussions”, Richard Stiff, the chairman of the ADCS Information Systems and Technology Policy Committee, said.

• Fury over roll-out of biometric testing for hotel staff - THE national privacy watchdog has expressed concern at the growth in 'Big Brother'-style clock-in systems that read workers' physical data after another hi-tech attendance procedure was launched at a major hotel. Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes issued his warning after it emerged that the Gresham Hotel in Dublin is the latest employer to introduce a 'biometric' system. Workers claim they were not consulted about the introduction of the system that reads handprints. It was brought in just months after the Abbey Theatre came under fire for launching a system that reads fingerprints. The Data Protection Commissioner said he was "concerned" about the growing use of biometric systems in the workplace "regardless of the type of biometric information collected or the technology used".

• Labour given £300,000 by unregistered 'friends' - A group which has donated more than £300,000 to Labour was not properly registered, the party has admitted. Labour Party officials asked Muslim Friends of Labour to register as a members' association with party funding watchdogs after they were informed of the problem by the Electoral Commission. The commission asked the party to clarify the status of the organisation last week after releasing figures showing that it has donated £312,000 to Labour so far this year. Muslim Friends of Labour was listed as an "unincorporated association" which does not have to declare the source of its funds.

• Bank customers urged to keep pushing for penalty refunds - SCOTTISH bank customers who want to get unfair penalty fees refunded are being urged to continue making claims - despite banks calling a halt until the outcome of a test case. Last month, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) issued a waiver to banks in relation to the handling of unauthorised overdraft complaints until a landmark ruling is given in the courts. A pause on all pending claims was also applied for by the banks ahead of the test case brought by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and due to be heard in the High Court in England early next year. Rather than imposing a blanket stay on all cases, it was decided that judges could, if they wanted, grant them on a case-by-case basis.

• Aaron Russo Tribute Page: Videos, MP3 interviews and articles featuring the work of a great freedom fighter - We were saddened to hear of the passing of activist, film maker, freedom fighter and all round maverick Aaron Russo, who died Friday after a long battle with cancer at the age of 64. Included are videos, audio interviews and articles featuring Aaron from over the course of the past year.

• Trafficked women auctioned in pubs and locked up in brothels - A major police operation to crack down on the trafficking of women has discovered that some victims are being 'sold' at auctions in pubs before they are forced to work in brothels. In the largest operation of its kind, police in Cambridgeshire have raided 73 suspected brothels in the past few months. They have already rescued seven women, some with serious injuries sustained as they tried to escape. The scale of the abuse has horrified the officers and other agencies working with them, who have found women being forced to work in the sex trade in houses in villages as well as city centres, being unable to go out and having sex with up to 60 men a day, earning thousands of pounds for the gangs.

• Chemicals in non-stick pans may retard babies' growth: Toxin in daily use in the home should be phased out, says researcher - Chemicals used in non-stick pans, fast-food containers, carpets, furniture and a host of other everyday household products are retarding babies' growth and brain development, two startling new studies suggest. The studies – from the United States and Denmark, both published in the past month – found that babies with increased levels of the chemical in their umbilical cords were born smaller and with reduced head sizes. Though the changes were small, reductions in weight and brain development at birth have been associated with health problems throughout life.

• School spies: Parents to view their child's lessons via webcam - Gordon Brown is to abolish the annual school report and allow parents to spy on lessons through the internet. Currently, families are entitled to receive only very basic information about their children's academic performance.

• US won't tell Britons why they're banned from travelling to America - British holidaymakers and businessmen banned from travelling to America under anti-terror laws will no longer have any right to know why they have been turned away. The US Department of Homeland Security, set up following the September 11 attacks, last week applied for a blanket ban on disclosing the information it holds on Britons and other EU citizens. Last month, Britain agreed to send the secretive US department all details of UK passengers before they fly to America.

Sunday 26th August 2007: -

• The police are becoming an anti-terror law unto themselves - THE Metropolitan Police took a lot of flak last week for using anti-terrorism powers to manage the Heathrow climate change protest. In my opinion they deserved it, guilty as they were of a breach of trust and of undermining their case for greater powers to combat terrorism. I don't say that as someone who opposes anti-terror legislation. I don't have a problem with the state protecting its citizens from those who wish to kill or maim them. That's not to say I've not protested against specific anti-terror laws in the past or, more accurately, against their abuse, but I have never been in doubt of the need for them. Since 9/11 there has been a rapid increase in anti-terrorism powers and a consequent diminution in our own civil liberties. Indefinite detention without charge for foreign nationals, subsequently replaced (following legal challenge) by the control order regime; pre-charge detention increased from 14 days to 28 days; new infringements on freedom of speech; banning orders on non-violent groups which promote terrorism; restrictions on the right to protest ... the list goes on.

• Chinese officials predicted 9/11 attacks - Imagine someone predicting the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in the US two years before the terror strike! Such a forecast was part of an analysis of the weaknesses of the American military system by two Chinese military planners, who also identified Osama bin Laden as one of the likely perpetrators of a possible attack.

• ABC/NBC Footage Captures White Smoke From WTC 2 Base Moments Before Collapse - In the following 9/11 network footage, ABC television captures white smoke beginning to emerge from the base of WTC 2 within moments of its ... all » collapse. A fuller view of this smoke is recorded by NBC television during this same time. A smoke-free region quickly fills with smoke, followed quickly by WTC 2's collapse. Demolition device use at the base of these buildings cannot be entirely ruled out until such time that this smoke, which only appeared just prior to WTC 2's collapse, can be explained: -

• Britain will spend millions on EU opt-outs - Space research, French films and tropical tuna may not be taxpayers' priorities but they are among causes Britons will be spending millions to promote, courtesy of the European Union, next year. A copy of the proposed EU budget for 2008 seen by this newspaper reveals that bureaucrats in Brussels will spend swathes of their £84 billion budget, including £10.5 billion of British money, on politically correct initiatives which would seem to have little benefit to Britain.

• Central National Bank issues first-ever student ID/Financial card - Debt is often a reality for college students, who are bombarded with credit card applications and left with loans to repay. But at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, coeds, faculty and staff, are pulling out their plastic to pay for everything from books to sodas, and doing so without fear of high interest rates or overdraft fees. The first-of-its-kind on a college campus in America, the prepaid “ROCK Dollar Card” was recently rolled out to Slippery Rock students and University employees. The card’s first function is that of a campus ID card. But through a collaborative effort between the card issuer, Central National Bank, a community financial institution headquartered in Enid; ITS, a card processor and subsidiary of CNB’s; and Heartland Payment Systems; a leading provider of credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll and payment services, the card is also a fully-functional financial instrument.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• China Prevents Forced Abortion Opponent's Wife From Accepting Award - Chinese authorities have prevented the wife of a prominent activist against forced abortions from going to the Philippines to accept a prestigious award on his behalf. Chen Guangcheng's wife Yuan Weijing had hope to fly there to accept what is considered the Asian equivalent of the Nobel prize. Fellow human rights activists tell the media that Chinese officials revoked her passport even though it is a valid one she has used before. Authorities prevented her from board her flight to the Philippines and removed her luggage from the plane. According to an AP report, they confiscated her passport and cell phone as she attempted to go through security at the airport in Beijing. Yuan attempted to call fellow activist Hu Jia to let him know of her troubles but the call was cut off and his attempts to call her back failed. She was able to make contact again later in the day to say her luggage had been removed and that she had been "kidnapped" but provided no other details.

Saturday 25th August 2007: -

• Paxman takes aim at BBC and 24-hour news culture - Jeremy Paxman last night attacked the 24-hour television news culture, which he says prizes emotion over reasoned argument and live reportage over uncovering stories. He also used the flagship opening night speech at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival to attack the BBC, claiming its future could be in jeopardy because of the quality of its programmes. "In the very crowded world in which television lives, it won't do to whisper, natter, cogitate or muse," he told the audience of TV executives. "You have to shout. The need is for constant sensation. The consequence is that reporting now prizes emotion over much else.

• Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11 - Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver". His – or her – question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth – that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11?   (COMMENTARY: Don't get too excited, this article is a hit-piece on 9/11 truth... or at least it is written as a 'hit-piece'. Often a mainstream news reporter (do 'journalists' exist anymore?) will want to cover 9/11 questions for sensible reasons, but because of the politics - not to mention corruption - in the status quo of their job, they will have to write such an article as a smear... all the time giving out details, for example, of how WTC7 was clearly brought down by planned explosives.  As if to say: 'Yeah look at all these idiots who think that WTC7 was a controlled demolition, look at all these physics professors and engineers, check out the evidence... errr.... I mean what a load of crackpots! (wink wink!)')

Friday 24th August 2007: -

• Canadian Police Caught Attempting To Stage Riots: Authorities admit rock-wielding "black bloc anarchists" were really police infiltrators - Quebec provincial authorities have admitted that three rock-wielding mask-wearing "anarchists" were in fact police infiltrators used to gather information on protesters at this week's SPP summit, but authorities are still ludicrously denying the fact that the provocateurs were intent on causing a riot in order to justify a heavy-handed response. Yesterday, debunkers attempted to claim that identical yellow marks on the boots of the "anarchists" and the police were simply Canadian Safety Industry seals and dismissed allegations that the three "anarchists" were undercover cops. Those same trolls and apologists for the authorities have egg on their face today after the police were forced to admit their role in using disguised cops to infiltrate the protesters before staging their arrests when they were exposed as agent provocateurs.

• Scientists develop technique to induce out-of-body experiences: Breakthrough could be used in remote surgery / Virtual reality games may also be improved - Scientists have induced the age-old phenomenon of out-of-body experiences in healthy volunteers for the first time. The technique, which uses a virtual-reality-style set up of cameras linked to a head-mounted video display, will help researchers understand how the brain assimilates sensory information to determine the position of its body. The technique could also improve virtual reality games and remote surgery by creating the illusion that a person is somewhere other than in their own body.

• ‘Put CCTV in addicts’ homes to protect children’ - A controversial plan for CCTV to be used to protect children in the homes of chaotic drug-abusing parents has been proposed by one of Scotland's most eminent drugs experts. Professor Neil McKeganey, head of the centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, believes radical measures are required to protect the estimated 160,000 children in Scotland living with an alcoholic or drug-addicted parent. He believes the sheer scale of the problem, which was previously estimated as being far lower, makes it impossible for social workers to guarantee children's safety.

• Outcry over rise in forced adoptions - Record numbers of young children are being removed from their parents and adopted unjustly because of government targets and the "secrecy" of the family courts, it was claimed today. Campaigners say there are now more than 100 cases of possible miscarriages of justice where children have been forcibly adopted. The figures, revealed in BBC Radio 4's Face the Facts programme, claims the number of parents in England who have had to give up their children, despite insufficient evidence they were causing them harm, has now hit record levels. It says 1,300 babies under a month old are being adopted every year, up from 500 when the government came into power in 1997. Social workers told the programme, to be broadcast later today, that they were being put under pressure to meet the government adoption targets set in 2000.

• US jet kills three British soldiers in 'friendly fire' blunder in Afghanistan - Three British soldiers were killed by a bomb dropped on their position by a US war plane during fierce fighting in Afghanistan, it was confirmed today. At least two other men from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment were injured in the friendly fire incident. One of these was described as critically ill. The 60-strong foot patrol had called in air support after they came under intense attack from Taliban insurgents in Helmand province yesterday evening.

• More WMD lies exposed - Alastair Campbell placed the September 2002 WMD dossier in the hands of the propaganda unit that later produced the plagiarised "dodgy dossier", the New Statesman can reveal. New evidence shows how the government misled both the Hutton Inquiry and the Butler Review about the genesis of the dossier. There was an even earlier version of the document than Foreign Office press secretary John Williams's "missing" draft, whose existence was revealed in the NS last November. The revelations have prompted fresh calls for the government to come clean about the document that took Britain to war in Iraq.

• Iraq Government doomed to weaken: US intelligence - In a bleak outlook of the political situation in Iraq, US intelligence officials warned that Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's Government will become "more precarious" in the coming months. "The IC [intelligence community] assesses that the Iraqi Government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months because of criticism by other members of the major Shia coalition" as well as Sunni and Kurdish parties, a new US intelligence estimate warned. The key judgements of the assessment were released after being declassified by the Director for National Intelligence and come amid mounting frustration inside the US administration at the lack of political progress in Iraq.

• CITY POLICE TO USE TASER GUNS - Lincoln police officers will be armed with Taser guns from next month. Twenty operational support officers are in the process of being trained to use the weapon and will be among the first rank and file policemen and women in Britain to have them. Course leader PC Steve Belshaw said the stun guns were a huge step forward for modern policing.

• Facebook to open goldmine of data to advertisers - Facebook is preparing an advertising model that would allow advertisers to target its users based on information that they reveal about themselves on the social networking website. The group has soared in popularity to a record 30.6 million visitors last month, but is expected to make a profit of only $30 million (£15 million) this year on revenues of $150 million. Facebook’s new advertising system is central to the group’s efforts to “monetise” the social phenomenon that it has created, by which millions of people worldwide avidly log in to swap information about themselves.

• Fingerprint scanning at nursery - A fingerprint scanning system is being introduced at a nursery in Bath to allow only parents and staff access. The biometric controls are being introduced at the First Steps nursery to "enhance existing security arrangements". The company behind the system, UK Biometrics, said no fingerprints were actually stored and no human rights were infringed. Manager Lysha Goode said: "Security is a prime concern for parents and staff."

• Zoo to link biometric technology with staff data and payroll - The world renowned Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland has installed a 3D facial recognition system. The biometric technology enables the rapid capture and identification of facial images for a range of applications from physical access control, time and attendance, border control, ePassports and visa programs. Australia Zoo is using the system to control access to its administration building and to ensure a high level of security for peace of mind.

Thursday 23rd August 2007: -

• Memo for Merkel visit: Don't mention the treaty - Gordon Brown will want to talk about anything but the EU reform treaty when he hosts Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at 10 Downing Street today. Europe is about the only issue where Mr Brown is on the defensive, in the face of demands for a referendum backed by four fifths of the public. Unlike, say, the Irish Republic, Britain does not have explicit rules for when a referendum should be called. It has always been a question of political expediency, or rather prime ministerial weakness, as when Tony Blair in 2004 promised a referendum on the original constitution before its rejection by French and Dutch voters.

• Bush 'Amused' By 'North American Union' Fears - Montebello, Quebec (CNSNews.com) - Leaders of the United States, Canada, and Mexico on Tuesday downplayed fears that their trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) is setting the foundation for a "North American Union." But they did not promise more openness to quell such fears. "I'm amused by the difference between what actually takes place in the meetings and what some are trying to say takes place," President Bush said at a news conference in Montebello, Quebec. He is in Canada with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon for the fourth SPP meeting since its creation in 2005.

• 'Diana was pregnant when she died - but Dodi was not the father' claims French journalist - Princess Diana was "almost certainly" nine to ten weeks pregnant when she died, it has been claimed. French investigative journalist Chris Laffaille says he uncovered evidence of the pregnancy from official archives of the Paris hospital where the princess was taken after the crash on the night of August 31, 1997. If genuine, says Laffaille, it would mean Diana's unborn child would not have been fathered by Dodi Fayed because she had not met him nine weeks before her death.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

• Schoolboy, 11, shot dead by 'hoodie gunman on a BMX' - A schoolboy of 11 was gunned down by another youth in a pub car park as Britain's growing gang culture claimed another victim last night. Rhys Jones was on his way home from a football match with friends when he was attacked at around 7.30pm. Witnesses claimed he was shot in the head by another boy, possibly as young as 12, who was wearing a hooded top and riding a BMX bicycle, after a 'turf war' erupted between rival gangs in the Croxteth district of Liverpool.  (COMMENTARY: But I thought that guns were illegal in the UK!...)

• Bush: there will be no pullout from Iraq while I'm president - President George Bush sought to buy more time for his Iraq "surge" strategy yesterday by making a risky comparison for the first time with the bloodshed and chaos that followed the US pullout from Vietnam. Making it clear he will resist congressional pressure next month for an early withdrawal, he signalled that US troops, whom he hailed as the "greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known", will be in Iraq as long as he is president. He also said the consequences of leaving "without getting the job done would be devastating", and "the enemy would follow us home". Mr Bush's speech came on the day that the US suffered one of its highest daily death tolls since the 2003 invasion, with 14 troops killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed.

Wednesday 22nd August 2007: -

• History Channel Fraudsters Pass Off Joke Website as Representative Of 9/11 Truth: Liar Bradley Davis used 'Jews Did 9/11' parody to smear truthers during dirty tricks broadcast - As part of a catalogue of dirty tricks employed to smear the truth movement in its 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction special, The History Channel used screenshots of an inane parody website and passed it off as representative of people asking questions about the official story. During the introduction to the show, images from the website http://jewsdid911.ytmnd.com were flashed up and associated with the 9/11 truth movement. The website is nothing more than a ludicrous fast moving slideshow of 9/11 images with giant letters that read "JEWS DID 9/11" superimposed on top. Some of the images contain the Star of David and more scribbled "Jews did 9/11" epitaphs appear on other shots in neon green type.

• Police accused of using provocateurs at summit – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que. Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

• Pupils face tracking bugs in school blazers - A school uniform maker said yesterday it was "seriously considering" adding tracking devices to its clothes after a survey found many parents would be interested in knowing where their offspring were. Trutex would not say whether it was studying a spy in the waistband or a bug in the blazer but admitted teenagers were less keen than younger children on the "big brother" idea. The Lancashire company, which sells 1m blouses, 1.1m shirts, 250,000 pairs of trousers, 200,000 blazers, 60,000 skirts and 110,000 pieces of knitwear each year, commissioned an online survey for 809 parents and 444 children aged between nine and 16. It said 44% of the adults were worried about the safety of pre-teen children and 59% would be interested in satellite tracking systems being incorporated in schoolwear. While nearly four in 10 pupils aged 12 and under were prepared to go along with the idea, teenagers were more wary of "spying".

• 'Pay to throw' rubbish plans unveiled - Wheelie bins fitted with microchips and pre-paid sacks for general household waste could be introduced to make householders pay for their rubbish under plans outlined by council leaders today. People could also be charged according to the size of the wheelie bin they choose under the "pay to throw" proposals, put forward by the Local Government Association. They are designed to encourage recycling and reduce the amount of waste being thrown into landfill. The LGA said the measures – which it has called "save as you throw" – would not be used by local authorities as a stealth tax to raise extra cash, and that any scheme should be supported by residents.

• More formaldehyde in food than clothes - Consumers should be more concerned with the levels of formaldehyde in food and drink than in clothes, the Soil and Health Association of New Zealand says. The Consumer Affairs Ministry has launched an investigation after scientists from TV3's Target consumer watchdog programme found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in woollen and cotton clothes imported from China. Exposure to formaldehyde can cause skin irritations, respiratory problems and cancer. Soil and Health spokesman Steffan Browning said formaldehyde produced in children's bodies as a by product of the aspartame, a low energy sweetener in diet drinks, chewing gum, cereals and many processed foods, was likely to be an even greater health hazard than that in clothing.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Cheney's Office Says It Has Wiretap Documents - Vice President Cheney's office acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it has dozens of documents related to the administration's warrantless surveillance program, but it signaled that it will resist efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain them. The disclosure by Cheney's counsel, Shannen W. Coffin, came on the day that the Senate Judiciary Committee had set as a deadline for the Bush administration to turn over documents related to the wiretapping program, which allowed the National Security Agency to monitor communications between the United States and overseas without warrants.

• Record number of people leave UK - More people left the UK last year than in any year since current records began in 1991, statistics show. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that some 385,000 people left the UK for the long term in the year to mid-2006. Long-term migration into the UK, meanwhile, was 574,000. The figures show the UK's population grew to 60,587,000 - an increase of 349,000 (0.6%). They also suggest there were 159,000 more births than deaths.

• Children killed in Israeli strike - Two Palestinian children have been killed and three others wounded by Israeli forces in northern Gaza, Palestinian health officials have said. The dead boys, aged 13 and 14, were close to an area from which militants had been firing rockets at Israel, the officials said. Israel said its ground forces had fired upon two people who were seen near a rocket launcher near Beit Hanoun. Earlier, three militants were killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza.

• Former CIA officer: US to attack Iran within 6 months - Fox News asked former CIA field officer Bob Baer on Tuesday whether the US is "gearing up for a military strike on Iran." Baer has written a column for Time indicating that Washington officials expect an attack within the next six months. "I've taken an informal poll inside the government," Baer told Fox. "The feeling is we will hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." His Time column also suggested that "as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities."

• Amazon forest sold off in housing scam, claims Greenpeace - The Brazilian government stands accused of selling off huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest - including its oldest protected national park - to unscrupulous logging companies, under the cover of a flawed sustainable development project. The Brazilian President, Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva, won power in 2003 with a promise to settle 400,000 homeless families during his four-year term, an unrealistic target he is accused of reaching in last-minute deals prior to last year's election.

Tuesday 21st August 2007: -

• History Channel Hit Piece: Dirty Tricks, Malicious Lies & Journalistic Fraud: The real story behind Brad Davis, NBC, Popular Mechanics and the History Channel - media whore stooges who engaged in deliberate deception, manipulation and chicanery to please their corporate bosses - The History Channel 9/11 special that aired last night was by far the worst hit piece we have ever witnessed, a completely savage, dishonest and deceptive abomination, replete with dirty tricks, malicious lies and a level of journalistic fraud that goes way beyond simple bias. Bradley Davis, the producer of the show, is a paid liar and a hit piece specialist who deceives people by gaining their confidence and then attacking them behind their back.

• CIA Releases Harsh Internal Report on 9/11 Failures - Under a direct order from Congress, the Central Intelligence Agency today released the executive summary of a top-secret report by its inspector general detailing the agency's shortcomings leading up to the September 11 attacks. While the report concluded that there was "no single point of failure," it was otherwise very critical of the CIA leadership, from former CIA director George Tenet on down, for failing to work as "effectively and cooperatively" as possible on counterterrorism. For example, the report found that while Tenet had signed a memo saying, "We are at war" against terrorists, he did not follow up on his warnings or create a comprehensive plan to guide counterterrorism efforts. The CIA's Counterterrorist Center, the report added, was also "not used effectively as a strategic coordinator" of efforts across the intelligence community.

• Liberal Democrats launch attack on Brown's 'surveillance society' - Liberal Democrat leaders are to mount an attack on Britain's "surveillance society'' that threatens to wreck Gordon Brown's hopes of a cross-party consensus on measures to tackle the threat of terrorism. In a strategic break with the Prime Minister, Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg will launch their offensive at their party conference next month. They have decided that Mr Brown's clear support for an extension of detention without charge beyond 28 days for terrorist suspects has destroyed any hope of a cross-party deal. But they claim they are also responding to public anxiety highlighted by the Government's Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, who has warned that Britain is in danger of "sleep-walking into a surveillance society".

• Local Students Pay For Lunches With Swipe Of Finger - Parents in the central Ohio town of Circleville might not have to worry about lost or misspent lunch money any more. This week Circleville schools are joining Akron, Huron, Rocky River and at least five other school districts in Ohio implementing new fingerprint technology, which allows students to pay for lunch with a touch. The cost of the meals is then deducted from prepaid accounts. Schools who use the fingerprint software system, called biometrics technology, say swiping fingers increases speed in lunch lines and helps schools keep a more accurate count of how many students are served meals. Distributors of the software say the systems typically cost between $1,000 and $5,000 per cafeteria line register.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Scores In Congress Protest North American Union Agenda: 22 Congressmen write to President in opposition to SPP as secret Montabello confab begins - As a secretive "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) meeting between the Mexican, Canadian and U.S. heads of states begins this week in Quebec, 22 members of the House of Representatives have put their names to a letter to president Bush demanding their concerns be heeded and that the administration back off the stealth program. "As you travel to Montebello, Canada later this month for a summit with your Canadian and Mexican counterparts, we want you to be aware of serious and growing concerns in the U.S. Congress about the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) you launched with these nations in 2005," the letter said.

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Monday 20th August 2007: -

• Blair’s deal on new EU treaty ‘largely revives the rejected constitution’ - A group of Europe’s “wise men” has pronounced that the European Union treaty agreed by Tony Blair in June is substantially the same as the constitution rejected two years ago. The elder statesmen’s verdict was seized on yesterday by critics who insisted that Gordon Brown must honour the Government’s promise of a referendum on the document. The group, led by the former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, and including Lord Patten, the former Conservative minister and European Commissioner, concluded that the new treaty was only symbolically different to the proposed constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

• Banks using 112 'sneaky' charges to recoup lost fees - Banks are using "sneaky" charges to recoup their losses since being ordered to slash penalty fees by industry regulators, it has been revealed. A study has identified 112 charges across key financial products such as credit cards, current accounts and mortgages. Banks have been under pressure to cut the size of penalty fees and other charges imposed on consumers following allegations they are illegal and unfair.

• 'Cover-up' over casualties in Afghanistan - The Government was accused of hiding the true casualty rate of troops in Afghanistan yesterday as it emerged that nearly one in two soldiers fighting on the front line had been wounded. The Conservatives claimed that the Ministry of Defence was guilty of deception and not giving the full picture on the number of wounded despite being asked to do so in Parliamentary questions.

• ‘Behavior detection officers’ are keeping a close eye on travelers - Next time you go to the airport, more eyes may be following you than you notice. Reading your body language. Studying the facial cues of the passenger in front of you. Scanning for signs of bad intentions, the watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your laptop or the one standing behind the ticket checker. Or even curbside with the baggage attendants. Called behavior detection officers, they are part of recent security upgrades, Transportation Security Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group in Washington last month, “a wonderful tool to be able to identify and do risk management prior to somebody coming into the airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint.”

• Dark fruit and veg may fight colon cancer cells - Dark-coloured fruits and vegetables may help to protect against colon cancer, research has shown. Scientists found that the chemicals that give foods such as grapes, radishes, purple carrots and bilberries their colour significantly slow the growth of colon cancer cells. Evidence from experiments on rats and on human colon cancer cells suggests that anthocyanins, the compounds that colour most red, purple and blue fruits and vegetables, slow the growth of the cells by anything from 50 to 80 per cent.

• Stores 'warned over food hygiene' - Two supermarket stores linked to the fatal E.coli outbreak in Paisley had previously been warned over contravening food hygiene procedures. Renfrewshire Council has confirmed that environmental health issues were raised about the Falside Road and Lonend branches of Morrisons. They included meat pies on display for 12 hours at room temperature and raw eggs being stored on warm surfaces.

Sunday 19th August 2007: -

• Terror law puts Britons at risk of surveillance by US agents - A new law swept through Congress by the US government before the summer recess is to give American security agencies unprecedented powers to spy on British citizens without a warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was approved by Congress earlier this month to help the National Security Agency in the fight against terrorism. But it has now emerged that the bill gives the security services powers to intercept all telephone calls, internet traffic and emails made by British citizens across US-based networks.

• Jack Bauer is watching you: US agencies train spy satellites on civilians - FICTIONAL agent Jack Bauer famously uses America's spies in the sky in his personal war on terror in TV series 24. But that's make-believe. In real life, US civilian agencies have used limited spy-satellite images of their country only to track hurricane damage, monitor climate change and create topographical maps. But a plan to allow emergency response, border control and, eventually, law enforcement agencies greater access to the sophisticated satellites and other sensors that monitor American territory has drawn sharp criticism from civil liberties advocates, who say the government is overstepping the use of military technology for domestic surveillance.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• Rudy plays the security card: ID for all tourists - EVERY foreigner in America, including British visitors, would be required to carry an ID card bearing photograph and fingerprints under plans drawn up by Rudolph Giuliani, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani is hoping to cement his status as the Republican favourite by promising to enforce immigration and border controls, drawing on expertise in combating crime from his time as mayor of New York. He announced last week that all foreigners, including holiday-makers, would be obliged to carry a “tamper-proof” biometric card, which could be issued at ports of entry.

• After the Taser.. police gun that makes you sick - The latest weapon in the fight against crime is a "sick gun" that makes you vomit. It looks like a normal torch but sends out rapidly-changing, different-coloured strobelights which blind and disorientate whoever it is shined at. Like the Taser stun gun it is designed as a "non-lethal" weapon to disable suspects so they can be arrested. And it could soon be used by police forces over here. Authorities in the US have already ordered the LED Incapacitator which has a range of 30 feet. It is expected to be used by border guards and air marshals. Its creator, Bob Lieberman, said: "There are often confrontations with illegal aliens or drugs runners. "You don't want to hurt or kill them, just take them into custody." The effects of the gun, which can incapacitate several people at once, wear off after a few minutes.

• WA crackdown on over-prescription of ADHD drugs - The Western Australian government aims to cut reliance on amphetamines in treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) under a multi-million-dollar program. Studies show dexamphetamines account for a substantial amount of amphetamine use by young people in WA. The state has the nation’s highest rate of amphetamine usage overall, and the highest rate of prescriptions of amphetamines for children diagnosed with ADHD.

Saturday 18th August 2007: -

• Doctors 'Over-Diagnosing Depression' - Doctors are over-diagnosing depression meaning thousands of people are being wrongly prescribed drugs to treat it, claims an expert. Psychiatrist Professor Gordon Parker says the current threshold for what is considered to be "clinical depression" is too low and fears it could lead to the condition becoming less credible. He argues that the problem has been reduced to the "absurd" and that we risk medicalising normal human distress and viewing any expression of depression as necessary of treatment.

• Cop: Put boozer yobs into care - PARENTS who refuse to tackle their children’s underage boozing should face having them put into care, a top cop said last night. Police chief Peter Fahy hit out a week after dad-of-three Garry Newlove was killed after confronting a gang of teenage yobs outside his home in Cheshire. Mr Fahy said parents should pay the penalty if they spurn police and social services’ help to sort out their boozy kids. He said one option would be to launch care proceedings in cases where parents refused help or did not co-operate.

• Another dent in Rudy's 9/11 image? - Busted? A front-page New York Times story notes that on at least three occasions, Giuliani -- responding to accusations that New York City failed to protect the health of Ground Zero workers -- has boasted that he faced similar risks himself. But: "A complete record of Mr. Giuliani’s exposure to the site is not available for the chaotic six days after the attack, when he was a frequent visitor. But an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts."

Friday 17th August 2007: -

• U.S. pre-9/11 memos: Pakistan backs Taliban: Documents allege nation showed ‘resistance’ to helping nab bin Laden - Newly declassified intelligence documents reveal the depth of U.S. officials’ concern that Pakistan was providing funds, arms — and even combat troops — to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for years before the Sept. 11 attacks. They also show rising frustration at what U.S. officials called Pakistan’s “resistance and/or duplicity” toward Washington’s repeated requests for help in getting the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden. A top official at one point said hauling Pakistan before the U.N. Security Council should be considered.

• New row over 'misleading EU treaty' - Pressure for a referendum on the controversial European constitution grew last night amid growing signs of public concern and fresh claims that voters are being misled. Almost 50,000 have now signed The Daily Telegraph's petition calling for a referendum on the proposed new settlement. All three main parties originally pledged a referendum on the original EU draft constitution. And yesterday, there were claims that the new document was essentially a revival of the constitutional settlement famously rejected by referendums in France and Holland in 2005.

• Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns - Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act. The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain. The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.

• Ministers accused over casualty figures cover-up in Iraq and Afghanistan: Casualty figures are being covered up on two fronts - Ministers are covering up the extent of combat injuries suffered by British troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was claimed last night. Many soldiers are being patched up and sent back to the front line without ever appearing in official casualty reports.

• Pentagon Paid $999,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers to Texas - A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base, U.S. officials said. The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show. The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina -- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled ``priority'' were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.

Thursday 16th August 2007: -

• Chavez proposes scraping term limits: Venezuelan's plan would let him stay in power indefinitely. Other changes would incorporate socialist ideology in the constitution - President Hugo Chavez presented his long-awaited plan to revise the Venezuelan Constitution on Wednesday, including a proposal to eliminate presidential term limits -- a move critics fear would allow the fiery anti-U.S. leader to further concentrate power in his hands. In an address to the National Assembly, Chavez laid out 33 changes that he says would incorporate socialist ideology into the constitution that he pushed through in 2000, and redistribute power and resources to the poor and disadvantaged.

• Wishing For Another 9/11? - In last Thursday’s Philadelphia Daily News, conservative columnist Stu Bykofsky gave voice to the thought that many supporters of the so-called global war on terror are thinking right now. Bykofsky's piece, entitled "To save America, we need another 9/11," was a lament for "how splintered we are politically — thanks mainly to our ineptitude in Iraq — that we've forgotten who the enemy is." While he admitted that wishing for another 9/11 is "sick," Bykofsky wrote that he misses "the community of outrage and resolve" that existed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

• ALL THE LIES EVENTUALLY LEAD TO DICK CHENEY - Absolute power absolutely corrupts and the Libby conviction was the very tip of an Iceberg of deceit, deception, hubris and abuse of power by the Cheney/Bush administration ~ which began with the 9/11 cover-up, extended to the illegal War, occupation and economic rape of Iraq and is fully visible in the tragedy of New Orleans . Karl Rove's resignation leaves only the dark master himself ~ for all the lies eventually lead to Dick Cheney.

• US and Israel in $30bn arms deal - US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns has signed a deal that will provide Israel with $30bn (£14.8bn) of military aid over the next 10 years. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said the aid will preserve his country's military advantage over other countries in the Middle East. The new military aid package represents a 25% increase from present levels.

• Mattel's real toy story: Slave labour in sweatshops - This week Mattel recalled nearly two million Chinese-made toys over concerns they contain excessive levels of lead paint and loose parts. Dirt-cheap labour and a massive expansion in capacity means China makes more than three-quarters of the world's toys, with an export value in excess of £7 billion. But increasingly, there is evidence of inadequate safety standards, poor quality control and slave labour.

• Guard Uses Taser on Man Holding Newborn - In a confrontation captured on videotape, a hospital security guard fired a stun gun to stop a defiant father from taking home his newborn, sending both man and child crashing to the floor. Now William Lewis says his baby girl suffers from head trauma because she was dropped. "I've got to wonder what kind of moron would Tase an adult holding a baby," said George Kirkham, a former police officer and criminologist at Florida State University. "It doesn't take rocket science to realize the baby is going to fall."

• China's Tallest Building Catches Fire, Does Not Collapse: World Financial Center in Shanghai miraculously defies physics - Shanghai's World Financial Center, the tallest building in China upon completion, defied all known physics yesterday afternoon when it caught fire but did not collapse, a modern day miracle in light of the commonly accepted premise that since 9/11, all steel buildings that suffer limited fire damage implode within two hours. Anyone who has visited Shanghai's Pudong district will note that the World Financial building eerily resembles the twin towers in New York that were destroyed on 9/11, which is why the sight of it catching fire yesterday would have led many to immediately fear the imminent collapse of the structure.

Wednesday 15th August 2007: -

• 7/7 victims back legal challenge - Victims of the July 7 bombings have taken the first step towards bringing legal action against the Government as they continued their fight for an independent public inquiry into the terrorist attacks. Bereaved relatives and survivors of the 2005 atrocity delivered a pre-action protocol letter to the Home Office, renewing their calls for an investigation but warning no action would result in a legal challenge. In May, former Prime Minister Tony Blair ruled out demands for a new inquiry into the attacks but did order the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to review MI5's handling of intelligence about two of the July 7 bombers. The decision came after it emerged MI5 had observed July 7 ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan and sidekick Shehzad Tanweer while investigating another group of plotters.

• Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits' - An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries. Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's president. It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

• Biosurveillance, Intelligence and Bugs - The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has decided to investigate the creation of the National Biosurveillance Integration System at the Department of Homeland Security. The operation was mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10. Its mission is to "to provide early detection and situational awareness of biological events of potential national consequence by acquiring, integrating, analyzing, and disseminating existing human, animal, plant, and environmental biosurveillance system data into a common operating picture," according to the DHS.

• Plan to exclude cars from schools - CAR exclusion zones should be set up around schools in Wales to make families walk as part of a bid to tackle obesity and climate change, a think tank said yesterday. (MON) Almost a quarter of boys and almost a fifth of girls across the nation are overweight. A new report from the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) suggests banning cars from around schools would help reverse the declining trend of parents and children walking to school.

• £118,000 just to get a foot on housing ladder - First-time buyers are borrowing record amounts and stretching themselves to breaking point to realise their dream of owning a home, figures reveal. The typical mortgage taken on by a young buyer has more than doubled in six years to an all-time high of £118,322. The figure equates to some 3.37 times the average salary of the buyer, which is also a record. Higher loans have effectively been forced on buyers following a decade when house price growth of 156 per cent has massively outpaced a 35 per cent rise in incomes. The alarming statistics come from the Council of Mortgage Lenders and demonstrate that spiralling prices and interest rates are turning the screw on young buyers.

• Exclusive excerpt: The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America: Terror, oil and the "shadow government" - In this exclusive excerpt from his powerful new book, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), UC Berkeley professor emeritus Peter Dale Scott asks whether there is a connection between America’s historical use of terror as a political weapon and the recent moves by the Bush administration to suspend the Constitution and create a “shadow government” in the wake of the next terrorist attack.

• Diana’s bodyguard asks to be left alone - THE sole survivor of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, yesterday appealed to be left in peace in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the Princess’s death. Welshman Trevor Rees – the bodyguard who was travelling in the Mercedes with Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed – called for his privacy to be respected as the milestone date draws near. The former paratrooper, formerly known as Trevor Rees-Jones, broke every bone in his face and suffered terrible chest and head injuries in the accident in Paris a decade ago.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

• Toy giant recalls 18 million China-made toys - Parents and care-givers began weeding out toys from children's play chests after United States toy giant Mattel recalled 18 million Chinese-made products worldwide, citing serious concerns for children's safety. Toys including the mythical Barbie doll, Batman action figures and Polly Pocket play sets were taken off store shelves as Mattel vastly expanded an earlier recall, sparked when three children suffered perforated intestines after swallowing magnets that had fallen out of the playthings. The recall also targeted the toy jeep "Sarge," from the hit animated film Cars, which had been painted by a Chinese company with a lead-based product.

Tuesday 14th August 2007: -

• A Sit Down With An 9/11 Fire Fighter - A fire fighter’s testimony about what he experienced whilst fighting the fires on 911 has now been released. Official government lies are being challenged not only by hard science, but also by the witnesses who are now recovering sufficiently from their shock and illnesses to tell their story. We have a duty to listen with measured consideration so that we can understand. Currently we understand only the fictions; the conspiracy theories and the politically motivated untruths.

• ID cards on track for 2009 as procurement begins: Procurement process finally gets underway but questions remain over the technical "nuts and bolts" of the project - The government has confirmed that it remains on track to deliver the first ID cards by 2009 after it finally began the procurement process for the £5.5bn project. After months of delays, which had led to speculation that the controversial project would be further downgraded following the decision last year to ditch some of the biometric data originally planned for the card, the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has published a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union inviting expressions of interest from potential suppliers.

• China outdoes itself with unprecedented surveillance initiative - The Chinese government, long-renowned for its tolerance, unobtrusive law-making, and general good vibes, has announced plans to begin outfitting its citizens with a new kind of ID card; one with an embedded chip that will include the holder's name, address, work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord's phone number. The cards will also carry reproductive history information, to further aid authorities in enforcing China's "one child" policy. Ostensibly, the cards will keep track of the large influx of peasants moving to cities, though Michael Lin, VP of China Public Security Technology, went on (in Orwellian fashion) to say; "If they do not get the permanent card, they cannot live here, they cannot get government benefits, and that is a way for the government to control the population in the future." Additionally, authorities are aggressively installing new security cameras around cities like Shenzhen, which utilize sophisticated recognition software co-developed by US companies like IBM, HP, and Dell. When reached for comment at the Ministry of Truth, the Chinese version of Big Brother was unavailable, as he was busy rationing out Soylent Green, Soma, and Ludovico technique treatments.

Monday 13th August 2007: -

• Karl Rove to resign from White House - Karl Rove, the man credited by many with winning George W Bush the last two US presidential elections, will resign at the end of the month, it was revealed today. Mr Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff, said he would leave his role in late August to spend more time with his family. A White House spokeswoman confirmed the resignation, describing it as a "big loss". Although no political reason was given for Mr Rove's departure, the Bush administration had been under pressure from senior Republicans to change its political strategy - particularly in relation to the war in Iraq - or leave the party to face a drubbing in next year's presidential and congressional elections.

• Police force employs 16-year-olds - Two 16-year-olds have been recruited by a police force to work as community support officers (PCSOs). It means the teenagers could be given powers to guard crime scenes, issue penalty notices or detain suspects until police officers arrive. They will also be allowed to confiscate alcohol consumed in public despite being too young to drink and can direct traffic even though they cannot drive. They are undergoing training for their new roles, said Thames Valley Police.

• 9/11 Truth at the San Diego Padres game - San Diego 9/11 Questions meetup group went to the Padres game with a 9/11 banner and got thrown out. Peter, Abby, Laura and Joanne were the brave truthers. Check it out.

• ABA criticizes Bush terror policies - President Bush‘s recent order on CIA interrogations of terror suspects should be overturned because it still allows harsh treatment in violation of international treaties, two American Bar Association committees say. "The CIA should not be exempted from rules that guide even our armed forces," ABA president Karen Mathis said Friday. But it leaves undefined what methods are acceptable. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has said revealing what techniques are allowed would help people who might be subjected to them. He said he would not want a U.S. citizen to go through the process, but he added that it was not torture.

• Terror alert sparked by dodgy news - Reports of a dirty bomb attack in New York City that sent police into heightened alert at the weekend came from a Jerusalem-based website that claims more than a million daily readers but is criticized by intelligence experts as unreliable. Giora Shamis and his wife launched Debkafile in 2000 to focus on security, terrorism and military affairs in the Middle East. Shamis claims he and his wife predicted the al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center. Shamis says Debka, which is financed by subscriptions and ad revenue, has a daily readership of 1.3 million. But its reports, published in English and Hebrew, rely on anonymous sourcing and often proved untrue.

Sunday 12th August 2007: -

• Brown turns his back on the people to embrace a corrupt EU treaty - The statement could not have been clearer. On ratifying a new European constitution, Labour said in its 2005 manifesto, “We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign wholeheartedly for a yes vote.” Tony Blair added: “That is an issue of trust for me with the electorate.” Nor would there be any fudging over the abortive 2004 constitution rejected by the French and the Dutch. Blair said, “You can’t have a . . . rejection of the treaty and then you just bring it back with a few amendments and say we will have another go.” Whatever emerged from any revision was for the people to approve. What could be clearer? The answer is mud. No sooner was the government elected than Blair did exactly what he said he would not do. Facing a salvaged version of the 2004 constitution, he asserted that a referendum on it would be “completely and utterly absurd”. On taking office this year Gordon Brown agreed, despite his pledge to “listen to the people”. There cannot have been a more instant and brazen U-turn on an election promise in modern history.

• Supermarkets 'are too powerful' - The majority of UK food suppliers believe supermarkets wield too much power, according to a survey. The report by Grant Thornton says 25% of suppliers have had an order greatly reduced or cancelled by supermarkets at short notice, without compensation. Around 80% expect more supply firms to go bust, with over half of those blaming the supermarkets.

• British soldier killed in Aghanistan - A British soldier has been killed during an attack on his patrol base in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today. The serviceman, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, was injured when the base, north-east of Sangin in the volatile Helmand Province, came under attack from small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades, and indirect fire, at about 1.20pm on Saturday. He was taken by helicopter to Camp Bastion, but did not survive. The soldier’s family have been informed, the MoD said. The serviceman's death takes the number of British military fatalities in Afghanistan since the start of operations in November 2001 to 70.

• Edwards questions Giuliani over 9/11 exploitation - Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards says former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is taking every opportunity to exploit the memory of 9/11 for political purposes. The Edwards campaign put out a statement Friday criticizing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's recent comments regarding September 11th as a "break from reality." Giuliani was in Cincinnati Thursday, defending his role on 9/11 against claims made last month by a firefighters' union.

• Is bin Laden Responsible for the 9/11 attacks? - To those who are not familiar with our work, Ed Haas and I have done extensive research regarding the authenticity of the "bin Laden Confession Tape" that was released by the U.S. government on December 13, 2001. Bush administration officials pointed to the video as the smoking gun and proof that Osama bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. After more than a year of research, we were able to show with a very high degree of certainty that the tape was the result of a sting operation run by U.S. intelligence, with the help of Saudi intelligence, and that bin Laden could have been captured on the date he was taped, September 26, 2001, ten days prior to the war in Afghanistan.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Kevin Barrett: Reporting on 9/11 conference was distorted and libelous - Dear Editor: Your story on the recent Scholars for 9/11 Truth conference, "9/11 Doubters Doubt Each Other Too," was so distorted and pejorative that if I were a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I would suspect Popper of working for Project Mockingbird. (Google the term to see what I mean.) Out of almost 20 hours of presentations, the reporter focused on the 10 seconds during which one presenter, Dave Von Kleist, expressed his fear of government infiltration of the 9/11 truth movement. And out of the many dozens of hours of informal conversation, Popper chose to highlight one in which similar fears were expressed. I participated in many conversations throughout the weekend and can testify that all were convivial and concerned the science and politics of 9/11, not fears of government infiltration. For more on the conference, people can go to www.mujca.com/madisonconference.htm.

• Are Republicans Hoping for Another 9/11? - Democrats have often been accused by conservatives of secretly wanting to lose the war in Iraq because it would benefit them politically. Given the difficulty in even defining the meaning of "win" and "lose" in the quagmire that is Iraq, it seems a rather specious charge. But let's turn the tables a bit. Are Republicans secretly hoping for another terrorist attack on the homeland? It's a deliberately provocative question, and one that deserves some discussion.

• Right-Wing Media Give Favorable Platform To ‘Another 9/11 - In his Thursday column, Philadelphia Daily News scribe Stu Bykofsky seemingly wished for the tragic death of 3000+ Americans when he wrote that “another 9/11 would help America.” A host of right-wing media outlets provided Bykofsky a national platform yesterday that largely served to give credence to the columnist’s ghoulish suggestion.

• Tunisian sent home from Guantanamo says he was beaten by US soldiers - A Tunisian man released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay says he was beaten by American soldiers while in custody in Afghanistan, his lawyer said. The former detainee also says U.S. medics amputated his frostbitten fingers unnecessarily and against his will, the attorney said. Lotfi Lagha, who was returned to Tunisia in late June after five years at the U.S. detention center for terrorism suspects in Cuba, spoke with his lawyer, Samir Ben Amor, for the first time Thursday at a prison in Mornaguia, south of the capital, Tunis.

Saturday 11th August 2007: -

• 'Wild West' internet needs a sheriff: Peers call for legal liability for security bugs - The government needs to do more to protect ordinary users from cybercrime and safeguard the growth of e-commerce, according to a report from the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee. Peers argue that a "laissez-faire" attitude to internet security by a range of interested parties including government, ISPs, hardware and software manufacturers, and others is playing into the hands of hackers. The committee's report says that a "wild west" culture where end users alone are responsible for ensuring they are protected from criminal attacks online is "inefficient and unrealistic".

• AT&T says "sorry" for censoring Pearl Jam - GIANT FIRM AT&T admitted that the company it hired to handle the cybercast of a live concert by US rock band Pearl Jam censored lyrics criticising the king of the US, George Bush. According to Reuters, the censored lyrics, "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home", were sung to the haunting melodies of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". The Chicago performance was carried on AT&T's "Blue Room" Web site, which is here. But the combo was furious when it discovered that the Anti-Bush lines had been removed.

• Queen won't hoist flag to mark Diana's 10th death anniversary - Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to hoist the Union Jack at half-mast above Buckingham Palace on the 10th death anniversary of Princess Diana. The Queen however set aside the protocol on the first anniversary of the princess' death when the flag was flown, but did not think it was an ‘appropriate’ gesture on this occasion,” the Telegraph reported. The death anniversary this year will be marked by a memorial service at The Guards' Chapel at Wellington barracks on Aug 31. The absence of the flag from the palace came to mark the crisis faced by the monarchy after Diana’s death in the car crash on 31 August 1997. There was public backlash and aides persuaded the Queen to hoist the Union flag in time for the funeral and again one year after the death.   (COMMENTARY: Sounds about right... as my father tends to say 'You can't expect much else from a pig other than a grunt!')

Friday 10th August 2007: -

• 9/11 workers outraged by new Rudy claim - Rudy Giuliani drew outrage and indignation from Sept. 11 first-responders yesterday by saying he spent as much time - or more - exposed to the site's dangers as workers who dug through the debris for the missing and the dead. Speaking to reporters at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame he caught between fund-raisers, the GOP front-runner said he helped 9/11 families and defended himself against critics of how he managed the attack's aftermath.

• Global stock market slump spills over into Asia - Asian share prices fell sharply today, hit in a global sell-off sparked by fears of a credit crunch that prompted major central banks to move to try to ease a liquidity squeeze. News that the US, Eurozone, Japanese and other central banks had pumped massive amounts of cash into the financial system only appeared to add to the sense of nervousness on global markets about the US mortgage market troubles.

• Bids start for ID card - Firms wanting to run the government ID cards were yesterday asked to bid for contracts - bringing the controversial project a step closer. Five companies will manage applications and supply computer equipment. BT, IBM and others are expected to bid for deals worth up to £500million.

• Ritalin: The ADHD drug may affect the developing brain - Ritalin – given to around 5 million young Americans diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit, hyperactive disorder) – may affect the developing brain. Ritalin (methylphenidate) is a stimulant similar to amphetamine and cocaine, and it seems to have a paradoxical effect on ADHD children, and calms them. But it may do so at a price, new research suggests. The new study, which monitored the effect of the drug on the brains of rats, found that it altered areas of the brain related to executive functioning, addiction and appetite, social relationships and stress.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• UK Channel 4's quiz show fined - Regulators fined Channel 4's "Deal or No Deal" quiz show 30,000 pounds on Thursday for misleading viewers taking part in a phone-in competition. Premium rate regulator ICSTIS imposed the fine on the show's phone service provider iTouch. It said the competition was unfair because contestants calling earlier to guess the amount of cash in one of three sealed boxes had greater chance of winning. ITouch selected winners at 10-minute intervals during the show, giving those calling towards the end of the programme a slimmer chance of success.

• Families reach deal with Mayor over 9/11 anniversary - Relatives of World Trade Centre victims upset by plans to move this year’s September 11 commemoration away from ground zero have agreed a deal with New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg, allowing them to mourn at the site where their loved ones perished. Bloomberg said he met the families yesterday and agreed to their proposal that they be allowed to descend briefly into the seven-storey pit that was the trade centre’s foundation to pay their respects.

Thursday 09th August 2007: -

• NEW SYSTEM WILL COST £300 A YEAR IN BANK CHARGES: Pay-as-you-go fees warning - BANK customers could be charged £300 a year under a pay-as-you-go system, experts claimed yesterday. The system has been tipped to replace penalty charges, which are now the subject of a High Court test case brought by the Office of Fair Trading and could be declared illegal. Financial website moneysupermarket.com said people could be charged an average of 32.9p for every direct debit and 34.2p for standing orders.

• Another Firefighter Testifies On Explosions Inside WTC - Firefighter John Schroeder, assigned to Engine Company 10 directly across the street from the World Trade Center complex, holds back tears and describes his first-hand experience on Sept. 11th. His story directly contradicts many aspect of the National Commission on Terrorist attacks though corroborates many other eyewitness testimony. “Standing outside the firehouse with my buddies, we were talking about how beautiful the day was. Then just like that, our lives changed forever. Some of those guys I would never see again.”

• Analysis: New Law Gives Government Six Months to Turn Internet and Phone Systems into Permanent Spying Architecture - A new law expanding the government's spying powers gives the Bush Administration a six-month window to install possibly permanent back doors in the nation's communication networks. The legislation was passed hurriedly by Congress over the weekend and signed into law Sunday by President Bush. The bill, known as the Protect America Act, removes the prohibition on warrantless spying on Americans abroad and gives the government wide powers to order communication service providers such as cell phone companies and ISPs to make their networks available to government eavesdroppers.

• Study Suggests High-Dose Fish Oil May Significantly Improve Behavior in Children with ADHD - The results of a pilot study published in the Nutrition Journal suggest that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can benefit from daily supplementation of high levels of purified fish oils. The eight-week study demonstrated that children who consumed between 8 and 16 grams per day of EPA and DHA (the long chain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil) showed significant improvements in their behavior rated by both their parents and the psychiatrist working with them.

• Haw protest restrictions unlawful - Restrictions placed on anti-Iraq war protestor Brian Haw by police over his six-year peace vigil have been ruled unlawful in a High Court judgement. But Mr Haw was warned by Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips his protest could be severely restricted if he does not reach an agreement with the police. Met Supt Peter Terry said in a previous hearing that "whenever I do speak to Brian Haw, he stands and shouts at me". Mr Haw, from Redditch, has held a vigil outside Parliament since 2 June 2001. Mr Haw won a legal battle in January to remain in place due to a drafting error in a new law banning unauthorised protests in Westminster, but was ordered to restrict his banners and placard display to a three-metre area.

• Largest known exoplanet discovered - The largest planet ever discovered is also one of the strangest and theoretically should not even exist, scientists say. Dubbed TrES-4, the planet is about 1.7 times the size of Jupiter and belongs to a small subclass of "puffy" planets that have extremely low densities. The finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal. "Its mean density is only about 0.2 grams per cubic centimeter, or about the density of balsa wood," said study leader Georgi Mandushev of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. "And because of the planet's relatively weak pull on its upper atmosphere, some of the atmosphere probably escapes in a comet-like tail."

Wednesday 08th August 2007: -

• More Americans Feel Unsafe in Post 9/11 Era: Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research  - Many people in the United States feel their country is less safe now than six years ago when, it was the target of a major terrorist attack, according to a poll by Hart/Newhouse released by The Wall Street Journal and NBC News. 37 per cent of respondents feel the U.S. is more vulnerable today, up 14 points since September. Conversely, 34 per cent of respondents think the U.S. is safer now—down eight points in 10 months—and 27 per cent believe the country is about as safe.   (COMMENTARY: Americans feeling unsafe... then mission accomplished for the terrorists I guess, since the essence of terrorism is to keep those that you want to influence politically in a state of fear.  But who does this state of fear benefit?  Who do we see taking advantage of this twisted power in front of us?)

• Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11: On the stump, Rudy can't help spreading smoke and ashes about his lousy record - Nearly six years after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is still walking through the canyons of lower Manhattan, covered in soot, pointing north, and leading the nation out of danger's way. The Republican frontrunner is campaigning for president by evoking that visual at every campaign stop, and he apparently believes it's a picture worth thousands of nights in the White House.

• Five US and British soldiers killed in Iraq attacks - The US/British death toll in Iraq is continuing to rise, with both countries announcing the deaths of five more military personnel in recent incidents. The US says three of its soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad on Saturday, while a fourth was also killed in another bombing in the west of the city yesterday. A British soldier, meanwhile, was shot dead during an operation in the Al Fursi area of Basra last night.

• Airlines, Others Sue FBI, CIA To Depose Agents In 9-11 Cases - Airline manufacturer Boeing Co. (BA), major airlines and several airport operators sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday in a bid to question current and former agency employees in connection with negligence litigation over the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. In separate lawsuits, the airlines and others are challenging decisions by the FBI and the CIA that prevent them from conducting depositions of those employees.

• Channel 4 in row over mosque film - Police have made a formal complaint to Ofcom over a Channel 4 Dispatches film about Muslim extremists which was allegedly distorted through its editing. It emerged today that a second Dispatches programme about British Muslims is also under investigation, this one by the Metropolitan police. The first programme, Undercover Mosque, broadcast in January, featured footage shot at a number of mosques, including one at which a preacher praised the Taleban for killing British soldiers.

• 'We Believe Madeleine Is Still Alive' - The parents of Madeleine McCann say they are determined to keep believing she is still alive amid reports that traces of her blood have been found in the apartment where she went missing. Gerry McCann said: "We're not naive, but on numerous occasions the Portuguese police have said they are looking for Madeleine alive. "I don't know of any information to have changed that."   (COMMENTARY: The fear mongering continues and the controlled corporate media plays its part in showing parents that they had better surrender freedom for security.  See how this issue is used to promote 'ID kits' for children, DNA and fingerprint databases to keep the children safe.  20 years later Big Brother will have an entire generation under its thumb - more so than today!)

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• UK Information Commissioner: protect your own data: Tells citizens to get a grip - The Information Commissioner's Office - the UK public body tasked with protecting ordinary individuals from abuses by the rapidly-multiplying organisations which hold personal data - has today "published new guidance to help individuals understand how and why their personal information may be shared by organisations." As the Financial Times noted yesterday, most of us nowadays leave a substantial electronic and paper trail which can be used in ways we might not expect. Well, not if we had our eyes shut and our fingers in our ears, anyway. Someone who is wanted by the cops and then goes to the supermarket and asks for the points on their loyalty card - and is then surprised to find the police waiting in the car park - is surely too ignorant to survive as a criminal. Likewise a crook who would continue to use his Oyster card on London public transport.

• Outrage over betrayal of Iraqi interpreters - Outraged reaction erupted from serving military officers, retired generals and politicians today after the revelation in The Times that nearly 100 Iraqi interpreters who have risked their lives working for the British in Basra may be abandoned to their fate when the troops are withdrawn. One Territorial Army officer who served in Basra in 2003/2004 told The Times that his interpreter was visited by militia who held a gun to the head of his wife and children. They threatened to kill him and his family if he did not leave the country in three days.

• Handling stress 'cuts stroke risk' - People who cope well with stress can cut their risk of having a stroke by almost a quarter, research has shown. Experts have dubbed the ability to handle stress a "sense of coherence" - based on the experiences of survivors of concentration camps. It is a measure of how strongly a person believes events in their life are comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. A study of more than 20,000 people found that those who felt able to cope with stress in their lives had a lower risk of stroke.

Tuesday 07th August 2007: -

• Bush Gets 6 Months Big Brother Dictator Powers: 6 month window gives government carte blanche to impose any surveillance policy and for it to remain legal in perpetuity - Not content with now being lawfully allowed to force ISP's and cell phone companies to turn over data about customers without a warrant, the Bush administration is pushing for even more authority to spy on American citizens, and has already been handed a 6 month window within which to impose any surveillance policy it likes, and for that program to remain legal in perpetuity. Legislation signed Sunday gives the government the green light to install permanent backdoors in communications systems that allow warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, a blatant violation of the 4th amendment. The administration has a 6 month window in which to impose any surveillance program it chooses and that program will go unchallenged and remain legally binding in perpetuity - it cannot be revoked.

• US loses track of 190,000 weapons in Iraq - More than 190,000 AK-47 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005 are missing, raising fears that US and British troops are fighting an enemy armed with American weapons. According to a damning report issued by the US Congress’s investigative office, the Pentagon has lost track of 110,000 rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armour and 115,000 helmets. The report, by the non-political Government Accountability Office, said that from June 2004 to September 2005 US officials in Iraq reported issuing 355,000 weapons to local security forces and are now unable to account for more than half of them.

• 9/11 victims' families barred from Ground Zero - The sixth anniversary of September 11 attacks is about a month away. And the families of 9/11 victims in United States are being told they may not be able to walk down into ground zero this year. New York city officials say the sight is now a construction zone. Standing among the scores of visitors at the site of the world trade center, Deputy New York Fire Chief Jim Riches says he will always be drawn to Ground Zero. His son Jimmy was one of the more than 300 city firefighters who died when the twin towers fell on 9/11. “We found my son's body on March 25, 2002. And we went down there, took his body out of the pit and walked him up a ramp,” he said. On the anniversaries, since that day, authorities have allowed the victims' families to walk down that ramp to remember their loved ones. However this year may be different.   (COMMENTARY: I wonder if them pesky 9/11 truth demonstrators have anything to do with this decision!)

• Russia 'launches airstrike' against Georgia - Russia has been accused of launching an airstrike in an "act of aggression" against neighbouring Georgia. Russia, which has a long history of tense relations with the former Soviet state, has denied the claim. Georgian officials said that two Russian jet fighters violated its airspace and fired a missile which did not explode.

Monday 06th August 2007: -

• U.K. Probes Laboratory as Source for Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak - U.K. health and safety authorities extended their investigation into a vaccine laboratory southwest of London owned by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis as a possible source of foot-and-mouth disease after cattle became infected at a farm near the site. Merial Animal Health said that so far no breach in its procedures had been discovered. The virus found at the farm near Guildford, Surrey, was used in vaccine production last month at a facility shared by the Institute for Animal Health and research company Merial Animal Health Ltd., the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its Web site. The strain is similar to one from a 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak, the department said.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• China tones down hardline slogans on one-child policy - China is trying to soften the propaganda slogans it uses to promote its one-child policy, making its calls to have fewer babies less offensive. Slogans such as "Raise fewer babies but more piggies", and "Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected" as well as "One more baby means one more tomb" have been declared crude and counter-productive in the efforts to quell the number of births in the world's most populous nation.

• Fox News Attempts To Smear Ron Paul After Debate: Though Texas Congressman doesn't believe 9/11 an inside job, his broader message should be embraced by all within the 9/11 truth movement - Ron Paul appeared on Fox News yesterday following the Republican debate in Iowa to discuss a number of issues, including the Texas Congressman's association with Alex Jones, in what was an apparent attempt by Fox to smear the presidential hopeful.

• 'The Mother Of All Injunctions' - A High Court judge is due to rule on Heathrow operator BAA's bid to stop a major environmental protest at the airport. BAA is seeking an injunction to stop the proposed demonstration, claiming it is unlawful. Mrs Justice Swift is due to announce her decision at this morning. Environmental groups want to hold a Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow between August 14 and 21. BAA says it is seeking the injunction to protect the airport and the "safety of passengers and staff ". But protesters have branded the move "the mother of all injunctions".

• Micro-machines given a scientific lift by levitation theory - Levitation - the magical ability to rise when there seems to be no external force at work - may be possible in the real world, two British scientists have conjectured. Disappointingly, even if they are right, their theory will only apply to very small objects, not to human beings. The importance of the theory will be felt in nanotechnology and the construction of micro-machines, where its effects could be revolutionary. It depends on a quirk of nature that allows particles to pop into existence from nowhere. Known as the "Casimir force", it was predicted by quantum physicists in 1948, and measured for the first time in 1997.

• Secret government 'X-Files' reveal 97 UFO sightings in Britain's skies last year - If you have seen a large black square in the sky, a giant flying scooter or even an alien outside your kitchen window, you are not alone. Such sightings are among those reported in good faith to the Ministry of Defence. Details emerged after the MoD decided to publish witness reports of the unidentified objects seen in our skies – and occasionally in our gardens – following a large number of requests under the Freedom of Information Act.   (PERSPECTIVE: Space 'aliens' or not, see how the mindset of the public has been manipulated into favouring a one world government by the potential threat of an 'Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis' (ETH), see our related archive)

• Congressman Ron Paul's Secret Revealed - While speaking to a woman the other day that had never heard of Ron Paul, she stated "My goodness, he is amazing. He is the best kept secret of this presidential campaign." She could not believe there was a contender who represented everything she wanted in a presidential candidate and more. (For those of you who have not yet heard, Ron Paul is running for President.) She talked about wanting to end the war in Iraq. Ron Paul has promised to do that immediately and not leave a soldier behind. She talked about wanting a more secure border. Ron Paul has stated that he wants very strong borders and he was appalled that our government had taken border guards off of our borders to send them to Iraq. She mentioned she is treading water financially and never seems to get ahead. Ron Paul has a solution for that too: end the fiat money system so Congress cannot create monetary inflation. Well, what about privacy she asked? She felt we have moved into an age of Big Brother. Ron Paul wants to protect our privacy by sticing to a strict Constitutionalist policy. He wants to end the Patriot Act that allows the government to enter your home without a warrant and without notifying you so you know they were there. Dr. Paul wants to end the destruction of habeas corpus, the only doctrine we have that lets you see a lawyer if you land in jail. Without it, all other rights are meaningless.

• Home repossessions rise by 30% - The number of people who had their homes repossessed, after being unable to keep up payments on their mortgage, rose by almost 30 per cent during the first half of the year, according to new figures published yesterday, as homeowners struggled under the burden of higher interest rates. Some 14,000 homeowners had their properties repossessed between January and the end of June, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, compared with 10,800 during the same period last year and 11,900 during the second half of 2006. Government figures also showed an increase in personal insolvencies during the second quarter of the year, compared with the same period in 2006. The number of people declaring themselves bankrupt was up 7.7 per cent to 16,258, compared with the second quarter of last year.

• Banks may charge customers for transactions - Bank customers face having to pay as much as £500 a year simply to operate a current account. High-street banks are considering charging customers for every transaction, a system already used in Australia and the United States. That would mean the end of free banking in Britain. Customers would be required to pay for each cash withdrawal, direct-debit payment, standing order or written cheque - as well as paying an annual fee for the account. According to Moneysupermarket.com, costs could be as much as £300 a year for the average customer who makes about 35 transactions a month, or up to £500 for anyone making more than 50.

• Pensioners 'poorer' under Gordon Brown - Britain's poorest pensioners are seeing their incomes falling by up to four per cent a year - costing them on average more than £250, the Conservatives claim. As part of a summer campaign to put the heat on Gordon Brown, the Tories hit back at the Prime Minister's claim last month that pensioner poverty was "coming down" after hitting "very high levels".

• De Menezes shooting investigation 'like an episode of Fawlty Towers', says Brian Paddick - One of Britain's most prominent ex-lawmen has likened scenes that unfolded in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian at Stockwell Underground station to 'an episode of Fawlty Towers'. Brian Paddick, who recently resigned as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, said the sequence of events that followed the tragic shooting by police marksmen of Jean Charles de Menezes starkly exposed weaknesses at the top of the Metropolitan Police.

• 9/11 suspect says CIA tortured him - Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was subjected to the CIA's harshest interrogation methods while he was held in secret prisons around the world for more than three years, part of an interrogation regimen that the International Committee of the Red Cross has called "tantamount to torture," according to an article published on the New Yorker magazine's Web site yesterday. In a 12-page article released Saturday, reporter Jane Mayer analyzes the development of the CIA's secret interrogation techniques and writes that a confidential Red Cross report to the U.S. government details Mohammed's assertions that he was tortured by the CIA. Mayer says unnamed Washington sources told her that Mohammed said he was held naked in his cell, questioned by female interrogators to humiliate him, attached to a dog leash and made to run into walls, and put in painful positions while chained to the floor. Mohammed also said he was "waterboarded" - a simulated drowning - in addition to being held in suffocating heat and painfully cold conditions.

• Toy story with a cautionary moral for manufacturers - Having finished an 11-hour overnight stint they are replaced by the day shift, who carry on producing the goods, be it Barbie dolls, or Elmo and Big Bird from Sesame Street. A six-day week will see them earn 1,000 yuan a month (about £65). It is the frontline of what the government here describes as "Communism with Chinese characteristics" and the rest of us understand as globalisation, a booming operation that sees toys moulded, assembled and packaged for sale overseas, at minimum cost delivering maximum profit, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But the lure of cheap labour is starting to show its downside for western companies. It is also causing alarm for those responsible for safeguarding the "Made in China" brand, namely the Beijing government, whose reliance on the country's prodigious manufacturing output has seen it amass foreign currency reserves of $1.3 trillion.

• Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan - Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say. As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said. U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.

Sunday 05th August 2007: -

• Foot and Mouth Virus Released From Government Lab: Case mirrors 2001 outbreak, could signal new wave of agraterrorism against farming community - The strain of foot and mouth disease that has put Britain on high alert has been identified as originating from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001 and potentially signaling a new wave of agraterrorism intended to cripple the farming community. New Prime Minister Gordon Brown has chaired two Cobra emergency meetings and farmers nationwide have been ordered to halt movements of all livestock in response to the situation after after foot-and-mouth was confirmed at Wolford farm, near Guildford, on Friday night.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• Specter, Leahy question use of 9/11 fund money - Two senators want to know why a $1 billion Sept. 11 insurance fund appropriated by Congress to help ailing ground zero workers has not been used to compensate those exposed to harmful substances. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the committee's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said in a letter to the insurance company overseeing the Sept. 11 health-related claims that they are considering convening a hearing in September.

• Masonic Lodge hosts child ID program - Once again the parade in Littleton is the Grand Finale that rings down the curtain on Western Welcome week, 2007. And, as it has for many years, the parade ends in front of the building that is home to Weston Lodge No. 22, A.F.&A.M., an institution Chartered in 1872, and has been in existence longer than Littleton has been a city. As the parade disperses on Aug. 18, we invite you to come visit us, to view the inside of the Lodge, ask questions and bring your children with you to participate in the Child Identification Program we offer as a free service to the community. No, you do not have to live in Littleton to participate. All you need is one or more children, and we will be thrilled to see you.   (RELATED: See our Freemasonry archive to learn more about the shenanigans that these guys are involved in!)

• Each DNA swab brings us closer to a police state: The move to widen the UK genetic database is yet another example of a relentless desire to monitor every aspect of our everyday lives - An elderly lady called a BBC Wales radio phone-in programme on which I was a guest last week to say that she wouldn't mind in the slightest if she was stopped and ordered to submit to a DNA test when her dog fouled the pavement. 'Everyone should give their DNA to the police,' she said before the discussion was cut short. There wasn't time to talk about the sinister absurdity of sanctioning a law that compels old ladies to offer up a mouth swab, whether they want to or not. No time to state that the Home Office and police are engaged on a programme to introduce mass DNA testing by stealth. No time to wonder at the complete absence of parliamentary debate on this crucial issue of liberty. No time to ask whether we can truly trust the police; or to consider what the relatively new science of genetics may be used for in the future; or to wonder at the alarming disappearance of the liberal reflex in British political life.

• SECRET SPACE VOLUME II JUST RELEASED ON DVD! - New Secret Space II DVD available now.  Buying this via the following link helps us pay for our bandwidth!: -

Saturday 04th August 2007: -

• Foot-and-mouth returns to UK: PM cuts short holiday after disease found on farm in Guildford - The nightmare of foot-and-mouth disease returned to Britain last night, forcing Gordon Brown to cut short his holiday after only a few hours in Devon to chair a crisis meeting of Cobra, the emergency planning unit in Downing Street today.

• Marine sergeant sentenced to 15 years in killing of Iraqi civilian - A military jury sentenced a U.S. Marine sergeant to 15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a fruitless search for an insurgent. Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, who was also dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank to private and verbally reprimanded, on Friday became the first and only member of an eight-member squad to be convicted of murder in the April 2006 killing in the town of Hamdania.

• Our privacy belongs to us not the Government - The British police, I was bleakly surprised to read in The Daily Telegraph this week, have the biggest single DNA database in the world, with more than five per cent of the population logged, including nearly a million children under 17. Is that big enough? The police, their response to a Home Office consultation about their powers now tells us, don't think so. If they get their way, next time you're arrested on suspicion of failing to scoop your dog's poop, they will be entitled to keep a permanent record of your DNA. Does that strike you as a bad thing? It does me.

• East Anglia Truth at the Eastern Haze Festival, July 2007 - Whilst ex MI5 officer Annie Machon provided the public with a chance to hear a first hand account of her interesting observations during her time with the intelligence services, as well as details on 9/11. The East Anglia Truth tent acted as an information centre with a display board containing important details relating to 9/11, as well as an in-house cinema. Also available were DVDs, books, magazines, stickers and leaflets and hundreds of DVDs and leaflets were distributed during the weekend.

• Airport bomber was 'shy, nervous student' - HE WAS the face of the foiled terrorist attack on Scotland, a man engulfed in fire who raged against police and members of the public as flames consumed his flesh and sealed his fate. The death of Kafeel Ahmed, after 33 days in hospital intensive care units is a blow to the authorities who have lost the opportunity to discover what drove a brilliant engineer to turn his car into a bomb and himself into a fireball. Too ill to even be charged with his act of terrorism, Kafeel Ahmed, a 28-year-old Indian, was the driver of the Jeep Cherokee that smashed into the entrance of Glasgow Airport last month after he left a rented house in the village of Houston, a few miles from his final target.

Friday 03rd August 2007: -

• Coming Soon: The Mother Of All 9/11 Truth Hit Pieces: History Channel, Popular Mechanics, NBC & Hearst Publishing team up for smear job as conflicts of interest run rife - An upcoming documentary entitled The 9/11 Conspiracies, to be aired on the History Channel, may represent the biggest hit piece to date on the 9/11 truth movement and is rife with bias, cronyism and conflicts of interest. The so-called documentary promises not to look at the flaws in the official story from a neutral perspective but to start out by suggesting that any deviation from the official line is "outrageous". The program also features so called independent "experts" who are actually in the employ of the program makers themselves who in turn rely on scores of multi-million dollar contracts with the government and the military-industrial complex.

• Pay as you drive 'threat to privacy' - Motorists may reject pay as you drive road pricing because of worries that it threatens their privacy, MPs warn in a report today. Fears that the public will not accept the monitoring of their movements required to make road pricing work have been highlighted by the Commons transport select committee. The Government has sought to reassure motorists that the introduction of road pricing - possibly with the aid of "spy in the sky satellites" - would not threaten or intrude upon motorists. But the committee, previously a strong supporter of road pricing, claims that present laws are inadequate to guarantee that drivers' privacy would not be undermined.

• UK watchdog calls for an end to 'piecemeal' e-voting trials - The Electoral Commission has called for the end of "piecemeal" telephone and internet voting pilots in the UK until improvements in security and testing are put in place. The independent voting watchdog said on Thursday that further trials have little merit until the government has set out a strategy for modernising the electoral system and making it more secure.

• Glasgow terror suspect dies of injuries - A man arrested after a fuel-laden car burst into flames when it was driven into Glasgow airport has died in hospital of his burns. Kafeel Ahmed, 27, an engineer from Bangalore, India, was one of two occupants of the Cherokee Jeep which rammed into the doors of the arrivals terminal on June 30 and was engulfed. A second man, Bilal Abdullah, was arrested and later charged. Strathclyde Police spokesmanA Strathclyde Police spokesman said: "We can confirm that the man seriously injured during the course of the incident at Glasgow Airport on Saturday June 30 has died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

• Johnson moves to curb firms overcharging NHS for drugs - The health secretary, Alan Johnson, began talks yesterday to reduce the profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry amid evidence that drug companies may be overcharging the NHS by hundreds of millions of pounds. Mr Johnson met pharmaceutical chiefs on Tuesday to discuss a proposal from the Office of Fair Trading for the price of medicines to reflect the proven therapeutic benefit to patients. Under the current rules companies can charge what they like, subject to a cap on maximum profits.

• Patients die after drug dose blunder - TWO cancer patients died hours after being given FIVE times the normal dose of medication at a Birmingham hospital. Father-of-three Paul Richards, aged 35, from Sutton Coldfield, and Baljit Singh Sunner, 36, from Small Heath, died within hours of each other on the oncology ward at Heartlands Hospital. Mr Richards, who had a one-year-old baby, was in remission and successfully battling back from the cancer when he died, the Birmingham Mail understands.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Hillary Clinton Takes $20,000 From Fox News Parent Company News Corp - John Edwards criticized Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday for taking more than $20,000 in donations from News Corp. officials, arguing that the company’s Fox News Channel has a right-wing bias and Democrats should avoid the company. Edwards led the Democratic candidates’ boycott of Fox’s plans to host a Democratic presidential debate. Now he is objecting to News Corp.’s purchase of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. and highlighting the relationships that Clinton and other rivals have with the company’s executives.

Thursday 02nd August 2007: -

• De Menezes family condemns Met as 'shambolic mess' - The family of Jean Charles de Menezes said today it was inconceivable that the head of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, was not told until the next day that the wrong man had been shot. At a press conference shortly after the publication of the IPCC's Stockwell Two report, the Brazilian electrician's cousin, Alessandro Pereira, accused Sir Ian either of lying or of not being in control of his force.

• Call to extend use of DNA samples - The Home Office has been urged to allow police to take DNA samples for the most minor of offences. It would mean members of the public could have fingerprints or footwear impressions taken for "non recordable" offences such as traffic violations, or dropping litter, and recorded on a national database. The proposal is put forward in response to a Home Office review of the Police and Criminal Act 1984, published this year. Current thresholds allow only for samples to be taken from individuals arrested for a "recordable" offence, usually a crime punishable by imprisonment.

• Rights group: China clamping down on activists, journalists 1 year before Olympics - One year before the start of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government has failed to live up to promises of greater human rights freedoms and has instead clamped down on domestic activists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. China, which has long been criticized for its human rights record, has choked any expressions of dissent to stave off potential political instability, the group said.

• Police want 'tesco jails' in every shopping centre - Retailers are calling for short-term prisons, dubbed "Tesco jails", to be compulsory in all shopping centres. Police are backing the proposals to help tackle shoplifting, which costs £767 million in England and Wales last year. Suspects could be held for up to four hours in the units, allowing police to identify them, take a DNA sample and handout cautions or reprimands if required.

• 9/11: Rare Evidence of Controlled Demolition - This video shows you not squibs but actual blasting charges possibly going off and rare shots of the making of the WTC "SPIRE". All the video has been stabilized by me for clarity. The sound has been enhanced and syncronized.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Camp David "Crash" More Evidence Of 9/11 Media Scripting?: CBS News reported that United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed at Camp David - 90 miles away from its alleged resting place in Somerset County, PA - Uncovered archive video showing CBS News reporting that United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed at Camp David, 90 miles away from its supposed final resting place at Somerset County PA, has led to more charges that the media were reading off a de facto script as the events of 9/11 unfolded. According to a CBS News report on 9/11, an FBI official in Washington was informed by the FAA that United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed "into the vicinity of or at Camp David," the presidential retreat.

• Pelosi Says "No" to a New 9/11 Investigation, Claims Close Collaboration with Victim's Families on 9/11 Bill Passage: 9/11 Investigation Also Off the Table For Speaker Who Refuses to Impeach Bush - Newport, Rhode Island - Reporters affiliated with WeAreChange.org and Infowars.com confronted Speaker Nancy Pelosi about a new 9/11 investigation just after the passage of the 9/11 Bill, which only increases already strict security measures, particularly in airports. Pelosi rattled off a quick, "No, no, no" to the idea of a new 9/11 investigation before changing the subject to claim that she "worked closely with the victims' families" and that they supposedly wanted the recent legislation.

• U.N. climate chief skeptical about global carbon tax - A top U.N. climate change official voiced doubt on Wednesday about a global tax on carbon, but said national taxes were possible and laws to cap global warming emissions were better for business. "I personally am skeptical on the notion of global carbon taxes," said Yvo de Boer, who heads the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. International agreement on such a tax would take a long time, de Boer said, and it might take even longer to get the tax proceeds to the United Nations to deal with global warming.

Wednesday 01st August 2007: -

• London police chief likely to be cleared over shooting - London's police chief is expected to be cleared of lying in a report released on Thursday into the aftermath of the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide bomber, police sources said. Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot in the head seven times by officers as he boarded an underground train in south London on July 22, 2005. Detectives from London's Metropolitan Police had mistaken him for Hussein Osman, one of four men convicted last month of trying to set off homemade bombs on the capital's transport system the day before de Menezes was shot dead. The long-awaited report by the independent police watchdog is expected to conclude that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair had not lied to the public over the incident which was hugely embarrassing for the force.

• Rumsfeld, Myers Say They Didn't Cover Up Pat Tillman's Death - Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and retired General Richard Myers said never tried to cover up the news after learning former NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman may have been killed by friendly fire. ``I know of no evidence that there has been a cover-up,'' Rumsfeld told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a hearing in Washington today.   (COMMENTARY: Okay... case closed I guess?)

• UN agrees on giant Darfur peace force - THE United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to authorise the deployment of up to 26,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, in western Sudan, where at least 200,000 people have been killed in four years of conflict. The resolution on Tuesday will create the world's largest peacekeeping operation, costing about $US2 billion ($2.3 billion) in its first year and drawing on military and police forces from the African Union and the UN, a UN spokeswoman said. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, said in Manila yesterday that Australia would send a small number of doctors and nurses to Darfur, but not any troops.

• ID cards will give 'false' data - The government's ID card system will give thousands of "false matches" when more than six million people are registered on its database, an academic has claimed. Biometric data holding a person's unique physiological characteristics will be stored on a microchip in the cards. But Professor John Daugman, said using fingerprints as a key biometric measure will cause major problems.

• Suspension of school drug testing has officials perturbed - Dickson County school officials aren’t happy with the school board’s decision last week to suspend drug testing on high school athletes. The board voted 4-1-1 Thursday night to suspend its existing policy regarding drug testing after it was learned that state law allows the testing only under “reasonable suspicion” that an athlete is using illegal drugs.

• Faked death scene brings new television furore - ITV provoked a storm of controversy by declaring that it would broadcast the last breath of a dying Alzheimer’s victim – but the company was forced to admit yesterday that Malcolm Pointon had passed away days after the cameras had left his bedside. The new furore over television “fakery” came about after Mr Pointon’s brother Graham posted a message on Times Online, disclosing that ITV had misrepresented the final scenes. The incident came to light days after Michael Grade, ITV Executive Chairman, promised “zero tolerance” over any cases of misleading viewers.

• Hacker McKinnon wins final appeal: House of Lords will consider fight against extradition to US for trial under anti-terrorism legislation - Gary McKinnon, the North London hacker accused of 'the biggest military hack of all time', heard yesterday that he has won the right to have his final appeal against extradition to the US heard by the House of Lords. McKinnon, 41, faces a prison sentence of up to 45 years if found guilty of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers between 2001 and 2002. During a period of 18 months, McKinnon is alleged to have caused £370,000 worth of damage to US government machines. He claims the damage was not intentional and he was simply looking for evidence of UFOs. McKinnon has never denied that he accessed the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions but says he considered his hacking a 'game'. He also says that because offences took place in the UK, he should be tried in this country. A date has not yet been set for the hearing.

• New Princess Diana witness - A witness whose evidence could prove Britain's Princess Diana's death was not an accident is set to take the stand at her inquest. French firefighter Christophe Pelat claims paparazzi photographer James Andanson - an MI6 informer who followed Diana's every move in the run-up to her death in August 1997 - was the mystery driver of a white Fiat Uno who collided with the princess' car moments before it crashed. Three years after the accident - in which Diana was killed, alongside her lover Dodi Al Fayed and her driver Henri Paul - Andanson's badly charred body was discovered in the French countryside in a burnt-out car.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

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