Monday 31st July 2006: -

• Blair’s popularity hits all time low - Public support for Tony Blair, British prime minister, has plunged to its lowest since he became premier, according to a new poll that shows growing disapproval over how he has handled the Middle East crisis. The survey by Ipsos MORI, carried out this month as the US and Britain blocked international calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, found Mr Blair’s personal popularity at an all-time low.

• Branson to begin random drug testing: Superintendent says he has heard no opposition to mandatory procedures - The Branson School District will begin mandatory, random drug testing of most students in grades seven through 12 Monday under a policy adopted by the school board this spring. Superintendent Doug Hayter said he had encountered almost no opposition to the testing plan.

• Bali Bomb - inside job - According to a news story in the Sydney Morning Herald, 2 November 2002, the Indonesian security services may have handled the Bali bomb. "Some time around the 30 October 2002, senior officers in the Indonesian military HQ gave a piece of information to a military attache from a Western embassy in Indonesia -the source of explosive used in the October 12 bombing in Bali was the head of the counter-terrorism unit with the army's special forces."

• Call the Neocons, Mention 9/11 Panel - A grand slam — a surprise fourth broadcast of the landmark Alex Jones Los Angeles 9/11 panel will take place on Tuesday, August 1 at 6:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time (Washington-New York time). This telecast can be seen worldwide over the internet as a video stream over the internet at http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp Let us mobilize to organize the biggest audience ever by an incessant and sustained intervention in radio and television call-in talk shows, by blast emails, by direct personal contact alerts, by public signs, leaflets, and by every other means at our disposal.

• New maximum-security jail to open at Guantanamo Bay: Far from winding down, the controversial US detention centre is expanding - The controversy over the US-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is to erupt anew with confirmation by the Pentagon that a new, permanent prison will open in the Cuban enclave in the next few weeks.

• Latest FDA Warnings On Antidpressants Marks 1,700% Increase In Psychiatric Drug Warnings: In only the past 4 years there have been 20 government warnings regarding the dangers of psychiatry's drugs by five different countries - On July 21st, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked antidepressant drug makers to add two more warnings to the drug labels. According to the FDA, antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac or Zoloft taken during pregnancy can cause the newborn to develop a fatal lung disease. The FDA also warned that taking antidepressants with certain migraine drugs can lead to "serotonin syndrome," which can lead to hallucinations, vomiting, blood pressure changes, restlessness and death. These two most recent warnings about antidepressants may sound shocking, but they are consistent with the disturbing history of psychiatric drug warnings.

• VeriChip's first emergency room case 'a success' - VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital, says that the VeriMed Patient Identification System was successfully used at Hackensack University Medical centre in Hackensack, New Jersey, helping a Bergen County Police Officer (who had previously received the VeriChip) during an emergency situation. This was the first time that a patient who had received a VeriChip was able to receive treatment from a hospital that also offered the system. Hackensack's emergency room medical staff had immediate, secure access to the officer's identity and medical history after scanning his VeriChip microchip and linking it with his patient information file stored on VeriChip Corporation's secure database. The officer was taken to Hackensack University Medical centre with head, neck and back injuries after a high speed chase that resulted in a car accident.

• Israel halts airstrikes for 48 hours: Attack killing dozens of civilians in Lebanon called a 'mistake' - Israel agreed to halt airstrikes on southern Lebanon for 48 hours to investigate a Sunday raid that killed more than 60 civilians in Qana, Lebanon, an Israeli official said. The airstrike on Qana threatened to derail work toward a resolution in the 19-day conflict between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas.

• Reports Detail Massive Abuses at Homeland Security - A congressional report released Thursday slammed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in hurricane relief and national security money on frivolous purchases and mismanagement of contracts. The report, prepared by staff of the House Committee on Government Reform, echoed an investigative report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). It highlighted several examples involving the agencies within the massive department formed after 9/11.

• Palestine - the hinge of our humanity?: Thursday 3rd August @ 7.30pm, Civic Hall Totnes - David Halpin has recently returned from his fifth visit to the remnants of Palestine. He found the suffering of the people to be greater than ever. All the features of a medieval siege were in place and international law absent. On return to this 'western democracy', he heard the deafening silence of a prostituted press; prostituted to a government, which is unprincipled in its actions and alliances, and incestuous in its dealings. He will describe the current state. Dr David Halpin is a retired Orthopaedic Surgeon and Campaigner for the re-opening of the inquest on Dr David Kelly.

• Dr. David Ray Griffin, Author of : The New Pearl Harbour & The 9/11 Commission Report – Omissions & Distortions & David Shayler, MI5 Whistleblower: 911 Truth Campaign (Britain & Ireland) Was 9/11 an inside job? David Ray Griffin, a retired Professor of Theology addresses this question in his two books which critically examine the official account of the events of 9/11. Now for the first time in the UK, David Ray Griffin will present his case for the urgent need to re-open the investigation into the events of 11th September 2001. 7.30pm - Saturday 9th September 2006 - Buy your tickets online now!

Sunday 30th July 2006: -

• Millions of children to be fingerprinted - British children, possibly as young as six, will be subjected to compulsory fingerprinting under European Union rules being drawn up in secret. The prints will be stored on a database which could be shared with countries around the world. The prospect has alarmed civil liberties groups who fear it represents a 'sea change' in the state's relationship with children and one that may lead to juveniles being erroneously accused of crimes. Under laws being drawn up behind closed doors by the European Commission's 'Article Six' committee, which is composed of representatives of the European Union's 25 member states, all children will have to attend a finger-printing centre to obtain an EU passport by June 2009 at the latest.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• Student protests recorded in Pentagon database - When a group of students at the University of California-Berkeley convened to protest on-campus military recruitment last year, they hoped their effort would get some attention.  But they didn't expect that attention would wind up in a terror-threat database. The day before the protest, on April 20, 2005, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security filed a report on the planned demonstration. Among the items included: An e-mail sent by an organizer, along with the student's e-mail address and phone number. The agent's report was included in a Pentagon-managed database intended to compile information on threats from international terrorists.    (RELATED: See our Police State archive)

• You don't want GM foods? Too bad; By Michael Meacher - So, according to the Government, we are to have GM crops commercially grown in Britain from 2009, and if you don't like your food being GM contaminated, too bad. That's the clear message of Defra's latest consultation paper proposing absurdly small separation distances between GM and other crops, a voluntary system of compensation for ruined non-GM farmers, and permission for GM crops to be grown at secret locations (rejecting a public register of sites as sanctioned by EU law). All of this begs the question: is genetic modification of food safe? The question remains unanswered, but a pile of new scientific evidence has produced some worrying results. Within the last few months a Russian scientist, found that an astonishing 55 per cent of the offspring of rats fed on GM soya died within three weeks of birth compared with only 9 per cent in the control group.

• India officially denies but Pakistani ISI and Chinese intelligence apparatus prime suspect in stealing sensitive data from 3 hard-drives stolen in Indian Defense Headquarters - Tri-service Integrated Defense Staff (IDS) Headquarters in Delhi has some solid espionage suspects according sources close to Indian Government. The biggest surprise is the fact why the IDS did not take enough precaution after the cyber-espionage last month. Now they report a theft of three Central Processing Units (hard drives) on July 21.

• Microchips in your shopping trolley: They're in the slaughterhouse and the Warehouse - now they're coming to your house - Electronic tags could soon be bringing a dash of sci-fi to the Kiwi consumers' shopping experience. Supporters promise a range of benefits. Imagine no more rummaging to find the receipts and warranty when the DVD player dies after eight months; or achieving a perfectly accessorised wardrobe because a chip suggests the ideal bag, belt or bracelet to complement the shirt you're trying on in the fitting room. Even the supermarket checkout becomes a breeze as the technology automatically tallies your bill without removing the groceries from the trolley.

• Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel policy: Straw joins criticism of Lebanese toll, Rice in Jerusalem to push peace plan - Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion last night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon. Jack Straw, now Leader of the Commons, said in a statement released after meeting Muslim residents of his Blackburn constituency that while he grieved for the innocent Israelis killed, he also mourned the '10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by Israeli fire'.

Saturday 29th July 2006: -

• Stop frisking football fans, U.S. judge orders - Football fans cannot be subjected to random pat-down searches at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday in a lawsuit challenging a Florida stadium's anti-terrorism measures. U.S. District Judge James Whittemore said conducting mass searches of patrons who are not individually under suspicion violates the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches, which is guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. "A generalized fear of terrorism should not diminish the fundamental Fourth Amendment protections envisioned by our Founding Fathers," the judge wrote.

• Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuit Filed For Child With Severe Heart Defects: Child Born with Severe Heart Birth Defects Sues Paxil-Maker - Two-year-old Adrian Vasquez has undergone three open-heart surgeries and now has a pacemaker. His mother took the antidepressant Paxil throughout her entire pregnancy.

• Permanent Legal Residents to Undergo Fingerprinting at US Entry Points - Permanent legal residents of the United States will be subjected to a fingerprint check when they re-enter the country by land, sea or air. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the new security checks are part of an existing program (US-VISIT) that keeps track of visitors as they enter or leave the United States, and screens out criminals and potential terrorists.

Friday 28th July 2006: -

• Fewer Britons Support ID Card Scheme - Fewer adults in Britain agree with a plan to implement a system of national identity cards, according to a poll by ICM Research for No2ID. 46 per cent of respondents think the proposal is a good idea, down six points since February. In 2004, home secretary David Blunkett strongly campaigned in favour of the national identity card system. The plan contemplates setting up a database that would contain the fingerprints and/or eye scan of every single person in Britain. The government estimates that the full implementation of the plan will cost $10.5 billion U.S. over the next 10 years.

• C-SPAN to Air Historic 9/11 Exposé: 9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda Panel Discussion to Run on Saturday, July 29th at 8PM (EST) - C-SPAN has confirmed that their coverage of the 9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda Panel Discussion will air on C-SPAN 1 on July 29th at 8PM (EST). The panel features incredible presentations by 9/11 Scholars for Truth founder James Fetzer, BYU Physics Professor Steven Jones, President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret., Filmmaker and Radio Broadcaster Alex Jones, and Terrorism Expert Webster Tarpley.

• Family angry as officers reinstated - The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have reacted angrily after the two police firearms officers involved in his fatal shooting were cleared to return to full operational duties. They were said to be "very, very upset" and "in pieces" at the prospect of the officers resuming work with Scotland Yard's specialist CO19 firearms unit on the streets of London. Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson took the decision to lift the restrictions on the two officers after crown prosecutors decided that neither should face charges over the innocent Brazilian's death.

Thursday 27th July 2006: -

• Family win right to sue police for unlawful killing - The family of a man shot dead by Sussex Police while naked in his own flat has been given permission to sue the force for unlawful killing. Three Court of Appeal judges headed by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, ruled that there should be a civil trial on the issue of whether the police marksman, PC Chris Sherwood, was guilty of assault and battery when he shot James Ashley.

• Eye-scan database new tool for IDs - A digital image of Aleesha Butcher’s bright eyes, blue and flecked with brown, popped up on the laptop computer screen. The software went to work, scanning her iris — the colored portion around the pupil — to convert its unique characteristics into a 688-digit number. Within seconds of tapping into a national database, a match of the baby blues was found, providing a full-face image of the smiling 5-year-old and her identifying information. The Richland County sheriff’s office plans to use technology to literally keep an eye on the community’s children.

Wednesday 26th July 2006: -

• Protests at call to check all children - Hour-long interviews with children, health checks and a database listing every child are part of an ambitious plan to stop them falling between the gaps. Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro said comprehensive and integrated assessments would be carried out on every New Zealand child if her plan, which has Government support, was adopted. But the proposal is already courting controversy, with civil liberties groups concerned that children's privacy will be invaded. Every child would be interviewed or assessed before age two and again at ages five, 13, and 17. The interviews would assess children's strengths and possible areas for intervention, including truancy.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• Saddam plea against being hanged - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has told his trial he wants to be shot not hanged if he is condemned to die. Shooting was the appropriate means of execution for a military man like himself, he said. Prosecutors want the death penalty for the ex-president, on trial with seven others for crimes against humanity. The defendants deny the charges.

• Pentagon declares war on internet combat videos - The Pentagon is asking US soldiers in Iraq to stop posting private combat videos on to the internet amid fears that they could be regarded as anti-Arab. Many of the digital clips feature explosions, gunfire and even dead bodies, with the images often set to a soundtrack of rock ballads, rap or heavy metal music. Defence officials believe they could be interpreted as portraying the military as unsympathetic to Arabs and obsessed with barbarism.   What ever would give them that idea?

• UK airport used to fly bombs to Israel - Britain has been used as a staging post for major shipments of bunker-busting bombs from America to Israel. The Israelis want the 5,000lb smart bombs to attack the bunkers being used by Hizbollah leaders in Lebanon. Two chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes filled with GBU 28 laser-guided bombs landed at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, for refuelling and crew rests after flying across the Atlantic at the weekend, defence sources confirmed. The airport has also been used by the CIA for rendition flights carrying terrorist suspects.

• Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens Requiring Immediate Action By President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert - The delivery of at least 100 GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by the United States to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon will result in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the middle east. Today, U.S., British, and now Israeli military personnel are using illegal uranium munitions- America's and England's own "dirty bombs" while U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, and British Ministry of Defence officials deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium.

• Chicago becomes 'behavior cops' - If you're a cell phone using, goose liver eating, cigarette smoking, fast food loving person, Chicago might not be your kind of town. In this city that once winked at Prohibition, members of the City Council are cracking down on behaviors they deem unhealthy, dangerous or just plain annoying. They've taken aim at everything from noisy street musicians to captive elephants to fatty foods like fried chicken and french fries. A proposal that would restrict fast-food chains from cooking with artery-clogging trans fat oils got a public airing this week, and in the last year alone aldermen have banned smoking in nearly all public places and the use of cell phones while driving. In April, Chicago became the first U.S. city to outlaw the sale of foie gras, a goose liver delicacy.

Tuesday 25th July 2006: -

• Heads 'want police knife checks' - Six out of 10 head teachers want police to enter schools to prevent children taking drugs and carrying weapons, a survey suggests.  The Guardian, which spoke to 829 heads, found 50% of those working in secondary schools had seen a pupil carrying a knife during the past year. The National Association of Head Teachers said fully trained police, not school staff, should carry out checks.

• Links between ULFA, ISI: Govt - Government on Tuesday said there were links between the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and Pak-based ISI. According to available reports and revelation of arrested ULFA cadres, ULFA has links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, Minister of State for Home S Regupathy said while replying to a written question.   (COMMENTARY: We would also add that the ISI (Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency) has strong links to their USA 'womb' the CIA... like a child has to its own mother.  Through such ties, we see evidence of complicity in the recent 7/11 bombings in Mumbai, India.  RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• De Menezes shooting: why you'll have to wait for facts - THE circumstances that led to the police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes will not be made public until next year. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) told a meeting of Lambeth's Community and Police Consultative Group (CPCG) it would not release its report into the killing of the Brazilian at Stockwell Tube station on July 22 last year until after the Metropolitan Police is tried for health and safety breaches surrounding his death.

• Second jump in passport cost to £66 branded a tax on holidays - ENHANCED security measures are to push the cost of a passport up to £66 from October, the second rise in just 10 months and a jump of 57%. Critics immediately branded the rise a tax on holidays and warned further increases will be in the pipeline to pay for the government's controversial identity card scheme. In December, the cost of a full 10-year passport rose from £42 to £51. Yesterday, the government announced another increase of £15.

• Plan to force mothers to name fathers on birth certificates - The law could be changed to make it compulsory for mothers to register the names of the fathers of their children on birth certificates, ministers have announced. Currently, they can leave it blank, but ministers believe having both parents' names registered would make the collection of maintenance easier where disputes arose.

• Judge backs CIA contractor, bars testimony on child abuse - A former CIA contract employee facing charges he beat a suspected insurgent in Afghanistan who later died will not be forced to rebut allegations that he was a violent man who also beat his young stepson. David Passaro, 39, of Lillington is the first U.S. civilian to face prisoner abuse charges stemming from the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is scheduled to go on trial beginning Aug. 7 on four assault charges. He could get 40 years in prison if convicted.

• EXECUTIVE ORDER 13397 - CHURCH AS GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY - The separation of church and state - gone with the stroke of a pen. As of March 7, 2006, our nation’s leader signed another Executive Order, which tied the Department of Homeland Security to our leader’s “faith-based” churches. Okay, all you non-profit churches out there – you now serve the federal government’s primary spying agency. That is now your primary function. You are now and officially an organized den of thieves.

• Identity Theft Feared in Workers’ Lost Data - The names, addresses and Social Security numbers of as many as 540,000 injured workers have been lost, and the state and its contracted company are trying to protect the workers from identity theft. Company and state officials confirmed on Monday that the information was on computer hardware that is missing from a secured facility of the company, Chicago-based CS Stars.

Monday 24th July 2006: -

• General States Plane Did not Hit Pentagon - 9/11 was an inside job, with many false and vicious things happening that day. Here we have a Retired General stating a plane did not hit the pentagon: -

(RELATED: See our 9/11 archive for more info)

The above clip is taken from the film 'One Nation Under Siege'

• US Complicit in Destruction of Lebanon; by Paul Craig Roberts - There never was any doubt of the Bush regime's complicity in Israel's naked aggression against the Lebanese civilian population. Bush has protected Israel from world condemnation. Bush has blocked those who attempted to bring a stop to Israel's bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, and now Bush rushes more bombs for Israel to drop on Lebanon. On July 22, the New York Times revealed the full extent of the Bush regime's participation in the heinous war crimes being inflicted on the Lebanese people: "The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign. … The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said."

• Cancer Drug May Cause Serious Heart Damage - Researchers say a drug that transformed cancer treatments may cause serious heart damage. Gleevec is a pill that targets a chronic type of leukemia and a rare gastro-intestinal cancer, but researchers have found evidence that Gleevac and other drugs in the same class can cause heart failure. They say patients should not stop taking the drug, but need to be monitored closely.

Sunday 23rd July 2006: -

• New questions over death of David Kelly - Alarming new questions about the death of Iraq weapons inspector David Kelly have been raised as a major investigation cast doubt on the official verdict that he committed suicide. The inquiry by campaigning MP Norman Baker will spark renewed speculation about how the Government's leading expert on weapons of mass destruction was found dead in a field in Oxfordshire three years ago. In particular, the dossier compiled by the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes shows that the method of suicide said to have been chosen by Dr Kelly, far from being common as was claimed at the time, was in fact unique. Dr Kelly was the only person in the United Kingdom that year deemed to have died from severing the ulnar artery in his wrist, a particularly difficult and painful process as the artery is deep and Dr Kelly had only a blunt garden knife.   (RELATED: See our archive The 'Suicide' of Dr David Kelly for more background info)

• Britain, U.S. Using Radioactive ‘Dirty Bombs’: World’s foremost expert on the U.S. military’s use of depleted uranium speaks out; By Dr. Doug Rokke - While U.S. and British military personnel continue using illegal uranium munitions—America’s and England’s own “dirty bombs”—Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) officials deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing and use of uranium munitions. The reason for the doubletalk is obviously to avoid criminal liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive and toxic material—depleted uranium (DU). How do I know this? Fourteen years ago, I was asked by the U.S. military to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War I.

• Saddam Hussein taken to hospital - Iraq's ex-leader Saddam Hussein has been taken to hospital as a result of a hunger strike, prosecutors at his trial in Baghdad say. Saddam Hussein began his latest protest more than two weeks ago, to demand better security for his lawyers after one of them was shot dead. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi said Saddam Hussein would not be able to attend a hearing due on Monday.

• Big Brother on Campus - Does the federal government need to know whether you aced Aristotelian ethics but had to repeat introductory biology? Does it need to know your family's financial profile, how much aid you received and whether you took off a semester to help out at home? The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education thinks so. In its first draft report, released in late June, the commission called for creation of a tracking system to collect sensitive information about our nation's college students. Its second draft, made public last week, softens the name of the plan, but the essence of the proposal remains unchanged. Whether you call it a "national unit records database" (the first name) or a "consumer-friendly information database" (the second), it is in fact a mandatory federal registry of all American students throughout their collegiate careers -- every course, every step, every misstep. Once established, it could easily be linked to existing K-12 and workforce databases to create unprecedented cradle-to-grave tracking of American citizens. All under the watchful eye of the federal government.

• AI checking to go biometric - Each time domestic passengers board the "original low cost" Delhi-Mumbai segment of an Air India (AI) international flight, security and immigration officials here say a silent prayer that these passengers get off at the stopover and don't continue flying to Europe or US. For unlike domestic passengers boarding Air India flights from Mumbai, people taking an AI flight from here to go to another Indian city, don't have their photographs printed on boarding cards.

• Controversial Instructor Speaks About His 9/11 Views, UW Course - Recently, 61 state legislators signed a resolution calling for UW-Madison to fire Barrett over his outspoken views that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell reviewed Barrett's record and decided he was qualified to teach an introductory course on Islam as scheduled in the fall. Farrell said that the university doesn't endorse Barrett's theories, but he said that his review found Barrett has a record of quality teaching.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive for more info)

GO TO THE CHANNEL 3000 WEBSITE AND TAKE PART IN THEIR NEW POLL: -

AND YOU CAN STILL VIEW THEIR OLD POLL AND VOTE YOUR OPINION HERE: -

• Glasgow tower block to shed light on 9/11 fire - A PROFESSOR of engineering is to destroy a Glasgow tower block in an effort to understand why the Twin Towers collapsed in the 9/11 attacks. Jose Torero, Professor of Fire Safety Engineering at Edinburgh University, will set the disused building in the east end of Glasgow alight and study the effects. He and his team will fill a room in the tower with hundreds of pounds of sophisticated equipment, including heat and light sensors, along with nine miles of cable in an effort to examine the effects of a raging fire in a multi-story tower block. ...The Peruvian-born academic is one of a number of experts across the world who believes that the Twin Towers should have stayed up after they were hit by hijacked airliners on September 11 2001.

Saturday 22nd July 2006: -

• Vigil to mark Menezes anniversary - The first anniversary of the death of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes is to be marked at the Tube station where he was shot by police. A family vigil at Stockwell, in south London, will incorporate a minute's silence and the laying of flowers. Mr Menezes was shot the day after a series of attempted bombings in London.

• RFID Changing Buying Behavior - MasterCard says RFID-enabled payment cards are leading to significant changes at the cash register, while a Visa survey finds cell phones are a promising payment form factor. In its efforts to promote an increasingly cashless society, MasterCard is finding RFID a helpful tool. The credit card organization says that adding RFID tags to credit and debit MasterCard cards has led to increased usage of its cards over cash. It has also resulted in an increase in the amount of MasterCard transactions at some of the 32,000 retail locations now equipped to read the cards' RFID tags. Sheetz, a convenience-store chain that accepts RFID-enabled card payments, says customers using RFID cards transact their purchases an average of 8 seconds more quickly than those who do not use the cards. Other merchants accepting MasterCard's PayPass include McDonalds, CVS, Ace Hardware and 7-Eleven.

• FBI warns 'your corporate data faces theft risk': Cyber crime is the next Enron waiting to happen - One of the FBI's leading agents in the field of computer crime has warned that industrial espionage and targeted data theft are on the increase. Shena Crowe, InfraGuard co-ordinator for the FBI in the technology heartland of San Francisco, said: "Theft of trade secrets is a very big problem." The use of laptops is contributing to the problem and Crowe predicts an increase in the number of "targeted laptop thefts". Computer crime is like white collar crime before Enron. It just hasn't gone 'boom' yet. Crowe added: "Computer crime is like white collar crime before Enron. It just hasn't gone 'boom' yet. It hasn't had that large scale event that makes everybody go 'oh'."

• At the dentist’s for another filling, is fluoride the cure? - THE battle for our tap water is looming. New figures show south Manchester has one of the country’s worst records for tooth decay, leading to fresh calls for fluoride to be added to water supplies. Supporters of fluoridation say that areas where it has been introduced have seen massive improvements in dental health – particularly for children. But opponents have likened the process to mass-medication and say not enough is known of the health risks. The debate over fluoride has been reopened after the government recently gave health authorities new powers to add fluoride to tap water.

• School to randomly test student drivers for drugs - Students who drive themselves to school this year will be subject to random drug tests, De Leon High School officials said. The school board decided to expand former drug testing regulations to include students who park on school property and those who participate in all extracurricular activities. Athletes, beginning in seventh grade, were already being tested, the Abilene Reporter-News reported. "Our goal is to include as many students as possible into our drug-testing program," said Randy Mohundro, superintendent of De Leon schools.

Friday 21st July 2006: -

• US risks 'behaving like China' in internet betting blitz - Internet experts rounded on United States legislators and law enforcers in their attempts to crack down on internet gambling, saying at best they faced an uphill struggle and at worst they were behaving like the thought police. The Department of Justice won a major coup yesterday by forcing BetonSports to close the website to American users, following the dramatic arrest of the company's British chief executive and charges levelled at 10 other former employees of the company.

• UK database to protect children - Sensitive criminal record information and pre-conviction data is to be pooled in a UK-wide database for the first time to try to improve child protection provisions. The Scottish intelligence database has traditionally been kept by and for Scottish forces. But from September, it will be linked to the new national system in England and Wales, allowing officers to access information on any individual across Britain. Critics say the move, which follows the inquiry chaired by Sir Michael Bichard into the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham in 2002, raises questions about civil rights and data protection.

• Hollywood Helps Fund Hillary's Hopes - If Hollywood has a "DaVinci Code," Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has cracked it. Top stars such as Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson donated to the New York senator in recent months, generating the kind of cash usually associated with a major box office opening - or a potential presidential bid in 2008. Clinton, who doesn't face much of a challenge in her re-election, received $4,200 from "The DaVinci Code" star Hanks, the Academy Award-winning actor, and his wife, Rita Wilson. The itemized donations were made public Wednesday, with the paperwork for April through June more than 4,000 pages. In that period, Clinton raised almost $5.7 million, bringing her total for her re-election effort to $43 million to date. She had more than $22 million cash on hand.

Thursday 20th July 2006: -

• FDA warns of new antidepressant risks - Migraine sufferers and newborns face possible life-threatening risks linked to some of the world's most widely used antidepressants, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday. Combining some antidepressants -- including Prozac and Zoloft -- with certain migraine drugs known as triptans could result in a life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome, the FDA warned. The agency also warned about a possible fatal lung condition in newborns whose mothers take certain antidepressants while pregnant. The warnings follow earlier concerns that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicidal behaviour in children and teens -- a warning already on drug labelling.

• Metro Beefs Up Security to Prevent Terrorist Attack: More than 1,500 National Naval Medical Center Metro riders can feel safer now with new increased security measures - Metro is increasing security measures to protect riders and prevent terrorists from crippling Washington's rail system. The effort comes in the wake of a subway attack in Kashmir, India, that killed more than 200 people and left hundreds more injured. The security increase also comes only a few weeks after the one-year anniversary of the London subway bombings.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• Gagged bloggers fume at ban - Having been deprived of their personal space in cyberspace by a government ban on blogs related to Mumbai terror attacks, netizens have slammed the internet censorship through messages expressing outrage in other web forums. "Government has really gone crazy... is Blogspot the only medium for sending messages? The Internet is flooded with free and paid services... (to carry hate messages)," said blogger Gurpreet Singh Modi, reacting to the ban on 18 websites in a bid to check hate messages following the July 11 blasts.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• Net giants attacked for aiding China's censors - Amnesty International has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google for kow-towing to the censorship of the Chinese government. China has 700,000 portals and 111 million web-watchers in its population of 1.3 billion. But officials consider cyberspace to be a hothouse of subversive thought and - with the help of the world's biggest internet providers - it blocks content.

• Church school drops Imagine from concert - A Church of England school dropped John Lennon's song Imagine from a concert because it was not felt to be "an appropriate song to perform publicly", it emerged yesterday. Pupils at St Leonard's primary school in Exeter were planning to perform Imagine at a recent concert but it was replaced by another song after a teacher expressed concern. Headteacher Geoff Williams said: "We are a church school and we believe God is the foundation of all we do. As such we did not feel that Imagine was an appropriate song to perform publicly." The lyrics of the song begin: "Imagine there's no heaven."

• New Birth Control Implant Approved by FDA: New Birth Control Effective and More Convenient - Among the 38 million American women using some form of birth control, some have waited patiently for a new implantable contraceptive device to become available to them. On Tuesday, the women got their wish. The FDA approved Implanon, a progestin-only contraceptive that is effective for three years after it is implanted in a woman's arm. The device is a thin plastic rod about the length of a toothpick.

Tuesday 18th July 2006: -

• PROBLEM > REACTION > SOLUTION: India Blocks Websites, Blogs After Terror Attacks - The Indian government has blocked about 20 websites and blogs in India, following suspicions by the country’s intelligence agencies that the sites were likely being used by terrorists to communicate with each another. ISPs received instructions over the weekend from the government’s Department of Telecommunications (DOT) to block about 20 URLs, said Deepak Maheshwari, secretary of the ISP Association of India in Delhi. The orders did not indicate why the URLs were being blocked, he said. The move to block the sites may be related to the bomb blasts in trains in Mumbai earlier this month, which killed about 190 people and injured around 700. Government sources were not immediately available for comment.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• Is RFID tracking you? - Radio frequency identification has been heralded as a breakthrough in tracking technology, and denounced as the next Big Brother surveillance tool. RFID sounds futuristic: A transmitter smaller than a dime embedded in everything from a T-shirt to human skin, communicating data over a short distance to a reading device. The technology has been around for decades -- the British used it to identify aircraft as friend or foe during World War II, and factory warehouses have used it more recently to make shipping more efficient. So why is it getting so much attention now? The short answer is that RFID has moved into more common corners of society.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• UK boffins test telepathic virtual world: Life-sized computer game has serious purpose - UK scientists have built a virtual computer world designed to test telepathic ability. The University of Manchester team has created a system which immerses individuals in what looks like a life-size computer game. The virtual world has been developed as part of a joint project between Manchester's School of Computer Science and School of Psychological Sciences.

• West Yorkshire 911 Truth Meeting - Formative meeting at the Just Church, 2 Ashgrove, Great Horton Road, Bradford, pretty much opposite the main university building. Wednesday 19th July at 7.15

Monday 17th July 2006: -

• N.J. hospital, Blues plan to test RFID implants - A radio frequency identification, or RFID, device will be implanted under the skin of patients with chronic conditions who participate in a two-year program involving Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey and VeriChip Corp., Delray Beach, Fla. Horizon plans to offer the chip to about 600 patients. About 300 patients are expected to participate.  The chip, which is about the size of a grain of rice, can provide hospital emergency departments access to contact information, drug and allergy history, and advance directives and living wills.

• Dutch will allow paedophile group - A Dutch court has turned down a request to ban a political party with a paedophile agenda. Judge HFM Hofhuis ruled that the Brotherly Love, Freedom and Diversity Party (PNVD) had the same right to exist as any other political party. The PNVD was formed by three paedophiles in May, prompting outrage in Dutch society. It seeks to lower the age of sexual consent from 16 to 12 and legalise child pornography and sex with animals.

• HP create 10mbps tiny chip - A chip capable of wireless transfers as fast as ten megabits per second, but no bigger than a grain of rice, has been developed by Hewlett Packard. The company announced on Monday that device is so small it could be embedded into almost any object. It contains enough memory to hold 512 kilobytes of data, and incorporates a microprocessor, antenna and a wireless modem. The device, dubbed the Memory Spot, could pave the way for the future of wireless networked objects, beating the bandwidth capacity of current similar systems such as Bluetooth and radio frequency ID tags (RFID).

Sunday 16th July 2006: -

• Raise Your Right Hand: Chip Implants for Everyone - Some technology seems outlandishly intrusive when it first emerges. Cameras above street corners, along highways and in rail stations come to mind, but even this big-brother technique has become routine and hard to argue against as a common-sense safety measure. No it’s time for everyone to get chip implants. Well, nearly time. Early adopters will pave the way amid concerns by privacy advocates, but soon they’ll be must-haves for the rich and their kids. The technology will save a few lives and then chip implants will be as routine as phones attached to the waist and little plastic cards that offer direct access to your bank account from anywhere in the world.

• 'No charges' over de Menezes shooting - The Crown Prosecution Service has ruled out the possibility of bringing charges over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. The CPS will announce formally on Monday whether or not it will bring murder or manslaughter charges after a review of the circumstances surrounding the shooting on July 22. It was reported earlier that Metropolitan Police Commander Cressida Dick, who was in charge of firearms operations, and two firearms officers could face manslaughter charges. But according to the Guardian newspaper, no individual police officers involved will face prosecution.

• Police call for tracker chips in paedophiles - BRITAIN’S most senior policeman is proposing that electronic chips should be surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and dangerous sex offenders so they can be more easily tracked. Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said the implants would be tracked by satellite, enabling authorities to set up “zones” from which sex offenders would be barred. These could include schools, playgrounds and former victims’ homes. Any attempt by the offender to enter the zones would trigger alarms in a monitoring centre, enabling police to act.

• Police DNA database 'is spiralling out of control': Secret emails show private firms store genetic data from innocent victims - The security of the police National DNA Database is in question following the disclosure of confidential emails which reveal that a private firm has secretly been keeping the genetic samples and personal details of hundreds of thousands of arrested people. Police forces use the company LGC to analyse DNA samples taken from people they arrest. LGC then supplies the information to the National DNA Database. Yet rather than destroy this afterwards, the firm has kept copies, together with highly personal demographic details of the individuals including their names, ages, skin colour and addresses.

• Chip-and-pin payment system introduced into Burnham-On-Sea taxis - Taxi users in Burnham-On-Sea are among the first in the country to be able pay for their travel with credit cards using new 'chip and pin' technology. Burnham's Express Taxis has teamed up with SilverCab, a payment services company, to introduce secure mobile payment terminals into its cabs.

• More parents resisting vaccines for kids - They're the "conscientious objectors" of the public-health world: parents who resist giving their children vaccines. Their numbers are increasing, public-health officials say, although nobody knows exactly how many there are. Some are parents like Pam Beck, a Vashon Island mom who says she once trusted doctors and public-health officials to know best. But years ago, when two of her children had what she calls extreme reactions to pertussis vaccine, that all changed.

• Pakistan's ISI behind Mumbai terror? - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday that Pakistan is still harbouring "terrorist elements," jeopardizing the peace process between the two countries as tensions remain high in the wake of the Mumbai bombings. "We are also certain that these terrorist modules are instigated, inspired and supported by elements across the border without which they cannot act with such devastating effect," he said. Singh made the comments after visiting with victims of Tuesday's rail system attacks. At least 200 people were killed and more than 700 were injured when bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in seven locations on the train system.  (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more info on the recent 7/11 Mumbai train bombing)

• Chip and Go vision for future travel - PREDICTIONS for travel in the future include Chip & Go passports, overseas commuter belts and fair trade resorts. By 2016 the traditional passport and printed tickets could be replaced by a credit card sized ID, containing a micro-chip that stores all personal travel information from ticket and visa information to finger print scans. The Thomson Future Forum - Holiday 2016 predicts a growth in demand for quick hassle-free travel is likely to result in a new style Chip & Go passport. The technology will enable travellers to swipe their ID card and use a fingerprint scan.

Saturday 15th July 2006: -

• Ex-ISI agent arrested in city - Stepped-up surveillance since the Mumbai serial blasts has led to the arrest of a former ISI agent here on Friday. Police recovered two fake passports from his possession, and are now investigating whether he has any connection with the Mumbai blasts. Mohammed Abdul Haleem alias Parvez alias Syed Javeed, 32, was allegedly involved in a 1993 conspiracy to carry out a series of bomb blasts in the city.   (COMMENTARY: The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency (also known as the CIA to some) had clear ties to Mohammad Atta, the alleged lead hijacker of the 9/11 attacks on the USA.  RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more info on the recent 7/11 Mumbai train bombing)

• National database will track gifted school pupils - A pioneering national initiative to help ensure talented pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds reach their full potential was launched by Department of Education & Skills Schools Minister Andrew Adonis yesterday. For the first time a national-scale database will be being established to help teachers to identify and stretch some of the brightest children whose true potential may in the past have gone unrealised or have been masked by social disadvantage. There will also be an onus on schools to ensure that the background of their gifted and talented children should be broadly representative of the whole school population.

• U.S., Russia Agree to Fight Terrorism: U.S., Russia Agree on Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism - President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Saturday to work together to combat nuclear terrorism, saying the greatest threat facing the world today is the threat of attack by nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

• Tracking device helps find Scout: He went missing during 50-mile hike in Uintas - A 12-year-old Boy Scout from Riverton on a weeklong 50-mile hike in the High Uintas became separated and lost from his troop earlier this week. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Morning NewsNick Webb, 12, swings at a park Friday in West Jordan. It's a story that has an all too familiar beginning. But unlike some of the previous tragedies that have happened in recent years, this story had a quick and happy ending thanks to the lessons learned from those past incidents.

• Backdown over finger scan: Workers point finger at new ID system -