31st JANUARY 2006: -

• POLICE STATE SCARE TACTICS: ID protester stopped and filmed under terror law will have police record for life - A campaigner against ID cards who was stopped under counter-terror laws while collecting signatures for a petition has been told by police that his details will be kept on file indefinitely. Mark Wallace was outside the Labour Party conference in Brighton last autumn when he was detained under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The measure gives officers wide powers to stop anyone in a designated area, whether or not they are acting suspiciously.

• The religious hatred laws battle - Government plans to outlaw incitement to religious hatred have provoked some of the biggest demonstrations since the row over fox hunting. And, as ministers attempted for the third time since 2001 to push legislation through parliament, they were facing opposition from a wide range of religious groups, politicians, secularists and entertainers.

• Enron prosecutor vows insider glimpses - Prosecutors in Houston`s trial of two former Enron Corp. leaders promised jurors Tuesday he would spell out the sleaze that brought down the company. Ken Lay, Enron`s founder, and Jeff Skilling, its president, are on trial for fraud and conspiracy in the energy company`s 2001 collapse, the Houston Chronicle said.

• Experts Claim Official 9/11 Story is a Hoax: Scholars for 9/11 Truth call for verification and publication by an international consortium - A group of distinguished experts and scholars, including Robert M. Bowman, James H. Fetzer, Wayne Madsen, John McMurtry, Morgan Reynolds, and Andreas von Buelow, have concluded that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11.

• UK forces suffer 100th Iraq death - A British soldier has died in a blast in southern Iraq - the 100th UK forces fatality since the 2003 invasion. The soldier, from the Scots Dragoon Guards, was killed in Umm Qasr, Basra province, the Ministry of Defence said. It follows the death of L/Cpl Allan Douglas, 22, who was shot and killed in Maysan province on Monday.

• THE PHONY 'LEFT VS RIGHT': Is there a new member of the Bush family? - President George W. Bush says Bill Clinton has become so close to his father that the Democratic former president is like a member of the family. Former President George Bush has worked with Clinton to raise money for victims of the Asian tsunami and the hurricane disaster along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Asked about his father and Clinton, Bush quipped, "Yes, he and my new brother."

• Big brother style surveillance growing on Britain’s roads - Big Brother-style surveillance is growing on Britain’s roads, where police will have the greatest ability in the world to scrutinise, control and record the movements of drivers by the end of the year. Thousands of cameras reading vehicle number plates and comparing data with a central data base will analyse some 35 mn pieces of information per day.

30th JANUARY 2006: -

• Face and fingerprints swiped in Dutch biometric passport crack: Chip skimmed, then security breached - Dutch TV programme Nieuwslicht (Newslight) is claiming that the security of the Dutch biometric passport has already been cracked. As the programme reports here, the passport was read remotely and then the security cracked using flaws built into the system, whereupon all of the biometric data could be read. The crack is attributed to Delft smartcard security specialist Riscure, which here explains that an attack can be executed from around 10 metres and the security broken, revealing date of birth, facial image and fingerprint, in around two hours.

• US plans to 'fight the net' revealed - A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks. Bloggers beware. As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern media offer.

• Alleged abuse victim to continue testimony against former priest - An alleged sex abuse victim of ex-priest Michael Wempe will be back in a Los Angeles courtroom this morning to testify against the former clergyman. The 26-year-old identified in court as Jayson-B recounted two instances of abuse during his testimony on Friday. At one point he burst into tears and declared that he hates the former priest for getting close to his family, and then abusing him.

• Cub Foods installs biometric payment system - Cub Foods' three stores in the Madison area installed fingerprint scanners last week so shoppers can pay with a swipe of the finger – and at lower cost to the supermarket. Scanning a finger calls up a stored profile in the supermarket's computers that includes payment information. Pay By Touch, the San Francisco-based provider of the biometric technology, claims the payments cost retailers 12 cents each, versus an average 72 cents for a credit card and 36 cents for a check.

• U.S. Army Has Seized Wives of Insurgents in Iraq to Force Them to Talk - The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show. In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In the case of a second detainee, one American colonel suggested to another that they catch her husband by tacking a note to the family's door telling him "to come get his wife."

• Police chief admits fatal shooting errors - Police chief Ian Blair told a newspaper on Monday his force made errors in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man whom officers mistook for a suicide bomber. Blair, who is facing an investigation by an independent watchdog over comments he made after Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police last July, said in an interview with the Guardian that false reports in the media should have been immediately corrected.

• 'RFID tag' - the rude words ID card ministers won't say: Lengthy descriptions of duck, but no d-word - When it comes to RFID, is MP Andy Burnham lying or drowning? If it's lying, then in principle the Home Office Minister is no more lying than other people are - the US Department of Homeland Security, the EU's Justice & Home Affairs Committee and impressive numbers of RFID, sorry, contactless, proximity chip vendors. But if he's not, the drowning act is pretty convincing.

29th JANUARY 2006: -

• ID cards are of 'limited value' - ID cards would be of "limited value" against terror and would not have prevented the London attacks in July, says the reviewer of anti-terror laws. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile said he had changed his mind on identity cards, which he had previously backed. "I can't think of many terrorist incidents, in fact I can think of very few... that ID cards would have brought to an earlier end," he told GMTV.

• Police 'covered up' Menezes blunder - Special Branch officers launched a "blatant" cover-up to try to conceal their fatal role in the shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, it has been claimed. Undercover police tried to change a surveillance log to hide the fact they had mistakenly identified the 27-year-old electrician as a suspected suicide bomber, a newspaper has reported.        (RELATED: See our 'Jean Charles Menezes Assassination' archive)

• Now Mr Blair must tell us why we really went to war - The most serious accusation that can be made against a Prime Minister is that he knowingly misled Parliament. Such a charge would be graver still if the deception involved hiding from MPs - and the nation - that he was acting according to a secret agreement with a foreign power. And if the result of this were to be that this country went to war, a war which is quite possibly illegal and in which many British Servicemen and many innocent civilians have been killed or maimed, the offence might be so grave that the Prime Minister could face calls for his impeachment.

• Suspect Dies After Struck With Taser: Came After Police With Garden Hoe - The San Jose police department is investigating its third death of a suspect who was shot with a taser gun. Jorge Luis Trujillo died Friday. Officers used a taser to subdue Trujillo Wednesday night after they say he came after them with a garden hoe in the 1200 block of Woodborough Place.

• Big Google is watching you: Every web move you make is recorded for ever. And the Chinese government for one is getting wise to the potential, says John Lanchester - ‘Don’t be evil.” That’s the motto of Google, which was founded in 1997 and is now worth $129 billion (£72 billion), making it the fastest growing company in the history of the world. The mixture of unprecedented financial growth and squeaky-clean ethics has made Google the only company in the world which is perceived as simultaneously cool, successful and on the side of the good guys. Or at least that was the case until last week, when Google announced that it was switching its search facilities in China to servers based inside the country, and that as part of that process it would be co- operating with Chinese government censorship of the internet.

• ID cards 'will track where people go' - Anti-ID cards campaigners accused the Home Office yesterday of misleading parliament and the public over plans to include radio tracking devices in ID cards. Only last month, Andy Burnham, the Home Office minister, said in a parliamentary written answer that there were "no plans to use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in ID cards". However, a leaked letter from Mr Burnham indicates that the chips will use radio frequencies to allow "contactless" reading of the card by special scanners.

• Australia: Has the police state arrived? - A close-circuit video camera in every bank, on every shop front, every shopping mall, every train station, every local government camera, any private business with a camera, every corner shop – centrally linked with live feeds to police command – not science fiction or a left-wing paranoia, but a reality in Australia's state of New South Wales – and soon to an urban center near you.

• Russia 'makes second arrest' over British spy scandal - The Foreign Office was last night making urgent diplomatic checks after it was reported that a fresh arrest has been made in Russia of a person accused of spying for Britain. The claim was made by the former head of the FSB security service, Nikolai Kovalyov, in an interview with a Russian TV channel due to be broadcast today. In an extract from the interview shown last night, Mr Kovalyov, now an MP, says that two people allegedly working as spies for Britain have been arrested in Moscow, adding: "Of course they are not silent, they are talking."

28th JANUARY 2006: -

• Rock producer Spector says mind clouded by Taser - Rock producer Phil Spector said in a sworn deposition made public on Friday he was sober when arrested in the shooting death of an actress but that his mind was clouded from having been zapped by police with a stun-gun. Contrary to police accounts that he appeared drunk when they arrived at his home after the February 2003 shooting, Spector said in the deposition he had not been drinking that night and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs when arrested. Instead, Spector repeated under oath his assertion that police had beaten and subdued him with a Taser-like device even though he was "being very cooperative" with them.

• Getting the kids used to the cashless society: Mastercard introduces credit cards for children - Mastercard is to introduce credit cards directly aimed at children, encouraging them to go into debt and consume products without the use of cash. Supporters regard the cards, which are issued by Bluecorner, as the natural step in an increasingly cashless society. They argue that the prepayment cards will familiarise children with plastic without spending too much. Says the London Times.

• Defense Minister Plays Down Brutal Torture Incident in Russian Army - Russia’s defense minister on Thursday downplayed a brutal attack that resulted in a conscript having his legs and genitals amputated, AP reported. A military commission has begun probing the incident, in which senior soldiers at the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy forced Pvt. Andrei Sychev to squat for several hours, tied him to chairs and beat him, resulting in gangrenous infection, prosecutors say.

• Cars burn as anger at Fatah poll defeat turns to violence - Cars were set alight and buildings vandalised in Gaza yesterday as thousands of mainly young members of Fatah angrily denounced the party's leadership for this week's spectacular electoral defeat by Hamas. In the worst outbreak of violence since Wednesday's election a mob converged on the local Gaza outpost of the Palestinian parliament, led by gunmen firing in the air, calling for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, to resign and rejecting any coalition with Hamas.

• AG's memo raises questions on Patriot Act: Suggests it's not needed for domestic spying - A footnote in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's 42-page legal memo defending President Bush's domestic spying program appears to argue that the administration does not need Congress to extend the USA Patriot Act in order to keep using the law's investigative powers against terror suspects. The memo states that Congress gave Bush the power to investigate terror suspects using whatever tactics he deemed necessary when it authorized him to use force against Al Qaeda. When Congress later passed the Patriot Act, Bush already had the power to use enhanced surveillance techniques against Al Qaeda, according to the footnote.

• Broadcaster says serious news at risk - The anchorman whose boss once characterized him as ice compared with his successor's fire was anything but chilly in the impassioned speech he delivered Tuesday at The Society of the Four Arts. "Truth no longer matters in the context of politics and, sadly, in the context of cable news," said Aaron Brown, whose four-year period as anchor of CNN's NewsNight ended in November, when network executives gave his job to Anderson Cooper in a bid to push the show's ratings closer to front-runner Fox News.

• 'Grand Theft Auto' makers sued by US city: The makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are being sued for allegedly hiding pornographic material in the game, officials said - Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said today his office sued game developer Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, for allegedly violating the state's business code by making misleading statements in marketing the game and engaging in unfair competition. The game, released in October 2004, features characters who commit crimes such as murder, drug dealing and pimping. The game also had an embedded "mini game" in which characters could engage in explicit sexual acts.

• ITN journalist arrested over Stockwell shooting case: AN ITN journalist has been arrested over a story the station broadcast about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes - ITV are standing by their story revealing that the innocent Brazilian was held down by armed police at Stockwell underground station while bullets were pumped into his head. The reporter has been arrested on suspicion of theft by detectives investigating the leaking of statements from the official inquiry. The arrest comes as police anxiously await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over whether any police officers should face criminal charges following the fatal shooting on 22nd July last year.

• A watched America is not a free America - I stopped for gas on my way home last night, inserting my credit card into the reader at the gas pump at the Exxon station on North Main Street in Floyd, Virginia. It cost just under $40 to fill the 19-gallon gas tank on my Jeep Wrangler. With the tank filled, I retrieved the receipt and climbed back into the Jeep but before I could start the engine a bank of high speed computers operated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at 3801 Fairfax Drive in Arlington, Virginia, 300 miles away, already knew I had purchased 17.3 gallons of unleaded regular at $2.29.9 a gallon in a small community in the Blue Ridge Mountain. The computer compared that purchase with my last gas purchase – 14.7 gallons at the Travel America Truckstop just outside Roanoke four days ago and added the information to the computerized profile it keeps on me and millions of other American citizens.

• Galloway: I was promised soapbox - George Galloway has said he was promised he could use Celebrity Big Brother as a "soapbox" for his political views. As he returned to his Bethnal Green and Bow constituency office, the MP said he had been told he would not be censored. Mr Galloway said he went in the house to gain a platform for his Respect party but his views were blanked out. Channel 4 said: "George was aware that we are bound to operate under the Ofcom broadcasting guidelines."

27th JANUARY 2006: -

• APOLOGIES TO ALL OF THE VISITORS WHO HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO VIEW CREMATIONOFCARE.COM TODAY - WE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF INCREASING OUR BANDWIDTH LIMITS - SERVICES SHALL RESUME AS NORMAL VERY SOON.

26th JANUARY 2006: -

• Baby, I'm desperate - Wannabes queued up to conceive a baby with a stranger live on air for a £100,000 prize. The show was a spoof, but what does it say about reality TV? It started as a challenge - to come up with the ultimate tasteless reality TV show and test the boundaries of the format.

• Labour ID card rebellion weakens - Labour MPs opposed to identity cards believe that they will not rally enough support to defeat the proposal in the Commons because potential new rebels are preparing to concentrate their fire on education reforms instead. While maintaining their own opposition to the Identity Card Bill, a number of Labour MPs who voted against the measure last year believe that the Government has done a good enough job in explaining the need for ID cards to prevent a bigger rebellion. Mike Wood, the MP for Batley and Spen, an opponent of the Bill, said: "Opposition in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] is lessening."

• Britain commits 3,300 more troops to Afghanistan - More than 3,300 British troops are to be sent to patrol and rebuild a lawless province of southern Afghanistan, the Defence Secretary announced today. A force of 850 servicepeople drawn from 39 Regiment Royal Engineers, and 42 Commando Royal Marines will be sent out first to Helmand province to build a camp for the main deployment of 3,300, which should be completed by July, John Reid said in a Commons statement.

• 24' hours of torture-loving - The new season of "24" has begun and my fellow devotees already have glowing things to say about it. I find the shows so compelling that I never watch them on network television; I wait for the DVD so I can watch them without interruption. But when I finally get to watch this season, I will come to it with a new sense of skepticism. You see, "24" may not express overt political partisanship, but there's little doubt about its cheap, manipulative messages. For one thing, it rather dislikes people who express doubts about the efficacy, pervasiveness and immediacy of the threat posed by terrorism. Fair enough. For another, the show is ardently, unambiguously, proselytizingly pro-torture.

25th JANUARY 2006: -

• Google submits to China censorship - Online search engine leader Google, in a bid to strengthen its competitive position in the world's second-largest Internet market, launched its first local site, Google.cn. But to do so, it agreed - as its competitors have already - to censor its search results to comply with mainland laws and regulations.

• Iran accuses UK of bombing link - Iran has accused the UK of co-operating with bombers who killed eight people in attacks in the restive south-western city of Ahwaz on Tuesday. "Britain must respond to the doubts of Iranians concerning the events," said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Mr Mottaki said the masterminds of the bombing "or people of their mind" had been photographed with UK officials.   (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' archive for more background info)

• BANK OF AMERICA & COMPASS BANK MANAGERS WERE TOLD HOMELAND SECURITY WILL CONFISCATE SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES - A family member from Irvine, CA (who’s a branch manager at Bank of America) told us two weeks ago that her bank held a "workshop" where the last two days were dedicated to discussing their bank’s new security measures. During these last two days, the workshop included members from the Homeland Security Office who instructed them on how to field calls from customers and what they are to tell them in the event of a national disaster. She said they were told how only agents from Homeland Security (during such an event) would be in charge of opening safe deposit boxes and determining what items would be given to bank customers.

• New super-gun to be tested in Feb - Next month a new high-explosive munition will be fired in Singapore and then tested again by the U.S. Army, heralding what may be a sea change in weaponry: a gun that can fire 240,000 rounds per minute. That's compared to 60 rounds per minute in a standard military machine gun. Metal Storm Inc., a munitions company headquartered in Virginia but with its roots in Australia, has been developing a gun that can shoot at blistering speeds, albeit in short bursts as each barrel is reloaded.

• Unfathomed Dangers in Patriot Act Reauthorization: Patriot Police - A provision in the "Patriot Act" creates a new federal police force with power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this cannot be true as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it discussed by talking heads on TV. Go to House Report 109-333 - USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 and check it out for yourself. Sec. 605 reads: "There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division'."

24th JANUARY 2006: -

• Peers reject ID-card database plans as attack on freedom - Angry peers last night invoked the memory of fascist regimes which forced citizens to carry their papers as they tore the heart out of the Government's planned legislation for identity cards. The House of Lords overturned proposals to place everyone who applies for a new passport or driving licence on the database that will underpin the controversial scheme.  (COMMENTARY: The National Biometric Database of course continues to be constructed, encompassing information gathered whenever a citizen applies for a passport or drivers licence. And when put into context with all of the ‘Anti-terror’ scanners and Orwellian surveillance systems that are being implemented up and down the country, you have to ask the question, what exactly – if at all- is the setback?)

• Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has claimed the Foreign Office and the media are controlled by Jews. Under cross-examination, he told the Old Bailey he did not believe in the state of Israel "because it means state of my death - holocaust". And he said Jews in the UK and the US also "controlled money supply". Mr Abu Hamza, 47, from west London, denies 15 charges including soliciting others to murder Jews and other non-Muslims and inciting racial hatred. "There are people who are Zionists who live outside (Israel) who are helping Zionists in Israel," he told the court on his fourth day in the witness box.

• Britain 'ordered torture of 9/11 suspect' - A Moroccan wanted in Spain over his alleged links to the 9/11 attackers today told his extradition hearing he had been tortured on the "direct orders" of British intelligence. Farid Hilali said the alleged torture took place while he was being held by the intelligence services of the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The hearing, at the high court in London, was adjourned to give the government the opportunity to deal with the accusation.

• Are Governments Searching For Subversives Through School Exams? - According to the Resistance Blog, A-level students (16-18) in Britain are being asked questions about alternative 9/11 beliefs, conspiracy theories and how much faith they have in government. Is this part of a vetting process to try and identify the next generation of political dissidents or is it simply an assessment of how deep the alternative truth movement has penetrated the mass collective unconscious?

• Report alleges 'outsourcing of torture' by US: Council of Europe report says European governments knew rendition was happening, despite claims to the contrary - Despite claims to the contrary, European governments probably knew that the US was flying prisoners across their territory for "interrogation and torture" in other countries, a report claims Tuesday. The interim report from the 46-nation Council of Europe confirms the rendition of more than 100 prisoners through Europe, but it also found "no firm evidence" of a network of secret prisons in Europe. The Council of Europe is guardian of the Human Rights Convention, to which all 25 European nations are signatories.

23rd JANUARY 2006: -

• Former US spy slams UK's ID card plans: "Governments abuse their power. That's a fact," says former NSA agent - A former US spy turned leading privacy activist has slammed the UK's ID card plans, saying they will weaken national security and lead to abuses of government power. Bill Scannell is a former agent at the National Security Agency (NSA) and now a huge privacy advocate, currently heading up a campaign against the introduction of a national driving licence across the US.

• Bush defends practice of secret surveillance (yet again) - President George W. Bush defended a secret surveillance program and questioned Iranian nuclear ambitions during a relaxed appearance Monday at a Kansas university that lasted nearly two hours. The president spoke on a serious topic - the "global war on terrorism" - at a packed indoor coliseum at Kansas State University in Manhattan. He aggressively defended the National Security Agency's surveillance of communications between terror suspects abroad and people in the United States.

• DANGEROUS PRECEDENTS: Japanese Biometric Cell Phone - Japanese Radio has introduced a new phone targeted at security conscious business users. The Willcom WX310J includes a biometric fingerprint scanner in the center of the phone for security. In order to gain access to the phone you must swipe your finger over the scanner. The phone apparently comes with the added ability to secure your computer. By plugging it in to your PC, you can lock up the desktop so that it can only be accessed once your fingerprint has been authenticated.

• We don't live in a police state yet, but we're heading there: With barely a protest, Britain's liberties are being eroded in the name of a dubious campaign against terrorism and crime - The argument for social control goes like this: if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear from a national data bank of identity/the terrorism act/the tapping of MPs' phones/the use of the public-order act to control protest and limit free expression/the new powers of arrest/the retention of DNA samples taken from innocent juveniles.

• U.K. Lords Defeat Government Plan to Make ID Cards Compulsory - Britain's House of Lords rejected government plans to make a system of national identity cards compulsory, dealing a second blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair's flagship proposal for fighting fraud in just over a week. The upper chamber of Parliament voted 186-142 for an amendment that would make registration voluntary. On Jan. 16, the Lords backed an amendment that would force the government to provide an audited estimate of the costs of introducing the cards.

• Blair evades questions over British 'spy ring' - Tony Blair today dodged questions about accusations made by the Russian security service, the FSB, that British spies at the embassy in Moscow had been caught "red handed" using high-tech gadgetry to collect intelligence. The FSB has backed up the claims, first made on a television programme last night, that four spies at the British embassy in Moscow had been using a secret transmitter device hidden underneath a fake stone in a central square. The programme also said a UK diplomat made regular payments to Russian non-governmental organisations.

• DAVID ICKE'S REAPPEARANCE ON 'WOGAN': It could be the 1980s all over again as the broadcasting phenomenon that is Sir Terry finds himself back in the armchair with a new chat show on UKTV Gold.  David Icke had better watch out - ...The remainder of the interview consisted of a stream-of-consciousness from Icke on how the world and international media are run by a sinister cabal, while Wogan interjected with the occasional "But who are these hidden hands?" and "But America is an open society, isn't it?". This latter comment provided the only burst of laughter from the studio audience as Icke retorted: "Oh pur-leese, I've got some seafront property in Birmingham Terry you might like to buy. And they say I'm crazy."   (COMMENTARY:  I believe that David Icke has recently opened a new online bookstore at www.davidickebooks.co.uk - researchers may want to check out the material on offer. Although it may not be up everyone's street, it is certainly well put together and worth looking at).

22nd JANUARY 2006: -

• Security checks raise privacy concerns: The government wants Registered Travelers to go through even more extensive background checks - Airline passengers who buy a preapproved security pass could have their credit histories and property records examined as part of the government's plan to turn over the Registered Traveler program to private companies. In announcing the plan Friday, the Transportation Security Administration said the Registered Traveler card would let frequent fliers go through airport security lines more quickly if they pay a fee, pass a government background check and submit 10 fingerprints. The program will begin June 20.

• Westminster 'misled' over CIA torture flights - Pressure over the use of British airports for secret CIA torture flights increased dramatically yesterday after it emerged that a Foreign Office minister misled Parliament over a meeting between the UN and UK civil servants about the issue. The Independent on Sunday has learnt that Lord Triesman, the Foreign Office minister, misled peers when he told the House of Lords that no such meeting had ever occurred.

• Google in court over refusal to let US examine search requests - GOOGLE users will face US government monitoring if the American authorities win a court case aimed at getting the website to hand over copies of every search conducted. The world’s most popular search engine, used by 90 million people every month, has been asked to hand over an entire week of search requests made at Google.com. The US Department of Justice wants the information to help it to establish how much child pornography is available on the internet, but Google is unhappy that it is being used as part of what it calls a “research experiment”. Although the contents of most searches are anonymously entered phrases such as “weather in Rome”, some could reveal personal information.

• Confronting the Evidence: A Call To Reopen the 9/11 Investigation - Jimmy Walter is the multi-millionaire who is seeking to expose the lies of 9/11... 'To get a free copy of the DVD produced by Jimmy Walter and ReOpen911.org subtitled in 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, please complete the information on this link. We ask you to pass the DVD along to a friend or better yet, host a party.'

21st JANUARY 2006: -

• 24,000 'innocents' on DNA database - DNA profiles of 24,000 juveniles who have never been cautioned, charged or convicted of an offence are stored on the UK database, it has been disclosed. MP Grant Shapps obtained the Home Office figures when a constituent's son was wrongly arrested in a case of mistaken identity and DNA taken. After protests, the local chief constable agreed to remove the teenager's details, but Mr Shapps then discovered profiles of 24,000 youngsters aged 10 to 18 were stored. "Police can take information without asking permission from parents since a change in the law in April 2004 and you can't get details removed even though they are not guilty," he said.

• MIND CONTROLLING A GENERATION: Homeland Security to launch preparedness program for kids - After more than a year of delays, the Department of Homeland Security says it plans to launch a preparedness program next month aimed at alerting and preparing children for terror attacks and natural disasters. The program, called Ready Kids, is scheduled to roll out with TV ads, school programs and other events. "Ready Kids is a tool for parents and teachers to use to be able to speak to their students and children about how to be prepared for any type of disaster," said DHS spokeswoman Joanna Gonzalez.

• Police State in the US and Canada: The Radio Frequency ID Card: Tracking device that will tell authorities where the holder is at any time - Let us be very clear! The radio frequency ID now required in the USA and intended for Canada is a tracking device that will tell authorities where the holder of this PASS card is at any time.

• Bin Laden tapes: Fact or fiction? - The audiotapes of OSAMA BIN LADEN have become an important medium between AL-QAEDA network and the outside world. If authentic, these tapes could enable BIN LADEN to convey his opinions to his enemies and followers, issue threats and even claim responsibility for terror attacks carried out by his group. It is obvious that the usefulness of such tapes cannot be questioned, but how can people be sure of their origin and authenticity? Little time is dedicated to such examinations. But an analysis can really influence the way we judge similar evidence in the future. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that these audiotapes are authentic. While they are always followed by reports of scientific voice analyses, these studies have been invariably done by CIA experts. In fact, only one occasion was an independent analysis done. And while American officials were certain of the tape’s authenticity, Swedish scientists were convinced that it was fake.

20th JANUARY 2006: -

• Straw denies cover-up of rendition flights (Anyone want to buy a used car?) - The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, today denied there had been any cases of so-called extraordinary rendition involving the UK about which parliament had not been informed. Mr Straw was forced to rush out a written ministerial statement after the leak of a memo from the Foreign Office to No 10 suggested that there could have been more requests from the United States than the four about which parliament has been told.

• Grocery stores add gadgets to speed shopping - With self-checkout stations now commonplace at grocery stores around the country, a new generation of technology is taking convenience to a whole new level. Shoppers can pay with the swipe of a fingertip, ring up groceries as they place them in their carts and even track down recipes as they navigate the aisles. The technology, which ranges from hand-held scanners to stand-up kiosks, is being tested at stores in Charlotte, N.C., and selected cities across the country.

• Cheney Says Domestic Surveillance Vital: Vice President Dick Cheney Calls Domestic Surveillance Program Essential to U.S. Security - Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday defended the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, saying it is an essential tool in monitoring al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. But Cheney stressed that the program was limited and conducted in a way that safeguarded civil liberties.

• ‘Stun gun’ introduced - A safer alternative to combating terrorism and violence in the community has been unveiled by Surrey Police, to coincide with a nationwide initiative. The "taser" is a pistol-like electrical device designed to incapacitate targets rather than injure them. It has been well publicised in the fight against terror where officers have faced potentially dangerous suspects.

• NEW MEXICO BEGINS PROCESS TO BAN ASPARTAME - A senate bill to rid New Mexico of what has been called "Rumsfeld's Disease" was introduced Thursday by Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, as 15 other senators from both sides of isle also signed on, supporting legislation to ban the deadly artificial sweetener, aspartame. Linked to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his efforts in the 1970s for putting the sweetener on the market, New Mexico is the first state to consider banning the artificial additive linked to numerous ill-health affects, including cancer. If passed, no food containing any amount of the sweetener could be manufactured, sold or delivered in Mew Mexico, beginning July 1.

• Blair rejects demands to drop ID card plans - Prime Minister Tony Blair, has stoutly rejected the Opposition's demand to reconsider his controversial plans to introduce ID cards in Britain, insisting that it was needed to tackle illegal migration, crime and identity fraud. "The ID cards are needed to fight identity fraud and illegal immigration," Blair told the House of Commons after Conservative party leader David Cameron claimed the scheme was becoming a monument to the failure of big government. Rejecting claims by Cameron that Chancellor Gordon Brown was also opposed to the idea, Blair said: "I certainly can give a guarantee that the government as a whole is absolutely behind identity cards."

• BRITAIN: MEMO REVEALS GOVERNMENT STRATEGY TO DENY TORTURE FLIGHTS - The British government has prepared a secret strategy aimed at rebutting accusations that it knew of covert US "torture flights" two British publications have alleged. The Guardian daily and the New Statesman weekly base their allegations on an internal memo sent by the British foreign office to prime minister Tony Blair's offices. The document, a copy of which has been obtained by the New Statesman, shows that the government has been aware terrorism suspects captured by US and British security forces may have been sent to secret interrogation centres.

• Sex offenders 'could still teach' - Sex offenders could still be allowed to teach in schools despite Education Secretary Ruth Kelly's promised crackdown, an MP has warned. Ms Kelly announced a complete ban on anyone who has been convicted or cautioned for sex offences against children from working in schools. But, the automatic ban is not retrospective and anyone already convicted or cautioned for a child sex offence will instead go before an independent review panel.

• Mind over matter could cure back pain - Mental exercises could be just as effective as physically working the muscles to ease back pain, researchers have suggested. Their work could bring relief to the thousands of chronic back pain sufferers in the UK. The study, published in the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, found that training the mind was just as effective as using more physical methods to deal with chronic lower back pain.

• Money really does worry us sick - Money worries are a significant cause of worry, anxiety and stress according to GP and leading mental health expert, Dr Roger Henderson, who has published a paper identifying the condition Money Sickness Syndrome (MSS). Almost half (43%) of the UK adult population is affected by money worries and have experienced MSS symptoms, and in support of the work Dr Henderson has done AXA has conducted national research to explore the extent of the problem and better understand its implications.

19th JANUARY 2006: -

• GIVE US FINGERPRINTS SO YOU CAN PICK UP YOUR KIDS FROM NURSERY HI-TECH SCANNER ON DOOR - A NURSERY has become the first to install a James Bond-style fingerprint-scanner entry system to keep its youngsters safe. Parents have had their prints fed into a computer which is used to identify them every time they call to drop off or pick up their child. The system is similar to the security measures used to protect military and government buildings. Nursery manager Sue Charlton said: "It is using technology to create the safest possible environment for parents and children. It is a much more efficient way of doing checks."

• SYMBOLISM: THE CABLE-TOW - During initiation rituals of many Satanically inspired religious ceremonies, a common theme crops up in which the initiate (traditionally a male - although not always) is made to accept a noose being placed around their neck. In doing so, the initiate is actively gesturing that they surrender their life and faith to the 'Brotherhood' and that they will gladly 'hang themself' for the higher purpose, or those further up in the Brotherhood hierarchy. In many cases - Satan himself.

• Father of all plots: the kidnap that wasn't and the end of a protest group - It was a story guaranteed to grab headlines; Special Branch officers had foiled a plot by Fathers4Justice to kidnap the Prime Minister's five-year-old son Leo. Members at the "extreme" fringes of the organisation had been overheard talking about the plot, which would be a bid to gain publicity for their cause.

• Men enjoy revenge more than women do - Men get greater satisfaction than women from seeing someone they dislike suffer pain, according to a study of how people react when witnessing revenge. Scientists found highly significant differences between the two sexes in terms of how the male and the female brain responds to acts of retribution. Both men and women feel empathy towards people they know experiencing pain but in men the empathy turns to pleasure when the victim is someone they dislike.

• Proponent of referendum petition drive says questioning by police led to pulling of sheets - Months after collecting signatures for last year’s failed effort to force a citywide referendum on downtown, Mike Saman got a phone call from the police about his work on the referendum. The former Republican City Council candidate said recently he got a message from a police detective who wanted to talk to him about "a criminal investigation."

18th JANUARY 2006: -

• MEP's call on rendition flights - The Scottish Executive has been asked to co-operate fully with a new European committee's investigation into US flights carrying terror suspects. It follows a report by the SNP which it believes details US intelligence flights through Scottish airports. The party said the document lists in detail the planes, dates on which they landed and 10 firms which allegedly operated on behalf of the CIA. The executive said it has no knowledge of Scottish airports being used.

• BNP leader 'predicted UK terror attacks' - The leader of the British National Party predicted that Islamic terrorists would set off bombs in major British cities causing blood on the streets more than a year before the July 7 attacks, a court heard today. Nick Griffin, 45, and fellow party activist Mark Collett, 24, are on trial on a series of race-hate charges arising out of speeches featured in an undercover BBC documentary.    (COMMENTARY: This is not exactly a good example of 'prediction' - the fact that a racist political frontman like Nick Griffin can even rub two brain-cells together and say 'right, those black-faced ones are going to bomb us!' is no surprise.  I have had a number of debates with those peddling the party line of fear who frequently use the cop out "They're gonna blow us up unless... " in order to empower their argument.  Real hate-mongers like Nick Griffin use this all the time, because they know that eventually when something is blown up, they can give it the whole "I told you so" answer.)

• Universities applaud rejection of terror bill clause - Universities today welcomed a resounding defeat in the House of Lords for the government over a clause in the terrorism bill that they feared would penalise lecturers and librarians. It was the second reverse inflicted by opposition and crossbench peers on a bill that has caused continual problems for the government in its attempts to crack down on terrorist activity in the wake of the bombings in London on July 7 last year. MPs voted down plans to hold terror suspects for up to 90 days - Tony Blair's first Commons defeat.

• Torontonians greet Guardian Angels as police, politicians give cold shoulder - Walking through a rundown Toronto neighbourhood where two young men were shot dead last year, members of the Guardian Angels civilian patrol group received a warm welcome Saturday, despite some critics saying their presence could incite further violence. "I know they're upsetting a good part of the Toronto city council and I know they're upsetting the mayor, but frankly, I don't have any eloquent way to put it: We don't care, we need some sort of presence," said Andrew Ferguson, while walking his dog in the Parkdale community.

17th JANUARY 2006: -

• Mental illness linked to diet - According to new research released this week, mental health is linked to diet and changes to diets over the last 50 years may hold the key to the rise of mental illness. The findings support a growing body of evidence that food can have an effect upon a person's mental health and behaviour that is both immediate and long lasting because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain. Food campaigners Sustain and the Mental Health Foundation say the way food is now produced has altered the balance of the key nutrients people consume.

• Defeat in Lords fails to deter ministers over terror bill - Ministers vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with controversial plans to make the “glorification” of terrorism an offence despite suffering an overwhelming 126-vote defeat in the House of Lords. In the second Lords’ defeat for the government in two days, Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers united to vote 270 to 144 to remove the offence of glorification from the bill. The government shrugged off the vote, pledging to restore the clause when the bill goes to the Commons next month. “It’s a manifesto commitment and we will re-introduce it in the Commons,” one official said.

• Small brothels may be legalised - The law could be changed to allow up to three prostitutes to work legally in a brothel, the Government has said. Currently only one prostitute can work from a single address without breaking the law. Launching the Home Office's new prostitution strategy, minister Fiona Mactaggart said the current law meant women were forced to work in unsafe conditions. Ms Mactaggart said the three working together could include a "maid" or receptionist. She added: "My understanding is that it should be two women working as a prostitute but they might have a receptionist. "I'm not encouraging the commercial sale of women's bodies.

• Bug Spray Use Linked to Childhood Leukemia - Exposure to bug spray during pregnancy and in early childhood has been associated with a doubling of the risk for acute leukemia, French researchers reported. The association included not only insecticides used during household gardening but also the shampoo used to treat lice, investigators reported in the January issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The associations remained significant after accounting for other factors, such as socioeconomic status.

• Protect consumers' digital rights, British MPs urged - A U.K. consumer rights watchdog has urged new laws to protect consumers' digital rights. The National Consumer Council told a parliamentary inquiry into digital rights management that companies are already eroding consumer rights. The inquiry is studying technologies that limit what people can do with CDs, DVDs and downloaded recordings. Consumers cannot make compilations for their own use or move recordings from one device to another because of anti-piracy technology installed by recording companies and film distributors, the NCC said.

• THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!: Walking could 'ward off dementia' - Regular walks could help to ward off dementia among the over 65s, according to a new study. Those who take a 15-minute walk just three times a week are up to 40 per cent less likely to develop dementia than those who are less active. US researchers followed the progress of over 1,700 volunteers for six years. All were over 65 years old and in good health.

• SIGN OF THE TIMES: Having children 'is bad for your mental health' - If you thought that the joys of watching your young ones grow up was one of life's simple pleasures, think again. Parenthood is actually bad for your mental health, according to the latest research. George Clooney, the actor who famously vowed never to have children, seems destined to live a happier life than many of his Hollywood peers, according to a new report which found that parents suffer greater depression than people without children. The study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, surveyed 13,017 adults who were asked how many times in the past week they had experienced symptoms of depression.

16th JANUARY 2006: -

• Junk food link to mental illness - CHANGES in diet over the past 50 years appear to be an important factor behind a significant rise in mental ill health, say two new British reports. The Mental Health Foundation said yesterday that studies had clearly linked attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to junk food and the absence of essential fats, vitamins and minerals in industrialised diets.