31st DECEMBER 2005: -

• Brit millionaire marries a dolphin! - In a highly unusual wedding, a 41-year-old British millionaire has tied the knot publicly with her 35-year-old sweetheart, a dolphin from the famous Eilat dolphin reef, a media report said. Sharon Tendler, a British rock concert producer, met the dolphin, Cindy, 15 years ago and developed a liking resulting in two to three annual visits every year to spend some time with her underwater love, daily Yediot Ahronoth reported.

• Catholic church and abuse victims' lawyers talk settlement - The Boston Archdiocese cannot afford to pay as much on average for the latest round of clergy sexual abuse claims as it did two years ago when it settled more than 550 claims. The archdiocese has offered to settle 100 claims for between $5,000 to $200,000 per claim, depending on the severity of the abuse, for a total of $7.5 million, or an average of $75,000 per claimant, according to lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.

30th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Ex-Ambassador publishes documents - A former British ambassador has published secret documents which he claims prove the UK knowingly received intelligence extracted under torture from prisoners of a brutal dictatorship. Craig Murray, who was removed as ambassador to Uzbekistan after going public over his concerns about torture in the central Asian state, published the internal Foreign Office (FCO) memos on his Internet website.

• Fatty foods raise type 2 diabetes risk - Fatty diets have been widely recognized as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. A new U.S. study, published in the Dec. 29 issue of the journal Cell, suggests that a high fat diet or Western diet may cause type 2 diabetes in humans by disrupting insulin production.

• Jet pilot leaves drunken passenger on tiny island - An inebriated passenger on a jet that took off from England has been dumped on a tiny volcanic island in the Atlantic after he launched a foul-mouthed tirade at the crew. The unwilling Robinson Crusoe can only leave Porto Santo, a tiny patch of land off the North African coast, if he books a 2.5-hour ferry trip to Madeira. He will then have to book a flight to his original destination, Tenerife, or return to England.

• Officials: Post-9/11 CIA effort now a behemoth - Most components, including divisive interrogations and secret prisons, continue despite broad criticism - The effort President Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight al-Qaida has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War, expanding in size and ambition despite a growing outcry at home and abroad over its clandestine tactics, according to former and current intelligence officials and congressional and administration sources.

• A Summary of World War Events in 2005: By Michael B. Haupt - While there are many newsworthy events of 2005, reviewed below are only those relevant to the Planned World War 3. At first reading, this is a pretty depressing view of a world sliding down a slippery slope, particularly if we extrapolate past events into the future. 2006 may turn out to be an extremely depressing year.

• Russians riveted by TV mini-series - During the Christmas holidays, more than half the population of Russia has been transfixed by a television mini-series that depicts Satan committing murder in Moscow. The Master and Margarita is an adaptation of a Mikhail Bulgakov novel written in the 1930s. The book weaves together three plot lines: the devil and his entourage wreaking chaos in 1930s Moscow, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the struggle of two lovers trying to reunite. It's a thinly-disguised satire of Josef Stalin's brutal dictatorship.

• Today's toys 'will make kids fat' - WELSH gym teachers are warning that this year's most popular Christmas presents will help to make our children fat. They say that while decades ago children wished for bicycles, skateboards or cricket bats, this year's stockings are more likely to have bulged with MP3 players, games consoles and DVDs. And the trend for indoor, rather than outdoor presents, has got the PE instructors of Wales worried.

29th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Navigating future for road charges - Motorists are already beginning to embrace the idea of satellite-navigation units in cars. And in a few years, sat-nav will be doing far more than simply telling drivers how to get to their destination. This week, the first test satellite in Europe's 3.4bn-euro (£2.3bn; $4bn) Galileo satellite-navigation system blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The final global network of 30 Galileo satellites is crucial to providing the high volumes of time- and location-based data needed for new services such as advanced sat-nav, mobile location data, natural disaster surveillance and air traffic control.

• PERSPECTIVE: German charged over 'Chile abuse' - A German woman who worked as a doctor at a commune-like camp in Chile has been charged with torturing children. A Chilean judge said Gisela Seewald had confessed to giving electric shocks and sedatives to children at the secretive German enclave of Colonia Dignidad. She said the abuses were ordered by the enclave's founder, former Nazi soldier Paul Schaefer, who is also in custody. Mr Schaefer is facing charges of child abuse and aiding human rights abuses during Chile's military dictatorship.

• Sir Knight's New Book: Revelation 'WWW. is 666,' Ends Great Bible Mystery - W in ancient Hebrew was used to write numerals. W’s could be written to represent a 6, 16, 66, 616, or 666. This “Language of God” was used to write the Ten Commandments and most of the Old Testament. W in Modern Hebrew can still be used to write a three. John wrote the last book of the Bible around 95 A.D. in Koin'e Greek, but specifically named two “key” Hebrew words to demonstrate his knowledge of the language, that wisdom unlocked this mystery.   (COMMENTARY: If there is any truth behind the notion that 'www' is a numerological code for '666', then I would suggest that this is not necessarily due to the prophetic power of the Bible, but rather that those who believe in the 'Fire and Brimstone' ending of the good book as their destiny (a.k.a. the New World Order Beast System).  These guys are heavily into the Occult and love to flash their hidden codes, symbols and numbers into the faces of what they see as the 'profane'.  See our 'Occult' section for more information on this.

• Illegal CIA abductions, followed by flights to nations that torture, impair our ability to defeat terrorism - When 22 CIA operatives seized an Egyptian cleric in Milan, Italy, in February 2003, according to Italian investigators, they left their cell phones enabled. Because mobile phones periodically send a signal revealing their phone number and position, the Italian authorities were able to identify the American agents and track their movements.

• Student stands up to pledge - A high school junior has sued the Palm Beach County School Board, claiming he was ridiculed and punished for refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. Cameron Frazier, with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, is challenging the school district and Florida law that require students to show written permission from their parents before declining to recite the pledge. Teacher Cynthia Alexandre called the 17-year-old student ''so ungrateful and so un-American'' after he twice refused to stand for the pledge in her classroom Nov. 8, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

• French Engineer Abducted by Fake Iraqi Terrorists - We are expected to believe the Iraqi resistance is not only vicious, but also uninterested in repairing the damage inflicted on its country by the neocon invasion. It runs around abducting Christian peace activists, western journalists, Sudanese and Moroccan embassy employees, and people from countries that opposed Bush’s invasion.

• Vitamin D may lessen cancer risk - Research showing that a large daily dose of vitamin D can dramatically lower the risk of developing common cancers was given a cautious welcome. US researchers found that the "natural" form of the vitamin, known as D3, could dramatically reduce the chances of developing breast, ovarian and colon cancer, as well as others, by up to 50%.

• WILL N.M. BE FIRST STATE TO BAN ASPARTAME? - One of the most rewarding things about being part of the ever-growing health freedom movement, is that there is always an upside to what often looks like a bleak and losing battle against the monolith we call “modern medicine”. In addition, some of the people you meet, even if only by phone or by e-mail, turn out to be spectacular human beings that reaffirm your faith in your fellow man. In short, ordinary people can do extraordinary things when put to the test.

28th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Chirac offered to help US film-makers - US magazine Newsweek has said that French President Jacques Chirac offered to help the makers of 'The Da Vinci Code' to film in the Louvre museum in Paris. Newsweek has reported that Mr Chirac had an hour-long meeting with producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard in December last year. The magazine also claimed that the French President suggested the filmmakers cast his daughter's best friend in the leading female role. The role went to leading French actress Audrey Tautou instead.

• Australian Government considers ID card - PHILIP Ruddock is treating the controversial national identity card as the "the next cab off the rank" for the Howard Government's security agenda following the passage of its tough anti-terrorism laws. The Attorney-General will present the findings of a departmental review of the new Australia Card proposal to cabinet early next year.

• Comedy of terror: Tony Blair, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, you're my prize guys - Well the end of the year is as good a time as any to distribute prizes. And first is the Gary Glitter Cup for Self-Restraint, to Tony Blair. It can't have been an easy couple of years for him, and yet he has somehow managed to keep that smile on his lips and that cheerful sparkle in his eye with a degree of self-restraint that impressed the judges. Over the past two years, Tony has seen all his Iraq policies turn into unmitigated disasters. Instead of his stated aim of bringing peace and happiness to the people of Iraq, he has brought them chaos, bloodshed, violence and misery. Instead of making Britain safer, his policies have made this country a target for terrorism for the foreseeable future.   (COMMENTARY: Yeah, like Tony doesn't know that already!)

• Customers help stamp out Turkey's sex slaves - An unlikely hero has emerged in Turkey to rescue victims of forced prostitution: the brothel customer. While the country's security forces are hardly renowned for their attention to human rights or sympathetic treatment of women, they have been chalking up impressive successes in finding and freeing trafficked women from brothels.

• Xtreme Wheels Teams with Buffalo Police for Kids' ID Card Program - A local business is teaming up with police to help keep kids safe. The Xtreme Wheels indoor skate park was the backdrop Monday for Operation Child Safe. The Buffalo Police program offers parents free photo ID cards of their children. Deborah Gasper, the mother of a 7-year-old, said, "They're taking his fingerprints and his photo so that we'll have a little card, so if something, God forbid, were to happen, we'd be able to find my son."

• Tories ambush Blair on identity cards - Tory and Liberal Democrat peers are preparing a New Year ambush for Tony Blair's flagship identity card scheme that could seriously undermine the legislation. They are confident of watering down the Government's plans by making it voluntary rather than effectively compulsory to register on a new national database, which will include biometric data such as iris scans, facial images and fingerprints.

27th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Iraqis condemn 'election fraud' - Thousands of Iraqis have staged a protest in Baghdad about results from the recent parliamentary elections, which they say were tainted by fraud. Demonstrators chanted slogans alleging the polls were rigged in favour of the governing Shia religious bloc. Some politicians have been calling for a campaign of civil disobedience if their complaints about the election are not properly investigated.

• Jails handover on hold after abuse of detainees - US MILITARY commanders will not hand over prisons or detainees to the Iraqi Government until it begins treating prisoners better, officials in Baghdad said yesterday. The decision comes after Sunni protests that inmates are tortured in prisons run by the Shia-led Interior Ministry, and the discovery of 120 beaten detainees in two jails this month.

• Greeks name MI6 chief over 'torture of terror suspects' - THE Government tried last night to block the naming of an MI6 officer alleged to have orchestrated the torture of terrorist suspects in Greece. It issued a warning to media organisations after a leading Athens newspaper identified the British intelligence officer and 15 Greek agents, alleging that they took part in the arrest and abuse of 28 Pakistan-born detainees who were held in connection with the July 7 bombings in London.

26th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Doc Makes Candid Comments on HIV Vaccine - In an unusually candid admission, the federal chief of AIDS research says he believes drug companies don't have an incentive to create a vaccine for the HIV and are likely to wait to profit from it after the government develops one. And that means the government has had to spend more time focusing on the processes that drug companies ordinarily follow in developing new medicines and bringing them to market.

• Food Tax Sends Tenn. Shoppers Out of State - When Julie Abel goes grocery shopping each week, she drives more than 25 miles to Georgia to avoid paying the nation's highest average tax on food: 8.4 percent in Tennessee. "If you can save $5 it is worth driving down the road," Abel said after traveling from her rural home in Hamilton County, which collects 2.22 percent sales tax on food on top of the 6 percent for the state. Georgia does not tax food sales.

• California City Swaps Gifts for Guns - "Big Daddy" Willis came to Compton to turn an illegal homemade pistol into Christmas dinner. Charlene Watt planned to turn three shotguns into a plasma TV. The two were among dozens of gun-toting residents who converged on a shopping center parking lot Saturday to anonymously swap firearms for gift certificates as part of a program aimed at reducing violence in this crime-plagued city. Each was rewarded with a $100 gift card for Circuit City or the Ralphs supermarket chain, the program's co-sponsors.

• Man shot by Taser, dies later: Victim was shouting in intersection - An unarmed man who was zapped by police with a Taser died after his heart stopped on the way to hospital. Witnesses say police Tasered the man at a south-side intersection on Christmas Eve after he began shouting that he was being attacked by bees. They say the well-dressed man in his mid-30s was yelling for help and wandering through traffic trying to flag down passing cars at the intersection at 75 Avenue and 113 Street just after 3 p.m. Saturday. "He was walking up and down the street yelling and screaming that the bees were trying to kill him," said a nearby resident who gave his name as Gerry.

• Powell Supports Government Eavesdropping - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday supported government eavesdropping to prevent terrorism but said a major controversy over presidential powers could have been avoided by obtaining court warrants. Powell said that when he was in the Cabinet, he was not told that President Bush authorized a warrantless National Security Agency surveillance operation after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Appearing on ABC's "This Week" Powell said he sees "absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorizing these kinds of actions" to protect the nation.

• U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians: Eyewitnesses Cite Scores Killed in Marine Offensive in Western Iraq - U.S. Marine airstrikes targeting insurgents sheltering in Iraqi residential neighborhoods are killing civilians as well as guerrillas along the Euphrates River in far western Iraq, according to Iraqi townspeople and officials and the U.S. military.

• THIS ISN'T RUSSIA!: Russian parliament moves to stifle dissent - Russia's lower house of parliament approved a controversial crackdown on the activities of nongovernmental organizations Friday, brushing aside widespread concern that the measure would stifle civil society in Russia and mark another regressive milestone in the country's post-Soviet evolution.

• New spyware claim filed against Sony BMG - The Texas attorney general has added a new claim to a lawsuit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment accusing it of violating the state's laws on deceptive trade practices by hiding "spyware" on its compact discs. The original lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Greg Abbott in November against the company for violating state anti-spyware laws by embedding software in its CDs and media player to monitor users' habits. The new charges brought by Abbott contend MediaMax software used by Sony BMG to thwart illegal copying of music on CDs violated state laws because it was downloaded even if users rejected a license agreement.

• Two got hepatitis from illicit body parts - A New Jersey lawyer says two clients who got bone and tissue transplants from alleged illicitly harvested cadavers both contracted hepatitis. A third man, who also had a transplant, has tested positive for syphilis, said attorney Andrew D`Arcy, the New York Daily News reported Saturday. Hundreds of people who received transplants via Michael Mastromarino`s company, Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. of Fort Lee, N.J., are being tested after the News alleged the company failed repeatedly to gain donor consent and forged papers detailing the medical condition of the deceased.

• It's The Sugarplum Time of Year: Parents Alert: Aspartame - It's the sugarplum time of year, with myriad Candies and Sweets in bright enticing colors and flavors. Therein lies the hazard, for our Fatal Drugs Allowed folks, our FDA, has blessed several poisons as sugar substitutes for holiday confections. As the Big Bad Wolf would say, "The better to murder you with, my Dear." Under labels as Sugar Free, Low Cal, and Diet! thousands of tons of deadly aspartame/NutraSweet/Equal, Neotame and Splenda will be substituted for sugar. All in the name of good health, of course. These chemicals are a boon to candy & confection makers.

25th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Biometric devices can be fooled, researchers prove - Identity thieves are always looking for new ways to steal personal information, from trolling through trash cans to phishing for bank accounts online. But here's a method they may not have tried: Using fake fingers made from Play-Doh and gelatin, or digits from a cadaver's hand. Researchers at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., tested 66 fake fingers to see if they could outwit biometric devices, which identify individuals based on the physiological properties of their fingerprints or other body parts. The fake fingers went undetected more than half the time.

• Secret CIA torture chambers in Afghanistan - Iraq’s notorious prison Abu Ghraib has become a byword for the U.S. disastrous war. The appalling photos that had been released by worldwide media depicting the torture, abuses, and humiliations of Iraqi detainees have shocked the world and sparked international criticism of the U.S. policies against prisoners of war whether in Iraq or Afghanistan. Despite repetitive claims by the U.S. President George W. Bush and his National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice that America does not employ torture as a method of obtaining information from detainees. Vice President Dick Cheney went before Congress to try to exempt the CIA from proposed anti-torture legislation.

• 9/11 VIRUS DESTROYS FREMONT COUNTY WORKER'S HARD DRIVE - Law enforcement officials are warning everyone to be especially careful as a new powerful computer virus makes the rounds here in Eastern Idaho. It is called the 9/11 virus and will destroy your hard drive. It is often labeled 9/11 or world trade center memorial. It claims to have pictures or asks for help in remembering the victims of 9/11. According to Fremont County Sheriff Ralph Davis, a probation and parole officer opened that e-mail and it killed his hard drive. If you get this e-mail, you are warned not to open it and to delete it immediately.

• Italian court issues arrest warrant for CIA agents - An Italian court yesterday issued a Europe-wide arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Milan and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. The move raises the stakes in the dispute between Europe and America over the CIA's controversial policy of "extraordinary rendition".

• New Year's Day 2006: delayed by a second - Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation. The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this week.

24th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Never mind the aching body: jogging is good for the mind - After years of arguments, worries about knee joints and sore nipples, the debate has come full circle. Jogging, it appears, really is good for you - at least for your mind. German researchers have discovered that pounding the pavement can improve concentration and boost visual memory. The researchers, who are based at the University of Ulm, sent a group of 30 people jogging twice a week for 30 minutes and then tested them for mental improvements. They found that while their memory for numbers remained much the same, their ability to recall images and complete visual tasks, such as map work, had dramatically improved.

• Greece plans biometric passport - Greece will overhaul its passport system next year and issue travel documents equipped to carry biometric data, the government said on Wednesday. Public order minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said all Greek passport holders - as part of European Union-wide measures - would have to replace their documents by the end of 2006 and obtain new passports with increased security features.

• "WE THE PEOPLE" ARE THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT - We, the citizens of the United States of America, ARE the American government. This Constitutional fact has been forcibly and underhandedly stolen from the conscious understand of the citizenry. We do not understand our Constitution. Most American people have never read the document. For decades, the public school system has steadily removed the reading and study of the Constitution, and we now have a citizenry that is ignorant of their rights and responsibilities as American people. Equally, American students have never been taught the true meaning and history of Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, and Communism.

• Stem-cell scientist resigns after school says research faked - South Korean investigators said yesterday that the apparent landmark stem-cell research by cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk had been faked, turning the onetime national hero into a disgraced fabricator. A nine-member committee from Dr. Hwang's Seoul National University said his paper published this year in the journal Science contained false information. "The data of the 2005 paper were not the result of simple mistakes, but of an intentional fabrication," the committee said in a statement issued after a weeklong probe.

• Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey: From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored - Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years. Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

23rd DECEMBER 2005: -

• 'Torture flights' call by MSPs - THE Scottish Parliament yesterday called on ministers to detail what conversations they have had with the UK government on British airport landings by alleged "torture flights". The move came a day after Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said he was not willing to order an inquiry into claims that the CIA used UK airports to transport prisoners to lands where they might be tortured.

• Tasers Now Used In Schools In Rogers - Four officers who work in Rogers schools are carrying Taser stun guns this school year. The non-lethal electric stun guns fire darts that shock and immobilize people. Rogers police spokesman Corporal Kelly Cradduck said the Tasers could prevent more injuries if a fight or shooting were to break out, especially if the aggressor was a student. He said the electric stun guns could also help in case a custody dispute turns violent at a school. Some police departments have stopped using the guns because of concerns that they might be deadly under certain circumstances. The maker of the guns, Arizona-based Taser International, has said that the stun guns alone don't cause death.

22nd DECEMBER 2005: -

• Chiefs back police superforce - Three of the region's top police officers have backed plans to create a superforce merging West Midlands, West Mercia, Staffordshire and Warwickshire into a single crime-fighting organisation. Last night, chief constables Paul Scott-Lee, John Giffard and John Burbeck signed proposals that aim to unite them into one regionwide body with 14,000 officers and 7,000 staff. However, West Mercia has strongly opposed the move and has come up with its own suggestions for modernisation. Critics believe the new regional body would be too big and no more efficient.

• Lone protester hits out at CIA 'torture flights' - CAMPAIGNER Robert Lawrence staged a one-man demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament today against alleged "torture flights" into Scottish airports by the United States. The protest took place as MSPs inside were today expected to call for an inquiry into the alleged landings at Edinburgh airport and others across the country.

• Senate reaches Patriot Act deal - The US Senate has passed a six-month extension of the anti-terrorist law known as the Patriot Act. The deal is seen as a compromise as President George W Bush had pushed for a permanent extension of the bill, some clauses of which expire on 31 December. But Democrats and some Republican senators said the law did not provide enough civil liberty safeguards.

• Judge Rules Caging Ohio Children Was Abuse — A couple who adopted 11 children with a host of health and behavioral problems abused some of the youngsters by making them sleep in wooden cages without pillows or mattresses, a judge ruled Thursday. The children will remain in foster care until Juvenile Judge Timothy Cardwell holds a hearing on who should get custody. Their adoptive parents, Michael and Sharen Gravelle, have not been charged with a crime and denied abusing the youngsters. They said they built the cages in 2003 to protect the children from each other and themselves.

21st DECEMBER 2005: -

• Combining food additives could harm nervous system, study: The combination of common food additives could interfere with the development of the nervous system, raising new concerns about the health implications of children’s diets, according to a new report published today - Researchers at the Univerity of Liverpool studied the effects of food colouring brilliant blue (E133) combined with monosodium glutamate (MSG; E621) and colouring quinoline yellow (E951) combined with the sweetener aspartame (E951). According to the report, published in the journal Toxicological Sciences, when these additives were combined in levels similar to those consumed in a typical children's snack and drink, they stunted the growth of nerve cells in mice, interfering with proper signalling functions.

• Sweden to probe dark eugenics history - Sweden launched a probe on Wednesday to understand how eugenics, a theory on improving the human race used by Nazi Germany to justify the Holocaust, became broadly accepted in the Nordic state in the early 20th century. Sweden is now known for its strong social welfare system and outspoken advocacy for human rights, but in the past it has experimented with social engineering. This led to abuses such as the forcible sterilization of around 60,000 women in 1936-76.

• Bush’s Snoopgate - The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security.  Bush says he had ‘legal authority’ to permit the National Security Agency listen in on American citizens without a warrant.

• Fluoride being forced on us - THE threatened, forcible fluoridation of Wodonga and Wangaratta water supplies raises serious questions. My discussions with angry people from Wodonga, Ballarat, Horsham, Gippsland and Geelong all raise the same concerns. Will there be a referendum first? The Government says no, because people reject fluoridation once they learn more about it.

• Microwave Weaponry and Covert Government Harassment Used on Many Average Americans; Too Many People Coming Forward To Be Dismissed As Paranoia - Susan Elmes of Seattle is one such victim of most every type of illegal government tactic used to silence critics, including gang stalking, mind-control and sophisticated electronic weaponry.

• Saddam Says He's Been Beaten in Detention - Saddam Hussein launched into an extended outburst at his trial Wednesday, alleging he had been beaten and tortured by his Americans captors while in detention after a witness testified that his agents had tortured people by ripping off their skin. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawi said he would investigate and that if American-led multinational forces were abusing the former Iraqi leader, he would be transferred to the custody of Iraqi troops.

• INDIANA JUDGE: PRAY, BUT DO NOT MENTION CHRIST - Regardless of religious affiliation, or lack thereof, every single man, woman, and child in the United States of America should be outraged at the latest attack on the First Amendment right of free speech and freedom of religion. U.S. Federal Judge David Hamilton, Southern District of Indiana, ruled on Nov. 30 that the Indiana state legislature can have a prayer to open each session, as long as there is no mention of Jesus Christ. Hamilton was named to the court in 1994 by Pres. Bill Clinton.

• ALERT: U.S. PROPOSES DOUSING WILDERNESS AREAS WITH PESTICIDES - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed to apply massive amounts of pesticides to public lands in 17 Western states. The BLM claims these pesticides need to be applied to forests, rangelands and aquatic areas in order to reduce the risk of fire and slow the spread of invasive weeds. Under the proposal 932,000 acres would undergo chemical application in 17 western states, including National Monuments and National Conservation areas.

• Welfare queen: Queen Elizabeth II received more than $1.7 million in farm subsidies from the European Union over the past two year - Queen Elizabeth II doesn't exactly fit the American Gothic image, and it's difficult to picture her milking a cow, but it turns out that the queen of England qualifies as a farmer. In today's world, that means she receives farm subsidies from taxpayers, regardless of the fact that she has a net worth that runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

• Allegations of fraud in Iraqi vote - Sunni Arab leaders are angrily rejecting preliminary election results in Iraq, saying the vote was fixed in favor of Iranian-backed religious Shiites and calling for an investigation into possible fraud. Secular politicians are also denouncing the results and demanding an inquiry.

• Steven Spielberg’s 9/11 obsession: The director’s films this year deal with Sept. 11 and its aftermath - The pair of films that Steven Spielberg released in 2005 couldn’t be more different. First was the special effects-laden “War of the Worlds,” the latest cinematic version of H.G. Wells’ 19th century novel, that invaded multiplexes this past summer; the second, “Munich,” is a rich, multi-layered political thriller that ranks as one of his best. The latter film, which opens on Dec. 23, is a dramatic meditation on Israel’s response to the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 members of its national team were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Together both movies serve as bookends to the same events: September 11, 2001 and the cultural shift that began on the morning of Sept. 12 when we woke up to a world where the Twin Towers and nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans no longer existed.

• Brainwaves to be used as identification - Canadian researchers hope to soon be able to use brain waves to unlock doors and get access to bank accounts. Some companies are already offering iris recognition systems that many countries want to put into biometric passports. But Julie Thorpe, a researcher at Carleton University in Ottawa wants to take the idea much further. She says it is possible to do away with key cards, pin numbers and a litany of other security tools that allow people to retrieve bank money, access computer data or enter restricted building.

• Cheney says 9/11 changed the rules - Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday explained and defended the administration's assertion of broad presidential powers, saying that executive authority had become dangerously constrained before President George W. Bush took office and had to be restored to fight the threat from terrorism.      (RELATED: See our '9/11 Archive')

20th DECEMBER 2005: -

• BUSH BIN BUNGLING: PRESIDENT George Bush confused Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein on TV in the US yesterday - Mr Bush - defending eavesdropping on US citizens suspected of terror links - was talking about tracking terror boss bin Laden in the 1990s. He said: "And guess what happened, Saddam ... Osama bin Laden, changed his behaviour."

• Man died after being shot with Taser: Authorities don’t yet know whether weapon used in Florence County arrest led to death - Two Florence County sheriff’s deputies have been placed on administrative leave with pay after a man they arrested early Saturday morning died after being shot with a Taser.

• Report: MI5 colluded with CIA over suspects sent to torture jails - Lawyers for a former pupil at a top British independent school have accused the British government of colluding with the CIA to send him to a series of prisons where he was abused, according to a newspaper report.

• TSA Biometric ID Card Programs Move Forward - The Transportation Security Administration is seeking help in implementing two of its biometric ID card programs - one for prescreened airport passengers and another for transportation workers. In a request for information posted Dec. 15, TSA said it is seeking ideas on a business model for Registered Traveler, a voluntary program in which prescreened airline passengers are allowed to bypass some of the security procedures at U.S. airports.

• Wrong prescription: Vaccine bill would block media scrutiny and exempt drug companies from legal challenges - ...Pushed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee physician, the proposed Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency comes wrapped in secrecy provisions that would exempt it from the Freedom of Information Act as well as congressional disclosure requirements. That would make BARDA more impervious to public scrutiny than the Central Intelligence Agency or the Defense Department, which are subject to FOIA requests.  Even worse, BARDA would be headed by a presidential appointee who would have the power to grant immunity to drug companies from most lawsuits by people harmed by vaccines the companies manufacture for the agency.

• The Pentagon is Spying on You; Don't Worry It's for Your Own Good - During his recent media blitz meant to convince us that government spying on us is in our best interest, President Bush has made some pretty outrageous claims. This past week, Bush admitted to giving a 2002 order to the National Security Agency (NSA), a super-secret, subsidiary of the Pentagon believed to be even larger than the CIA, to spy on Americans by wiretapping international phone calls and reading e-mails without warrants. NSA isn’t saying how many people it is spying on, but admits the number may be in the thousands.

• 150 Pounds of Explosives Missing in N.M. - About 150 pounds of commercial plastic explosives has disappeared from a private storage site, along with 2,500 blasting caps and 20,000 feet of explosive detonation cord, authorities said Monday. "In the hands of the wrong person, this material can be very, very destructive," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said at a news conference.

• Iran declares ban on western music - The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has banned western music from state radio and TV stations, it was announced today. In a move reminiscent of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when popular music was outlawed, Mr Ahmadinejad - the head of the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council - ordered the implementation of a ruling prohibiting all forms of western music.

• POLICE BRUTALITY USED AGAINST WTO PROTESTORS IN HONG KONG - The suppressed violence of the Hong Kong police broke through the thinly veiled façade of "politeness" and "responsible behavior" by a series of brutal actions beginning evening of December 17 and continuing until early morning of December 18. Sources suggest that over 600 protesters of the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations were arrested around 3 a.m. on Sunday, and were stripped and beaten up in police lock-ups like in Kong Tong (East Kowloon). It is obvious that the protesters were provoked by the use of excessive and brutal force by the police, who are now indiscriminately picking up protesters, even the injured, and jailing them.

19th DECEMBER 2005: -

• US-run 'torture jail' in Kabul: Inmates called the facility the 'Dark Prison' - America operated a secret prison in Afghanistan as recently as last year and tortured inmates there, according to a human rights organisation. Human Rights Watch, a group based in New York, said in a report on Monday that detainees were kept in total darkness and were tortured and mistreated by American and Afghan guards in civilian clothes.

• Video 'shows execution of US hostage' - An Iraqi extremist group today posted a video on the internet which it said showed the execution of the American hostage Ronald Allen Schulz. The video, seen by the Associated Press, showed an unidentified man being shot in the back of the head.

• Australians get Chinese inmate organs: UP to seven Australians have received kidney transplants from death-row prisoners executed in China - They are among dozens of Australians who have travelled overseas to buy organs in India and Asia, paying between $15,000 and $50,000 for the transplants. But a number of those who have had the operations became seriously ill on their return, suffering infections or other complications after undergoing surgery in third-world hospitals. Monash Medical Centre's Dr Ian Main said: "I am aware of one patient who has a lethal virus as a consequence and I've seen two patients who are very sick."

• London - A Camera for every 16, One-fifth of the world - There has been an unusual degree of acceptance of surveillances installed for the public. In London, where the population is 7.2 million, has got 450,000 CCTV cameras fixed. As a result, the UK market for CCTV systems is expected to increase progressively up to 2010. This includes both sales and rental. Annual growth rates will, however, be constant at 3%.

• Maggots found on hospital patient's face - A hospital trust has been criticised after maggots were found crawling on a patient's face in a hospital intensive care unit. Nyree Ellison Anjos was horrified to discover the fly larvae near a feeding tube attached to her mother's face while she was being treated at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

18th DECEMBER 2005: -

• President Bush authorised secret monitoring after 9/11 - President George Bush has admitted he authorised secret monitoring of communications within the United States in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks. He said the monitoring was of "people with known links to al-Qaeda and related terrorist organisations". The President said the programme was reviewed every 45 days, and made clear he did not plan to halt the eavesdropping.

• Imminent attack might affect torture rules - Sen. John McCain, who pushed the White House to support a ban on torture, suggested Sunday that harsh treatment of a terrorism suspect who knew of an imminent attack would not violate international standards. The Arizona Republican said legislation before Congress would establish in U.S. law the international standard banning any treatment of prisoners that "shocks the conscience." That would include, McCain said, mock executions and the controversial technique known as "water boarding," in which a subject is made to think he is drowning.

• Britain tortured suspects in a secret German jail: Post World War II atrocities have now come to light - DESPITE the six years of bitter World War II fighting that lay behind him, James Morgan-Jones, a major in Britain's Royal Artillery, could not have been more specific about the spectacle in front of him. "It was one of the most disgusting sights of my life," he reported in 1947.

• POLICE STATE PRECEDENTS FOR AUSTRALIA: Locations of road closures and lockdowns - Lockdown points in NSW for the weekend of December 17 to 18: Where cars are being stopped and occupants spoken to, with only people who live in the area or those with reasonable purpose allowed in.

17th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Senate Blocks the Renewal of Patriot Act: The rebuff to Bush comes amid news that he authorized wiretaps of Americans without court clearance. Fate of post-9/11 law is unclear - The Senate on Friday blocked legislation to renew the Patriot Act, delivering a dramatic rebuff to President Bush that reflected rising concern over his treatment of civil liberties and privacy rights in the war on terrorism. A Republican bid to end debate and consider a bill that the House easily approved this week fell seven votes short, leaving the fate of the anti-terrorism law unclear as Congress prepared to recess. Key provisions of the statute are to expire Dec. 31.

• TV reporter 'sacked for refusing to go to Iraq' - A television correspondent who claimed he was sacked for refusing to work in Iraq has won his case for unfair dismissal. Richard Gizbert, a London-based broadcaster for the American channel ABC News, said his freelance contract was terminated after he twice declined assignments in the Middle East.

16th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Sinn Fein expels 'British agent' - A senior Sinn Fein figure has been expelled by the party which accused him of being a "British agent". Charges of involvement in an alleged IRA spy ring against the party's former Stormont head of administration, Denis Donaldson, were dropped by the Crown. Party leader Gerry Adams claimed he was about to be "outed" by the same "securocrats" who set him up as a spy.

• Schäuble: Facts Obtained Through Torture Should be Used - German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble wants information which may have been extracted from suspected terrorists through torture to be used in court as he searches for greater powers in Germany’s own "war on terror." Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble wants information which may have been extracted from suspected terrorists through torture by a third party to be admissible in court as he searches for greater powers to prosecute Germany's own "war on terror."

• Caught On Tape, Suspect Shot With Taser Gun: Man Charged With Aggravated Battery - A dashboard camera captured a suspect being shot with a Taser gun by Florida police. When Daytona Beach Shores police pulled the man over, he took off, taking police on a chase across town. He eventually ran over "stop sticks" and bailed out of his car. Officers then chased him and shot him with the Taser gun. The suspect's family said he was having mental problems.

• Police use teargas on Nigerian mothers - Nigerian police have used teargas and arrested women staging a peaceful rally to protest against poor air safety after a plane crash last week in which about 50 of the 106 killed were children. About 200 mothers wearing black gathered in an upmarket area of Lagos on Friday to deliver a letter of protest to the government when riot police surrounded them, witnesses said. Bola Belgore, one of 17 women arrested, said: "We told them we were concerned mothers of Nigeria and we insisted on walking to government house, but they blocked the road and threw teargas in front of us and behind us. Everyone scattered."

• Bush 'backed spying on Americans' - President Bush allowed security agents to eavesdrop on people inside the US without court approval after 9/11, the New York Times has reported. Under a 2002 presidential order, the National Security Agency has been monitoring international communications of hundreds in the US, the paper says. Before, the NSA had typically limited US surveillance to foreign embassies.

• NEW WEBSITE ANNOUNCEMENT: "Hi! I'm Cindy Champion, a hard working mother of five in Jasper County, GA. I've owned my own media monitoring business for the past 18 years, so when my son came through the door with a camera, I knew the capabilities of that camera. And more importantly, I knew I needed to get answers! This is what I do for a living: I record news for my clients but I never wanted to BECOME the news. However, since my son trusted me and knew in his mind that I could take care of the problem of a camera being in his school bathroom, I realized that I owed it to him to do something for all students at his school and schools around the country. So now I must move forward to do whatever I can to make a change. This is not my fight: IT'S OURS. Parents, teachers, concerned adults and students across the country: join me in standing up for our children on this issue. There is much we can do!!" - WWW.PACIR.ORG

• Government moots ID card links for new UK voter database - Honey, I broke the democratic process... The Government is moving ahead with plans to establish a centralised national register of voters, together with central checking and verification of the data held on electoral registers. The system, to be implemented in the form of CORE (Co-ordinated Online Record of Elector) schemes, is intended to be brought in via the Electoral Administration Bill currently before Parliament, and is subject to a consultation process ending on 7th March.

• US no-fly list vexes travelers from babies on up - Sarah Zapolsky was checking in for a flight to Italy when she discovered her 9-month-old son's name was on the United States' "no-fly" list of suspected terrorists. "We pointed down to the stroller, and he sat there and gurgled," Zapolsky said, recalling the incident at Dulles International Airport outside Washington in July. "The desk agent started laughing. ... She couldn't print us out a boarding pass because he's on the no-fly list."

15th DECEMBER 2005: -

• ASPARTAME: Cancer fears over supermarket products - An artificial sweetener found in 6,000 types of food, drink and medicines should be banned, an MP urged last night. Politicians were warned of 'compelling and reliable' evidence that aspartame can cause cancer. The controversial additive is found in a huge number of popular products such as cola, cereal and chocolate. Roger Williams, a member of the parliamentary select committee on food and the environment and Liberal Democrat MP, said any items containing aspartame should be withdrawn from sale.

• Child protection system makes debut - Logan Elrod might have been a little young to appreciate the kind of history he was making Tuesday morning as he sat in front of equipment set up in the fourth floor meeting room of the historic Butler County Courthouse. He had the honor of being the first child to be voluntarily enrolled in a child protection system making its Kansas debut in Butler County. The Children's Identification and Location Database (CHILD) Project was officially launched in this county and state during a news conference held in the meeting room... Equipment used in the CHILD project will identify and locate missing children and adults through the use of iris recognition biometric technology.

• Undercover Air Marshals to Expand Mission - Federal air marshals are expanding their work beyond airplanes, beginning counterterror surveillance at bus and train stations and mass transit facilities in a three-day test. As of Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration said, teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers were arriving at the new posts.

• Pentagon to spread pro-U.S. messages - A $300 million Pentagon psychological warfare operation plans to place pro-American messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the U.S. government as the source, the military official in charge of the program says. Run by psychological warfare experts at the U.S. Special Operations Command, the worldwide media campaign is being designed to counter terrorist ideology.

• QUESTION OF SECURITY: Biometric Readers Fooled With Fake Fingerprints - Researchers at Clarkson University fooled biometric systems with fake fingerprints made out of Play-Doh nine out of ten times, demonstrating a weakness of some computer security systems.

• Government puts brakes on speed cameras - Speed cameras will no longer be funded by the fines they generate, an arrangement which has been blamed for the proliferation of devices across the country, the Government said today. Instead, Britain's 6,000 cameras will be incorporated into a broader road safety plan, according to the Transport Secretary, Alastair Darling, who announced the change alongside a four-year study of the effectiveness of speed cameras.

• Exercise your brain and body to improve memory - Memory exercises and stress reduction coupled with a healthy diet and regular physical exercise improves memory in older adults, a study shows. This four-component lifestyle program "not only improved memory but also improved brain efficiency in just two short weeks," study chief Dr. Gary Small from the University of California, Los Angeles told Reuters Health.

• Stone Age man is now 200,000 years older - A collection of stone tools more than 700,000 years old has revealed that ancient humans lived in Britain thousands of years earlier than previously believed. The tools, found near Pakefield in Suffolk, appear to have been made by early man hammering sharp flakes off flint pebbles carried by a river running across what is now East Anglia.

• Hospitals are 'not clean enough' - Two-thirds of hospitals are failing to meet cleanliness standards, surprise spot-checks have revealed. The Healthcare Commission inspected 99 NHS and private hospitals during unannounced visits to prevent "late clean-up operations". They found two thirds had unsatisfactory levels of cleanliness and mental health hospitals were the worst offenders.

14th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Air Marshals to Expand Their Mission - Federal air marshals are expanding their work beyond airplanes, launching counterterror surveillance at train stations and other mass transit facilities in a three-day test program. As of Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration said, teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers were descending on bus stations, ferries and transit systems across the country to protect them from potential terrorists.

• Brazil city proposes ban on death - Municipal regulations normally ban anything from smoking in public places to parking in certain zones. But officials in the Brazilian town of Biritiba Mirim, 70km (45 miles) east of Sao Paulo, have gone far beyond that. They plan to prohibit residents from dying because the local cemetery has reached full capacity.

• Pentagon devising scenarios for martial law in US - According to a report published Monday by the Washington Post, the Pentagon has developed its first ever war plans for operations within the continental United States, in which terrorist attacks would be used as the justification for imposing martial law on cities, regions or the entire country. The front-page article cites sources working at the headquarters of the military’s Northern Command (Northcom), located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The plans themselves are classified, but “officers who drafted the plans” gave details to Post reporter Bradley Graham, who was recently given a tour of Northcom headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base.

• FORCED TO BE HIS OWN LAWYER: No California Attorney Would Help Him Fight Judicial Corruption - Gene Forte is not a lawyer, and most observers expected him to fall flat on his face, but he is gaining success and making legal history. This "average guy" is fighting what he says are corrupt officials at all levels, and doing it alone because lawyers are too intimidated to get involved.

• Bangladesh's feared elite police - Human rights lawyers in Bangladesh say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of suspects dying in the custody of the elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). They say 190 people have been killed in less than two years. The government admits to a figure of around 150. The RAB was set up in April 2004 amid concerns about rising crime. It draws its personnel from the police and the military.

• Is the Pentagon spying on Americans? (Is the Pope a Catholic?): Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks ‘suspicious’ domestic groups - A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

• U.S. Envoy Calls Torture at Two Iraqi Prisons Severe, Extensive - U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday described torture cases discovered in Iraqi police prisons as both extensive and severe, saying more than 120 abused detainees had been found in the two centers run by the Shiite-led government that have been inspected so far. Khalilzad rejected Interior Ministry officials' suggestion that any mistreatment of prisoners had been mild, saying the abuse found was "far worse than slapping around."

13th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Secret CIA flight allegations credible, says human rights watchdog - A Council of Europe report has reinforced suspicions that the US intelligence agency the CIA has detained suspected Islamic terrorists without proper judicial procedure, and violated sovereignty laws in Europe. Meeting in Paris on Tuesday (13 December) representatives of the 46 member strong human rights watchdog Council of Europe (CoE) studied progress of an inquiry into alleged American secret detention centres and clandestine prison transport.

• THE USUAL TRICKS: Sydney police get special anti-riot powers - Police in the Australian city of Sydney are given emergency powers as racial violence continued for a third day. An eyewitness said groups of Lebanese men smashed shops and cars. They were reprisal attacks, which left over seven people injured. On Sunday and Monday up to 5000 white men racially abused and attacked men of Middle Eastern origin.

• Businessman watches Scottish police use taser - A Croydon businessman who saw police use a taser gun during a firearms incident last week has described the scene. The man, who did not want to be named, was in a hotel bar in Glasgow when he witnessed a gunman being shot by police using the controversial stun gun last Tuesday. "I knew one of the guns was a Taser because I saw a silver flash come from it," the man said. "The next thing I saw was the guy with the pistol on the floor shaking. "The other two officers had conventional guns. An ambulance came and took the man away. "This was pretty scary for a Tuesday night, in fact for any night.

• Doctor Who takes anti-war stance - A Christmas Day special of sci-fi series Doctor Who contains an anti-war message, as new Doctor David Tennant tackles an alien invasion of Earth. "It's Christmas Day, a day of peace," said chief writer Russell T Davies. "There is absolutely an anti-war message because that's what I think."

12th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Bush admits 30,000 killed in Iraq - George Bush, the US president, has said that 30,000 Iraqis have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and acknowledged setbacks in efforts to create a democracy in the country. Bush made the statement in a speech and question-and-answer session at a World Affairs Council event on Monday.

• PRETEXT FOR A POLICE STATE: Sydney violence spreads - Youths riding around in vehicles bashed cars and smashed store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, police said, as violence continued for a second night in a row.

• MI6 and CIA 'sent student to Morocco to be tortured': An Ethiopian claims that his confession to al-Qaeda bomb plot was signed after beatings, reports David Rose in New York - An Ethiopian student who lived in London claims that he was brutally tortured with the involvement of British and US intelligence agencies. Binyam Mohammed, 27, says he spent nearly three years in the CIA's network of 'black sites'. In Morocco he claims he underwent the strappado torture of being hung for hours from his wrists, and scalpel cuts to his chest and penis and that a CIA officer was a regular interrogator.

• Brothers: Hostages were gathering evidence of abuse in Iraq - With a Saturday execution deadline looming, the brothers of a Canadian man held hostage in Iraq made another plea to his abductors, saying Friday that their brother was in Iraq to gather information on alleged human rights abuses.

11th DECEMBER 2005: -

• The latest of U.S. scandals in Iraq: Iraqi women have been stripped off the basic human rights under the merciless occupation - The BUSH administration constructed many false pretexts and downright lies to justify its interference in the Middle East, region, among its claims was the mission to “liberate women”. “Liberation of women” had always been a common rationale in its effort to win the support of Western nations for its brutal foreign policy. The U.S.-led occupation forces overthrew the former Iraqi regime lead by Saddam Hussein in April 2003 claiming that it was for the welfare of the Iraqi nation that Bush’s admin says has been subject to hideous human rights violations at the hand of its dictator ruler.

• Police shoot protestors in China land dispute - The Chinese government says at least three villagers died last week after police fired on protesters in a confrontation over demands for higher compensation for the loss of land to make way for the construction of a power plant. The announcement on Xinhua, the state news agency, about the battle between villagers and the police in the village of Dongzhou, in Guangdong, southern China, represents a rare official account of the kind of demonstration that has become increasingly common during the past two years.

• Lawyer says UK abetted torture - THE British Government faces new allegations of complicity in torture after newspapers obtained evidence alleging British involvement in the abuse of terror suspects. A prisoner's testimony reveals how British intelligence officers appeared to know he was to be tortured and supplied his interrogators with questions for use during the abuse. Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith alleges one of his clients, Binyam Mohammed al Habashi, was systematically tortured and flown to jails worldwide by the Americans in a process called extraordinary rendition.

• YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE!: Group warns bill contains national ID, Immigration measure's employment provision 'dangerous' - An umbrella organization of dozens of groups that monitor legislation affecting civil liberties says a new immigration-reform measure contains a provision that could lead to de facto establishment of a national identification scheme.

• Blots on the Record: The Bloomberg administration's fight for 9-11 secrecy - In the public version of FDNY lieutenant Neil Brosnan's retelling of his 9-11 experience, there are blank spots. First, Brosnan talks about racing to the scene: "We were blocked out. We tried to move traffic." Then there are three lines blacked out. "This was reported to the police detectives on my interview with them," he continues. "We thought it was unusual." Later on, his questioner restarts the tape after having closed the session. "Tell me that again," the questioner bids. Brosnan speaks. The next 40 lines are blacked out. Only the questioner's words are visible, when he says, "Yes. That is unusual."

• Family Upset Over Marine's Body Arriving As Freight: Marine Bodies Sent To Families On Commercial Airliners - There's controversy over how the military is transporting the bodies of service members killed overseas, 10News reported. A local family said fallen soldiers and Marines deserve better and that one would think our war heroes are being transported with dignity, care and respect. It said one would think upon arrival in their hometowns they are greeted with honor. But unfortunately, the family said that is just not the case.

10th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Waite urges torture probe - FORMER terrorist hostage Terry Waite has called for a full investigation "to find the truth" about alleged CIA ghost planes. He made his plea after the Manchester Evening News revealed that the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Michael Todd, is to investigate claims that "torture flights" have passed through British airports.

• CONNECTIONS BETWEEN 9/11 AND 7/7: THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS - FIND OUT MORE ON WEDNESDAY 14TH DECEMBER AT THE HAMARA CENTRE, TEMPEST ROAD, BEESTON, LEEDS 6.30PM TO 9PM WITH DAVID SHAYLER AND ANNIE MACHON, EX MI5 AND WHISTLEBLOWERS - Contact dwightheet@yahoo.com

• Fight the police state: Muslim activist - AUSTRALIA has become a police state in the wake of the federal Government's anti-terrorism laws, a spokesman for the Muslim community said. Addressing a protest in Sydney today, Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association, called on federal and state governments to repeal the new laws and safeguard basic human rights. "This is Australia and we must defend out freedoms," Mr Trad said to a gathering of about 100 people outside the CBD's Town Hall.

• The US has used torture for decades. All that's new is the openness about it: By ignoring past abuses, opponents of torture are in danger of pushing it back into the shadows instead of abolishing it - It was the "Mission Accomplished" of George Bush's second term, and an announcement of that magnitude called for a suitably dramatic location. But what was the right backdrop for the infamous "We do not torture" declaration? With characteristic audacity, the Bush team settled on downtown Panama City.

• Public warned against miracle-healing claims - Religious groups are up in arms at the plans of a controversial Brazilian church to hold a mass miracle healing event in South Africa on New Year's Eve. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) was banned for the second time in Zambia last week and is being investigated by concerned religious groups in South Africa who say bizarre allegations have been made about the church, ranging from satanic worship to child sacrifice.

• Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper' - Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act. Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

• ACLU: Protesters placed in terror files - The names and licenseplate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado said Thursday. The Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act.

• MIAMI SHOOTING COVERUP BEGINS - The justifications for the shooting of a mentally-disturbed man in Miami by a federal air marshal, who feared the man was a possible terrorist, have taken a new slant. According to an ABC News story, FBI officials are reporting there was a "shoe bomber alert" in progress when the incident occurred, and so the marshal might have been on high-alert status at the time of the shooting.

• Earth's north magnetic pole could shift to Siberia in 50 years - Earth's north magnetic pole is drifting from North America at such a clip that it could end up in Siberia in the next 50 years, scientists said Thursday. Despite accelerated movement over the past century, the possibility that Earth's fading magnetic field will collapse or that the magnetic poles will flip is remote. But the shift could mean that Alaska may no longer be able to see the high-altitude shimmering displays of colorful lights known as auroras.

09th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Passengers: Alpizar Didn't Say 'Bomb' - The airline passenger shot to death by federal marshals who said he made a bomb threat was agitated even before boarding and later appeared to be desperate to get off the plane, some fellow travelers said. One passenger said he "absolutely never heard the word 'bomb' at all" during the uproar as the Orlando-bound flight prepared to leave Miami on Wednesday.

• US officials defend shooting of mentally ill air passenger - By all accounts, Rigoberto Alpizar was frantic as he darted off a plane at Miami International Airport, bumping past passengers and yelling that he needed to get off the aircraft. However, passengers say they never heard him say anything about a bomb. Federal officials say he shouted that he had a bomb in his bag, and ignored instructions to get down. When he reached for the bag, the marshals opened fire, killing him.

• Police may face action over Menezes death - Police involved in the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man, gunned down in July by officers who thought he was a suicide bomber, might face criminal action, an independent watchdog said on Friday. The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it was likely that a report would be sent to Britain's prosecution service when an investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at a London underground train station was finished.

• £20,000 flight to pick up William's boots - Prince William has been criticised for using an RAF fighter jet to fly him to Sandhurst to collect his new Army boots. The 23-year-old prince, who is due to join his younger brother at the Royal Military Academy next month, is currently on work experience in Snowdonia with an Airforce mountain rescue team. On Wednesday afternoon he was flown from Anglesey to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire in a 622mph Hawk jet.

• 'Torture' flights police probe - THE Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Michael Todd is to carry out a probe into allegations that "torture flights" have gone through British airports. The dramatic development follows a letter sent by human rights group Liberty, to a number of Chief Constables, calling for an inquiry into suspected US "extraordinary rendition" flights. It is claimed that ten British airports, including Gatwick and Heathrow, have allowed CIA-chartered planes to land temporarily before travelling on, with suspects on board, to other countries where torture camps are located.

• US told Saudis about Qaeda plane threat pre-9/11 - The United States told Saudi Arabia more than three years before the September 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden might be targeting civilian airplanes, according to a newly declassified State Department cable. The June 1998 cable, obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, said the United States had no specific information that al Qaeda was planning such an attack, and did not say it might fly planes into buildings.

• Death followed wrong insulin dose - A woman died after poor handwriting on her hospital records led to her being given 10 times too much insulin, a fatal accident inquiry has found. Moira Pullar, 62, died at Monklands General Hospital on 17 January, 2004. Airdrie Sheriff Court heard the nurse who gave the wrong dose failed to have it checked or consult a doctor.

• Global corruption 'on the rise' - Corruption is on the increase in a majority of countries around the world, according to a study by global pressure group Transparency International. People in 48 of the 69 countries covered in its annual Global Corruption Barometer survey said corruption had risen over the past three years.

• Paxil: Stronger Birth Defects Warning - The FDA and drug company GlaxoSmithKline have strengthened their warning about using the antidepressant drug Paxil during early pregnancy. The warning is based on early results from two studies. The studies showed a higher rate of heart-related birth defects in babies born to women who took Paxil during early pregnancy than in babies of women in the general population or women who took other antidepressants.

• RFID IMPLANTS: FINE FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME - Ex-Bush cabinet member Tommy Thompson still hasn't received an RFID implant despite a televised promise he made in July 2005 to do so. Shortly after joining the board of VeriChip Corporation last spring, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and four-term governor of Wisconsin told CNBC that he would "get chipped" with a VeriChip implant, but he has no plans to undergo the procedure anytime soon, according to recent revelations.

• Thalidomide victims' cash doubled - Thalidomide victims have welcomed a decision to more than double compensation payments as part of a "full and final" financial settlement for the 1960s drugs tragedy. ...Thalidomide was used to treat morning sickness in pregnant mothers in the 1960s, but was withdrawn after it emerged that it caused birth defects such as missing or shortened limbs.

• $50,000,000.00 Reward Offer for 9/11 Conspiracy Proof: International Researcher Sorcha Faal announces $50 million reward for information proving 9/11 Conspiracy - WhatDoesItMean.Com today announces that we are offering a reward of $50,000,000.00 (fifty-million dollars) to any present or former United States Government Public or Military Official having direct knowledge and verifiable proof that the events of September 11, 2001 were not caused by Islamic Terrorists.

• Hospitals may ban treatment for smokers and drinkers - SMOKERS, drinkers and the seriously overweight may be denied medical treatment if their lifestyle makes it ineffective, the Government’s treatment watchdog said yesterday. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said that doctors who considered that a particular treatment might not be effective, or cost-effective, because of the lifestyle of the patient, may be entitled to withhold it.

08th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Reality check: Space Cadets face dangerous fall back to earth - Psychologists yesterday warned that makers of reality TV show Space Cadets were pushing ethical boundaries and expressed fears for the contestants' wellbeing, when they discover they are "cosmo-nots". The £5m Channel 4 programme, which began last night hosted by Johnny Vaughan, has nine participants – who responded to an advert looking for thrillseekers – preparing to blast off into space.

• Memo shows U.S. general aware of Iraqis' jail abuse - The top U.S. general in Iraq was aware in June of reports that Iraqi security forces had abused prisoners in their custody, months before U.S. forces in November found a bunker filled with detainees badly beaten by Iraqi personnel, a memo obtained on Wednesday showed.

• UK: Highest Court Rules Out Use of Torture Evidence - The unanimous ruling by Britain's highest court that torture evidence can never be used in court proceedings is an important milestone, Human Rights Watch said today. "This is a real victory in the struggle against torture," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director of Human Rights Watch, "The Law Lords have affirmed a core tenet of our values – that torture evidence is never acceptable."

• It's first time air marshals have fired since 9/11; agitated passenger runs off, is shot to death - An agitated passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal yesterday after he bolted frantically from a jetliner that was boarding for take off, officials said. No bomb was found. It was the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said. Another federal official said there was no apparent link to terrorism.

• Rationalists challenge Asian tantriks in UK - A group of rationalists of Indian origin has challenged hundreds of occult practitioners and spiritual healers in Britain to scientifically prove that they can deliver the promise to cure people of any disease or solve any problem. Newspapers catering to Asian and Afro-Caribbean readerships have several pages of advertisements from such practitioners, promising magical cures and manna to those who believe in spells and occult practices.

07th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Fluoride is a form of poison - IT is with horror that I read that the Victorian Government is to dictate that Wodongas water supply is to be used as another dumping ground for the industrial poison sodium fluoride. About 98 per cent of Western Europe has rejected this poison, yet here we are in Australia obeying our US industrial masters and believing their paid-for false science.

• Al-Jazeera admits Bin Laden error - A videotape claiming Osama Bin Laden is still "alive and fighting" dates back to September, Arab television channel al-Jazeera has admitted. Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, Ahmed Sheikh, said his channel had broadcast the footage by mistake. Mr Sheikh said it had received the video in September and aired "the important parts" at the time. In the video, Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also claimed al-Qaeda was behind the London bombings on 7 July.

• House searches in dismemberment case spark privacy concerns - House-to-house searches have some residents of a Toronto neighbourhood on edge as police hunt for clues in the case of a woman whose body was found dismembered in a laneway. A team of 20 officers is asking residents in the west-end neighbourhood of Parkdale to sign a consent form allowing a search of closets, basements and freezers.

• Witness Recounts Rumors of Caged Children - Officials Heard Rumors of Caged Children Two Years Before Removal, Witness at Custody Hearing Says. Child-welfare workers had heard rumors that a couple kept some of their 11 adopted children in cages two years before the youngsters were removed from the home, a witness testified in a custody hearing Tuesday.

• Fluoride decision to force resident to leave - A fluoride-intolerant man from Wodonga, in north-east Victoria, says he will be forced to move house when the chemical is added to the city's water. Last month, it was announced fluoride would soon be put into Wodonga and Wangaratta's supply. Andrew Shadbolt says he breaks out in eczema and headaches when he has contact with the chemical. The teacher says it took him a year-and-a-half of tests to discover his intolerance.

• "Torture" takes on new meaning in post-9/11 U.S. - Torture has always been rife around the world but governments have generally condemned it, denied it, or both. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, though, some experts say the U.S. government has tried a new tactic -- redefining the meaning of torture.

• PM denies knowledge of 'CIA torture' - Tony Blair told parliament today he knows nothing about alleged torture going on in CIA detention camps in eastern Europe, speaking during his first prime minister's questions opposite the new Tory leader, David Cameron. "In respect of the allegations of so-called torture facilities or detention facilities across Europe, I really know nothing about them at all. I clearly know there aren't any such here," he said in response to a question from the Labour backbencher David Winnick.   (COMMENTARY: And if you can't trust Tony Blair, what has the world come to?)

06th DECEMBER 2005: -

• German sues CIA in abduction case - A German man sued former CIA Director George Tenet and other U.S. spy agency officials for alleged wrongful imprisonment and torture on Tuesday in a rare legal challenge to the secret transfer of terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation.

• U.K. 'hosted 200 CIA flights since 9-11' - As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the U.S. policy of rendition Tuesday, further details emerged of over 200 CIA flights through Britain. The Guardian newspaper published full details of the flights, in aircraft owned or controlled by the CIA, through almost 20 British airports including Royal Air Force bases. Over 210 such flights have entered or left Britain since 9- 11, the newspaper alleged.

• DiCaprio to make eco documentary - Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is to produce a feature-length documentary about the plight of the environment. DiCaprio, a keen environmentalist, will also write and narrate the film, called 11th Hour, which highlights green issues such as global warming. Work on the film, which DiCaprio hopes to release in 2006, has already begun. "Global warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity," he said.   (COMMENTARY: Let me guess Leo' only a New World Order can save us? - yeah we know how this works buddy!)

• CIA stop in Ontario? - A mysterious Twin Otter plane owned by an alleged CIA front turned up in Northern Ontario this fall, raising unanswered questions about why it was there. It’s the latest twist in a perplexing saga of aircraft controlled by apparent shell companies of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

• British soldiers accused of rape: A woman has told a court in Wyoming, US, that she was raped by two UK soldiers whose unit was training there - Scott Aitken, 22, from Edinburgh, and Andrew Leighton, 28, of Leeds, deny first degree sexual assault. The woman, 26, admitted having a relationship with Mr Aitken, but said she was raped by both men after she spurned Mr Leighton's advances in July.

• Iran Plane Crashes Into Building: (Which doesn't collapse!) — An Iranian military transport plane crashed into a 10-story apartment building as it was trying to make an emergency landing Tuesday, ripping open the top of the structure and igniting a huge fire. At least 128 people were killed 34 on the ground.

• School ban on girl wearing cross 'discriminatory' - A mother accused her daughter's school of discriminating against Christians yesterday after the teenager was suspended for refusing to take off a crucifix necklace. Sam Morris, 16, was sent home from Sinfin Community School in Derby for breaking a school policy that bans jewellery. Last night her mother, Debra, said that Sikh children were allowed to wear a steel bracelet, known as a kara, for religious reasons and said her daughter had every right to express her faith.

• 9/11 panel finds Bush slow to act on terror (Yawn...!) - The 9/11 Commission released its final report on Monday, outlining an array of shortcomings in the government's response to the 2001 terrorist attacks and calling overall progress disappointing. "We are safer, but we are not yet safe," said Thomas Kean, chairman of the commission charged with finding ways to prevent another terrorist attack and to investigate past intelligence failures.  (COMMENTARY: This whole 'Blame the incompetent Bush, who cocked up on 9/11' movie is becoming rather tired, I'm off to bed - wake me up when they come up with a new diversion tactic z z z...)

05th DECEMBER 2005: -

• Biased Conference Likely to Downplay Mercury in Seafood Risks: Mercury in Seafood Experts Not Invited to NOAA-Sponsored Conference - The Seafood and Health Conference begins today with a fishing industry-biased agenda that excludes experts about the risks of mercury in seafood based their research or the overwhelming scientific evidence available. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the lead sponsor of the conference, failed to respond to the public outcry for a balanced panel of experts on mercury in seafood.

• Police Found Suspected Bombs In WTC On 9/11: Reports surfaced of truck parked in building - The report was filed by an MSNBC news anchor Rick Sanchez on the morning of September 11th 2001. The details contained therein seem to have slipped under the radar amidst the huge body of evidence proving controlled demolition brought down both the twin towers and Building 7.

• China admits prisoner organ sales - CHINA has broken its silence on the sale of executed prisoners' organs to foreigners. For many years, the country has denied that such a trade existed. But Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu has now acknowledged that the practice is widespread and has promised to tighten the rules.

• What Wikipedia doesn't want you to know......... - With so much information online, there is a big need for encyclopedias. Wikipedia is not the answer. Wikipedia has writers and administrators who squash the truth. They are anti libertarian and they glorify totalitarianism with their Nazi-style behavior. Wikipedia's lies are so infamous that it has inspired a nationwide boycott, especially for the apparent Neo-Nazism of some of its more rabid writers.

• Baby case mother to sue hospital - The mother of a seriously ill baby who died after doctors were given permission to withhold treatment is planning to sue the hospital. Luke Winston-Jones, who had the rare genetic disorder Edwards Syndrome, died aged 10 months in Liverpool's Alder Hey children's hospital last November. Doctors believed it was not in Luke's best interest to be kept alive through aggressive medical intervention, and in October last year the High Court granted permission to withhold such treatment.

• Damaging Disclosures and the Plot to Bomb al-Jazeera - As an indication of how well-entrenched the police state is in Britain, consider the prosecution, under the Officials Secrets Act, of David Keogh, a former communications officer at the Cabinet Office, and Leo O’Connor, a former parliamentary researcher.

• FCC Order Increasing FBI Internet Surveillance Challenged - A legal challenge to an order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would dramatically increase the government's surveillance powers on the Internet has been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. "The FCC has unilaterally granted the FBI a sweeping expansion of its surveillance powers on the Internet, far in excess of what Congress authorized or intended," said Chris Calabrese, program counsel for the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project.

• Israelis Killed Gen. Zia, Claims Ex-US Amabassador - The Israeli secret agency Mossad most probably killed Gen. Zia ul- Haq, suspects John Gunther Dean, who was the American ambassador to India in 1988, according to an article in the latest issue of World Policy Journal by Barbara Crossette, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the New York Times from 1988 to 1991.

• BBC's Stephen Sackur Backs CIA Torture - Many listeners to Radio 4’s Today Programme will have been shocked this morning to hear their new presenter Stephen Sackur apparently supporting the use of torture. After giving prime time to the views of an unknown Washington functionary who supported the use of “rough interrogations”, Sackur then confronted Human Rights campaigner Mary Robinson. If Sackur had wished to comply with the BBC’s legal obligation to exercise impartiality he might have said “Is he right?”. Instead Sackur said: “He’s right, isn’t he?”. The tone left no doubt that Sackur believed he was right.

04th DECEMBER 2005: -

• 9/11 Commission: 'Another Attack Will Occur' - Members of what was the Sept. 11 Commission issued an ominous warning. They said the U.S. is at great risk for more terror attacks because Congress and the White House haven't done enough to secure the nation. "We believe that another attack will occur," said Lee Hamilton, the former vice chairman of the commission. Thomas Kean, the former chairman, said improving security is "not a priority for the government right now."

• We must not let Scotland fuel torture - ‘Extraordinary rendition” may sound like an exceptional performance of a concert classic. In fact it is the sinister euphemism for torture-by-proxy, the practice of flying terrorist suspects for interrogation in countries where torture is practised in order to escape human rights legislation. America stands accused of breaking international law by such rendition, and Scotland is in the dock too. Glasgow and Prestwick airports have become favoured stopovers in this secret air lift. Indeed, as the rest of Europe takes a stand against it, Scotland is emerging as a potential European torture hub.

• Former 9/11 Panel Says Government Needs To Step Up Anti-Terror Efforts - The former members of the federal 9/11 Commission will issue a report card on Monday saying the government still isn't doing enough to protect Americans from terrorism. The 10-member bipartisan panel charges the government has failed to enact many of the security changes it recommended in its final report looking into the causes of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.    (COMMENTARY: This is basically how the 9/11 Commission has been able to 'have their cake and eat it too'.  They get to placate the pesky questioning public and it's desire for censure of the officials that 'let' 9/11 happen, by criticising the Bush administration from time to time.  And then they offer the solution - in classic 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' style - i.e. the Orwellian police state).

• Torture must stop - US 'rendition' shames its allies:  The unsavoury saga of CIA 'rendition' is a scandal that will not go away - For all the protestations of senior US officials, including those of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the evidence is now overwhelming that terror suspects are being flown beyond the reach of anti-torture laws to be questioned in countries where torture may be used.

• Complaints Over Wikipedia Accountability With Bios - Daniel Brandt's been upset over the accuracy and presence of a page about him at Wikipedia, and now John Seigenthaler, the former assistant to US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, is upset as well over his Wikipedia biography, venting his frustration in a USA Today article. A false Wikipedia 'biography' has Seigenthaler sounding out his complaint, the 78 year old declaring that only one sentence in his bio was true. He managed to get Wikipedia to remove the material he objected to removed, though with Wikipedia's community editing system, I don't see anything that prevents that from coming back.

• Sex lessons planned for all children: Five-year-olds to get lessons on emotional life, Leak reveals teenagers' ignorance and confusion - Compulsory sex lessons for primary school children as young as five are to be backed by the government's official advisers on sexual behaviour in an unpublished report obtained by The Observer. If accepted, the proposals would be the biggest shake-up in sex education in schools in England and Wales.

• Strange Suicide of a Flight 11 Passenger's Wife Raises More Doubt as to What Really Happened on the Four 9/11 Flights - Prasanna Kalahasthi, 25, a USC dental student and married to Pendyala Vamsikrishna, a Flight 11 passenger, killed herself five weeks after 9/11 in her Los Angeles apartment even though friends say she was 'in good spirits and determined to finish dental school.' A friend of an alleged Flight 11 passenger said he was “shocked and amazed” after learning five weeks after 9/11 his friend’s wife committed suicide in her Los Angeles apartment in an apparent act of despair.   (RELATED: See our '911 Archive'.)

• Half Life 2: Anti New World Order Video Game - From a reader..... I enjoyed your analysis of the brainwashing computer games that are currently in circulation, and I felt that I should bring this particular game to your attention, because I was very surprised when I first played it. It is called "Half-life 2", and the entire game is basically a revolution against an Orwellian-style police state. The first game in the series was all about fighting aliens etc, and to a certain extent so is the sequel, but this one is much different. Aliens take a backseat, and a brutal dictatorship takes centre stage.

• Limbaugh on kidnapping of peace activists in Iraq: "I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this" - On November 29, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh read an Associated Press report about the apparent kidnapping of four Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) activists by an Iraqi insurgent group. Limbaugh announced that "part of me likes this." He explained: "Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality."  (COMMENTARY: Once again, Limbaugh has proven that you don't have to be a moron the do his job... but it helps!)

• Europe plans to track all emails and phone calls - EUROPEAN ministers have agreed on plans that will force telecommunications companies to retain phone and email logs for at least six months, to help investigations into terrorism and other serious crimes. "It is an essential tool for law enforcement," said British Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who chaired the ministers' meeting.

• Google search and seizure - THE NEW York Times recently reported that in a North Carolina strangulation-murder trial, prosecutors introduced as evidence the fact that the defendant's Google searches had included the words ''neck" and ''snap." The Times noted that the evidence had come from the defendant's home computer, but could just as easily have come from Google. Google's whole business-model includes keeping track of users' searches by putting ''cookies" (tracking devices) on users' own computers, and then using the results to customize ad offerings that pop up when we use their ingenious free search service.

• British general faces war charge - A BRITISH general is facing possible criminal charges over one of the most controversial incidents of the Iraq war, The Sunday Times has learnt. The allegations levelled against Major-General Peter Wall relate to alleged attempts by senior officers to prevent an investigation into the deaths of a British tank commander and an unarmed Iraqi civilian.

03rd DECEMBER 2005: -

• US civil rights group to sue CIA - A US civil rights groups says it is taking the CIA to court to stop the transportation of terror suspects to countries outside US legal authority. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says the intelligence agency has broken both US and international law.

• 9/11: Possible Motives Of The Bush Administration: by Dr. David Ray Griffin - The 9/11 Commission understood that its mandate, as we have seen, was to provide "the fullest possible account" of the "facts and circumstances" surrounding 9/11. Included in those facts and circumstances are ones that, according to some critics of the official account of 9/11, provide evidence that the Bush administration intentionally allowed the attacks of 9/11. Some critics have even suggested that the Bush administration actively helped the attacks succeed.

• Raid 'kills al-Qaeda commander': (No Doubt he'll be resurrected though - these Goldstein types have a tendency to come back to life) - Pakistan says that it has killed a top al-Qaeda commander in the country's tribal belt along the Afghan border. Egyptian-born Abu Hamza Rabia, described as al-Qaeda's operational commander, was among five men killed in a raid in North Waziristan on Thursday.

• US media ignore torture reports - Military autopsy reports provide indisputable proof that detainees are being tortured to death while in US military custody. Yet the corporate media of the United States (US) is covering it with the seriousness of a garage sale for the local Baptist Church, media research organisation Project Censored has said.

• Opinions on end of days, 'Illuminati' get man fired — The Knoxville general manager of Knology Inc. was fired after he repeatedly appeared in local media espousing his belief in a coming apocalypse and a shadowy, all-powerful secret organization called the "Illuminati." John Gilmore, 34, has worked for the West Point, Ga.-based cable television and Internet access provider for the past five years. In a column published Tuesday in The Knoxville News Sentinel and in subsequent interviews on local television stations, Gilmore said the number 11 holds significance: the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred exactly 11 years after President George H.W. Bush said the words "New World Order" in a speech to Congress.

• US military news stories were paid advertisements: senator - The US military intended news stories that were placed in Iraqi newspapers to be "paid advertisements," but some ran without disclaimers that they had been paid for, a US senator said Friday. Senator John Warner, after being briefed by defense officials, said the Pentagon was still gathering information on the extent of the secret program and whether Iraqi journalists were paid by the military to write favorable stories.

02nd DECEMBER 2005: -

• Fluoride is form of poison - FLUORIDATION of our water? If you dont mind eating contaminated foods doctored with genetically engineered technology, then fluoridated water is the perfect drink with which to wash it all down. Experts, scientists, dentists, culture gurus and health authorities parade their endorsements of fluoridation to all. But who guarantees it is absolutely safe for everyone? 

• Britain Grants Greenspan Symbolic Honor - Britain's Treasury chief Gordon Brown paid tribute Friday to outgoing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, saying he had served his country and the world with distinction. In recognition of his 18 years at the helm of the U.S. central bank, Greenspan was granted the Freedom of the City of London -- a symbolic honor dating back to medieval times which bestowed the right to drive sheep across London Bridge and be hanged with a silken cord if handed the death penalty.

• My school's the best because I ignored Labour - The head of the primary school which has topped the latest league tables of test results said she succeeded by 'ignoring' government policy. Barbara Jones said her school did not follow the daily literacy hour or numeracy programmes. She said: "We don't use the literacy or numeracy strategy as prescriptively as we have been asked to. You have got to use a bit of common sense." All the 11-year-olds at her school, Combe Church of England Primary, in Witney, Oxfordshire, were three years ahead of their age group in this year's English, maths and science tests.

• ASPARTAME BATTLE IN NM CONTINUES - The battle to prove that aspartame is harmful to children continues as suits against Coca Cola, on the behalf of children, are filed. This recent development might encourage further questioning of aspartame's neurotoxicity in children's medications, aspirin, and vitamins, an issue currently being debated in New Mexico, where the world's largest Aspartame and M.S.G. manufacturer, Ajinomoto of Japan, is against holding a hearing on the subject.

• Twist to terror suspects row as logs show 80 CIA planes visited UK - The transatlantic row over the secret transfer of terror suspects by the Bush administration took a new twist yesterday when it emerged that more than 300 flights operated by the CIA had landed at European airports. According to flight logs seen by the Guardian, Britain was second only to Germany as a transit hub for the CIA, which stands accused of operating a covert network of interrogation centres in eastern Europe.

• More random searches for passengers at US airports - Air travelers in the United States will soon be allowed to carry small scissors and tools on planes, but they will face more random security searches as part of an effort to thwart potential terrorists, the Transportation Security Administration chief said on Friday. TSA Director Kip Hawley announced the changes, which go into effect on December 22, as part of a series of new procedures that focus more on detecting explosives at airports.

• Study treads on footprint claim - Impressions in volcanic ash hailed as footprints made by the earliest known human settlers in the Americas may not be what they seem, Nature journal says. If confirmed, the 40,000-year-old marks would have debunked accepted theories of human migration into the Americas. But the ash has now been dated to 1.3 million years ago - more than a million years before modern humans evolved.

01st DECEMBER 2005: -

• FDA staff says ADHD patch not safe enough - An experimental skin patch to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in some children should not be approved in the United States because of safety risks, U.S. regulatory staff recommended on Thursday. Two new studies for the patch, which is made by Britain's Shire Pharmaceuticals Group Plc and U.S. Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc. did not prove it was safe enough, Food and Drug Administration reviewers said in memos posted on the agency's Web site.

• Sewage theory in water bug probe - Experts investigating a north Wales stomach bug outbreak which has struck 123 people say untreated sewage may have entered the water supply. October's heavy rain could have caused a septic tank to fail allowing sewage into Cwellyn reservoir, said Dr Mark Walker of the outbreak control team.

• U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press: Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to the practice - As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

• When secrecy does more harm than good: The government is wrong to wield the Official Secrets Act over the leaked al-Jazeera memo - In 1997, the new Labour government published a white paper setting out its proposals for a Freedom of Information Act. The opening paragraph stated: "Unnecessary secrecy in government leads to arrogance in governance and defective decision-making. The perception of excessive secrecy has become a corrosive influence in the decline of public confidence in government.

• Glasgow hosts debate on National ID Card issue - Glasgow will focus on the government's proposed controversial national identity card scheme this week at a presentation from a leading Home Office adviser, hosted by the city's branch of the British Computer Society. Since their initial conception, National ID cards remain an issue of heated debate, particularly because it is proposed they will incorporate biometric information unique to each holder, if and when they are introduced.

• Pupil Discovers Camera In School Bathroom - A Jasper County mother says her 8th grade son found a video camera taping in the school bathroom this week. But now, he is the one in trouble. Cindy Champion says her son, Mac Bedor, and a few of his friends took the camera out of the ceiling because they felt it violated their privacy. Champion says her son brought the camera home to show her that afternoon. She says when she contacted the Jasper County Comprehensive School, she found out high school principal, Howard Fore, put the camera there. She says Fore told her he put the camera in the boys' bathroom to catch students vandalizing. Champion says her son is now suspended for taking school property.

• "AS OF THE 01ST DECEMBER OUR 'LATEST HEADLINES' HAVE BEEN MOVED TO OUR HOMEPAGE - SIMPLY GO TO CREMATIONOFCARE.COM TO SEE OUR NEW IMPROVEMENT, AS WE ATTEMPT TO MAKE OUR SITE MORE 'USER-FRIENDLY'!" - Webmaster: J.R. Skelton